I did a full playthrough up to the end of the content to get up to speed on this game in preparation for the next update, and from the beginning the story didn't fully click with me and after thinking about it I finally understood what it was.
There is a conflict in the way the story is written and it comes from using 2 different narrative tools
1- The MC as a player avatar
2- The MC as a Story Character
When the MC its an avatar of the player, he is a blank slate and the player chooses his reactions and personality, when the MC its a story character he has a defined personality and the player just choose who to pursue and that's it.
In this game the MC has a set personality that more or less dislike all the corruption/mind control, and that's fine, the problem comes when the player is given the choice to do something that goes against that mindset, he fights the player's choice, but then after that moment the story continues with no changes to the character, One may start to get the feeling that the choices don't matter because in practice they don't actually matter, the only time when the choices are reflected on the story is when you reach a scene that needs X amount of points to happen.
If the player chooses the corruption choices, then it needs to be reflected in the way the character thinks or behaves, when he's having an internal monologue or just thinking, the previous choices need to be reflected, perhaps he feels conflicted about his actions, perhaps he enjoys it and doesn't want to fall for that feeling, Something that makes the choices have an actual impact aside from the scene where the choice its made, so far it feels that no matter what your choose the MC and the story will keep the same course, making those choices redundant.
As for the characters:
The MC at times its a relatable guy, but at times he gets too passive, being a nice guy doesn't mean losing your spine, this is more prominent when Chloe its around.
The "Landlady" doesn't have enough characterization to make a solid judgment, at times she behaves like an actual "Mother Figure", and at times she gets nearly as bad as Chloe, it's understandable since she suffered a loss but at some point the MC needs to stop enabling her attitude.
The younger "Roommate" it's probably the most likeable, mostly because she's the only that doesn't expect the world to move at her will, I actually tried to avoid corruption choices with her because I actually liked her.
And last.
Chloe, if the intent was to make her unlikeable then kudos to the writer, they did an amazing job at making her completely unlikable, self-centered, petulant, entitled, and the way she treats her family would make her the villain of the story if not for the other more defined threats of the story, And it's made worse if you don't use the corruption options, the MC more or less acts as a doormat, letting her walk over him because that's the "Nice thing" to do.
As for the art I can only praise the artist, clearly there's a lot of attention to detail in the scenes and the characters, this game has an insane potential, but as its is, the flaws of the writing are keeping it from being one of the best games.