Wow, this was really really good! I've definitely enjoyed this long, winding ride so far, good work!
I actually hadn't played since build 0.2, and though it's probably old news to everyone who didn't completely forget about this VN's existence in the interim, I want to personally shake the hand of whoever came up with the idea of allowing the player to completely skip that particular scene in Luke's introduction. That whole sequence is probably the only negative thing I have to say about the whole dang project, so I'm just getting it out of the way first. Thankfully most of the later content with Luke allowed me to warm up to him more, but the mild desire to take a shower any time he was on screen never fully went away. The dude's just kind of straight up gross, not gonna lie. By the end he was actually pretty endearing, sure, but still kinda gross.
As for everything else, wow, where do I even start? This has some seriously solid writing, and even though the Hinterlands chapters at first felt like they completely stalled the story, by the time Hinterlands III rolled around I was beginning to see how both narratives dovetailed into one another. The payoff was definitely worth it. I really enjoyed Storm and P's road trip adventure during chapter III and it contributed a ton to my positive disposition towards both characters. Do have to say Hinterlands IV felt kind of superfluous though, unless there's missable content tucked away in that chapter or something. Could probably omit it and lose nothing in the process, or roll it straight into Hinterlands V without bouncing around the narrative so much. Still, the story definitely would NOT be the same without those chapters, as the great majority of the world building happens within them. Even if it DOES mean putting off going on dates with best Husbando Asterion for like, an hour of gameplay.
I also noticed there was more varied music in this installment. Usually a problem most VN's have is very repetitive music, but thankfully this one has some decently varied tracks, and being able to switch tunes during Hinterlands III was kind of a cute touch.
I'll probably pop over to the spoiler thread to really get into some of my favorite aspects of this story, but for now, just know you're doing a great job. I'm definitely invested and unfortunately that means I now have to wait like all the rest for the next installment. I definitely want to replay it to at least see what's up with the character I didn't manage to recruit (For me it was the wolf), but sad to say, like Undertale's Genocide route, there will be no Ruthless playthrough for me. Don't think I could bring myself to do it.
Also, I actually forgot this was going to eventually have more NSFW content in it, the story just sucked me in that thoroughly. I came for porn, but received something I didn't know I actually wanted, Ha!