Level 100 and Beyond

[DPZ2]

To someone from the outside looking in, they see 120 levels of content they have to get through to on top of the already daunting story and it is just bad optics to people who might want to try the game out for the first time.

The story is the [currently] 90 levels of content. You do not have to do a single other thing in-game to complete both. The amount of time to get from 1 to max-level may seem long, but ... You may not lose that 'sprout' icon until you're nearly done with the story. I believe it's currently something like 180 hours of gameplay to lose that icon. Five months at 10 hours a week of gameplay.

Time in game is, after all, the basis for nearly every MMORPG.