The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[ShadowyZero]

you should probably study up on final fantasy there friendo, its a franchise that is very story rich and they will always prioritize it over everything else. gameplay wise its pretty much the best thing SE has going for their FF franchise alot of game mechanincs end up being a hit or a miss most the time. and its very heavy on the roleplay aspect part. giving you various side activities to do in the event you want to take a break from story questing etc such as hunting, minigames, or just looking for easter eggs/references to things final fantasy related, or just hanging out with your crew and snapping photos here an there as you immerse yourself in the world and such.
if you're looking for a game thats heavy on challenges, unique encounters, and overall grinding your time away for hours on end to achieve something then maybe seek other games out there and i dont say this to be rude or condescending it is encouraged by even the developers of this game that if you get tired of playing then its ok to stop playing for awhile and to come back when you feel like it would be worth playing again etc. not too mention if story really is not your thing the developers have been kind enough to offer a skip of it should you choose to go that route.

[Faafetai]

you should probably study up on final fantasy there friendo, its a franchise that is very story rich and they will always prioritize it over everything else. gameplay wise its pretty much the best thing SE has going for their FF franchise alot of game mechanincs end up being a hit or a miss most the time. and its very heavy on the roleplay aspect part. giving you various side activities to do in the event you want to take a break from story questing etc such as hunting, minigames, or just looking for easter eggs/references to things final fantasy related, or just hanging out with your crew and snapping photos here an there as you immerse yourself in the world and such.
if you're looking for a game thats heavy on challenges, unique encounters, and overall grinding your time away for hours on end to achieve something then maybe seek other games out there and i dont say this to be rude or condescending it is encouraged by even the developers of this game that if you get tired of playing then its ok to stop playing for awhile and to come back when you feel like it would be worth playing again etc. not too mention if story really is not your thing the developers have been kind enough to offer a skip of it should you choose to go that route.

I wouldn't recommend a story skip. Especially if they are literally near the end of post arr. That is by far the worst part to get through. After that they will feel as though a very heavy weight is lifted and gets access to new classes to play around with and the story picks up a bit. And xp is no longer being limited. Everyone who has tried to get to level 60 but have not completed post ARR take literally triple the time it takes after wards. Even doing the same leveling roulettes. Unless they get robbed with four man trials every time.

[MoofiaBossVal]

you should probably study up on final fantasy there friendo, its a franchise that is very story rich and they will always prioritize it over everything else.

I don't remember Final Fantasy games being 400+ hours long and filled with dozens of 8 minute long scenes of watching a catboy eat burgers. Even the first FF game to go over the 30 hour mark, FF12, didn't have filler scenes like that.