I just finished playing through the most recent public update, and wow, I am so excited for what's coming up next. I initially was interested because of the hypnosis stuff, but honestly, the story has me totally hooked! The whole premise of the setting and the mystery driving the plot forward is really interesting, and seeing the girls living their lives and suddenly having to deal with the supernatural really lets their personalities shine in a natural-feeling way!
*MASSIVE WALL OF MAJOR SPOILERS AND THEORY MAKING FROM HERE ON OUT SORRY*
Given what we learned from this update about the demon, I think it's safe to say that that dark weird energy that's covering Lust's energy belongs to the demon from the time that it possessed Lust. Because Lust's energy is basically tied to the demon's, does that mean that everyone we mind control is getting part of the demon's energy too? If that's the case, would the demon be able to possess them more easily, or perhaps affect them mentally in ways similar to Lust's corruption? In Negotiation, it's said that the villagers all started to behave erratically with Lust seemingly being the source of that effect; that seems like the demon's energy corrupting them, sort of piggybacking off of Lust's energy being used on them. And Lust didn't seem to do anything sketchy to the villagers beforehand, he was just generally being a chill dude, so did the demon's possession make him start mind controlling people around the village to feed Lust and the demon by extension? If that's the case, then our continued tendency to control people is likely due to the remnants of the demon's energy in us. That might be affecting Lust's personality as well, who feels a lot more blunt and to-the-point than his laid-back, almost joking personality in the past.
Then, once the demon became strong enough, it could've latched onto Hikari and fed off of her energy. We know that she hasn't been up to much for the better part of 300 years, probably because her energy is so incredibly strong that the demon can't really "possess" her, more so just tag along biding its time. Gloria even said that she met Hikari within the last year, and she seemed totally normal. The demon's energy is probably starting to take a hold of her now, which is why she's just now starting to go after the remaining seals. I don't remember if she weakened Lust's seal enough for us to start to slip out and be able to control Ai (I think it was mentioned that her energy was there, I have to double check), but she fucked up the painting enough for the demon to mess with Gramps through it on the other side of the world. Now that the third seal's broken, the demon is able to slip out more and interact with more people, possessing Yurie, who then went on to get poor Rin and Eri (also god damnit Kiyo, you had one job!).
Either way, going forward, I'm really interested in seeing how the girls take all of this. They're probably not gonna know the whole story for a while, but Hana getting possessed by the Lizardman fucked her up big time and seriously strained her relationship with the others. Now, Rin's being straight up possessed by the big bad and being uncharacteristically cold to Eri. Lord knows what would happen if Ai got so much as a whiff of the demon's energy with how weak she is and how much of its residual energy it has. There's so much drama to be had, the anticipation is killing me! (But seriously, what a dick move by the demon forcing Rin to be besties with a stranger and screwing up her relationship with Eri. That even makes it more suspicious when the others notice how distant they are for seemingly no reason. The demon kinda fucked itself over with that one when it doesn't seem like that was necessary. Perhaps it's becoming too overconfident now that more of its seals are being broken?)
Anyway, needlessly long, sleep-deprived rant aside (it's almost 4am, fucking kill me), you've got yourself an incredible story, UnusualFish! I'm really excited to see what's next in store, both in the story and gameplay! Hopefully MOMMY Mari can get some love soon, she seems so sweet but we never get a chance to interact with her one-on-one. Just make sure you're not pushing yourself too hard!