I get that, but for the buildup and the dev talking up this update since this past summer, I was expecting something more complete. While a side-story with planned updates, conceptually this first update comes across as a half chapter in a side-story that will likely have 3 chapters. Even on twitter the dev is promising twice the content for next year with the background work done. Given the lead time that was made for this update, delivering half a chapter and promising to make up for it next year implies a necessary level of damage control for what was delivered.The problem is, that they didn't just have to make new CG like in a usual update, but also standing pictures, maps etc. I think that's why the update is fairly small content wise.
I read the patch notes before too, and I understand this side-story will take 3 Halloween's to complete. My argument, as stated above, is this update is more a half chapter in a side-story that will be 3 chapters in length. It's an incomplete arc of a 3 arc story when you only have 3 episodes (updates) to deliver with. The background work is the justification for the reduced content/story, but then what about the large lead time taken behind the scenes to make this update? The past few updates were okay, and the dev hinted that part of the issue was the work being done on the Halloween side-story.I mean, it says right in the patch notes that it's going to be a multi-update quest. It was always made clear that this was going to take a couple of years to complete.
I dunno, I just think the ball was dropped along the way somewhere and that the real update that will meet the hype for this side-story is next years. Which kind of feeds into the problem with Patreon funded games, this one being no exception.