Frustrating game that I wanted to like.

- Tutorial is very brief (3-5 minutes), and leaves out the majority of systems to know or 'how to do a specific thing'. Normally not a problem, as i like discovering myself, but it was often the case that 'this game doesnt have that, so you cant do that' rather than discovering the system.

- I found the story turns rushed. First time playing, I was always against enemies with over 100+ more units than myself. When I replay the mission (knowing exactly that to expect, and optimizing turns accordingly) I could beat with ease, but it was annoying that there was little freedom to explore and play the game. I was often forced to do something in 6 turns (like get from point A to point B) and needed exactly 6 turns to physically achieve that movement. More flexibility, less "game over in T minus 3..." would have been nice. When other reviews say "campaign is on rails, and you will get crushed if you do not do EXACTLY the right thing each turn to fulfill X", they weren't exaggerating. Might as well just have every player following the same video tutorial, doing the same thing, at the same time, following the same recording, which was boring/annoying.

- Story is very childish and rough. A mix of 'pick one of two irrational/childlike responses that fundamentally have no impact or meaning' and just bad writing. Regarding bad writing, some responses, such as "They are criminals!" made it impossible to tell who 'they' were (in the context you're given, it could be the knights raiding the people, the people themselves resisting being raided, the bad guys that you just ousted from the town your knights just took back, or your own brothers men). A minor thing, but it felt like AI writing.

- City building, as simple as it is, often didn't make sense. It was extremely hard to tell in a given turn why you just lost 2-3 workers when health is relatively unchanged and around 50, happiness 90+, and no events ongoing. Just suddenly less workers, and the neighboring towns are less well off. Even with multiple towns/zones, it was unclear how you are supposed to plan for growth and food seasons, especially if you have animals mixed in with your crops. Only once did i get a message that people were happy and population had stabilized, and i should consider raising taxes (and the very next turn, lost workers without making any changes). I wish you could pause smithys, but nope, you have to physically drag the workers off and back on.

Im going to try to give it another 7 hours, but my after my first 7 hours, i found myself wishing i could get a refund (much of that 7 hours was spent replaying the first 3 missions/2 hours of gameplay). Will update if something changes.