I've been enjoying the hell out of the game so far. The gameplay is fun, the exploration is next level and I really like 75% of the companions. I'm about to finish Shatterscarp. I like that it's more streamlined than Dawnshore and Emerald, it has distinct areas with lots of nooks and crannies to explore and less filler space, but some of the choices and quest resolutions are seriously lacking nuance and reasoning.

First, there was the civil militia, where I had to either tell the survivor that what he did was completely fine or kill him. I chose to tell him he's a coward and run away like a coward, to go back to Temerti, but I can't complete the quest because I need to kill him first, so chose not to.

Then, I uncovered Ngunu's plan to posion his former crew, warned the guard who did nothing and warned Ruanga who understandably didn't want to come. But I couldn't warn the other two guys (the fact the one was apparently in on it notwithstanding), or do anything other than serve poisoned rum to a person with crippling PTSD to progress the quest.

And then there's the meeting with Lödwyn and Rymgard after Naku Kubel. No acknowledgement of her attempted genocide, no way to indicate that I'm going with her plan because it seems like the lesser evil, not because it's the lesser evil and Rymgard is just as bad, if not worse.

The game really impressed me with small choices that have rippling consequences, like stopping the destruction of Fior or giving Sapadal a body, but it lost a lot of luster after this.

There is some course correction when talking to companions later, but it's annoying that there isn't really a way to stand up to either of them or Sapadal. It's really starting to feel like the only options are naive, spineless or just super annoyed to be involved in any of this.

It feels like the idea was to give players genuine morally grey choices and a gritty world, but it just took away too much agency in that effort.

I came off way more ranty than I wanted to, so I'm adding some pretty screenshots.

Lack of nuance in Shatterscarp choices