Alright, finished it. solid RPG, was very fun. Most of the perceived weaknesses of the title kinda go away past the middle of the game, including combat, which is designed with more of a hands off approach. The game tries to only force you to make relevant choices while it plays itself for a big chunk of it, by making travelling and a lot of the combat mostly passive if you set the IA right.
I liked how useful the skills were, like they really had dramatic impact on your playtrough and even a seemingly invincible party could fall to low morale and poor skills. I hated the level scaling, its something that should have never made it into the game and i wont be playing the sequel because it has a female protagonist and fuck that, a shame. Hopefully the third one will present character creation, i see no reason for this feature not being there as the parricide could have literally been anyone and while it was a driving force in the plot, it wasnt the main one.
The review is correct on most instances, the UI is annoying, the combat can be frustrating and is never fun, but the rest of the game and the very special way the events unfold and your choices/skills/luck have direct impact (for the most part, nothing spectacular, but enough to make you feel invested) on your gameplay simply make it a very enjoyable game. Easy to drop and pick up whenever you have free time (tho some situations are interesting enough to make it hard to put down).
I didnt mind the obscure math behind the game, it was mostly intuitive either way, but i must say i missed a lot of inn drinking content due to the fact i wasnt even aware there was so much of it, you really should make the player experience more of it, a way to do this would be to give a "complimentary" drink every time the player stays at the inn, at least at the beginning while on friendly territory, to show the importance of this content, especially when it comes to character development.
Anyway, good, fun game, would recommend over many cRPGs.