Yeah you kinda just described better than I could why I couldn't finish that game. And I've found most of the Tales games to have a similar problem. Xillia got dark and deep pretty fast and had better realized and developed characters but you still want to slap or strangle one or two of them from time to time. But I think what most fans want from Tater is that long light hearted journey with characters whose personalities people are already used to and like from similar media. Like maybe anime fans appreciate the series more because no that