Yeah, I can't go on. Uninstalling this and reinstalling Odyssey. I can't believe they pretty much fucked up everything. I got to the point where I was stacking an impossible cairn and thoroughly not enjoying myself. Then I stopped and thought "Hey, I should go do something else" and opened my map. Stupid word minigame? why bother? Chasing papers with the crappy free run that only sometimes work? Not fun. Go collect some gear? Why? Everything I pick up is a sidegrade. Absolutely all incentive to get gear disappeared after I realized the loot pool is 1/12th of Odessy's. Raids? God please no. They had to force people to bring a raid to open the chests. That's how bad they knew it was. Nobody would bother otherwise and just solo the monasteries. Upgrade my town? It's a linear slog with materials only available from monasteries. Apparently those are magical and the building materials available in the rest of the world don't matter. Who thought that made sense. I can go fight some optional bosses. I mean, I'm not totally tired of their infinite stamina infinite poise undodgable bullshit that really just requires you to dual wield spears and overlevel. No, wait. I could go level! yeah! another 2 skill points in the pool of HUNDREDS I've gotten so far. I already know I won't be getting plat because of the stupid minigames so map completion has lost all appeal.
But wait...surely the story will hahhahaHAHAHA <snort>. The lead character is a Viking who left his clan because he hasn't had enough bloodshed, but you game over if you kill English civilians during a raid. The subject matter is given absolutely no weight and I'm expected to care. The exact point I gave up on him was when I had to escort some unarmed nuns who were beating up wolves and he went "Boy, I sure shouldn't underestimate woman power!". A Viking written in 2020, folks. Turned out exactly as expected. Respect those females as you burn their churches. Amazing.
There's nothing this does that wasn't done better in the previous two games.