I liked this update, as we get to see some tantalizing hints of character direction and development, which I think this game is doing better than the vast majority of games in this genre. Also, I'd like to commend the developer on his attention to sound which, as in movies, is often under-appreciated in games.
But, it's not without fault. The bloat and padding is becoming worrisome. There are simply too many unnecessary renders. Now, I'm a fan of slow-burn, talky romances and rom-coms from Linklater to Woody Allen, so I don't mind a build-up. But the mistake often made by filmmakers trying to imitate Linklater or Allen is that they often meander pointlessly, sometimes to mask the shallowness of the character plot, other times because the filmmaker doesn't trust his own scenes to get the point across and thus extends them. The former is unforgivable (nothing short of a total re-write will save it), while the latter is correctable. Fortunately, I see this game veering more towards the latter. It's just a matter of scene economy, and trusting that the image you put there will do the job. A quarter of the guitar scene renders can be tossed out, for example, and still retain the effect. The pool and gym scenes are similarly bloated.
Here's a mildly spoiler example. Mom meets a character she has instant chemistry with. The dev wants to show that there is electricity in their mutual gaze, but needs about three (or five... gotta check again) renders to do the work of one, two max. If I did that in a film, critics would call me over-indulgent and masturbatory.
Besides, if he doesn't cut down on the render bloat, the finished VN will be a bigger download than X-COM.
The only other fault is that, dialogue-wise, all the characters sound the same. But I'm chalking that up to translation pains.
Overall, despite these faults there is still a very good story here. Certainly in the 99th percentile of adult games, in terms of story potential. Let's hope it makes it to the end with a reasonable download size, and out of sight of Patreon's enforcers.