I think this was a great entry that was bogged down by the numbers. After reading Jimbly's review just below me, I realize I had the same experience (dark, left the first island before I could get anything, didn't turn in my trickster brother quest).
Overall, a very nice entry but I ended up using the dude as a damage sponge, doing Block 90% of the time since he was absolutely useless at anything else. And the lady was absolutely fantastic at everything and just solo'd everything. I did notice the fact that you could injure fire creatures after hitting them with water, but the dude was still just better off tanking hits than trying to hit anything.
It wasn't very clear when you could hit the fire serpents (something in the dialogue made me think I could damage them after getting the wind spell for some reason) and entering combat with them just to realize they're immune and having to wait until they killed you was kind of a slog.
So yes, great entry, fantastic graphics and look'n'feel but the numbers really need looking at.