I'm pretty sure I'm near the end of the game. I've been kinda bed-ridden lately, so it's been something for me to just zone out and play, and I love it. It gets really addictive in a subversive way. I'm not a fan of the quick time events, but those giant Eikon fights are badass. I'd also say it's a little disappointing regarding upgrading equipment/crafting. It just seems overly simplistic, almost unnecessary in some ways. You really rarely change up your weapon, and to craft it you generally find that you already have all the stuff you need if you've been doing side missions and hunt marks. It gets a little hard for me to separate it from how huge FF14 is by comparison, but you have to remember it's a completely different thing.
I've come around to liking the plot, but it requires a little bit of an investment that can be kind of tedious. Put simply, you'll be better off in general if you just look at a map online and see how the world is divided up. Otherwise, you're going to spend yourself watching some cutscenes and having NO fucking idea what they're talking about. In my opinion, the political intrigue "Game of Thrones" angle isn't executed properly. It's convoluted, and largely it's actually ancillary to the larger plot points which are clearly set up and generally more compelling... but you're going to want to be able to follow along, because these cutscenes are constant and frequently VERY long. Apparently there's over 11 hours of cut scenes.
All faults aside, it's my game of the year so far.
EDIT: Actually, if anyone wants it, I could put together a cliff's notes thing... something I wished I had when I started.
This might help...
There's two main continents; The eastern continent of Ash, and the western Storm, separated by the sea. When people talk about "The Twins" they're talking about these two continents. In addition, further west is a cluster of islands called The Iron Kingdom. There's only one kingdom in the eastern Ash continent, and it's called Waloed. In the Storm continent there's Sanbreque in the north, Dahlmekian Republic in the south (when people talk about Republicans or The Republic, they're talking about this), and Rosaria in the west, which is where Clive is from (and when people talk about The Duchy, they're talking about this place).
This gets unnecessarily more complicated, but just knowing that basic layout really helps. It also helps to know basically what each region is all about. This page helps.
https://frontiernav.net/explore/fina...9658%2175_9375