I am new on forum, but i have played both games and i enjoyed them a lot.
Now i have just finished Deadfire and some of my thoughts are similar. As much as i enjoyed improved graphics, lots of surprising solutions and mechanics, i am a tiny bit disappointed story-wise. I can't resist the feeling that story and companion quests suffered cause of attention given to all other aspects of the game. It is promising though, cause i imagine next game will have it all tested and maybe things will fit a little better.
I won't talk about bugs, cause i think i have encountered most of them and i can only blame myself for impatience and starting the game very first day
What was my observation similar to the one above, is that the immersion of the story got blurred cause of side quests not much related to what my original mission was. I imagine that if i was chasing a god who captured my soul i would focus on it entirely and if anything happened to me on the way (any issues to solve) it would be cause "i have to solve them" to progress.
As much as side quests were nice, i didn't feel like they shape the world around me too much. Also my main motivation is to get my soul back, so it felt a bit weird to get randomly involved in totally everything else. I like the size of the world, but not necessarily the feeling of random hunt for something to do. But it is just my personal preference, i am not a fan of open or semi-open worlds.
Companion quests were really short and in my opinion not as meaningful as in POE1. Also Eder's quest idea felt a bit weird and forced. I hoped for more meaningful relations with companions, with a feeling of progress (in any direction), like my party evolves through things they experience together. As much as they all have their uniqueness, they also feel kind of detached and it is hard to say why do they even travel with the Watcher. I would like to see the main story more complex and party members more involved in it (like maybe their goals are somehow related to mine or they are part of my team cause of relation with me or with other party members), with more personal feeling. Maybe i just miss an old feeling of being on a mission, and defeating obstacles on my way :D Deadfire felt more like wandering around and looking for adventures, which is an awesome thing, just not my personal preference
Other stuff - the game felt quite easy, most combats Eder could do solo, with little to no help from the rest of the party ))
- the amount of unique items is breathtaking, but i didn't really need any of them after 1/3 of the game. I didn't add any effects to them cause they were more than powerful enough already
- I dunno it it is a bug but i could steal my bounty's head without killing him.. i mean.. HEAD :D
- blowing things up was an excellent idea - I love the idea of ship battle and it was fun to do it, i am glad though there weren't too many such battles, cause it becomes a bit tiresome and repetitive after a while. However the idea is brilliant
- music and especially shanties so great
- there is an absolutely stunning amount of things one can do, you can interact with so many things, it is really surprising
- i missed big dangerous locations with riddles and puzzles to solve, that you never know if you're gonna survive. There were some little puzzles here and there but super easy and didn't require much thinking
- maybe it is a matter of writing or some details, but i had a hard time to care about some quests, that were quite big deal. Again i think that it would be nice to get into things with some personal agenda
To sum it up, i will for sure get dlcs and do another walk-trough in few months from now, cause the game is real fun However for future games i hope for more intense main story, more personal, and maybe more and deeper interactions with my party, sth like we are allies in the battle that's gonna come
thank you
