additional dialogue would play out (say between Claire and Sentinel) which I didn't particularly care about. (Such as the dynamic of when Sentinel was bothering her while the MC is passed out in the hospital, where I just kind of wanted to tell him to kindly f'off. Though maybe this was intentional to your writing.)
I don't know if the solution to this might be to make your release shorter, though teasing us with AIKA at the end is kind of a blue-ball thing to do.
And I can see the marketing purpose for it.
Alternatively, maybe some of the scene dialogues can be streamlined, or instead of having long scenes, they could be cut apart via transitions?