Adding my own thoughts to this discussion, but I kinda agree that the content has gotten messier after the Arihama battle (I say this even as someone na that has been playing the game since that update came out). I feel like the story has been pretty linear up until that point. It’s not that stories need to be linear, but it doesn’t make sense for the crew to be flying everywhere while having an ongoing quest.
Although, I’d say my biggest gripe with the story post-Arihama is that we’ve lost a lot of the crew’s integration to the MAIN story. Considering the only non-negotiable characters you have on your crew are Rylan, Arthur, Katari, Bradly, and Sammuel, at least their involvement in the main story would have been extremely appreciated.
As for the art, I genuinely think it has its own chaarms and that’s why I’ve been playing in the first place lol.