After replaying this on Final Fantasy mode to get the platinum trophy, it became more and more apparent to me that this game feels like it was developed by two very distinct parties, one that wanted to make a really fun, over the top action game with a pretty good story, albheit formulaic, and the party that wanted to make the most boring game ever by littering it with braindead fetch quests and walking sections that slow you down to a crawl taking all control away from you.
If the "sidequests" budget went into other things I feel this game could be so much more, cut down the bloat, and make something more tight and compact, but hey this is modern triple A gaming, gotta get that target playtime by all means, otherwise it's not good enough.
I would score this lower, but the bossfights really are just that good tbh.