Overall, I like this game. I really do. That said, there is no doubt a lot of issues with it that prevent me from loving it.

- The story is a convoluted mess. The fact that this took 10 years to make shows, as the overall plot is disjointed and requires too much outside content in order to understand even the basics of what is happening. I'm all for secrets and worldbuilding in-game, but don't expect your players to sit through 3 more hours of content before they even start.

- Quests become very repetitive very fast. Most of them are just fetch-quests or "go here and kill x number of something," and that's no fun. There are a few instances (Daemonwall comes to mind) where quests actually feel fun or different, but they are very few and far between.

- Combat is good when dealing with few numbers. When you get swarmed by more than 4-5 enemies, however, it becomes an absolute clusterf*** where you can barely tell what is what. Not only that, but the camera has this annoying habit of getting stuck behind bushes or cliffs.

- The "open world" is not very open. If you give the player a method of off-road transportation (chocobos or the monster truck), then there should be more opportunities to actually off-road it. Instead most 'open' territories are no more than a thinly-concealed set of corridors with indestructible bushes and invisible barriers.

If you're considering buying Final Fantasy XV, consider this: do you want to play a game with a unique, fluid combat system unlike any other Final Fantasy game? Do you want to play a game with an epic story that, when is going well, has some unbelievably awesome moments? Do you want to play a game with a lot of interesting concepts? Because Final Fantasy XV has all of these things. It's unfortunate that there are so many weak areas that really limit this game from being a true masterpiece.