Yeah, and it wasn't typically "multiple quests and free roams" for HC3 every month. The focus on multiple quests is odd considering more than one quest in an update does not necessarily mean that the updates are going to be longer, as the early updates with multiple quests had shorter and less labour intensive quests. They also weren't released monthly. The updates tended to be 5-6 weeks until around this time last year where N_Taii shifted to large, more scene heavy updates and that pushed it up to 6-7 weeks.
Personally I think the problem lately is less that the updates are taking longer, especially this one due to the extenuating circumstances of moving halfway across the world, and more due to how he's structuring the development schedule. The last seven updates have gone Lily/Haylen->Lily/a bit of the main quest->main quest->Haylen->main quest->Lily->Haylen. We've been having more side quest focus for almost a full year of updates which at least for me means that it feels like the story has been treading water for most of the last year.
Personally I think the problem lately is less that the updates are taking longer, especially this one due to the extenuating circumstances of moving halfway across the world, and more due to how he's structuring the development schedule. The last seven updates have gone Lily/Haylen->Lily/a bit of the main quest->main quest->Haylen->main quest->Lily->Haylen. We've been having more side quest focus for almost a full year of updates which at least for me means that it feels like the story has been treading water for most of the last year.