I honestly never used the Royal swords very much. Didn't really need to when I finished the quest with Cid to upgrade Noct's starting weapon into the Ultima Blade.

Yeah, I can agree that the juxtaposition of everything is what makes the game feel so weird and cool at the same time. Helped also by my own years doing road trips giving the game a strange nostalgic vibe I don't usually get from these kind of things. Glad you're having fun still.