Q-BZ, I'm on Chapter Two right now, and your comments about Chapters 3 and 4 are a little disconcerting.
You seem to have had such a tremendous experience with the first two chapters that you're willing to overlook how short chapters 3 and 4 are (after all, a chapter is only something that's in our head - I suppose the game proper takes place in the first two chapters, and should be thought of that way).
Now that I know what to expect maybe it won't bother me.
Right now, I'm having such a great time with this RPG that I'm deliberately trying to keep my mouth shut about it, lest I make a fool of myself gushing about the thing... I damned well spent ten hours playing on Sunday, and even cancelled dinner at my sister's house (I had to tell a fib to get out of it... "... I'm not feeling well." I was feeling fine. Euphoric, actually.)
Don't get me wrong. You can always come and go as you please in all 4 chapters. I'm speaking strictly about main storyline.
And you are right about the chapters. They really don't make any difference at all so I hope I didn't overstate the matter.
Bottom line: Maximum freedom 100 percent of the time, all the way from start to finish.
Well, I don't know what's going on, because now in Chapter Two, I'm out in the world, and the game is running flawlessly maxed out at 1920x1080 - it's stable at 60 fps or above.
Only Harbor Town, and The Don's Camp, and The Monastery (in the courtyard) seem to give me a few troubles. It's nothing that's unacceptable (far from it) but the experience is not nearly as smooth as it is while I'm out in the countryside.
I don't know, I'd better just shut up about this game - it's a damned masterpiece, really.
I never did have the bad stuttering and frame rate issues that someone (was it you?) asked me about earlier in the thread. Certainly nothing pronounced or noticeable.
The game is a masterpiece albeit a little bit of a flawed one.