After listening to people describe the quest system I decided to go with a spoiler-free guide for my playthrough in this run.
Unlike the Sky series where you can run Estelle around at lightning speed and in and out of buildings with zero load times searching for items and talking to people, this game is way more clunky and slow in comparison. It becomes tedious staring at black screens after a while and you don't want to aggravate yourself looking for hidden stuff.
For instance, I really, really hate how brushing up against objects and walls forces you out of running into walking. That is complete, 100% bullshit. That, and you have to get kind of uncomfortably close to people to talk to them, or to pick up items; bad QOL design choices.