Expedition: general discussions.

To be honest, I don't remember there being a huge amount of content in the cities of Dal Shabet, especially when compared to Novaru, Reims, or OK. In terms of content, they were closer to the base from Fragments of Revenant. In the first city, only the Warlock comes to mind. In the second city, I remember only the arena, the Temple (where the Warlock from the arena buffed himself), and the ambush on the Hero. And then there was the storyline, which was the main quest. There were no branches or anything like that, as there were in Erathia or the first and second Reims. So, I think nostalgia is playing a role here. Because I don't see how what you described differs much from the last expedition, except for the setting of the main quests (adventure vs. military campaign) and the fact that we are a group of familiar people from the start, rather than just a group of random mercenaries.