Nice progress! And I agree on the bit that the focus should be on the main story, not the free roam, since it’s a VN. Personally, when I pick up a VN I do so for the story, not some free roam/active gameplay. For that I would look for other game formats tbh, so as far as I am concerned too much free roam/gameplay/stat or cash grind/whatever just takes away from the intended experience of a visual novel.