I spent 92 hours on one playthough doing most of the side quests and all the DLC, finished the game, and immediately rerolled as a different class to pursue a different playstyle and party comp.

Cons:
- Steep Learning Curve: If you didn't play Pillars 1 the Defenses mechanics are going to be horribly overwhelming since your enemies have a whopping 7 to work around; Armor ones (Crush, Slash, Pierce, and "Deflection") and the other ones (Will, Reflex, Fortitude).
- Singing: While Sailing your crew's Sea Shanties are super quiet unless you're zoomed all the way in, which isn't a negative so much as it is a nit-pick.
- Expected to have completed PoE1: I know it's a sequel, and a direct one (5 years later in-game) at that, but characters and events reference things from PoE1 that a newer player might not know. I know an unfortunate number of people who skipped 1 for various reasons and went right to 2 only to wonder what X is or why Y is complaining about something. A small summary for each history beyond the one sentence would be nice, personally.
- Naval Combat: Ship-to-ship combat isn't really explained, is very slow, and is a menu that has very little feedback. Don't engage in ship-to-ship; Board them, beat them, steal their stuff.

Neutrals:
- Difficult but not unfair: Right what it says on the tin; you will be challenged at times but not so much that you Alt-F4 out of frustration.
- Loads of Content: "But Koto, isn't that a good thing?" Yes and no. There's enough to keep you entertained, but also it's edging on there being so much stuff that it starts to feel bloated. 91 hours to do *most* of the content, mind you.

Pros:
- Companions: Each companion feels like a person, from Eder's humor and love of animals to Pellegiana's staunch patriotism and sense of duty each one feels like a person with wants and desires. The banter, by the way, is very fun. (Eder, Serafen, and Modwyr make for fun convos). Each companion even gives you choices as to what you want them to be when you pick them up, albeit a choice between Class 1, Class 2, or Class 1 and 2 (it's a thing, don't worry about it), so you can pick the same people up in multiple playthroughs and have wildly different parties. Very nice feature.
- Equipment: There's a lot of gear. Like... a lot a lot and all of the "unique" (yellow background) stuff can be enhanced and customized resulting in a weapon that truly fits a bill. Do you want a shield that serves as a better shield or can serve as an off-hand weapon? Up to you, my dude.
- Reputations: The "Moral Compass" thing of "Oh you're Lawful good, you can't snort coke" bit is typically an annoying restriction of players. In this game your character doesn't have a moral compass, just a reputation that proceeds them as to whether they're a sarcastic asshat, a nice guy, or a Murder Hobo. Allies and NPCs will remark and react different based on how your character has behaved *and* your reputations with the various factions.
- Slavers are a renewable resource: Now that's a bad look but if you want a lot of cash and also be cool; farm slavers. Camp outside their island and board their boats and steal all their stuff. Easy money, easy good feels.
- Soundtrack: I listen to the soundtrack in my off time regularly and sing along to the sea shanties. "Aim Spirente" is a personal favorite.
- Voice Acting: It's good, on-par with many AAA games (and better than a good deal of AAA games too). You can *hear* the emotions of a character through their lines. I could *hear* how hard a dude was coughing for one line that I thought he might have died in the recording studio.
- Context text: Whenever anybody in-game mentions a thing of note (such as a God by name) or says something in a different language, the text will be a different colour. You can mouse over said text and it'll give you a summary on it. "Ekera" is a word used quite frequently but means nothing to a new player, but with that little feature you can learn that "Ekera" is a word the Amaua use as affirmation such as "Ekera, just so" or whatever. Very handy, very nice, have caught myself saying Ekera irl and cringing.

Tl;dr: Very good game, would highly recommend if you are in the market for a "Baldur's Gate-like" and don't mind learning a new setting and ruleset. World is very rich, feels alive, and there are many interesting characters to encounter, kill, and flirt with (order may vary).

95/100, please give it a whirl.