Regarding the visuals, much of the game’s identity currently relies on its icons for buildings and items. My plan is to replace these with hand-drawn icons in a style inspired by old maps, later. Since the game is still at an early stage, and doing this properly will require both time and a more consolidated list of icons, I haven’t begun that work yet.
As for the writing, I understand the criticism and will take another careful look at it. Just to confirm, you were playing with the English localisation, correct?