Did the gameplay feel like much of the same? I loved HZD for most of the game, but then it started to feel repetitive. Does this comment mean it's the same for HFW? That's why I've been skeptical of getting it
I think the bow combat has been refined and made more like what the original gameplay made it appear to be, you don't need to kill the machines to get most of the components, you just detach most of them, so tearblast arrows are rarer and harder to craft, at least in the first half of the game. If you don't remove the rare parts of the robot before you destroy it they will explode*.
I think it makes it more exciting fighting them because of this since its not just about pure damage.
I think the same issue could exist with the new stuff but you can mainline the story a lot more easily in this one imo.
All the old machines and many new ones with extremely good animations make it a good upgrade in that regard too.
The graphics are mind-boggling good: definitely play in Fidelity mode even if you dislike 30fps because the image quality being that high is important to the whole package of how it looks imo, unless you have a small TV you sit far from.
The music is excellent and the side missions are actually pretty varied in their themes and content. Even when it's a fetch quest the characters and the performances make it fun just to get back to them to watch the cutscene.
I don't think the story is as cool as the original, so far anyway, but still very interesting. The bigger towns and the nature tribe's area especially feel really alive and awesome.
*If you dislike the random element of the looting from the previous game you can turn it off in this one, that also disables the new part removal system.
At that point the only annoying thing about the looting system for me is removed because you don't have to farm large robots for large cores as much, I think they wanted to make you focus on one type of armor but it's hell for completionists.
They thought of this and put a merchant who trades small, medium and large cores for animals parts, the medium core one is a cinch to farm, like 10 mins for 25+ cores, the large one as well I'm sure too but the negative is you have to go all the way to the west coast which I've been reluctant to do, I may just wing it there soon though.