Soon as I finished reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, I felt the need to play the latest update haha. Personally, I really really liked it.
I've felt this about other AVNs, but the ones I stick with I do because at the start I feel they have potential, and avoid making "unforgivable" mistakes. Then comes a point, somewhere along the way, where they don't just offer the promise of greatness in the future, but actually start delivering. For Love by the Water, I feel that point was reached in chapter 3: it truly delivered.
As to where... for me it was Celia getting her comeuppanuce. The scenes with her and Emma are so uncomfortable, they feel so out of place in what's otherwise a mostly warm game - but man, the payoff for them is so good once the tonal shift comes: it was such a great way to drive home the shift, making it felt through that scene. No notes, simply amazing. Best depiction of **** on an AVN I've experienced. Again, no notes, you did a fantastic job with her and that moment. Currently, that's what makes the game worth playing: Celia getting her just deserts, selling the tonal shift of the game, and what "other MC" brings to the table. The promise of more stuff like that in the future is enough to keep one playing, by itself!
Related, but Emma is such a well, well achieved character! Perhaps the gem of the game - alongside Byrus, whom I'll talk about later. But Emma is so disguting at such a visceral level to me - her sheer weakness, helplesness, asking someone stronger to deliver the punishment she can't - it even had me wishing for the choice to punish her instead, at times. She's so unsightly, I couldn't stand to perceive her! And then, boom, she said just the right thing. Can't appeal to his sense of morality? Then just offer whatever worth she has, in the eyes of an objective-driven being: the information she possesses. And then she asks to be taken along - after cheering the horrible thing done to Celia throught! - by lowering herself to saying she's ok with sleeping on a closet, just so she's taking along! Again, she's so, so disgustingly weak and wretched - and I love her for it. The character I most want to see more of.
I would like to talk about my wishes and concerns for the game, starting with the concerns: Mallard (alongside Risa) works great as a threatening antagonistic force, and I really hope he is not sidelined from the role after one confrontation. I quite enjoy the "slice of life" setting of school, and I wish you don't do away with it or have it take a backseat - though I have no idea how you'll keep it going now. Byrus is a great character, that I think is written with so much nuance, that I really hope he is given his proper respect by the story - not in terms that "good things happen to him" or that "he gets his redemption" neccessarily, but that he's given enough screentime to shine and showcase what he's about. All the things about his absent father, and the way it's affecting him - this longing he has - I hope it's all building up to something. Bit of a suggestion, if you are taking Risa away from Mallard, I would have Byrus be his new assistant, so he serves as "POV character" whose eyes we experience that side of the narrative through. As for Emma, I really hope we are given diverging paths to develop her: a kind one (maybe keeping her interactions exclusive to normal MC) where we see who she is/what she likes outside of her time as a maid, and a darker one (maybe having her just interact with supernatural MC) where we see the person Celia made her explored - in many ways, it's Emma more than Byrus who is Celia's child, the one raised into who she is by her. Similar, but I hope we have an option to forgive Lana, and one to punish her as badly as Celia was punished - please leave it up to player discretion. I also hope we have a similar choice of "forgive Byrus/destroy him" - near the game's climax, perhaps. Mrs Behr and her colleague killed a lot of people - I hope the moral implications of this aren't handwaved. Same for the fact Lili is killing sentient creatures. I would love options to have nothing to do with either faction, on the grounds of them taking life.
TL;DR: Emma and Byrus are the gems of the game for me, the characters I want to see more of and those that I hope future updates do justice to the most.