Everyone has games they would play until the end of time yet would never in good conscience recommend anyone else ever touch. For me, DW2 is the poster child for that kind of game. My love of the early seasons of the anime as a middle schooler and patience for grindy mechanics allowed me to slog through the game. It wasn't until I graduated high school nearly 8 years after its release did I finally beat it.
The leveling and gameplay loops can ultimately only come to be described as parasitic in every sense of the word. The in-game playtime tracker stops at 99 hours and 59 minutes, which is a point most people would be hitting well before reaching the halfway point in the main story alone. Even then, I'm a sucker for the earlier era of this franchise and can't deny the charm that it -does- have.
The leveling and gameplay loops can ultimately only come to be described as parasitic in every sense of the word. The in-game playtime tracker stops at 99 hours and 59 minutes, which is a point most people would be hitting well before reaching the halfway point in the main story alone. Even then, I'm a sucker for the earlier era of this franchise and can't deny the charm that it -does- have.