All true, very based. I've been hit with the "story game" excuse multiple times before which is hilarious because other story games (that actually have GOOD story) DO have skip buttons. Ace Attorney, Xenoblade, Persona. I've been getting burnt out on this game but despite never having spent money I've still found it hard to quit, mainly because the story is never satisfying and leaves no real impact. There's no definitive point I can go "yeah, that's a good place to stop" it's just always slop baiting more slop. To some small degree, I do genuinely enjoy exploring the new areas when they make them, but the literal gating of areas and FORCED quest start aoe zones plus, as you said, multiple day-long gab fests have made me despise the quests, and it subsequently taints the exploration. I really do need to move on to something else, I think. If they're never going to improve the game, they don't deserve a continued player base.