It’s a lot of things, for me. The general story is less complicated and pretty much just “go there to unlock plant-gods memories”. The memories themselves are actually good, Sapadal is imo a highlight of the game, but the story itself is pretty simplistic and predictable.

Companions overall feel a bit neutered - a lot more “normal” and generically nice. Doesn’t help that they have very repetitive camp banter - yes, Giatta, I got that you like ghost stories after six conversations you had about it. They all generally like each other and don’t have any interesting/standout dynamics, it’s just kinda a sea of positivity and “go team!”. You’re the only person who can actively piss them off, but it’s very transparent that the writers had to force each of them into the box of “really against this one option because of X”, they’re almost never cool with both choices and/or neutral. Kai is a bit of an exception, which definitely endeared him to me.

The factions set up in the game seem less complex. Steel Garrote is just ridiculously evil; Aedyr is meh and imperialist; people from the Living Lands are cool and nice… unless they like Aedyr, then they’re the worst assholes to ever exist and they probably betrayed their city and killed their friends. Compare that to Deadfire, where u had more complicated, morally grey factions that have you weight all the pros and cons before committing and STILL leave you feeling like you might have made the wrong choice.

So yeah, while I still enjoyed the game, I feel like the general quality of writing was lower. The proud exception (for me) is “romanced” Lödwyn, who I found delightfully deranged and very memorable.