So which update do you have planned for there to be a gameplay loop?
I too had to figure out how the saves worked to get alot of crystals for the gacha, the latest update gives a fair amount now but I think it took me 1000 x10 rolls to get the 5 star character before the update. I'm not sure if the update changed the 5 star rate but that is quite alot for playing normally.
The new gift system also requires too much for the materials and gold we get per fight. It took quite a few fights to craft one gift item but then the affection didn't even seem to go up. Was the affection just so low that the bar didn't move? Because I see it does go up if you give alot of gifts at once, though I had to cheat again to get enough gifts for this lol. The gift system needs an explanation.
The gold and material gain overall feels way lower then previous versions, I remember being able to collect materials for the services legitimately but I had to cheat for them all this time around. If it was changed like this for future balancing purposes, then we need a cheat menu for testing for now. Something like the jinxed CMD in your slice of life project that gives out money could also work. (btw, the rates are even more absurd in that one that I still have yet to confirm if legendary cards exist >_>)
You could also add a gift gacha to make affection a bit easier to increase or some affection gain for succesfull battles. But for now the affection increase is just so low that it is hard to test it through normal gameplay, and then theres the bug where even if someone had the patience to grind for all those gifts normally, the costumes don't even save as mentioned by someone else.
Thankfully the interactions do save and they are quite cute. I see alot of effort goes here since each girl gets a unique animation. I just wish there was more special interactions like the level 10 instead of just skirt lift and then increased skirt lift in the lower affection levels. Where is my headpats and face pokes >:3
Some of the blush reactions could use a bit lighter colors, some of them are so dark they look a bit... sick? And then Hiranobu Amariko is a special case... why does her eyes roll back like shes possessed O_O
The summer costumes are quite a treat, even Nakada Yoko gets one for being the lowest rarity so hopefully theres one for everyone later :D
Overall really nice feature though we still need some sort of gameplay loop to have fun and test things without cheating lol.
For the normal gameplay itself, the battle system seems to be coming together now where before it was so jank and softlocked everywhere that I barley touched it. It still does sometimes, a few of the situations have been addressed already but recently I had a random softlock with an axe goblins turn after a different enemy killed one of my characters. Then on the opposite end Arashi Lilith softlocked the fight after killing an enemy with her ultimate. Not really sure if it was the kill or just the skill though because charging to the ultimate skill seems to take longer then the previous updates so its hard to get to them before the fight ends.
Then when it came to the harder fights to have enemies that lasted long enough for the ultimate skills, I had to cheat some more so my characters wouldn't die instead. there dosen't seem to be any exp gain in battle and crafting books takes alot of effort for barley any exp. The basic leveling system still needs some adjusting.
Something I noticed, there seems to be a speed mechanic where some characters can get more turns before others instead of being a fixed round. It would be cool to have a wait command to set up combos or plan damage mitigation too. Though it could also end up making it too easy to cheese the skill cooldown? Though that could also just be a strategic decision to sacrifice a turn to get the ultimate skill faster since they can take so long to charge. I've mostly just seen the 2nd skill so far even with the few extra turns.
Speaking of, Arino Izumi and Takayam Yuka is so OP with their 2nd attack that it makes the first raid boss kill himself lol, not sure if intended but it was fun seeing a high attack enemy being its own weakness.
There was definetly a few things to have fun with the battles this time around but it still needs some things to have a fun gameplay loop. Looking forward to how they play out later. But also what the battle system really needs is explosive clothing damage when your girls take heavy hits :3