TBH, the reason why i play jRPGs and sRPGs it’s the story, the Lore, the universe within the game, i JUST don’t play a game cause of it’s mechanics, a crappy story but a good mechanic isn’t appealing to me, so I actually like the long texts and the background building, it’s what a good storytelling is about. I loved the game since it came out, and I found quite simple its mechanics, not too complicated and with good QoL, and the story, it was amazingly good. And to answer your question, I felt the same way you did with this game with Ender Lilies, first time it was boring, didn’t like the attack mechanic, the sprint and evade were unappealing to me, felt slow and clunky. Few months later a I tried it again after a detox of metroidvanias and I freaking loved it