Just about to hit the 60 hour mark, have one level 50 Skell, all my characters are level 60 and I'm about to start Chapter 10. Here's my pros and cons list.
Pros:
1. Great characters and side characters. Fantastic affinity missions that really feel impact and impart story on you.
2. Goddamn scale, man! Nothing compares to me in games. Open world + open world that works completely with 3 different scaling types of transportation.
3. Crazy great battle system. Skell combat, ground combat, arts, skills, the whole shebang and creating your own character. All fantastic.
4. Character customization. Love it, and really enjoyed making my own personal character.
5. Haven't been there yet, but from what I hear the "post-game" and all that surrounds it is excellence and gives you options ongoing. Love that even if I don't NEED to do it.
Cons:
1. As stated routinely, needing to bring Elma and Lin with you gets in the way of truly building your team.
2. Dialogue options are superfluous. I like them, I like the writing, and I love building my character, but they have exactly zero to do with anything in building my character (at least up until the point I'm at.)
3. Ways for gaining money and building out a good system for that seems tedious. I hear it gets irrelevant later on, but grinding normal quests while waiting for enough cash for my next Skell was a bit of a drag and seems a bit padding.
4. Overall story arc seems relatively tame, but again - NOT done yet, so we'll see. I definitely prefer the character moments to advancing the main plot though.
Overall I love this goddamn game. Would give it a 9/10. It's an extremely flawed labor of love and I can't wait to see what they do next.
