In addition, this update is some kind of an experiment, where the dev wanted to try an event with lots of branching to challenge themselves. Also this is a party where a lot of background characters are implemented to create a lively atmosphere. All this takes the dev more time than the usual updates before this.
Morrigan already mentioned that after this development will likely go back to the usual devcicle.
Glad to hear it. If it's patreon supported 'Learning on the job' delays is simply questionable - delaying development. A fact is, nearly every patreon supporter IS looking for a solid finished product. That said, development/updates for one person development/small team takes time and a year between updates highly probable, and I know this game is a quality piece of work, which in this case, going offroad may not bee an issuse.
Sadly IT IS all to common for games to fail or spiral out of control, and end up in remakes or years of development flushed down for offroad development. When the vision gets blurred or unforseen problems rears their ugly face, then you sit there alone and having to sort a mess out, finding the 6 months suddenly become 11, with no guarantee moving forward will be doable without throwing away a year and add 6 months redeveloping.
That being said, this 'game' is really good so, waiting should not be an issue.