Finally finished it after 163 hours, man what a game, I fell in love with this franchise all over again, the people saying the game feels like a remake have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, the first region alone is bigger than DD1's map, the open world is honestly a masterclass in level design, I was not expecting so much verticality and hidden stuff around every corner and like BOTW or Elden Ring you get rewarded all the time for being curious and exploring every nook and cranny, I also liked how sometimes exploration felt like a Metroidvania when you had to use certain abilities to access new places and obviously the dynamism and overall sandbox feel, so much random stuff can happen, sometimes this game feels like what a Rockstar Open World RPG would be like.
I got almost 200 Seeker's Tokens, the last ones must be hidden like a MF cause I was literally exploring all over the map and I'm pretty sure I only used Ferrystones until the endgame to fast travel, which was also the best part of the game, I don't know why some of you were saying it ended abruptly or whatever I think you guys got the bad ending.
The time limited boss rush at the end to save the world and the harsher game over mechanics literally gave me catharsis I hadn't felt that shit with a game in years shit got real fast, I would probably have to go all the way back to Majora's Mask endgame cataclysm for something similar, the final boss was also epic AF but I'm not gonna lie I was expecting a Ur Dragon superboss equivalent, they probably couldn't add it due to how they structured the endgame so hopefully they'll add it in the next expansion.
I do have complaints but it's mostly what others have already said, unbalanced vocations (Thief obvioulsy), a hard mode (the end game was pretty intense though), less spells than in DD1, etc.
It's a damn shame that DD2 will be robbed of the GOTY due to the launch drama BS cause it totally deserves it, who wants to bet that this game like DD1 will once again be seen a hidden gem/cult classic in the future, I can totally see it, there's just nothing like this game out there, oh and btw I love the fact that they added the option to romance your Pawn, that was something that was totally missing in DD1.