This game is the definition of unfulfilled potential, and I blame the patreon (or whatever) supporters. They should have held the dev accountable long time ago and maybe the game would have been finished by now.
RPGs, as a very large genre. JRPG, CRPG, ARPG, Turn based, action pause, real time, doesn't matter. As long as the gameplay is good and the graphics are decent, it's probably on my list somewhere.
I wouldn't say failure. There are plenty of games that offer branching paths that require either guesswork, exploration or multiple playthroughs. Without choices, all you have is a kinetic novel which is not a game, is a movie.
Yeah, when the game takes a sharp turn and forgets what it wants to be, that's the moment I'm ditching it like a bad habit. My best example is unavoidable content that was avoidable until then. Instant delete.
Not a bad year by any means, no. The games I follow all got pretty substantial updates and new games that I'm interested in were launched. All in all, a good year.
It depends on the nature of the game. If there are no permanent consequences, I love to explore myself. But if taking a left instead of a right blocks you out of content, I'll use a walkthrough.