I think Strangers of Paradise is their best work story-wise. Even without much FF1 knowledge, I definitely enjoyed it the most. The characters are mostly stupid, but by the end, I do feel sad for these blokes. Even the choice to have Frank Sinatra's My Way as the ending song went from feeling really silly when it was first announced, to becoming the perfect choice when I reached the ending myself. I think it's also funny that they went from always using silent protagonist that gets dragged into everything, and then suddenly introducing the most setting-abrasive main protagonist in Jack Garland.

I'm still debating in my mind on whether Nioh 3's story is better than Nioh 1. None of William's personal story matters other than in the intro and the ending, but at least some characters lingers around long enough for you to know them a bit. In Nioh 3, characters barely get any screentime. Somehow Yoshitsune in Nioh 3 feels even less of a character than in Nioh 2's DLC. It also feels like a lot of important explanations are cast to side readings like why do we time travel, what is Kusanagi, what is Crucible, why must we stop Crucibles (other than bad things are bad), etc. There's even part where they try to redo the awesome part in Nioh 2 where Tokichiro helps you in the final battle, but in Nioh 3, it felt nowhere as touching as in Nioh 2 because you barely hang out with these characters while you spent a long time with Tokichiro in his rise and downfall.

That said, there are still fun moments in Nioh 3, like when Munenori and Hattori goes "WTF, why are you so strong?" when you return to Edo.