Stop me if you've heard this one before

We're gonna make an rpg. It's gonna be made in rpg maker. It's gonna be needlessly quirky and random, there's gonna be a jarring about face turn with attempts at drama that fall flat, Non characters will populate the story, and its climax will rip off a much better game that you'd rather be playing

Sound familiar? Welcome to indie rpgs of the last decade

I once watched a stream of this game and now played it by myself and I gotta say: I dislike it.

I gotta say, I am not the biggest fan of the first game and I never got attached to Ellie and Joel. (they are very forgettable to me)

First the positive things:

The atmosphere is great. Spooky but not too spooky. The destroyed cities and other parts look absolutely beautiful. The graphcs and animations are amazing too, especially during the combat. The animations make the combat a lot of fun, melee is probably my favorite.

Now to the negatives: The whole story and pacing. NOTHING happens during the days and fact that you have to play as Abby and Ellie for 3 days is very annoying and it drags. Also the open world parts are way too long.
The story is the other problem. You are supposed to be attached to Ellie with the first game, they kill off a character in the beginning and you are supposed to feel something for Abby? Eh, not a fan of that. The ending is also very disappointing.

The conversation between Sandman and Spider-Man in SM3 is a better work about the cycle of violence and forgiveness than this whole game.

people talk about this game like it's some groundbreaking, breathtaking, wonderful pinnacle of video games and i really wish i understood that. this game feels really nice to move around in, its visuals are really appealing and its score is pretty cute. but there's not much of a real narrative (or writing at all), no memorable characters, no cool side-quests, no dungeons, a pitiful lack of enemy variety + almost no bosses, and nothing that made exploring feel worthwhile. most of it feels like filler check-list fluff (towers, shrines, koroks). the world is well-designed but there's not much substance inside of it beyond its sandbox elements. i genuinely feel like, insane for not liking this the way people talk about it but i just do not see it personally. it's just okay!