My problem with those series is that there is probably a decent story, but you simply get side tracked by exploration, multiple side quests and a main story that does not develop fast enough to stay interesting.

PS:T was a positive exception to that though. The substories of the party members were actually developed to help along the main story. If you were done explloring, you could just talk to one of your party members, and gradually unlock part of the main protagonist’s history. Very clever.