Well I think everyone would agree but how they define it is different.
Elements of story:
-Worldbuilding/lore
-Meaningful development of present events in a strong plot
-Character development and relationships
-Linear vs Nonlineal (player agency and impact on outcome)
Options of combat:
-Realtime dynamic vs moment-to-moment micromanagement
-Strategy vs tactics
-Command vs personal control
Leveling system philosophy:
Story alone should manage a solid balance of progression
vs
Sidequests should be held in mind so you don't get OP
Which are more important to you?
I'd say it's incredibly strong in worldbuilding and lore, maybe the best ever made, but you have to read books and shit and explore all conversation options with everyone in and out of party to draw it out. Doing so enhances the relationships aspects of story because you have insights into the characters and epiphanies about how they think and act, but otherwise it may seem arbitrary or like shallow archetypes. So for those who like a story to come to them blatantly displayed, it kinda sucks. The plot sequence of events are around 3 main goals of achievement and learning more about WTF is even happening rather than many new things happening. You also have freedom to act but your agency is of tiny impact.
The opposite is true of combat. If you like the Dragon Age Origins way of doing things, highly tactical, highly ordered, micromanaging every millisecond and point of AP/mana, you'll be terribly frustrated. In this game combat just happens and you roll with it. Even messing with the options to make it manual as possible, you'll find you're a mere mild suggestion to your teammates, and perpetually switching between control of them just falls into a mess as taking control means the one you controlled prior abandons the command/move you inputted--it is only actually enacted if your control is still on them. So you'll end up in a juggling mess, doing one move and switching to the next character, so 3 non-you commands are done by time you get back around to the first person you controlled. But if you like "combat to come to you," freewheeling, more like a 3rd person action game with some team commands, you'll be right at home. No need for a juggling mess because you're okay with letting teammates do what they do and handling your own direct play of one, switching to another if you want to mix it up or realized the battle hinges on a certain class.
In terms of progression, the system for it is really cool and well thought out, and you can always rebuild so no worries about realizing you fucked up a build when you unlock something later or want to include a party member that would be redundant. But the progression balance is a bit oddly tuned. There are waaaay more sidequests than needed to become super OP, so if you're an obsessive completionist you'll probably become OP. Yet if you only stick to story, you'll probably be underpowered, and sometimes you have options of main story zones but one of them is clearly too high of level for you and you should wait, but you don't know that. So if you level up in sidequests to prepare for the story branch you had in mind, you'll find out that the other story branch option was intended for like 10 levels lower.
If you know what's up, it should be fine, but I think players are rarely balanced or responsive in their mindsets. There seems to be a dichotomy where some players rush through story, and some hit up all the sidequests. Both end up being disappointed in this system. The trick is simply being aware and intentionally guiding things to the difficulty you desire. All the tools are in your hands, which is generally opposed to both traditional Japanese (auto-tuned for you to match story) or Western (generally difficulty and your living up to it or not decides options of where you go) so most people don't "get it" their first time because it was never in their hands to self-manage before. I actually fell to the completionist err and started getting burnt out via sidequests, but I don't blame the game for that because it's not like it locked away the story missions from me.
360 BC Feb (16th-29th) **German or Japanese gold account required
