So, after 80hs playing, I finally finished Grimoire yesterday. I'll write a review later, but I wanted to give some feedback.
First and abov all, the game REALLY should've been marked as "Early Access". Yes, I finished and yes I had fun, but all that was despite numerous bugs, broken features and the total lack of balance - loot, XP, combat - nothing makes sense. After about 30hs playing combat had become such a broken mess I turned difficulty down to novice and started to cheese every single fight.
Map were also uneven. Some areas are amazing, which is why I kept playing, but others are clearly unfinished. The dungeon of the Ancients, for example, was moslty a bunch of empty halls with some wall plaques that can't be interacted with. Same for the extremely disssapointing Moravia Castle. The end-game is a return to form, full of fun things to do, but areas like the Bahomet Megalith and the Ruins of Gideon were a big drop in quality.
Still, Grimoire does have amazing moments - the makings of a great RPG is there, one that could surpass Wizardry VII with the proper polish and balance. My point is that people who are blindly starting it now will likely get frustrated and quit once they leave the first region.
Even after the manual arrives, I'd suggest people should only play as far as the first region for now. Wait for V2, a balance mod or something like that.
