I agree that the sidequests do a great job of highlighting the plight of the bearers. When that little girl talked about her 'pet' I thought 'oh god it's a human isn't it...' The quests themselves are super basic and the rewards are pitiful, but the worldbuilding does make them worth it.
Poor Cid, even if we all saw it coming.My son who was watching that scene exclaimed 'that's so sad!' I liked him a lot as the Cid in this game, but gimme dem Ramuh powers bro.
The Ultima battle was fun but other than that there is not really much to the battling in this game. Most fights are over in seconds with no damage taken. The cinematics are great but the challenge is not there. The weapon and armor upgrades are almost 100% linear progression with no real variety in character build. I guess once you get more than 3 Eikons you will have a choice in what you use, finally.
I still like this game and the story is very cool, and I like Clive and Torgal. But it is more of an experience than a game so far.