Some Story/Lore Feedback

Overall, I like the story and lore of the game. I like that there's small gimmicks in each act so far that change up how you interact with the map, and I think the world building and overall plot is interesting so far.

However, I have some criticisms. Mainly about Act 3, so I'll get the other ones out first:

Resistance changes are not communicated through lore
In PoE1 there was a lore reason for why our resistances were reduced. Fighting Kitava did something to weaken us. It wasn't much, but it made sense and explained it.

There's nothing like that in PoE2, it kinda just happens. It's also honestly hard to notice, I didn't even catch it on my first character. It was only on a second playthrough that I noticed the message about resistance being lowered at the start of an Act.

I think it would be more interesting to make a show out of why our resistances are reduced.

Sisters of Garukhan deviates from the established standard
Every time we get an upgrade to our health, skill points, resistance or such from a boss, it's because the boss drops an item with a description that lets us know what the bonus is and sort of explains why it gives that particular bonus.

An ice witch drops an item that gives us cold resistance, a fire golem drops an item that gives us fire resistance, and so on. Then there are the Sisters of Garukhan. They drop no item, and they're not even particularly lightning themed. You just wake up some metal harpies and get a text that says your lighting resistance increased. I didn't even notice that this happened on my first playthrough. It wasn't a boss, and it didn't drop an item.

It just seems to be a weird departure from how the other upgrades are tied to the gameplay and world, and I think it'd be better to align it more with the rest of the campaign.

Act 3 has some issues
Unfortunately I think Act 3 simply isn't up to par with the other two acts when it comes to worldbuilding and writing.

First off, there's just this feeling that the people just aren't as well integrated into the story-telling. In Act 1 you interact with and get to know the people of Clearfell. You learn about the place, its culture and get to know its inhabitants. This also goes for Act 2 and the Maraketh/Faridun.

However, in Act 3 the explorers are kind of just... there? Outside of Alva you don't really interact much, and they aren't really central to the story being told or the area being explored.

Then there's Servi, who you'd think was going to be our anchor to the culture and area, being a native and all. However she's also kind of just... there. She mentions her tribe every now and then, but you don't really learn about them or interact with them, outside of their rivalry with some other tribe that you go and kill a little.

Her side-quests feel kind of disjointed too. She doesn't ask you to go do things, you just stumble upon something of relevance to her (her dead son, the Azak bog) and then she just comes along and goes "oh btw, this is a thing I care about". She doesn't direct us anywhere, or participate in the plot, she just sits there and makes comments about our various actions.

Finally, there's also a weird part when you unlock the time portal. Until then everyone's been talking about a device under the Ziggurat, and when you finally reveal it you see it's some kind of portal. However, for some weird reason, everyone just already knows that it's a time portal. It just appeared, and nobody's gone in there. But instead of exploring it and being baffled when you realize you've gone back in time, everyone around you just go "wow, a time portal, that's so cool". Like, how did they know, and why did they spoil the surprise?

It'd be so much better if everyone made of show of going through, and then when you go through everyone's there and THEN they can remark on it being a time portal. This would also be great in the sense that you no longer have to go through the portal to get to the vendors every time you use the town portal while in the past, because everyone joined you on the trip back in time. You'd fix a lore issue and a QoL issue at the same time, two birds with one stone.