This game is neither a character action game nor a jrpg. It does not have an identity because it is a hollow game. The equivalent of a pretty whore with no brains. It lures you in with the spectacle of Eikon battles, the GoT-esque plot, and the allure of a character action game that has its roots in JRPGs. However, as you dive into the game's plot you quickly find yourself realizing you're only ever ankle deep in this games' story, mechanics, and gameplay. I won't focus on the story because that is more subject to opinion than the factual shortcomings of this game when it comes to its gameplay/game progression and character action/jrpg mechanics but to keep it brief, to the point where I'm at which I'd say is 60 to 70%, the story is a solid 6.5/10.
The Eikon battles have to be in the top five worst things of this game. Pure spectacle with zero substance to it, just an on rails set piece that serves to give you this sense of epic scale and power that you end up bored with as you have to mash buttons for upwards of 10 mins till you reach the next QTE. There is never any difficulty to them, and you don't even have to dodge any attacks since the game gives you plenty healing items so that you can just barrel your way through it without care. Even the ones where you have full control of Ifrit are nothing more than mash the combo sections while dodging (if you want) till you get to the next QTE. Which brings me to this game's enemy roster and difficulty, that in my opinion are two out of three of its worst traits (I'll get to the third one further down the line).
Enemies have the worst qualities out of the DMC games, I can probably count the times I actually got hit or had to dodge an attack from a regular mob with one hand. The enemies with stagger meter are no better either. It gotten to the point where I just do Raging Fist (with the hugely generous block window), in to a 50% stagger, Embrace, Windup, Upheaval into a completely staggered state in which I semi-primed and wait till the end to hit with the two Phoenix abilities. Do that twice, and the mob is dead. Wasn't that much different with the mini bosses, just had to do MMO mechanics that extends the fight. The lack of difficulty options till you beat the game and go through it a second time is a desperate attempt to make you replay the game, I can already tell. Because of this, the game fails as a character action game. The abilities you get are very basic with no depth to them, where you just end up going on an MMO rotation to delete the enemies health bars and the regular mobs are so easily interruptible and passive that you never have to fear getting hit by one before it dies to one of your abilities. It has the worst parts of DMC5 as its core gameplay and it shows a lack of understanding of what makes a character action game good. Forgettable passive enemies, abilities with cooldowns that suit an mmo, and a difficulty in general that makes the game feel on rails 80% of the time.
Now the worst offender, in my opinion, out of the three worst traits of this game. The game's progression and rpg mechanics. There is no point to them. I am literally at the Bahamut fight, and I'm using some platinum, diamond, whatever the fuck sword I crafted. I wouldn't doubt it if you could just go through the entire game with the gear you get at Eastwood and only suffer the fact that encounters might last a minute or two longer. There is no incentive to explore the world, no incentive to craft or buy gear. It is all incredibly superficial, and the game's quests don't reward you with anything that's worth it except for the ones that give you upgrades. The missions are all MMO type fetch quests, where you talk to someone, they give you a sob story you talk to someone else or gather/fight somewhere. The only ones that I actually had any interest in were the ones dealing with the people at the hideout and their background, and even then, at the point of the Bahamut fight, I started skipping them completely. There is no selecting which party members you'd like to take out, there is no upgrading them and making them better. They give you a stat screen for Torgal and it is literally nothing because you can't actually change anything about it. It somehow managed to have worst RPG mechanics than games like Spider-Man and God of War.
I could go on and on, but I will end it here. This game fails as a character action game, this game fails as a JRPG. It has no identity because it never commits to being either. It is nothing more than a spectacle that takes the name of Final Fantasy hold itself up and lure you in. This game is a solid 5 out of 10. It was scared to try and be anything because of its predecessor and it shows. At this point, I am debating if whether or not I should finish the game because I do find the story interesting enough but with a lot of wasted potential, and also because I did pay 80 dollars for this game.