Its not quite that bad; I think what happened is they made it very large - I think it is nearly twice as long as the first game; and this magnified the issues seen in the previous games and efforts it take to fix. Both previous games (legend and crossroad) had serious balance issues between start and end and minor gltiches that were mostly resolved.
With this game there is still at least one serious quest bug; and the balance is quite bad (similar to other games but magnified by additional length). There is also (and this is a personal opinion) the new mechanics are less interesting than the old ones (esp the lost in number of items you can use at one time).
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To be honest I like the first game from a story perspective best (most people seem to prefer the second). I do keep hoping they will fix the quest bugs and some of the balance issues though I have my doubts this will happen. I have no clue if this game sold well but I also suspect this one will kill the series
[Technically there were three gmes but I mostly consider AP and crossroad to be the same game - in case this is not obvious in the above text]