A good slice of what's on offer. It already looks better than the first game in terms of QoL (no more sluggish recognition of what my cursor is on during the point and click parts!) and the story already has a grander scope from the get go.
Route development does seem a bit too quick, but I'm assuming in the later updates when more routes are released it's not gonna be an issue because you'll probably be encouraged to jump around to different people. (Doesn't seem like there's anything discouraging maxing everyone's bonds first before doing Big Plot Advancement Things)
Will our alignment selection be a one-and-done thing, or will there be opportunities to change it later?
Hi there! Happy that you enjoyed it and that you feel like it's improved upon the last game. :)
I agree on the routes, with one character and no artificial wait system in place, it feels a bit "turbo". Like you're saying, having multiple side-quests/routes going at once will likely alleviate that. I was considering an aforementioned wait system like many games have, where you have to wait a set amount of time segments before continuing, but I know in my own case that when that happens I always just spam "skip" to progress so I don't know if it would make the game more fun. But definitely something I'm considering in terms of having the game's continuity, time-wise, feel more "real".
Right now the plan is to have it one-and-done. The reasoning behind it is that besides the choices and flavor text interactions, the various alignments often have Isobel making interjections which are alignment-specific (you might notice that if you replay with a different alignment), and it would feel weird to have her do a complete personality switch mid-game. But that also depends on what the players would like to see, of course. So I'm keeping my eyes open for more feedback on the matter. :)
Thanks for playing and commenting! <3
Honestly, I agree with you that adding in a mandatory time requirement would just be more frustrating.
re:Alignment, yeah that makes sense, though the change I was thinking of was making it a sliding scale. However I would definitely prefer seeing work on the overall plot, character routes, and variety of character-defining choices rather than changing alignment. Excited for what's on the horizon!