This is absolutely fantastic!
I think the art is absolutely the showrunner, but the game wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining if the game didn’t incentivise so well paying attention to the worldbuilding by integrating it into the gameplay and instead lectured you with exposition. The game made me actually want to learn more and pay attention to the setting, the characters and how they interacted, so it was a very enjoyable read.
Hovering over specific words to see its meaning is such a useful and unobtrusive little touch that I’m surprised more lore-heavy visual novels don’t make use of it.