I decided to give this another shot but I think there are just too many tiny frustrations that all build up into something I cannot spend my time on any longer. The combat is just so insanely clunky, whilst simultaneously being extremely boring. Enemies will sometimes just stand around doing nothing for their entire turn, while I sit there watching gormlessly waiting for the game to figure out what it's meant to be doing. The entire combat seems to hinge on having high ground or the element of surprise, but when jumping up to higher ground is seemingly a dice roll (not actually) because sometimes the game just decides it won't let you, the entire combat system starts to just look shoddy. The progression here is soooooooo fucking slow, too. And each level-up session feels like such a daunting task while having to level up 4 separate characters all at once, each time having to choose between like 20 different stat buffs or spells and what not. I much prefer smaller, more consitent progression, that makes you feel like your character(s) are constantly improving with you. The whole thing just sort of oscillates between extremely overwhelming and extremely dull.
I do like the main companions and I am interested in where their stories go, but again the dolling out of story moments feels extremely stingy, for no discernable good reason. You do side quests because you have to in order to not be underlevelled for the next big unfair, clunky combat section, not because there's anything interesting to say in those quests' stories. Obviously, I haven't even finished act one, but I think 21 hours is enough time to realize that I don't think this narrative is actually trying to say anything, which means I don't want to spend 120+ hours with it. I'm perfectly fine with things being character-driven over thematic storytelling, but I would much prefer it if that character storytelling was quicker, more direct, like in something like the Mass Effect trilogy. Here it's "Hey, here's my cool backstory, now I need you to help me do this. Welp, see you in 10 hours to find out how that goes!" It's just so unbelievably tedious in such a story-heavy game. Sure, the story and quests are very reactive, and I think that's commendable, but ultimately that doesn't mean much to me if the story you end up with isn't all that interestng. I would truly rather a more rigid set of events that mean something to me, that make me feel something.
I do like the main companions and I am interested in where their stories go, but again the dolling out of story moments feels extremely stingy, for no discernable good reason. You do side quests because you have to in order to not be underlevelled for the next big unfair, clunky combat section, not because there's anything interesting to say in those quests' stories. Obviously, I haven't even finished act one, but I think 21 hours is enough time to realize that I don't think this narrative is actually trying to say anything, which means I don't want to spend 120+ hours with it. I'm perfectly fine with things being character-driven over thematic storytelling, but I would much prefer it if that character storytelling was quicker, more direct, like in something like the Mass Effect trilogy. Here it's "Hey, here's my cool backstory, now I need you to help me do this. Welp, see you in 10 hours to find out how that goes!" It's just so unbelievably tedious in such a story-heavy game. Sure, the story and quests are very reactive, and I think that's commendable, but ultimately that doesn't mean much to me if the story you end up with isn't all that interestng. I would truly rather a more rigid set of events that mean something to me, that make me feel something.