Does the Story Seem to be Unfocusing?

[Spoilers to Chapter 52]

I've caught up to the current chapter and while I'm still entertained and will keep reading, to me it just feels like everything that's happening recently has been so random and sprung upon us rather than feeling like a natural progression of the story. I've felt this way ever since they reached the 6th layer. Up until that point, there seemed to be a sort of learning curve that the reader and the characters were both on as everyone unraveled the mystery of the abyss, and now they're just throwing new plot twists and Abyss concepts and rules and backstory so fast that it's jarring. I'm started to feel like the entire manga recently is just exposition then fighting then more exposition then more fighting.

I'm hoping they leave this layer and the city soon and I'll no longer feel this way, but I just can't help but feel like the manga used to have rules that it would adhere to, sort of like a hard fantasy where you understood the limitations of your environment and then the author could manipulate your expectations to surprise you. Now it's just open season and for all I know the bottom of the abyss is going to be a Mario water level with Bowser as the final boss and Riko's mother has been kidnapped by him.

I feel the same way, MiA lost some unique appeal of and become more like traditional fantasy, where everything works just because. And the Abyss itself seemed genuinely more frightening, when the story was more grounded, now with wish granting artifacts laying here and there, Reg's unlimited powers and rules of setting being based on power of friendship it's not as scary as it used to be. I wouldn't be surprised if next time main characters will fight another Incredibly Bad White Whistle, who finds his joy in torture of pregnant cat girls, Reg will suddely remember that he is isekai'd Saitama and Riko will revive poor kittens with some random relic.

But then you forgot about the part where they have to fight a T-Rex and Riko uses the power of pure determination and a can-do attitude to defeat the T-Rex and then Lyza appears through an abyssal wormhole and they find out the bottom of the abyss was actually The Democratic Republic of Congo this entire time.

Honestly, not really. If anything else, the Narehate Village arc is far superior in writing than the Bondrewd arc. In fact, it’s the best arc till date imo, and it’s following its own in world logic

I feel like that too. The Narehate Village arc is so long and it feels like there's so much focus on unnecessary things, and we haven't seen zilch of this layer, but rather have just been introduced to these characters which do not even interest me much(???)

Nah, it's totally fine. Just wait a little longer.

i can't wait for them to discover a rock that lets them turn any body part into a weapon of their choice