After 5.0, I was initially the most excited for the Bozja storyline. The first quest was really good, with you seeing a bittersweet vision of Gerolt's and Rowena's life together, and then you got to go into Cid's mind and run through the remains of Bozja, and then the cool fight against Varis. The other thing going on in that patch was Ruby Weapon, which the only thing it had going for it was the creepy cool Nael phase. I also wasn't too keen on a possible Gaius redemption arc, but he was at least an interesting character and Cid was involved so I was invested.
Then we actually went to Bozja, and... well, problems with the systems aside, my problem is that it's hard for me to care. I guess it ties into my problem with Matsuno's games, where the political stuff that is going on is all fine and good, but there aren't really any characters that grab me. I don't really cared for Bajsaljen or Marsak. Mikoto is okay. Cid and Gerolt pretty much dropped out of the storyline after the first patch. So that just leaves... the antagonists and the FATE/skirmish NPCs. From the FATE NPCs, the only character I really remember was
Dyunbu. As far as the antagonists go... screw Misija. I don't understand why we didn't just lop her head off on the spot. We've killed dozens of other antagonists for less. Lyon is really cool and the only new Bozja character I really like. Also, kinda disappointed that Gabranth has been pretty much completely absent in this storyline thus far. I guess they're saving him for the retaking of Dalmasca storyline in the Endwalker post patches or something.
I think another problem I have with Bozja is that... well, we haven't actually gotten to see Bozja. Well, we are in battlefields in Bozjan territory, but we haven't really gotten to go visit any towns or talk to villagers or find out about their culture and stuff.
Whereas with the Weapon storyline in 5.3, that was when I started becoming really invested in that storyline. We got to go to a new town and liberate it and find out a little bit more about the world, and feel like we were making a difference. That's what I wanted out of Bozja. We also got the really cool solo duty in the G-Warrior against Sapphire Weapon. And also this was when Valens was introduced, who really steals the show with his creepiness in his scenes, and this was also when I started getting invested in Allie and Alfonse.
5.4: For Bozja this was when DR was introduced, which was okay story wise. Not much to write home about. Again, pissed off we didn't kill Misija. Meanwhile, the Weapon storyline continued to be great, with the awesome Emerald Weapon fight where he oversouls and becomes his father and you flashback to when Gaius conquered Terncliff 20 years ago, and the scene is tined in gold and there are houses on blue cerulueam fire everywhere.
5.5: decent ending to Weapon storyline. Disappointed that there was no second phase on the trial, no G-Warrior solo duty, or visiting Werylt after it had been hyped up. For Bozja, the 5.5 trailer focuses on Lyon, so maybe he's taking center stage as the chief antagonist in Zadnor? I want him to join us and become a beastmaster trainer. Also hoping we get to see Gabranth, but he's not advertised in the trailer, so... sad.
Zadnor at least looks to be more visually interesting, with brighter colors (orangish desert and blue floating rocks) than Bozja South's dull greys and browns.
As for the Eden storyline, I liked the first two tiers, where you where flying around with Thancred and Urianger and Ryne in your cool spaceship trying to fix the world. I didn't really like tier 3. When Thancred and Urianger left, that took out a lot of my investment in the story, and I didn't really like the Gaia-magical girl story. Meh.
I don't care about the Nier storyline at all. Nothing makes sense. I don't care about these characters. The boss fights take way too long. The raids are visually uninteresting. Don't like the music. Only thing I liked was the comedy at the Dwarf village's festival.