I liked it, though i never trust the word of someone who doesn't like jrpgs xD

The difficulty spike towards the second half of the game isn't that hard if you know the two to three spots on the map that are best for leveling up. Plus if you get Tolten's Ultimate Hit move the game actually becomes super easy.

There is a temple you can go to where every fight will level up your characters.  You can level up to 70 or more within two hours there. 

It feels like you have to get certain abilities and levels don't matter as much later in the game. Getting all barricadus was a must for me. The last boss wasn't hard, just uses that cheap ray that can and will kill your whole party.

I don't so much hate jrpg, I just hate the direction a lot of jrpgs went. I want the old school jrpg or jrpg that are like soul series/bloodborne and perhaps scale bound. None of this anime stuff with characters I hate.

MS could probably create an episodic release of lost odyssey. A low budget game that releases over time on their console. They may need to change the combat to a style like ffxv to cater to more people. Just my opinion of course.