Personally I like the effect for new players who didn't play 1.0 My character Reese is suffering from amnesia due to the Calamity, he doesn't remember anyone at all (since I didn't play 1.0). He did not time jump and was simply not around during the first fight that the Warriors of Light participated in, his time is now (he was too busy saving people, getting them out of harm's way). So this story was a great thing for me personally and the amnesia/foggy memory is such a Squaresoft trope I sometimes wonder if they invented it, lol.
A good FFXIV lore site: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Eorzea
