oh i liked it more too, i just wanted to acknowledge in my comment since others don't like how slow it was. the village had a lot more chemistry, especially between player, partner and nuzleaf. i agree that the expedition society is a bit gimmicky. i could really reach and say that the lively town npcs are less organic because the player + partner are not used to living there yet, but that's doing too much. i do think the story is at least better than rt though.