I'm not even an Arkbab, but the collab successfully got me indoctrinated. I tried to get into the game a couple times before, first during the original MotWE, then during the 2nd anni, I enjoyed the story in the first three Cantos and the presentation, but thought the live service loop of grinding lux for EXP and MD for event currencies was too grindy and repetitive. This time I just wanted to nab the Kal'tsit Faust EGO for hoarding autism, but near the end of the Canto 5 dungeon something clicked, the combat became a lot more fun and kinography of the story started firing on all cylinders. This rush lasted through the end of Canto 7 where I feel like burnout got to me a bit and also my team may have been a bit underleveled, still managed to get through it with a bit of support and ended up getting all collab EGOs at 265 pulls. Now before continuing I want to go back and give myself a refresher on the earlier cantos because all I remember is everyone fucking died, then an apple decapitated someone, then we went gambling and Kromer really wanted to grip Sinclair, I do want to catch up by the time season 7 is up though.
Now for some more disorganised thoughts: I still don't like the stamina management with needing to log in twice daily to avoid overcapping and lux skip being resource inefficient; MD normal is still a bit of a chore to do repeatedly but seeing palpable progress towards dispensing someone new is nice, I like how it levels everything to max so it's easier to try out new IDs, but not having the same happen with upties sucks; RR5 is scary, apparently it's gonna end soon and I only got one team not even fully leveled so I don't think I'll be able to get past the first section; the EXP situation is grim but I still want to dispense as much stuff as I can before it gets locked for months, first priority is Full-stop Hong when the Walp comes around, then Maost and Thumb Meursault before the season ends, then the two bnuuys from season 5 when they unlock; Mili songs sound even better with in-game context; also I got Library of Ruina but it sounds like an ordeal so I don't know when I'll sit down to play it, maybe during the New Year's holidays.
I have no topical reaction images so I'm just gonna post the team I used through most of my playthrough, shoutouts to W Ryoshu who I used the last time around, there was also Rosespanner Rodya but she went on the bench around the end of Canto 5 and then got replaced with her Dieci self in Canto 7.