You definitely have to enjoy these types of games, i did not. Played it with my friend who has a couple hundred hours in the game, figured if she liked it i might too but i did not and refunded the game in the end. of course different people like different games, i just could not get into it.

I also before refunding watched videos on dialogue options and various changes you could make to the story before i decided to keep playing past my own 2 hours. Just to see how much control i would really have if i kept playing. so this review is largely based on my own gameplay and stuff I've looked up or asked another friend who has 53 hours in the game.

The steam page shows mostly cinematics, where only 4 out of the 19 pictures show what the game actually looks like averagely and 95% of the time. You only really get close-ups during dialogue options. I went through half the pictures thinking it looked really good, then realized only later this is NOT a cinematic looking game in the slightest, it is a top-down turn based combat kind of game, I was expecting something more similarly to Skyrim type of gameplay. (just meaning how you control your character and navigate the world) when i first saw the store page, i was disproven watching my friend play that the game was not like that. but decided to give it a try regardless.

I am somebody who enjoys fully first person or third person over the shoulder played games, with active combat and a free open world. Surprisingly though, the turn-based combat wasn't even the worst which is what i expected. I didn't mind it very much even though i hate it in other games. I did get annoyed with having to control every action of any member in the party so made my friend do that instead. I'd prefer to just control my own character and have the NPC's make their own choices with their own personalities, like it would in many other games where your party members just make dumb choices or choices of their own at all. I wanted to play as my character alone and not everyone in my party. But that's also personal preference. Perhaps a game setting would have been preferred to turn this off or on.

One of the main tags on the store page is 'choices matter' i did not feel like that was the case from a larger point of view, but it did affect you short-term. if this was a real D&D campaign, the players would accuse the DM of railroading them. AKA, giving players the illusion of a choice which in turn is always gonna end up in the same ending anyways.

Exhausting every dialogue option either ends up in the story progressing normally, at a later time, or with a death. But the key parts of the larger storyline will remain the same, so I'm not sure if I'd find this very replayable except to find out other dialogue options and replies. Or to make things easier or harder for myself.

At most you'll end up just asking an NPC more questions but ending in the same result, or minorly changing an NPC's opinion of your character (it doesn't really change anything pertaining the whole entire storyline. they will just have different voice lines or not reveal some information or be less likely to help you),
at the least you kill off your character because you ignored the very clear signs the game is trying to tell you not to ignore. (i tried playing a naive character who trusts everyone so i picked the dumbest options, but honestly no one would've picked them. they lay it on pretty thick what the right choice is.)
That's about it for your choices mattering.

I was also disappointed that my own options for voice lines weren't actually voice acted, even if the other NPC's were, it feels weird for me to be a silent protagonist that actually isn't a silent protagonist but communicates through telepathy while the NPC's react back through voice. On top of that, you CAN choose a voice for your character in the creator, but that means this wont even be used in the cinematics or NPC conversations, just on random stuff like when you click a chest they'll say 'lets see what's in here' very minimally used. The voices for the characters you speak to are mostly pretty good. Definitely still feels like 'game dialogue' but it's done pretty okay, but its still pretty jarring to reply without a voice of your own to me.

Overall, I'm sure there's some people that could enjoy this game, but they'd really have to be okay with the top-down turn based style of game. And enjoy sifting through way too much loot, taking their time to pick out builds and want a story that's largely spoon-fed to them or at the very least ends in the same end-game. If you're into story games you might like this, but not so sure if its good to get a WHOLE different story each time. some people enjoy visual novel games so this is kind of what it felt like with some simple gameplay and short-term consequence.
I don't enjoy that personally so it's not for me.

You definitely have to enjoy these types of games, i did not. Played it with my friend who has a couple hundred hours in the game, figured if she liked it i might too but i did not and refunded the game in the end. of course different people like different games, i just could not get into it. I also before refunding watched videos on dialogue options and various changes you could make to the story before i decided to keep playing past my own 2 hours. Just to see how much control i would really have if i kept playing. so this review is largely based on my own gameplay and stuff I've looked up or asked another friend who has 53 hours in the game. The steam page shows mostly cinematics, where only 4 out of the 19 pictures show what the game actually looks like averagely and 95% of the time. You only really get close-ups during dialogue options. I went through half the pictures thinking it looked really good, then realized only later this is NOT a cinematic looking game in the slightest, it is a top-down turn based combat kind of game, I was expecting something more similarly to Skyrim type of gameplay. (just meaning how you control your character and navigate the world) when i first saw the store page, i was disproven watching my friend play that the game was not like that. but decided to give it a try regardless. I am somebody who enjoys fully first person or third person over the shoulder played games, with active combat and a free open world. Surprisingly though, the turn-based combat wasn't even the worst which is what i expected. I didn't mind it very much even though i hate it in other games. I did get annoyed with having to control every action of any member in the party so made my friend do that instead. I'd prefer to just control my own character and have the NPC's make their own choices with their own personalities, like it would in many other games where your party members just make dumb choices or choices of their own at all. I wanted to play as my character alone and not everyone in my party. But that's also personal preference. Perhaps a game setting would have been preferred to turn this off or on. One of the main tags on the store page is 'choices matter' i did not feel like that was the case from a larger point of view, but it did affect you short-term. if this was a real D&D campaign, the players would accuse the DM of railroading them. AKA, giving players the illusion of a choice which in turn is always gonna end up in the same ending anyways. Exhausting every dialogue option either ends up in the story progressing normally, at a later time, or with a death. But the key parts of the larger storyline will remain the same, so I'm not sure if I'd find this very replayable except to find out other dialogue options and replies. Or to make things easier or harder for myself. At most you'll end up just asking an NPC more questions but ending in the same result, or minorly changing an NPC's opinion of your character (it doesn't really change anything pertaining the whole entire storyline. they will just have different voice lines or not reveal some information or be less likely to help you), at the least you kill off your character because you ignored the very clear signs the game is trying to tell you not to ignore. (i tried playing a naive character who trusts everyone so i picked the dumbest options, but honestly no one would've picked them. they lay it on pretty thick what the right choice is.) That's about it for your choices mattering. I was also disappointed that my own options for voice lines weren't actually voice acted, even if the other NPC's were, it feels weird for me to be a silent protagonist that actually isn't a silent protagonist but communicates through telepathy while the NPC's react back through voice. On top of that, you CAN choose a voice for your character in the creator, but that means this wont even be used in the cinematics or NPC conversations, just on random stuff like when you click a chest they'll say 'lets see what's in here' very minimally used. The voices for the characters you speak to are mostly pretty good. Definitely still feels like 'game dialogue' but it's done pretty okay, but its still pretty jarring to reply without a voice of your own to me. Overall, I'm sure there's some people that could enjoy this game, but they'd really have to be okay with the top-down turn based style of game. And enjoy sifting through way too much loot, taking their time to pick out builds and want a story that's largely spoon-fed to them or at the very least ends in the same end-game. If you're into story games you might like this, but not so sure if its good to get a WHOLE different story each time. some people enjoy visual novel games so this is kind of what it felt like with some simple gameplay and short-term consequence. I don't enjoy that personally so it's not for me.