I avoided this game for a long time based on the middling reviews, but I really regret waiting so long. For someone who was a major fan of the Gothic games, this game is everything I was hoping for and more.

You have to understand going in that Piranha Bytes has a different philosophy when it comes to combat. It's not "pure skill can get you by" like Dark Souls, and it's not "pure stats can get you by" like in a traditional RPG. It's somewhere in the middle. In the beginning, there's nothing you can faceroll, there are some things you can kill if you're careful, and lots of stuff that will annihilate you. As a result, the world feels actually dangerous and mysterious, and it's a good feeling. As you progress, you'll be able to kill more and more of the bad guys around the map, and that's also a good feeling.

The voice acting / translation are hit and miss, but the quests on the whole are pretty great. The choices really feel like they matter, but not to the point where you feel like you're really screwed if you don't make the most optimal choice. It's not one of those games where the goody-two-shoes choices will still get you the best rewards. Almost every quest is a moral gray area, which is a large theme in the game: moral gray areas, conflicting philosophies, different interpretations of laws, etc. There are basically no cookie-cutter, traditional fetch quests and kill quests. It's incredibly refreshing.

An early quest example with vague spoilers: One person was banished from her village for a crime she claims she didn't commit. You don't really have any proof one way or another, but she seems like a nice, earnest person. The solution to this quest is to frame her accuser, who's kind of an a-hole, for her crime. Was he the real criminal, was she, or was it someone else entirely? Who knows! But I meddled, committed a crime to absolve one person of a crime and frame someone else, based on gut feeling alone. It's was not an ethically right decision, but it felt satisfying, and that's what I love about this game.