Build 21.0.
The Combat: 5/10
The part of the game that needs the most improvement. It is fun. It needs finishing. The grid-based system is having a resurgence so I wouldn't say the groundwork is bad. Pathfinder 2 did it, in fact it did a whole ass HoMM system and it was well-received. It's just that the skill trees are half-finished and skills have [not implemented] in their descriptions. Like, what does that even mean? Should I even unlock the skill? What part of it is not implemented? The graphics? The mechanics? Forget I asked, it doesn't need elaboration, it needs finishing. I say: drop everything and finish the combat. In one update. Just do it. Because chances are you'll have balancing to do after that anyway, and you don't want that to be the last thing on your plate. Other than that, it's ok. I do not understand the need to call the skills cards, and to pretend that it's a card system of some kind. It's a pretty standard skill system. Other than what skills will the enemies use there is really no random element to it. Maybe that whole aspect could be phased out and the game could just stop pretending it has anything to do with cards,. The base is good, however. I could rate it up to 8/10 if it was fully done and good.
The Story: 7/10
There's a lot of lore and politics (always a good thing), and the companion characters are adequately-written. Sam and Hiho in particular, the other two... perhaps not so much, but I'll take the hit for that being a case of personal taste. Two gripes:
1: I don't see how skipping the prologue is an option. It shouldn't be. Unlike some games that start winding up near Act 2 this one establishes the direction of the story, the stakes, and a sort of power ceiling too for what could be the main antagonist (?) at the end of the prologue. By skipping it you skip context so crucial you might as well start reading a book in the middle.
2: The main character wants to be a combination of blank slate and established character with an established past. This is very difficult to pull off and it's not being pulled off well. It is a sort of ongoing mystery that there are actions in your character's past that are supposedly criminal or immoral in nature but, without any spoilers, I have played up to the part where some of this past is sort-of revealed, and... it's a wet fart. Like, at this point, you, the player, will have done things much much worse than what is being talked about here and the reactions are unwarranted. There is also a problem with the lack of agency that this brings. There are dialogues where you character is being directly asked about his past and the character pretty much wrestles control out of your hands to say cliche things like "I care more about the present than the past", then uses his pelvic sorcery to get out of having to answer the question. Which is problematic, to say the least. The pertinent implication is that you have a room of corpses behind you, but you pretty much have an even larger road of corpses ahead of you, so...
This "moral discrepancy" is also not an isolated case. There is a choice you get where you get to spare a rapist who says he was forced and wants to repent, after being told by the person he raped that you shouldn't believe a word he says. The case of the rape is written very tastefully, not lewded with scenes or whatnot. It is played straight. The issue is not the choice itself, but the reactions from your companions, and it is a problem by context. By this point you will have massacred half a million people in this fortress without asking a single question, so Hiho, my sweet cinnamon roll, I understand your religion asks you to consider life as a series of challenges resulting in self-improvement, but I literally just had you kill a hundred guys by smashing their limbs into fine mashed potato paste. Gameplay and story separation is a hell of thing. I think this could be improved upon. Like dedicate a quest to these themes if you want to explore them, so that it's not so back-to-back with the fact of the gameplay.
Other than that, I applaud the game for appearing to have a lot of branches and referencing your past choices as you had done them. It's not exactly Mass Effect but it is good enough that I have stopped several times to consider what I should do becasue the game does seem to remember choices and reference them in casual dialogue. How you've dealt with quests, in particular, which makes the story feel organic and your decisions non-isolated. I don't know to what extent this is an illusion but the writing is good enough that it doesn't feel like one, so the goal was accomplished. In short, it doesn't seem to aspire to be an RPG in name only.
I've seen no drop in the quality of writing between main characters and side characters either, which is refreshing. The main companions are all lovable and memorable, distinct characters. The banter and chemistry between them is very good and very well -written. The side characters, even merchants are their own distinct characters. The brothel is one of the most involved quest-lines with a lot of memorable faces (and other body parts), not just a place where all the leftover sprites go for easily scripted encounters. The politics is engaging and the characters there are memorable as well. The writing improves a lot as the games goes on. I would say right now it is the game's strongest point, other than
The Art: 9/10
The art of the game is absolutely seamless. There is no cornucopia of different styles from different stages of the development, it's all on the level. The city, the characters, the backgrounds, the scenes, the animations, it's all great. I have encountered exactly two portraits that seemed like they were placeholders or something. They are both from the newer content and I'm suspicious of them being placeholders becasue Ive seen a better artwork of Uuluk on the Walkthrough page. In other words, I have zero gripes here. Sometimes you can see NPCs sprites slide across the floor instead of walking but that seems more like a programming issue.
The sex scenes are all tasteful and the overall good writing supplements the well-drawn scenes well. In short, it's porn with context, so the best kind of porn. The scenes blend into the game's story and overall theme and don't feel tacked on, nor does the game feel like a delivery service for the porn. So it's actually good.
Conclusion:
Lore good, plot good, sex good, art good, writing that has already been written can't really be fixed anymore but seems to be - and is hopefully continuing to be - getting gooder. Combat needs to be finished ASAP. Needs more Terri, needs more Iski.... Hiho is bae. 0/10, it's shit, please support the devs.