I only watched the story of the original series and then played this one, knowing the original story was enough to really get into this one. A bit lost at first I still loved this game. Really solid story telling, the combat is really fun, both soundtrack and visuals are amazing, characters felt real, lore is almost always interesting and engaging, side npc conversations are worth listening to, even the dullest part of the game like sailing brings enriching character dialogue. This game is simply a masterpiece.