I agree about the academy, as I proposed that some times ago.
You don't want to educate players, you want to hook them. So they think: what is next, from the minute they put their hands on the game. Like Civilisation in a strategic way.
Introduction and conclusion are always the most important parts of anything.
Introduction for hooking, conclusion for remembering.
You are missing the introduction to your game.
Cyseal is boring. Nothing happens in the damn city. There is nothing to do beside "looking for clues". I didn't buy an inquiry game, I bought an open world old school rpg. Not a random rat invasion, not a random single orc attack, not a single world interaction skill...
The player should always be waiting for something either to happen, either to come to completion, either to have the choice to do, either to invest into, that will increase its power.
This needs to be repeated because Larian does apparently not get it. The start of the game sucks as a intro or demo, it is not just confusing to new players, and it has LOTS of talking and relatively boring in-town exploration, but there is literally no proper introduction to the story, to the quest, to gameplay mechanics or anything.
Imo all this tutorial popup nonsense could be saved with a proper contextual introduction. Ie. Start the game (optionally) when our Source Hunter is trained a few years before the game happens, in a restricted area that covers crafting, combat, skill use, repairing, and some funny easter-eggs via dialog and exploration. Bonus points, if both characters trained together, because you could make coop related and assorted tutorials in that too.
Also, this training needs to cover all the 4 classes and their unique abilities. How level ups work etc.
It can be done in different ways, and doesn't need to be static... Skyrim starts with a tutorial, Oblivions first dungeon IS the tutorial..... this needs to be OPTIONAL as well ;P
Your post *Cromcrom* sums up my opinion so yeah.
The start of the game is missing ;p
