DPC has been creating hype for this Halloween party since episode 7, almost two years. It's impossible to survive to that massive hype.
When Sage proposes MC to organize a Halloween party during the HOTs' party, most people probably thought that they would see the party at episode 8. We had that crap of a dorm party instead, in which if you are not a client of Quinn's restaurant or into Maya and Josy path, you don't see any real action, just random scenes with feminist and nerds and crap.
Then, the fucking interlude (that should has been just a flashback at the beginning of Ep9) delayed the Ep9 for several months more... More waiting, even more hype... And then, only a party. Plot doesn't advance, and since there are so many branches open now and so many Lis, DPC can't pay a lot of attention to all those branches. If you play all the branches and are interested in all girls, the length of the game is OK, I guess. If you really are interested only in one or two girls, the gameplay is really short. A couple of ours for your main Li reading all the texts and seeing all the scenes. Half an hour for your secondary Lis if you skip the scenes that are common to all Lis... It's normal that you finish your game through and think "That's all?" "A year waiting for a real update, and that's all?"
The party is OKish, but...
- There are scenes that are just filling material.
- The costumes are just "meh" in most of the cases (as someone said in other comment... Sage dressed as Lily? Really? Couldn't DPC come out with anything better for this main Li?)
- Most of the scenes are too short (for example, MC should be able to play more "truth of drink" with the girls, and with more girls. That should has been a big scene with Jill, Zoey, Bianca... and several rounds of questions).
- There are scenes that probably were planned by DPC and then were cut off the game because of lack of time (a full scene with Sandy, a full ending fucking with those "vixens", an epilogue with the photos of the party...)
- And there should be more flashbacks of things that have happened since Ep.8 Between the ending of Ep8 and Ep9 there are several weeks. Nothing more has happened?
I would like to think that DPC has learned the lesson and is going to really work in shorten development times by hiring help for non-essential tasks. But I suppose it's hopeless. The guy wants to be a one man orchestra
He has even composed some of the music of the game!