Beautiful characters. I love all the different sprites, and the way blinking is used to make eye movement seem more like, well, movement, instead of a jump from one to the other.
During the first half of the game I felt that the pacing was a bit odd. Conversations seemed perfectly paced, but when it came from going from location to location it felt like everything was happening very quickly. I think more time could've been spent there to give off a stronger sense of a 'long journey'. I understand that everything happens in one day, but the movement from one location to the other gives off the vibe of occurring in 15 minutes or something. I'm not sure if that's because this is the demo or not.
As for interactions, I think that the personalities are expressed pretty well. Making five main characters, to me, lends to a challenge in keeping them all distinct. This happens in both dialogue and design. Again, nice work there.
I feel that there are a few writing cliches that stand out to me. Generally I think the writing and description are good, but I found certain lines awkward. Especially the "is this a promise or a threat" variants (they appear two times). The appearance of these lines, which to me didn't seem to fit in well with MC's general dialogue, gave me the impression that two people worked on the script, or, at the very least, that the writer had a significant experience gap between different types of writing.
To clarify, I don't find an issue with having multiple writers- I just think there would be more benefits to cohesion. I also think that having some of the common sayings found in real life took me out of the story a bit. I know it's kind of dumb since there isn't much of a reason for them not to exist in game, especially since it seems that humans and normal animals and flora still exist, but they did throw me off a bit. Unique sayings and idioms would've been very enjoyable to me, even if they did have the same meaning. Of all the opinions shared in this comment, that's what I feel weakest about.
So I choice the thief background, and it didn't really make much sense to me. Characters were constantly sneaking up on my character and aside from one or two lines it wasn't really acknowledged. If anything, the addition of lines that did acknowledge the whole thief background thing felt more awkward than not. If MC really does has a background of crime, then they either wouldn't be as startled by every single person to talk to them, be better at lying, etc etc, or they would express some sort of confusion at the fact that their instincts aren't of help. They're very obvious about not wanting people to see their hands, but some of the Hound descvriptions and lines pertain to being highly socially aware and good at navigating dangerous situations.
Finally, I think that a bit more world building thought would improve the quality of the story, both for the character, and the city in general.
For example, (spoilers incoming), MC is evidently traumatised by touching people and getting negative results. I think it's unrealistic how fast they allow Leander to touch their hand. Yes, it's mentioned that their confidence is what persuades MC to take a chance, but surely other people have shown confidence before. Furthermore, back to the Hound background, as that's what I used as my background, surely MC is also familiar with people who are highly confident in their ability to deal with danger..?
I understand that implementing backgrounds is hard, but I think that if the Hound background and traits can't be implemented, it may be best to remove this as an option at all- mage's apprentice and priests' oracle both grew up isolated and therefore are likely lacking in information and social awareness, both of which work quite well for all of MC's interaction errors. Both would lead to a naive, confused character. Meanwhile, MC growing up on the streets and being highly experienced with social dealings lends to an entirely different approach- that of someone more mature and aware. It feels like that would be a difficult character and very difficult to implement. I haven't played with the other backgrounds, but neither seem like they would surprise me with MC's awkward, anything-but-subtle behaviour.
Or, another thing, and I'm not sure if this is actually not implemented or will bite us in the back later (if so, looking forward to it!)- it's mentioned multiple times that information is currency in the city. Okay, cool. But then why do so many characters give so much information with little prompting and little request back? The only time I would really say that MC has to give information to get information is at the beginning, with giving their name and information about the curse. But specifically at the end, MC is able to ask like 7 questions to any character with very little pushback, even when information is supposed to be valuable and not given in exchange for nothing. If this catches up with us later and other characters are like "hey, give me my dues", then that's fine, but playing this demo it did feel like (the creators) like this idea of information acting as currency, but don't actually implement it, unless every character is just uniquely willing to give information for free.
This is especially weird in the context of Mhin at the end (if you follow them) saying that you can't get anything unless you have power, connections, etc, but simultaneously MC has gotten free drinks, a hotel room, and a ton of information about the cult and city occupants. I feel like at the very least MC would be like "what do you mean, people have been a ton of help to me!!" in response because what Mhin is saying is a direct contradiction of MC's entire experience, but they don't. TLDR it feels like information as currency isn't implemented, and it leaves me feeling constantly like the converstaions MC has with others are unearned because information is described as being immensely valuable (Kuras describes MC asking questions as a breach of etiquette) but then MC seems to get it pretty easily.
One last thing, not relevant to worldbuilding- MC meets some lady with a scar who shows her to the Spring? There's no sprite there for the woman. I thought it was intentional, but some of the directing (really enjoyable directing, by the way. Loved the camera movements, utilised very well) led me to think that it wasn't. Same with being introduced to the Soulless near Ais, though less of a concern. Wanted to point that out in case it wasn't intentional. Playing on a Mac Intel if that's of any use.
Over all, I'm very excited for the full game. Hoping the information as currency idea is more developed and prevents MC from certain things or results in MC taking certain actions. I have two love interests I really like. I'm curious about whether or not there will actually be an explicit "choose your route" option in the actual game or if it'll develop based off of choices.
Love the effort put in for all the options. I thought it was super cool to be able to get each character's opinions on everyone else. I thought it was cute that Vere stops you from asking about every character- definitely took me off guard- and I found it a very unique detail how Leander changes his description based off of the opinion you give- the fact that he always asks first lends a lot to his character (wouldn't socially aware Hound!MC pick up on this though?), and also the fact that MC sees a really pleasant guy but all other characters pretty much purely insult him.
I also liked seeing different dynamics between the characters. Like yes, I know I mentioend characters having opinions on every characters, but I can imagine this easiliy being neutral, whereas it seems like there are diverse sentiments that were fun to pick through.
Looking forward to the finished game! Good luck, this project seems to have a lot of care put into it.