Finished it.
I really enjoyed this game. It had its ups and downs, but I believe the positives stand out more than the negatives.
The game starts really well and it's difficult to stop playing in the beginning. So many new things to discover and the quests still feel fresh. You're still unlocking vocations, skills and combat is challenging. Lack of fast-travel encourages you to explore the world, helped by the fact that pawns inform you about undiscovered caves and treasures.
I think they did a good job with the pawn system in this game. Pawns feel more alive, and it's always fun to perform high-fives with your party after a difficult battle. The character creator gives a lot of variety to the pawns' appearence, and I don't remember ever seeing two pawns with similar faces.
However, things can gradually become stale the more you advance in the story, complete quests and become overpowered.
I think this is probably true to any game that has limited content. It's an unsolvable problem, in a way, but it becomes more apparent in open-world games.
This game desperatedly needs a Hard Mode, like in DD:DA.
The story is serviceable. I couldn't really care about most characters, much like in the first one.
But at least in the first one the Dragon was really awesome and had a lot of presence. Every time the Dragon opened its mouth to speak, you listened to every single line.
In the sequel, blargh. It appears once in the beginning, and a little bit in the end but that's it. The final battle was too easy (maybe that was intentional, but whatever)
Even the voice feels disappointing to listen to.
Unmoored World was interesting for a while.
I think it was a really bold decision to design the map in such a way that what was submerged underwater becomes explorable in the end.
But I wish there was more content. After you beat the bosses and evacuate the people, that's it.
Some sort of big underground city or dungeon, and the addition of a challenging final boss would really make things more interesting.
Music was nice. Not as good as the music in DDDA, but it had some nice tunes.
The ending is bittersweet but ok. It does feels somewhat rushed, but I guess it gets the job done. DDDA did a better job at that, I think.
Also, no idea why I got Glyndwr instead of Ulrika as the "number one friend" in the credits, wtf.
I made sure to give flowers to Ulrika every once in a while just to get that elf staring at the horizon before the credits roll.
Overall, it's a step foward in some ways, and a step backward in other ways. I can't shake the feeling that it could have been much better than what we got.
The framework is there, and it's a good framework. Some cool stuff can be made with it and I believe a well-done DLC and a Hard Mode can fix some issues.
For now, I think I'm done with it. I feel kinda burned out after 100+ hours.
Also, the fact that the Godsbane sword carries over in New Game Plus implies that those sealed caves may be unlocked in a future DLC.