I enjoyed the heck out of it.
When it comes to the lore, which is what a lot of people didn't like, there is a certain amount of "put it together yourself" that the game assumes you'll do. Things like the Cosmology, the in game references to expanded media, and general Final Fantasy lore are things they don't always show you or tell you about. Key story beats are sometimes only referenced in a line of dialogue, but that's how it would be from the perspective of the guys themselves.
The bros are pretty good protags. You learn a lot about them during the trip, and you figure out that they have a kind of relationship that has never been present before in a FF game. The DLC episodes help with this (especially Prompto and Ignis) and it's a shame we aren't getting the full season 2. Noctis is also a good hero. He goes through the full journey and has one heck of a final arc.
The story problems that I agree with are things like Lunafreya being understated and shown as weak, the sudden news of the insomnia invasion, and lots of unanswered questions about certain areas of the game. Places like the huge empty volcano area and Pitioss should have had something done to them.
Gameplay is great. People say combat is shallow, but with a good build, you can do some awesome things with finesse and skill. The break system is good and really shines on some bosses and larger enemies. Once they added the ability to switch playable party members, it turned into a whole new game. It was never a weak part of the game and now it's great.
I could write a lot about the fact that I believe the bros are the Warriors of Darkness rather than the Warriors of Light, the parallels to other games in the series, and the missed opportunities in the Amano key art, but those are for another time.
