You're the "envoy", a representative of the Aedyrian Empire and the emperor himself investigating the 'spiritual plague'
Player centric approach: select your weapon loadouts, throwables, which companions to bring along
Variety of enemies: healers, brute melee characters, brute ranged, magic users etc
Mix and match weapons between both hands, dual wield pistols, wands, etc, parry with shield, use one handed weapons
Example: Light the ground on fire then use 'Into the Fray' ability to pull an enemy into the fire
Mix and match abilities in skill tree, allowed to re-spec
Use elemental abilities to unlock new areas to explore (ex: freeze water to create new paths)
Companions all come from different regions of the world, personal reasons for joining you, provide context and commentary about the world and their stories
Kai and Giatta are two confirmed companions + more
Zones are large open areas with multiple paths and ways to tackle encounters or skip them, Leviathan Hollow is completely missable (dev direct area)