I've never played the first one, but I really like the 2 and 3. There's so much you can do and all the choices to make, I like such games a lot personally. And the open world exploration is amazing.
I really enjoyed Glacors pre-eoc.. These... Not so much. Im not sure why... Its probably the last 2 years of AFK combat and now we're given something that SHOULD be how the rest of the game works, but they just come off as tedious rather than difficult.
Of course the 1/10k drop rate for a unique vs 1/512 like glacors probably has a lot to do with this as well.