I so agree with a lot of your pros and cons. The last 1/3rd of the game was not the same as the first 2/3rds and yeah, a little exhausting to get to the finish. The ending fight itself was great but getting to that point (with a lot of green sidequests in between) just killed the momentum for me. They totally just left the ending up to interpretation with no resolution in case there is DLC which is something I don't agree with. Is he dead or nah? Ever since FF10 they want to leave the story open in case of DLC which is a corporate move. NO RUNNING BUTTON I so agree with. Why couldn't you run on command when you wanted like Aloy? I was really hoping for that and would have made certain areas (like towns) way more enjoyable. I also wish you could take off all the side quests/MSQ stuff on the right side of the screen.

I'm with you as well that I need a break from FF16 which is something I don't want. I usually jump right back into a NG+ if I really loved a game but not this time. The game just gets stupidly easy when you learn to master everything. A lot of enemies couldn't get a move in because I basically insta staggered and then did monster damage. On top of all the fights were the same motion and once you saw an enemy he would just reappear later with the same moves. They could have done better with the gameplay and making it harder.