The only thing I really don't like about the drama-driven change in direction is how the dev seems eager to dole out emotional punishments for things we have no effective control over. Not to say no control at all, but the "correct" route through the game is only really possible if you're already aware of where the game turns out veering towards. It has a completely different identity at the start than at the current point, and leaning into that initial identity is exactly what the game wants to make you feel bad about later- only rather than feeling bad, it just makes me want to skip through the scene, and continually hacks away at interest I have in the characters involved. This is especially true with the way Tora's been handled, since both routes make you try to feel as if the other route is better when that really isn't the case at all.
Am I going to be punished for keeping up with Zena's events if her perverted nature rubs another student the wrong way? Am I supposed to feel like ignoring Oki's events would have been the better move, having no help option for dealing with Anju instead of having her be a help option, but also the only help and so unable to not involve her despite her wishes? How long will it be before a decision made for or against being with Dayai physically somehow both result in undoing her mentally? And am I going to be letting D'vala cling to the idea she's gotten that the protag is her Janu specifically and let her keep some semblance of ever-growing-distant happiness, or potentially risk breaking her by eventually going through the long explanation of many Janu characters, and telling her of what is, to an extent, her own suicide?
I don't feel like my morality is being tested anymore, just how closely my morality aligns specifically with the dev's.
Similarly, I also think giving the new class actual identities at any point was a mistake. Opening up a complete roster change was always going to be met with mixed results, where some people appreciate the change and others think it feels cheap, but then doubling back on that makes it feel cheaper and robs those did want to explore the new faces given. What I would have done is make them nameless, faceless people like background characters being shoved to the forefront instead of legitimate characters, and capitalised on the protag's tendency to space out to fill the gap where those scenes would otherwise have occurred on increasingly menial thoughts as if without his class he's just spiralling into the earliest stages of a depressive loop. Like he wants to help them but just really can't bring himself about to actually giving them enough attention to do so. It'd also make his desire to have his class back more consistent even for players that would have otherwise liked to see the new class since it'd be more apparent that it's a decision built into the protag's mindset, rather than feeling as if it were simply a dialogue option that you weren't given.
