Spent 7 hours. Got first two companions.
Then realized I got no desire to spend another 50-60 hours with this particular game.

Pros:
-world felt somewhat more alive than in XCDE
-some designs are kinda nice

Mixed:
-combat is more straightforward, but at the same time still kinda eh.

Cons:
-loot cumshots (just make items go straight to your inventory jeez)
-rather big amount of poor comedic moments/characters
-bad English dub (characters and voices feel very dissociated from one another)
-gacha

Overall, felt like I was playing a comedy/parody game that, if shorter, would've been fine, but now it's too big and bloated.

Appears to be rather very greedy.

Joined in at launch event to see that EU server was not a thing (hello, 240 ms ping) and stayed around for about a week to see what it had to offer. Resource and energy seemed somewhat imbalanced, not once causing me to pour all of daily "stamina" just to get some credits/resources for some level-ups.

What really made me quit for now was essentially 4 "limited-time rate ups" with split "pity" one after another.
With no time or chance to gather a decent amount of premium currency without real-money-transactions.

I understand that you are likely supposed to just choose one and be happy, but that does not make it any less scummy towards those who don't want to research beforehand what rate-up schedule will look like just after launch.

As for the rest of the game:
- the writing, even by gacha standards, is very poor at the start
- the protagonist model literally has no face (and I didn't notice any explanation why they couldn't have just given him a mask if they didn't want to animate different expressions)
- English dub is meh

I might return at some anniversary to see if it changes for the better. But somehow I doubt it.

Finally played the originator of the survivors-like genre and after few 15-20 min runs a revelation came upon me, just in time to save me from submitting to the clutches of this evil.

The ever-increasing numbers, the treasure chests, the lists with unlocks? In the end they result in nothing.
They are just there to keep you hooked, to continually feed your satisfaction as if through a drip.

If you like using only one hand, you might as well play some visual novels or point-n-click adventure games.
Hell, even jerking-off would likely be better choice.

The game and the sub-genre it spawned-off is one of the most foul creations I have encountered. It belongs in the same hell-pit as pay2win games and greedy gacha.

They say some games age like fine wine.
This ain't one of them.

I like the concept, but encountered multiple "jankiness" issues that combined with some poor core gameplay design choices make me not want to continue.
For example, sweeping would lock-up camera while minions still stay at same place despite various mouse movements.
Or newly spawned minions not reacting to anything whether using charge/retreat/sweep actions. Which sucks when you are getting chased by enemies at the same time.

Game hard-crashed (to the point I had to unplug PC) twice.
Could be the new rig's issue admittedly, but didn't happen with any other game I tested on new PC and seems to be triggered by specific location ingame.

After crash saves got corrupted and while mission list was a possible option and I wasn't that far ahead from mission start, it managed to merge progress..

So main/side mission status, abilities, loadout got reset, but not key-items, side-mission triggers, boxes, locked doors, etc.
Fun way to softlock huh.

All things considered the issues outweigh interest, so, unfortunately, I doubt I'll return.

Evil sexy women aside, game has some obvious issues:

1. Localization seems like a joke at times:
e.g. "Hecate: ###" was a genuine dialog line I saw and even double-checked.
2. Cutscene text-speed's too slow, considerable delay can happen before you're "allowed to proceed"
3. Settings are hidden in profile through a button you wouldn't normally associate with settings/options.
3. At the time of writing this review I'm 18 minutes into Stage 1-6 (recommended level 1) which is on almost infinite loop because main healer enemy is being insta-healed by two other healers (that I can't reach and when I can, they just heal each other to full HP) while my tank is taking dmg at snail-pace.
Sure, I could restart or bring overpowered party but 1) it shouldn't happen 2) I had brought a level 15 char to a stage that recommends level 1

Last one's a silly issue, but genuinely never had something like it happen in first stages of a gacha game.

The longer you play, the more flawed it becomes.
But I did have fun for most part and really liked Arthur, Sadie and some other characters.
Not to mention it is really nice to look at on PC.

Admittedly, didn't finish up Epilogue due to certain reasons that caused me to not care that much about it.

Previously played demos and now EA 0.1.214.
Will be using this to keep track.

Thoughts at the moment: looks neat, but kinda wish there was more variety to stealth than just stay in shadows and stab stab.

And while I kind of understand the idea behind it, longer distance between save-points and scarce health items do make experimenting not that tempting.

Good art and character designs (only reason why it's not 2.5), but bad pacing which hurts whatever they were trying to go for story-wise.

Has multiple routes but did not feel interested in replaying the game to see them and according to guide I checked after initial completion, I had already achieved True Ending.

Feel like it could have been better if they did a better job balancing between the "horny" and "grim/serious" sides.

Got through Village/Guild quest-line and HR7 main-quests just in time for Sunbreak.

In certain aspects (e.g. wirebug movement, silkbind skills, weapon designs, some of the new monster designs, etc.) do feel like I prefer it over 'vanilla' Monster Hunter World (and possibly even Iceborne, but for that I'd need to spend more time thinking about it).

Probably biggest disappointment was the Real Boss-fight (the one you need to do for expansion access). Expected something like in World and got severely underwhelmed.