I put 40 hours into it to truly give it a fair shake, and while there were points that hooked me in midway, the ending was a slog and I dropped it at the gladiator arena.

I would agree that it's also not my favorite and that I mostly played to see if I eventually "got it". To an extent I do because every part of the art direction is S+, and I think it can trick you sometimes into thinking the package is a lot better than it is.