For the King II Review (Kurt3000)
While the gameplay has vast improvements from the previous, with the 4-player and 8 square grid working incredibly well, the simple fact that the chapters of the adventure you are given are so short, finish so anti-climatically, and dont let you carry anything over from the previous chapter(s) is a game breaking bummer. That's right: you lose everything chapter to chapter of the only adventure you are given. Your deeds of the previous chapter are even referenced in the next, leaving you feeling disconnected with characters that dont feel like they truly belong. It just feels so crappy in transition from the first game's long and involved adventures that took you many hours to complete, to instead finishing a chapter in 2 or 3 hours and having to start the next phase of your adventure with nothing that related you to the previous. Even the items are slimmed down from hard lined stats, to have RNG so you can receive the same looking item but with different stats.
I was having some great fun, but I have to say the new progression system has soured my experience. Why look for better items when the mid tier will do just fine and saving for the high tier ends up in using it for 1-2 battles? Why would I want to customize a character aesthetically when I will lose it in such a short amount of time? What feeling of risk or accomplishment does the game impart on me when everything is just going to be lost soon anyway?
It all just feels so...soulless in comparison to the first game, like the developers just didnt want to or didnt have time to put in the work to balance a full game out so they segmented it, and in doing so, lost the progression that made you want to play the game in the first place. The combat, the new routs of customization, and even the UI (which takes just a tad to get used to) are all improved in a multitude of ways that make the experience richer and more complex, but whats the point of sinking my teeth into any of it when, just as the game is getting good and I feel I have a grip on my character/party, the game tells me to "go back to start and start fresh"?
Nah, this aint it chief.
EDIT: The loss of the bard/minstrel classes and their accompanying traits/items are a straight up travesty. This is not a hot take.