I do like how so far many of the side quests and optional material winds back into the main plot. Ethel provides another (failed) opportunity to get rid of your tadpole, which leads to you learning more about it.
I find the whole swamp area really good - from the illusion, "sheep", Ethel, Monster Hunter, well that Kahga letter's area is mildly annoying due to jumping and combat with 20 mud mephits each doing animations, oh and the frog.
It's probably the most coherent area of the game. So when someone asks "What's the point of auntie Ethel", they might as well be asking "what's the point of RPG"
