I'm so torn on how to feel about this game. I absolutely loved the exploration aspect, I think it's the most fun I've had in an open-world game. When you unlock the Skell with flight it truly becomes something else. The gameplay is also pretty fun, and has many layers so you're always learning more. I really did feel like I was always having fun.

The story and characters are where this really falls flat for me though. The world is the most interesting part of this game, and I think the story would've been better had it focused on the world itself. Instead, there's an extremely odd paced war story that never actually feels like there's any danger. I found one character interesting in this story, but the rest felt pretty generic. While the side quests did help, my overall non-interest towards the story made these not as effective as they probably were meant to be. Elma is a character that I think could've been done very well if she were the protag, but bc our CAC takes up most of the screen time, I never truly fell in love with Elma. But if it was just a mediocre story that would be one thing. The thing that truly gets me is that the game ends on an extremely interesting new plot thread that had been teased throughout the game and then ends. And as far as we are now, there's no sequel to speak of so that plot thread will never be tied. That does leave an unfortunate mark on the ending of this game for me and the plot in general. One that I can't easily overlook, as endings are extremely important to me.

Overall, I do still really enjoy this game and will probably continue playing in my spare time just because it's so fun, but the hints of greatness in the story truly do leave me wishing the whole story reflected that.

Edit: Idk what happened but ever since I finished, the more time goes by the more I really love this game. I wish the story was more in-depth because Sci-Fi is cool but otherwise I really love this game

I enjoy this game a lot, but I think that's honestly more in spite of what it's actually giving me. The story and characters are very good, I enjoyed them a lot more than I was expecting. I felt this world was much more fleshed out from a story perspective than the recent SMTV, and the characters were definitely much more in-depth.
This game unfortunately fails where SMTV landed for me, in its gameplay. The battle system is essentially a baby mode combining some aspects of the Persona and SMT systems. I did like some of the new ability types, such as Ruin, but it's unfortunately just not complex enough to stay fulfilling through a whole playthrough. The true biggest flaw of the gameplay however is the uninspired dungeon design, both in layout and looks. Barring the final dungeon, every single one of them are dark black walls that are just long hallways. The city is so colourful, but you wouldn't be able to tell from these dungeons. And it's not an aesthetic darkness either, it's just boring to look at and all feels the same.
The Soul Matrix is the worst in this regard with every floor being the exact same, only being broken up by time-wasting teleportation mechanics.
And something that gets more annoying as you go is the QOL choices. In Persona 3, most will agree Tartarus isn't fun but an aspect that makes requests doable is that Shadows run away when you're a higher level than them. This is not the case in SH2, demons will always chase you even when you're 50 levels above them. Another example is that running is a skill that costs MP, where you have to open a menu every minute or so to keep doing it. Very strange design choices all around.

Despite all of my complaints, I did enjoy my time overall with this game and I'm personally happy to have played it. Whether I recommend it or not really depends on how much you can tolerate JRPG garbage. The story and mainly characters were enough for me, but that won't be for everyone. Either way, I had a good time and I loved seeing a talking protagonist in an Atlus game so that's a W in my book.