My guess is that this game pivoted during development

Nah, the game matches pretty well with what Lyin’ Todd said he wanted to make almost 20 years ago

It’s also very clearly their usual design decisions but in a new setting

If anything the issue is that they stayed stuck in EXACTLY their usual development methods: no design document because Emil doesn’t like them, their writers make their quests too, and use an engine that’s absolutely not meant for the kind of game they’re making ON TOP of being ancient and garbage