.... I finally finished this one.  It has been installed on my computer for the better part of three years, with me only going back to play it occasionally... This VN/srpg hybrid is by Circus, the same company that did Suika and the Da Capo series... so obviously, this kind of VN is completely out of character for them, lol. 

I'm going to be blunt... this VN pales in comparison to just about every decent hybrid I've played, both storywise and gameplay wise.  The best thing I can say for the gameplay is that it is easy and there are enough ways to make things easier for yourself along the way (grinding is possible in optional dungeons, for instance).  Unfortunately, it follows one of the standing bad habits of the Japanese-style srpg genre... individual experience.  I hate to say it, but in srpgs where characters gain experience based on how many enemies they killed in the battle, it is inevitable that the weaker characters get left behind.  You pretty much have to go out of your way to level characters that arrive later, and by the time you get to the latter part of the game, it feels like a waste of time.  Another problem is that the levels in the late game are just too large... and thus it takes a ridiculous amount of time and effort to finish most of the late game maps (which is the reason why I kept dropping this game).  The levels are designed haphazardly, obviously making things worse from the player's point of view.

Story-wise... there is technically a story, but it is supremely hard to get emotionally involved with most of the characters.  Sadly, character development in this VN is fairly limited, and the one-on-one scenes with the heroines are all repeated h-scenes from the sex ritual gameplay.  Moreover, it isn't like there is a variety of h-scenes, so it is monotonous even to skip them, lol.  The fact that you have no choice but to sit through h-scenes repeatedly to power-up your heroines' skills and make them like you enough to choose their path at the end of the game makes it even worse.  Kirie, who is essentially the main heroine of the piece, isn't even available until the second playthrough (which is supremely miserable, since I was already sick of it after finishing the game the first time), which is as annoying as hell.  Worse, the endings are so... typical for this kind of story that I recall feeling immensely exasperated after the end of my first playthrough a year ago... and that feeling was repeated when I finished the Kirie ending earlier.

Is there anything good about this VN?  Hard to say... this VN had the potential to be good, but Circus's mediocre producers/writers made a real hash of a setting with at least some potential for interesting storytelling.  For some reason, it gets a lot of high votes on vndb, but the flat characters (the protagonist being the flattest of them all) make even the Da Capo series seem lively and fun in comparison, lol. 

Edit: Also, for readers familiar with the works of the now-deceased David Eddings, the writer was obviously a fan, since the Aphrael/Eleria goddess archetype is present in the form of the one the protagonist worships, lol.

Edit2: I do like the visual style of the VN parts, mostly... unfortunately, the lack of depth to the game was fatal.