It started feeling like a chore about 20 hours in, but until that point I was extremely impressed with this. Everything about the presentation is beautiful, the combat (especially given the switch-ups that the different storylines provide) is nice and meaty, and the crafting system is exactly the right amount of deep-but-not-impenetrable. Even the story has some downright surprising hooks, given how chintzy and fantasy paint-by-numbers it feels at first.

On the technical side, the slowdown during some of the more crowded fights is straight wild. Might be worth picking up that remaster if you haven't yet checked this out, but I'm not entirely sure how much they fucked with the gameplay. As it stands, this one is plenty good.