Yeah, i also felt the combat was slow, but not cause of the movement, it was more cause, for example, heavy knights can take like around 10 normal blows, and that desesperated me xD.
But you doesnt have necesarely to use that kind of strategy, you can go with risky strategys, i renember i had lots of moments full of adrenaline, when a unit took 90% of his health and he just survive xD.
I wanted to die when the fire wizard died at the end of chapter 7, but i were so relieved later after seeing she was still alive, it looks im very used to permadeath.
Also, i had the same feeling here, the secondary “misions or history”, can be a little bit stodgy.