I can't help but feel that this game is an unfinished project as it is.
Calamus & Alula told us that their dad has gone missing and the Author has written about Rachis but we never get to find him as if the game's creators forgot to actually include him in the game.
And what's the deal with the Shepherd? What's the point of making him so mysteriously fourth wall breaking if he is completely irrelevant to the plot? I mean, he doesn't feel like an ordinary shepherd at all and he feels so mysterious while breaking the fourth wall that I thought he was the Author incognito as he gives us a fourth wall breaking futile quest just like the game's quest which exists only to give a purpose to the game's world, he wants us to get rid of the lightbulb to complete his futile quest however he refuses to hold onto it as if he already knows that we are going to lend it to Maize and Maize doesn't wither before we complete this futile quest, he pretends that he can't hold onto the lightbulb because "he is but a mere shepherd" however he doesn't react to meeting the Messiah with as much humility as everyone else since he basically orders the Messiah around (go lend the lightbulb to Maize then come back to me to complete my futile quest to get a futile reward along with a t-shirt mocking the futility of my quest), he even breaks the fourth wall so he is obviously not "a mere shepherd" as he pretends and yet the game makes nothing of him!
Right next to the "Shepherd" is some kind of shrine containing an amber orb, a prophet's staff and an altar below a lightbulb sigilwhich looks like its purpose is to leave the lightbulb there to complete the "Shepherd"'s futile quest but again, it is irrelevant to the game which makes nothing of it and the game is filled with such details which seem that they have more to them only to disappoint with a feeling of unfinished project.
If this game's world was created for people from a dying world to escape, then why is Niko the only "actual living being" in the game? Where are the survivors from the "old world" for who this "new world" was created in the first place? Why did the Author have to leave the game's world to edit it whereas the World Machine could edit itself from inside? And what's the point of going all meta acknowledging that the game is a game and break the fourth wall if only to pretend that "Niko is real" instead of acknowledging that the messiah is a character created specifically to be the avatar of the game's player through which they interact with the game's world? All of these inconsistencies make me perceive this game as a broken incoherent mess instead of the masterpiece that its fans believe it to be.
The maps themselves are not consistent with each other as you enter or exit a building from a direction only to return to the previous map if you continue in the same direction. For example, you exit a building from a door to the top so you continue going top expecting logically the building you just exited to be behind you but no, the building you just exited is actually in front of you making you reentering it immediately upon continuing going on top because the maps' interconnections are as much inconsistent as the plot is.