You’re no longer left to imagine…

from the reviews so far it sounds like resources were spent on features such animations rather than the game itself.

The first Puzzle Quest had flaws that I could go on for hours about, how it felt less like a roleplaying game and more like, well, just a puzzler.

which it was. the difference was there was a story to move it forward, which is really the dirty little secret of all good traditional RPG's.

How time is spent between talking heads and how enjoyable it is is critical to good RPG game design.