I progressed the story too fast in one direction and 3 different npcs died forever with zero warning. Then I played the DLC, went too far exploring, and something important randomly broke before I killed a single boss. I ended up halfway in multiple storylines I didn’t know existed. Still a jolly good time but boy am I confused.
IMO ER is most fun when played full monke with a bonk stick, just taking in whatever happens - or full minmax so you get all the story stuff in proper order in one go.