I played the game quite some time now. It starts story heavy with a tight narration. After that it becomes totally open world with lots of places to explore (only by ship though).
I love the class system which is open to many combinations, as you can choose between 27 classes (each with its own set of active and passive skills) and can combine two of them for each character.
I only tapped the possibilities of the game, mostly running trade routes and doing some guild quests (some of them are a bit hard to understand like "Cleanse the monster den north of city xy", but you dont know how far north)
All in all i think they should really focus more on the very strong story aspects of the beginning of the game, because those were really fun to experience. Or at least do that more often in the game. On the other hand the open world ness is really something to explore, possiblities seem endless.
I also like the small features, like when you set a tree on fire with a spell, the fire spreads out to other burnable tiles. Or that you can use various tools like shovels and presumeably a saw (did not get it yet). Also the soundtrack is uplifting and professional, the graphics grew on me, its certainly more detailed and vivid than what "old dos games" had to offer.
The combat system is varied with different weapon and attack types, did not explore everything this has to offer.
