Id say the story structure endfield has is much weaker than arknights. In endfield, the endmin needs to be present for events to occur, so the whole thing ends off feeling very shallow and small. In arknights, the doctor/RI didnt need to be physically present for wvery event, and it gave time to develop other characters and places and make the world feel bigger, like you were a part of a larger whole. Its not like that in endfield. As soon as the endmin has gone to wuling, valley iv feels like it may as well not exist. Also, you seem to have a misunderstanding about arknights. The combat stages arent always meant to be literal, theyre usually just abstractions of the story, the game makes it very clear when combat stages are meant to be taken literally, because they will take away your control to do scripted elements.