M9S was Takeo Kujiraoka's first Savage design, having joined the XIV team in 2024 coming off of combat design and DLC director positions on XVI (including the Bahamut fight). Other things he's designed include the Dead Stars in Forked Tower and Sephiroth from Kingdom Hearts 2.
The guy who designed KH2 Sephiroth making one of the easiest intro savage fights explains a lot about why the fight was so easy