mixed feelings, gambits are both good and bad.. without them this would be a much longer game, but they do kinda make it easier.

My only complaint off the top of my head is the lack of damage readout... I've threw some quickening chains around and couldn't see how much they did because of the camera angle/oversize monster. With normal hits this usually seems to be avoided somehow, but sometimes even then its hard to read the damage your doing on larger monsters.

I will disagree with the faster pace of the game if thats what you meant, because im just now heading to the Phon Coast and I'm already at 35hrs, but that could be because I did all the marks and leave the game on a little more than most FFs.