Probably my last log on this, put another 20 hours or so and got fairly deep into Act II and I just can't with this fucking game anymore. I genuinely love the core cast of characters (especially Shadowheart and Gale my queens) but everytime I have to play the videogame I end up wanting to throw my controller at the wall. There are just so many needless barriers to fun and enjoyment that I truly cannot fathom the purpose of. The rules don't ever seem consistent, and the game tries to bend to your will but mostly fails in my experience. I feel like the combat expects you to Stealth in, surprise the enemy, and then get high ground, otherwise you're just putting yourself through a worse and more gruelling encounter. In a game that's so lauded for its reactivity, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I've tried lowering the difficulty, but that doesn't change some of the fundamental design choices (that apparently are ripped straight from DnD, which I have no prior experience with). I dunno, man. I really wish I could get through the game in order to get to the character stuff but I just don't like playing it most of the time, so it feels kinda pointless to continue on. Too much jank (on a controller), too many bugs, too much tedious waiting for 50 enemies to all have their boring-ass turns one after the other while I sit there trying not to fall asleep, too much reliance on long resting to be able to actually play the game properly. I could go on and on and on. I'm also so tired of videogames that supposedly focus on narrative having half-baked, poorly lip synced character animations, especially at this scale and budget. Could you not have just made a smaller game that actually focuses some of those resources on making sure your characters are believable and... human? I dunno! But I sure as shit would've liked this a lot more if they had!

Fun to play with the gf while it was on but doesn't get much more impactful than that. I do admire how often it switches things up but I still feel like it makes it feel twice as long as it is. Story stuff also ranges from mediocre to completely insufferable, and I can't believe it ultimately ends with these two characters who are clearly terrible for each other and destroy everything in their path staying together for the kid. Yawn. There is so much potential for a more interesting and nuanced story to be told here but I guess I'm expecting too much?? Which feels kinda bad to say. Anyway, it's fine, it's too long but it's fine and I doubt I'll think about it ever again.