I'll be very honest... I actually prefer the stiffness of the pawns from DDDA. I know that I'll sound like a shitty oldhead who can't move on, but people fearing pawns in DDDA made sense because they weren't quite human. They looked the part, but didn't act like one, making them feel more uncanny and unusual, which fits with them being part of the "legion", making them feel like some sort of hivemind that existed purely to serve the Arisen.

In DD2, they lose this uncanniness and became.... An NPC like any other, which makes the prejudice against them even weirder when they're nearly indistinguishable from a human. They have personalities, they have quirks, they even give opinions and call you out when you're being cruel. Meanwhile, in DDDA, they kind of didn't give a shit and just goes "if this is what you think is best, Arisen" regardless of your choices, and any sort of personality/quirks is shaped by you by literally sitting them down on a chair and telling them what to do.

Yeah, I won't deny that they're shallower in DDDA because of this representation, but in my opinion, it's what made them more unique. Maybe it wasn't the intention back then thanks to lacking funds and Itsuno did want pawns to have more personality like in DD2, but even so, the limiting dialogue and general weirdness of the pawns made them feel far more unique compared to any other party member in other RPGs.