Apologies that I've not read all 42 pages. If I'm stepping on points you've already discussed to death let me know.
I'm having a good time with pathfinder. I skipped Kingmaker but I really do get why people prefer Pathfinder to 3.5 raw.
Having said that I much prefer 5th ed to 3.5 I hate, hate 3.5 attacks of opportunity. Now Pathfinder / Owlcat have corrected those flaws as much as possible but it's still an overly powerful dynamic that transforms every fight into "how do I get get next to mage, how do I get my enemies prone" . . .
On size -- wow, it's big. Feels as big as BG2.
On bugs -- this is a still a beta, shouldn't have been released. I think there's a lesson there for Larian. I know it wants surprises but the pattern is pretty clear. The first chapter isn't so buggy but chapters 4 and 5 have game breaking bugs. If they had released all chapters in EA they wouldn't have these problems.
On writing -- uneven. Daerun is a blast and made me forget all about that vampire thief. Ember is really interesting -- best representation of a philosophical pessimist that I've ever seen.
On the structure of the writing I like the banters but I'm missing the in-depth talks -- you get a get a dump of biographical info
Sosiel is present, I guess. I thought I was really going to like Aru but so far she seems too waifu for my tastes. You can be a road to redemption without apologizing for occupying space. Why apologizing all the time a sign of goodness? Woljif has great voice acting and is a good representation of (one type) of chaotic neutral character
Camilla is the most over the top evil character I've ever experienced. You wanted an evil romance, well here you go . . . Worst companion ever.
The scientist just annoys me because I'm not sure how you could do experiments in a setting like that. Okay, as long this isn't being influenced by godly magic, arcane magic, spirit magic or hellish corruption the results of my experiment are . . .
It's not a turn based / RtwP game in the way PoE2 was. It's RtwP with a half implemented turn based option. Playing turn based play on endless trash mobs just drags. I'm save scumming to avoid random encounters because they are so very boring . . .
I hate the "you can't win this" yet battles. The dragon hunt was just annoying. "I'm about to win! No. No. I'm not" The game doesn't want me to win so I am now not winning. Oh and I've been tossed out of turn based mode into a beat the timer game and there's no "you need beat this in RtwP mode" notification. How. Very. Fun.
While I like the crusade theme I just prefer Faerun to the wasteland of Golarion.
Still. I like the complexity of the rules. I like playing in setting where alignment matters. I like that's an big, ambitious game. I like that it's isometric, DnDish roleplay. I like the philosophical undertones. I like mishmash of world building and dungeon diving.
