The reason I rate this game lower than its prequel is it brought nothing new to the table. This is why I believe it lost GOTY to the (deserving in my opinion) Elden Ring. This game was in graphical areas an improvement on its prequel, however the 'walking simulator' was the same and the combat felt identical. Now this game wasn't 'bad' by any means, it just wasn't what I think anyone was expecting after 6 years of development. Also the story was a drag to get to the final war, and that in the end was extremely rushed and I think felt anti-climactic.