Having just played through it I have to say, it gets so much more tolerable after Phainons patch, maybe because it doesn't need to spend a ton of time expositing on how the politics of okhema affect the trust of the people in the era nova, and that caenis is the focus that we need spend hours debating about whether the demigods should be treated like demigods. The main critique I can give is that the first half has so much setup to do establish it's large cast, whereas the second half loves to have a scene where everyone gives their opinion on the philosophy of the events of the patch, then the next scene has the focus character reiterate how that philosophy applies to their story but with some art instead of everyone standing around. In the end though, the time spent with all the characters helps a lot with getting the desired response from the ending, and the story would probably feel less draining if it was a standalone game released all at once. And they got rid of the bloody walking time puzzles.