Completely Clueless and Stunned: Did I finish the game last night? (Rant with Spoilers)

This game is… <baguette’s kiss>.

Yet, I am thoroughly confused, and I need emotional support from fellow gamers, please.

Whiskey-Tang-Foxtrot is the story in this game?!

Last night I was playing what I thought was the end game. I was feeling very upset at the developer (nothing personal) because I felt I was at the last battle (I had just started the final area, top North, already at the peak). “The final battle is here!”, I thought. But, there are so many areas I can’t reach (underwater, and then I found out in the air too!), and there are so many opponents I can’t even scratch off 10% of their HP because of the 9,999 limit, and what are the objects I got in the beginning game festival for? I was feeling upset because I can’t get my weapon to level 20 until after the final boss fight (Paintress). And then, when I get the upgrade material I so dearly sought to get “a” weapon to level 20, the game throws at me in the item description that weapons can go all the way to level 32?!

And my pet peeve…. what about the inventory items I got in the beginning’s festival? I carry around all the game and do nothing with them? So many loose ends by the time I (in my mind) I got to the final battle. But I fought, …

And then, reality crashed.

I defeated the Paintress (what an awesome interpretation of fighting a Kami!), but then I learned it was all for nothing, and this is all Verso’s fault, and I really hate how the writers painted characters that accepted Verso’s replacement of the Gustave persona so easily, and I just can’t put two and two together. I really dislike Verso, and how the game switches back to him as “controlled character” in the open world. I never wanted to play Verso, and the game force-fed him to me every time I went to camp or got out of an area into the main map. (Sorry for ranting/venting vs. Verso)

I was expecting Credits to roll, but instead the opened up the world again for second tier exploration over X,Y coordinates I’ve already explored, but now on the Z axis. I am not done?! The game didn’t end, and it seems the real opponent is some version of Renoir that I have to go fight in a post-game-end area (or is it Act IV?) that is impossible because the evil looking creatures on the beach destroy you (despite removing the 9,999 cap!) in one round.

If I am understanding this correctly, EVERYONE I’ve met and played so far is an imaginary persona that exists only inside the imaginary world inside a hidden canvas (Verso’s), which is hidden inside another canvas that was used to create the world for Expedition 33. Canvas inception, one could think…

So… (that was the rant part), what I am asking is:

1. Is everything happening inside an imaginary world inside a paint canvas?

2. Did I finish the game when I defeated the Paintress, or was that just another chapter ending and now I continue the story at the beach with the terrible evil monsters?

3. The “updated” map that allows you to explore flying and underwater: is this part of the story? Or are we supposed to continue exploring after defeating the Paintress? It feels that flying and underwater navigation (which I have not yet tried, just went through the “EPILOGUE” sequences last night) should have been available to me before I confronted the Paintress, but I could not find a way to do so.

Tonight I continue my expedition, but I am at a loss of what my goal is if I just found out (if I understood correctly) that everything and everyone I’ve met and interacted with do not really exist outside my imagination and the canvas.

My mind is blown, and I need to find the pieces to put it back together before the next Excursion.

If this is incoherent, my apologies. Morning coffee rant to process everything I couldn’t process last night about this story. So confused, in a fun way. It’s like playing mental Twister.