I know this is quite clickbait-y for a title, but I wanted to rant about the game and want to read other people’s rants, too.
For me, I don’t like Alhaitham’s voice. He sounds like a news anchor with how stoic and rigid he talks. I know it fits the character, but every time he talks, I just get taken out of the immersion because he sounds like a reporter and he’s about to narrate the next bits and scenes lol.
This is an unpopular opinion I don’t share. I liked it because of the new things they tried to do, like they did something new with the camera work, the fact that the Archon Quest had five acts instead of the usual three, the new “contemplation” mechanic where you have to interpret and associate different thoughts to find the correct conclusion (and you get to hear the Traveler talk more). A lot of the characters had enough character development, too. Tighnari appeared at the start and towards the end but we still got so much insight into who he was, his work ethic, how he views the Akademiya, and how much he cares for the forest. Collei was the same, and although we’ve only seen her on the manga prior to this, she had a great arc on the Archon Quests, and players who haven’t read the manga prior to this had enough of an inkling to know the pain and suffering she was going through. Dunyarzad was how Teppei should’ve been; we find out her story, what motivates her, and the story spends enough time with her to grow an attachment with her, so when she “dies” we have a connection to her and we feel her loss.
And the story line, particularly Act II (Sabzeruz Festival Samsara), was intriguing, to me at least. The way it was written was just miles ahead of the previous ones, I think. For example, the divine knowledge capsules were teased in Act I, and it kept returning to the story until the end. The concept of samsara was the entire thing of Act II, and it appeared again in Act V. Basically, there were only few loose ends to the story, and everything they set up in the beginning were closed before the story ended. The concepts and lore were explored enough to satisfy the audience without the entire thing being just a glorified fetch quest.
I also just liked it for the reason that Hyv tried to learn from their mistakes with Inazuma.
Having said all of that, still it has flaws. The dialogue is too much words, which is I think the reason why some people (probably including you) didn’t like the story. The dialogue is too tiring to read and listen to.