I've really been wanting to check this game out for a while now! (Btw I have been mentally reminiscing about revisiting DS series) Such despair! As they died and/or fled they must have said This is Enjar's fault! Somehow this revitalizes my interest and even makes it stronger! I think I vaguely know which quest you mean, something about a debt, I remember from a YouTube review some years ago haha.
So I read up to the part where you say the skill system is great (I remember others liked that too) but I decided to stop there so as to not spoil it for myself! My most favorite part of playing the game is those first hours before anything like landmarks get ingrained in the memory! The pure exploration phase where everything is new! Even so, such failure can still encourage replayability, right? An entirely different timeline in which you are that strong hero!
Once things start to click for you in this game it becomes amazing. I’m over 120 hours played since I’ve written this post. It was quite rough on my first character lol.