To Aerthen

If you like to ignore the main story and wander about the world to render yourself as OP as possible, this game is for you. It seems specifically designed with this in mind. As soon as you get the boat, you can reach about a half-dozen optional dungeons which serve no story purpose, but which contain strong gear and lots of money. In fact, there's even an accessory to eliminate random encounters which you can purchase in order to harvest these items more easily. I had a lot of fun with it. One could argue that, at times, the dialog insists upon itself. I enjoyed it for the first ~20 hours, though, and it's fairly simple to just spam "enter" until you're past it. In my opinion, anyone playing this sort of game for the story or characters is missing the point.

Tried this after finishing Scarmonde, which is a fantastic game. Sadly, To Aerthen is not a fantastic game. I don't regret paying for it, because I'd happily pay for Scarmonde twice. Anyway, go play Scarmonde instead of this.