no it isn't immediate, you've got to wait for certain day scenes to occur to trigger for most of the stuff in there. then there are some which require x amount of compliments, which you can get in particular scenes or in some lewd situations in Roya (that's near the end of current content though). you also have to bounce around between rooms and unlocks.
focus on unlocking all the crystals first so you have access to all the rooms, after that there will almost always be something you can do to progress. don't focus too much in one spot because you'll get soft-locked.
would be nice if someone wrote up a diagram of what unlocks which scenes, which unlock which other changes, etc. we dont quite need it yet though, just play on the easy mode so you don't have to worry about a game over through too much corruption and you can casually explore Roya and grind the changes out and get a better feel for how stuff balances out.