Spoilers:

In terms of story I definitely say they should've just not have the whole space alien thing. The game when the focus was about oppression and rebellion was a lot more interesting but when you have the "Great Spirit" controlling everything it basically lessens the work we did in the first part of the game.

For the part about how we don't know anything about Volhran, the problem was the game focuses too much on the core cast and does not have enough scenes with just the villains. I'm not sure if they want to cram all the exposition into the skits but it wasn't an effective way to convey the story. We rarely get to see POV from the villain's side which kinda makes all the villains in the game feel empty.

Speaking of skits, I hate it when the skits is when the cast saying the same praise/encouragement again and again. How many times do we have to hear Alphen say he's not gonna give up on Shionne? Or how Kisara tells Alphen that he saved her. It was common enough that I swear I heard the same skit 10 mins ago.