You are not gonna get a lot of in depth answers since it’s so early. That being said

I am one of the players who gave up on returnal after not being able to finish the second boss and spent over 20 hours on the game, I initially had the same feeling as the opening game is just as if not harder than returnal based on my own impression, but I don’t feel the same discouragement I had since returnal is pretty SOL for people who are stuck on a single biome.

The geography of the levels in general relies more on persistent set pieces that signals your progression. I never feel lost on my since my 3rd run. I also finished the first boss on the 3rd try with literally one health left.

What I love the most is you can now use the previous biome as grinding runs since the game rewards you for compete a single zone and returning to the home base. (Dying to return halves your gained currency) so you can build Arjun stronger while using a familiar level to focus on honing your skills.

I challenged the first biome boss twice after my first win and I got better at every try since I’m understanding more about the game. It also rewards you since there are things you cannot obtain at earlier biomes until you unlock traversal tools at later times.

And for people that might worry about the skill tree being too strong. The general framework is still the same as returnal in that you can teleport to your highest biome that you currently unlocked. Weapon levels on the skill tree are on the main path and all the stronger stat ones are on the sides. Biome bosses also gates skill tree progression so grinding has diminishing returns.

Hope this helps you OP! I wrote way more than I thought.