I've only had about 4 hours in this game, so I could be very off base in my comments here, but here goes...
I am enjoying the game as a whole package. Everything feels pretty good. However, there are some glaring issues. Bugs and latency issues aside (because it's still a beta):
1. Combat does not "feel" good. It has a PSU sort of thing going on. None of the hits ever have much weight or *oomph* that something like other games of this genre have. TERA is probably the king of this still. The combat is fun, though.
2. Lack of overall direction is fine and sort of the norm with games like this...But holy hell if this game doesn't just poop you into a world and smack your ass as the door closes behind you. I am not sure if I should be doing the public areas, the instanced dungeons/stages, etc. I'm following my quests, sure...But I know I need to be grinding for cubes and gear and shit to upgrade. It's just a bit too wishy washy for me right now.
3. Why the fuck does a game like this need a million currencies? I get trying to shake the formula a bit, but how about just make everything on the grid be unlocked with one type of cube? It's not fun having 10 blue cubes but 250+ red and green. Also, there's like 2 or 3 other cubes that I can get later for other random shit? Just feels so odd and overly complex. They could have simplified this system a lot.
4. I haven't checked into this enough yet, so this may be moot. I don't get why MMOS have to show me all the flashy particles for everyone else. I don't particularly love having all the ice shards and snowflakes filling up my screen whole trying to melee a boss. I hope they allow for controls on particles. A lot of games DO have various levels of this. I have a rig that can handle particles, so I like them...But they get tough to sift through in important or tough encounters.
5. OK. Bosses. Ugh. The fights are fun. But the life bars are not. I know it could just be because I'm still early on, but repeating the same mechanic over and over and over gets annoying. What's worse is when a boss has 10x life and does a dumb invul mechanic every bar for the first 8 bars. I think chopping some health off the bosses would make the encounters even more enjoyable.
6. The way you level up is a unique take and I enjoy it. It's not my favorite thing, but I don't really have any negative thoughts on it. It's just so unique that you just sort of need to figure it out and accept it as the way this game works.
7. My common complaint with games that rely on loot...Outside of bosses from instances, it's not really clear how to obtain better gear. At least not yet. And I'm never sure if it's worth running old content for drops or if the hardest stuff will always yield the best goodies. It seems trivial to question, but it's not clear what benefit boss farming is yet at various difficulties.
Now onto my positive thoughts!
1. Stated before, the combat is fun. It definitely gives me the PSO fix I need. While it's not perfect, I am happy with it. I wouldn't mind some tweaks as the devs update the game.
2. The encounters are long, but very well designed early on. The big tank thing boss with the dark and light hands? Pretty genius the way they slowly incorporate the hands for you to discover throughout the whole instance. The explosions and AoE effects that give you just enough time to learn and dodge effectively? Good encounter design. Thus far, I've enjoyed the fights despite the length.
3. I really have great things to say about them being different with the leveling system. I don't love a million currencies, but I like the take on it. I know they can't make sweeping changes to it at this point, but again - a few tweaks wouldn't be the worst thing.
4. The open fields are fun. I love the way you all work together without having to group up. I love that everyone shares loot and kills. It's so refreshing to play games that don't punish you for helping kill something other people are attacking. The field quests are a bit confusing with the whole limits that appear to be in place (I finished all the field quests on the first field you visit and then I had nothing else to do there). I'm hoping this resets every week because I like the concept.
5. Premium feels worth it for teleporting and bonus goodies. I will consider it after the free 3 day expires.
6. The game looks good. It reminds me a bit of a more modern day (timeline wise) Warframe with the looks and environments. I've fought in a forest, a factory, a dark grotto like area, stone ruins...PSO much? But really, I dig it.
So there you go. I'm not deep enough in to have a strong understanding of the core concepts, so some of my negative thoughts may be just premature opinions. Outside of the combat and too many currency complaints, I gotta say...Skyforge is pretty damn good and a real surprise to me thus far.