>At least the main story. Properly amped up stakes from the
>first/previous game. Post-game content is already proving to
>be more fun than just fighting the Valkyries. It's hella long,
>so I don't know if I'll be replaying as many times as I did
>the last one. I did a lot of side quests and busted my ass to
>get those chests open so I could be OP for the finale.

I'm specifically referring to the game taking a long time. The story is starting to get pretty good where I'm at (I'm a little under 20 hours in), but I was hoping I was somewhat close to the end as the fighting is pretty repetitive for the most part, despite the fact the bosses do take some level of strategy to defeat compared to the prior game. I guess I'll just have to stomach the action to get to the ending.

And similar to yourself, I want to do the side-quests so I can level up as the bosses this go round can be a chore if the armor isn't leveled up enough.

On a positive note, I do like the slight variances in the assist system. It appears the developers took some time and care to improve on how the prior game utilized assists.