I played it previously a couple years prior, and the big difference was that there were more management systems in place that required your attention along with the class system for stats and abilities, but I still felt it was very much a similar game, even with some improvements. There are some story themes that reinforce slavery very strongly, so I don't feel it's a decline in setting. I also feel the game was and still is very much a feudalistic, considering the emphasis and basis on landowning and the guild's power structures.
Playing it now, however, I feel like the game is actually just broken. I've found a lot of tooltips that reference things that are no longer true, some systems seem to not always function and numbers are all over the place...it's like the same systems have been reworked and extra crap thrown on top to such an extent that none of it can actually work right. A large part of me just wants them to revert to the version I played before and add more characters and story lmao. Sure some stuff was broken and unfinished, half-implemented, but at least it wasn't THIS.
I was a big fan of Strive for Power, and I had always wished they just kept updating that one with new content since its biggest point of failure was the minimal number of unique characters, events, and quests. But I still had hopes for this game with my previous experience of it. Now, though, after wrestling with it for the past couple hours, I think I'll just drop it and make a note to see where the game is at in another couple years.