Pillars of endless text.
Yes, the links in Tyranny are convenient, but only as a reminder or as new information, since it wasn't mentioned before.
It's even more fun with non-combat skills. When they level up, they level up for the entire squad at once, and as a result, the entire party quickly becomes identical in terms of non-combat functionality.
And in fact, only "knowledge" matters, considering the dependence on magic.
I don't have any particular complaints about the presentation of the lore/world, but it doesn't really change the situation and doesn't satisfy my tastes.
Yes, the battles are the same. I actually only liked casting spells, especially towards the end, when mass spells appeared, like ice and so on.
By the way, I don't think I ever took a break during the game (maybe once at the beginning, and even then just out of curiosity) and only slept on the spire, but not very often.