A LOT OF RAMBLING AHEAD, IM NOT PROOFREADING THIS
you will either play this for 5 days and move on or you will make a bunch of alt accounts to experience all the stories.
i am, of course, in the latter.
this is primarly a text game in a very interesting setting. the writing is generally vague, leaving a lot for you to imagine or comprehend on your own. sometimes it can work in the game's favour, but sometimes i feel like i'd prefer it to be more straightforward.
being a story-driven game, there are, of course, many choices to be made. some affect just the story, some may lose or gain more riches, but what makes them work is that its always informed consent. theres plenty of little text with the more significant choices that ensures you will never feel tricked, like "This is a faster, but more dangerous route", "This will ensure the survival of your ally, but they're unlikely to be grateful", "This is unlikely to be profitable, unless you have a use in mind for Human Arms". because i mostly know what im getting myself into, making a choice feels satisfying, and these warnings dont generally harm the story. and of course, the FailBetterGames tradition of giving you choices that will ultimately fuck you over for nothing but only sating your curiosity. those are great too.
as far as the gameplay is concerned, this is mostly a resource manager. you earn resources through skill checks, or spending other resources, or sheer luck. use these resources to progress stories, get some cool ass items, or just for vanity (look at the subreddit).
one of the more controversial resources is TIME: you can have up to 20 action points, and 1 takes 10 minutes to recover. this will understandably ward some people off, but i enjoy it as it gives me another resource to manage and think of my actions. plus, i can either have it open in a tab for the whole day, or play it once or twice a day in longer bursts. but i understand that this is a dealbreaker for most.
the reason why i love this game so much is the amount of depth there is. both to the lore and to the gameplay. they really make the most out of this setting, all im gonna say. in terms of gameplay, im the type of person who enjoys going over the wiki trying to find what the most optimal strategy is, having a game plan, and all that. its like minecraft to me but i can choose when to creeper myself and dont live in fear the whole game. this review is getting very rambly, isnt it?
last point i want to address is FATE, the in-game currency bought with Real money. besides unlocking stories, it can also give you small to significant gameplay advanteges, but the game is anything but pay to win (it can be pay to lose if you wish). partially because the player2player interactions are minimal, and partially even though fate can make grinding for items easier, you will still have to grind.
so yeah ive been playing this for around a year now, and while im no longer addicted, i am still obsessed. so if youre the type who gets fixated on shit easily, and for long, tread carefully.