Just watched the "direct". Man it can not be stated enough how godly Monolith Soft's environment designers are. In any other game these probably would have been flat fields with slight gradual slopes and random geographic formations and trees scattered throughout with mountains always looking in the distance. Instead we get paths that go over and under each other, clifftop viewpoints where you can see just how far you came and where else you haven't been, lakes and rivers you can swim in, vertical cliff walls with hidden caves you can fly into, a tangled mess of trees where you can actually slip between the tree trunks instead of being blocked by knee height bushes.
I'm already pretty sure I won't be loving the music in this as much as the first game's and I have serious concerns about the cutscene direction considering how badly these faces emote (seriously can we not go with Tanaka for the next game) but I still absolutely can't wait to explore this world. Because hey beautiful CG faces are common these days but the same can not be said for beautifully crafted alien worlds that let you go anywhere, anytime, all while flying around on freaking mechs. The game could have the absolute most broken and janky combat known to mankind (loved the first game's so not worried about that), the absolute most ridiculous story in the history of fiction (please don't add a scene where someone is taken away by angels please... Unless they're Nopon with wings and halos then go ahead by all means), and the absolute most boring and tedious sidequests EVER (looks like again, you won't have to return to the questgiver for certain quests so it's already better than many) and I probably would still enjoy it more than many many other games based on the strength of the exploration and art design alone.
But uh yeah! Love that we're getting Nopon merchant bands again and gimme that NA release date please.