>>718123035 (OP)
The pacing, especially with the bombardment of side quest at one point, was kind of rough. There were some nice ones that added world building, but it was hard to tell beforehand. Also fuck the board quests.
One more open area to explore, that breaks up the wasteland/desert would have been nice, though I liked the underground segments where you didn't have your sword.
Enemy variety was decent, but some felt pretty overused by the end, although bossfights were always fun.
I do have a rare itch to replay it (where I'd skip 90% of side quests), which is rare for me these days. The combat just feels really fluid, especially with parry/dodge followups, and the last quarter plays to all its strengths, it alone makes me want to go back. There was enough variety in terms of level design, encounters and secrets to keep it interesting, but the backtracking got tedious.
Story was interesting, if you engaged with the optional information, but nothing to go crazy about. Soundtrack was pretty damn good with some surprises and I'm glad they didn't overdo it with K-pop shit.
Thank god you can remove the anti soul gas in the .ini, which makes some areas pretty dark, but I'd much rather have it that way.
For a sequel I'm hoping for more focus on linear design, both for its story and leveldesign, and for them to stop trying to be Nier, though I admittedly would enjoy one or two alternative melee weapons.
As a bodysuit enjoyer, the visuals and photo mode were just a cherry on top.
