So I completed the main game, with the turgid narrative and story that was paper thin, and am now playing through Dark Arisen at BBI in NG+.

Is there any aim here, or is it just hack and slash to find more "stuff" such as weapons and clothing?

I'm running around the place trying to find moonbeam gems to open other doors to different areas, but haven't found a one, even thoroughly checking locations where they're supposed to be according to the Wiki pages.

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Moonbeam_Gem

As I'm starting to get bored of the repetitive gameplay, which has quickly become more of a chore than fun, hacking and slashing through the same foes that keep respawning, looking through the same areas again and again to find these moonbeam gems, enduring the annoying clipping into larger monsters in more confined spaces so you barely see what your character is doing... does all of this actually have any point?

There's also a couple of levers in different areas that can't be reached by my warrior by jumping or climbing, and it's not like I can instruct my pawns to help either, which frustratingly suggests only certain player character builds with specific abilities can reach them?

My principal pawn is a strider/ranger combo, plus I have two player created pawns rented from the Rift. One is a mage, the other a strider. All the pawns, and my main character, are 200+ maxed level.

Do these moonbeam gems spawn randomly in the locations they're supposed to be, and is there any worth in me carrying on? Will I be rewarded with any interesting narrative or story for my efforts, or just more "stuff" for my characters to use/wear?

It's a JRPG. It's hack 'n slash to get more stuff. They are fixed locations. They get you access to locked doors with gear behind them.

Cheers for the reply. I guess I've seen as much as I'm going to with this game then.

I managed to locate one of the moonbeam gems, after numerous hours tromping around the BBI maze (because in-game maps don't label the locations behind doors), and all I got for my efforts was a crappy clothing item. It wasn't even any better than anything my character or pawn already had, either.

Overall, I pretty much liked the main game enough to play it through until the end, but BBI just seemed to condense all the things I didn't like, such as the confined spaces and crappy camera angles, meaning half the time you can't even see what you're character is doing.

The combat is perhaps the best thing about this game, but after a while that got stale, and without an interesting story or narrative to encourage me along, just more "stuff" to find, it all just got boring in the end.

It's perhaps fair to say that I was spoiled by The Witcher 3, which I'm always happy to dive into repeatedly, because I haven't even replayed Skyrim or any of the Elder Scrolls games since, as they just don't live up to the same level of enjoyment I had with Geralt's story and adventures. Unfortunately, it's doubtful I'll replay Dragon's Dogma again, as there just isn't enough depth for my tastes.