Even loving PFKM, which I do a lot, it's easily one of the best games I've played in years. The later acts, and having to spend so much time in the kingdom management are painful. I replayed a few times because builds are amazing, but only after I got mods to fix the management, make it simpler, so I could enjoy the story and explore more.
And I remember having to literally abandon my first try when reaching Act 2 because the difficulty is over the top for any new player. Like. I was playing on normal, had no many clues about builds, etc, and was being massacred, especially because the game likes to throw dozens of enemies against you all the time, and not actually give any real placement, or strategy on the field, etc. All you have to do is buff before going to battle and prepare skills to counter what is coming. And as said above, the last part of the game is simply brutal if you're not a maniac for rules, micromanagement, know every move an enemy can do, etc. And that's even on normal difficulty. The last boss I gave up and went to story mod in my first time finishing the game even with good builds, because I just got frustrated with how many enemies kept coming and how strong even minions were.
In this, DOS2 and now BG3 is so superior, you can plan before starting a battle, strategically put characters in specific places to take advantage, control enemies, cut their movements by blocking their passage to reach you using the scenery, objects, the number of ways to approach even hardest enemies or numerous ones are amazing. As in DOS2, I have so much more fun in combat that I can't stop playing.
I won't talk about the story or characters anymore, since it's controversial and one game is finished and the other doesn't even have full ACT yet. But gameplay-wise, BG3 is far superior and fun just like DOS2 was for me.
Snide comment, your builds probably weren't that good if you couldln't beat the last boss without going to the easiest difficulty. I mean, insane, or whatever it's called, is easily the most artificially hard difficulty i've ever faced in any game ever, for the first 20-30 or so hours the game literally plays against you and the only way to advance is RNG, but everything is still doable and everything still turns into a cakewalk (with proper managament) at higher levels. I can't imagine anything that could get through that (a good build) not being able to get through normal difficulty.
I do agree the gameplay is not all that accessible, though. But then again, as far as i'm concerned, it's not that bad of a trade considering how many things you can do in that game.
