From a technical perspective, this game is astounding. It's extremely difficult to pull off an open world RPG without making every quest and item feel exactly like the one before it (but with slightly higher numbers). But they keep things fresh for the entire journey. Conversation choices and persuasions feel like they matter. The quest log kept things organized without any glitches that I remember. I could stare at the iso-POV graphics forever. Load times were a bear, but after you get your save file going, it doesn't skip a beat.
The battles and gameplay were a joy. This was the first "strip-armor-before-you-can-deal-health-damage-or-status-effects" game for me, which took time to adapt to. But developing strategies that actually worked was extremely rewarding. The game is difficult (even on Normal setting, which I played) but there appear to be lots of viable approaches. Some battles took a few attempts, but I was never stuck.
The game gives you freedom. If you want to kill someone, or an entire city, you can do it if you're tough enough and you can deal with the consequences in terms of quest lines. Steal whatever you want if you don't get caught. If you want to attack something too powerful for you, go for it! There are strategic ways to win these battles sometimes, and it's dopamine city if you do.
The characters are varied and interesting, but nothing that I'd call "deep". The mini- and micro-stories in the world were more compelling than the actual plot, for me. The moderate amount of medieval grit added some spiciness. Battling characters (for example like Kniles and the Witch in the first area) is a blast because of the technical aspects, but never in this game did I really feel any emotional investment, even when it was laid on thick. Not a major issue since the "game" aspects are on point. It's just something that's nice to have in RPGs and story-heavy games.
Bad stuff:
-Inventory and crafting becomes a slog about halfway through, and just gets worse (despite the organization tools).
-Optimizing equipment can be overwhelming (but that just might be my brain, which is susceptible to paralysis through analysis).
-Green tea seems a bit broken, but I didn't find it until the last 3 battles.
-Why can't I haste-run all the time??
Worth the time investment, which is steep.
The battles and gameplay were a joy. This was the first "strip-armor-before-you-can-deal-health-damage-or-status-effects" game for me, which took time to adapt to. But developing strategies that actually worked was extremely rewarding. The game is difficult (even on Normal setting, which I played) but there appear to be lots of viable approaches. Some battles took a few attempts, but I was never stuck.
The game gives you freedom. If you want to kill someone, or an entire city, you can do it if you're tough enough and you can deal with the consequences in terms of quest lines. Steal whatever you want if you don't get caught. If you want to attack something too powerful for you, go for it! There are strategic ways to win these battles sometimes, and it's dopamine city if you do.
The characters are varied and interesting, but nothing that I'd call "deep". The mini- and micro-stories in the world were more compelling than the actual plot, for me. The moderate amount of medieval grit added some spiciness. Battling characters (for example like Kniles and the Witch in the first area) is a blast because of the technical aspects, but never in this game did I really feel any emotional investment, even when it was laid on thick. Not a major issue since the "game" aspects are on point. It's just something that's nice to have in RPGs and story-heavy games.
Bad stuff:
-Inventory and crafting becomes a slog about halfway through, and just gets worse (despite the organization tools).
-Optimizing equipment can be overwhelming (but that just might be my brain, which is susceptible to paralysis through analysis).
-Green tea seems a bit broken, but I didn't find it until the last 3 battles.
-Why can't I haste-run all the time??
Worth the time investment, which is steep.