Been playing this on n off since JP launch. While it's fun changing strategy/eq pushing story battles when you are under recommended power level and the graphic looks amazing, the daily grind that is required to power up is what killed it for me (unless you're willing to whale ofc). When I was going hard, I just gotta keep this game running on my PC almost 24/7 to farm ability/wep level up mats/wep affinity/etc. Another thing is how they handle adding new characters in this game. New characters just join you. Like, after patch, you log in and voila they're in your party now. Ofc, there's usually story event about how we met them but it's all side stories. If  you do not do them, you'll be  hey who r u!?   They have little to none (mostly none) impact on  the story. Basically non-existent. I'd rather they'd be gated behind MSQ

Game is great early on til you hit a brick wall paying money cant solve. At a certain point the game expects you to have 14k attack and 200% crit damage roughly around the end of chapter 10 in hard mode which is absurd. Im level 62 and nowhere near that with a 5 star scythe dimensional broken and a 1 star fire weapon ssr level 93. Max is 100 mind you. Yet recommended is 60 but that is bs. They expect you to have EVERYTHING 5 star full dimensional enhanced, all your skills maxed with paid coins and every shadow maxed, every hunter of that type of weakness maxed. But thats impossible. You dont get anywhere near that amount of resources. Environment effects are also overtuned to hell to the point the stage hits you harder than the boss. Cant recommend for f2p at all. Unless you dont care about progressing for 2 months straight on the same fight. My gear is good too. Cant imagine what its like for someone who cant get enough offense stats. The timer will ALWAYS run out. Bosses become the biggest bullet sponge you cant get past and youre offense barely increases at a certain point. I dont even want to know how difficult the rest of the story is going to be if this is just the start. Holy f this game is unbalanced. Burning demon is the most broken enemy in the game. Lifesteal on hit and 100 health bars that translate to 200 if you use your shadows at all. Also dont ever get hit once or he will repair minimum 2 health bars on the lightest hit. Some enemies are so broken they should be nerfed to hell. Dying in 2 seconds to 20 enemies throwing range hit attacks is absurd. Dodge everything 100% of the time and sweat or you will hate this game.