I just started this game, but I'm immediately disappointed in the removal of a few classes. Houndmaster and Arbalest are nowhere to be found. Instead we got a blight/healing centered character and a kid who sets things on fire. The bounty hunter is randomized if you can take him or not, sometimes he's available.
The changes to the game loop I generally agree with, however I don't think the cart segments need to be controlled. Slowly running into debris to get items is boring. Getting from point A to point B feels like it takes forever, and seems to make runs much longer imo (maybe it just FEELS that way). This is all fluff I don't understand why it's left in the game. It feels like it takes a century to start a new run after a failed one as well. Make the cart faster and auto run over stuff, or make the paths shorter.
Removing individual characters and have them build during a run I think is better in all. It cuts down on grinding each character and removes the hours of building them to be lost in an instant, as this is a permadeath game for characters. This also helps keep power levels in check as you have to choose which skills to upgrade as you go, rather than have everything maxed out from the start. That is, at least I think this is how the systems work.
Another good change I think picking regions as you go through each run makes it a bit more random, as in the first one you'd know to expect blight for instance in certain regions. This just meant you'd come stocked with whatever you need in your bag for a much easier time for that single region. You don't get to do that here due to not being able to stuff yourself with resources right at the start and going through multiple regions a run rather than one.
THE UI IS AWFUL. It feels clunky, cluttered, and overbearing all at the same time. They have a lot more status effects all indicated by little symbols. You get no info on the skills what they do, nor do you get info if you roll over them. At one point in my game I found a glossary somewhere in the menus. Not having context when you mouse over things is completely wild to me.
It feels like an equal amount of hit and miss from the first leaving a lukewarm feeling rather than an improvement. If you are ok with a lot of changes you might like this.
