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