I've been playing for 3 months now and finished almost all of the end game content as a free to play and still using the starter team. The story is well written. Always on the lore. Combat is great. Not a smooth animation but it gives adrenaline. Ranking system is sometimes balanced. Hell, you can even outranked a whaler. Stamina system is okay. Not a big deal for me. Leveling up is easy. Not the grind tho but that's normal to games.