For me it is Chloe from Detroit Become Human. I like her because she is beautiful, expressive, she breaks the fourth wall and evolve alongside with me the player. It is like she is being affected by my choices in the game.
On Story mode E33 can basically be played ignoring parry/dodge and treating it like a classic turn-based game. There is an accessibility option to auto-succeed on the QTEs on your skills, too.
What did you find pretentious about the writing? It is definitely written by self-styled "intellectuals" and in a very high-brow manner, but for me it felt very genuine and sincere and the emotional moments of the story felt extremely raw and heartfelt.
I don't think the writing changes noticeably over the course of the game so if you're not vibing with it you might just not like it.