Owned on GOG. Finally played twenty hours of this in December 2022, re-listening to WOFF 331 (https://www.watchoutforfireballs.com/331) as a tutorial. So far I've only made it past a few of the apprentice bosses, and it feels like I need to beat a standard boss to say I've properly experienced the game. The WOFF guys describe this as “a finely-tuned watch” and I see what they mean now. Although the game feels a little too open at the start, with too much to read and understand, the ramp onto it has been satisfying and progress has been steady despite major setbacks, which feels designed. There's a real sense of continuous headwind disguising a pretty flexible power curve, where you have so many ways to upgrade your capabilities but that leaves you feeling resource-strapped all the time.
Personally, I've found the ability to rename my heroes is critical to my enjoyment of the game. With their default names off the wagon they all sort of remain ciphers for me, and I have a tough time keeping track of who's been upgraded in what way. But if I've assigned them silly names, they develop roles in my head and better stories emerge. My plague doctor Moriarty reached level five quick with a locked-in stress reducing quirk, and houndmaster Hagrid was a team anchor until he was part of a total party wipe against the regular Necromancer. Mario (crusader) developed the “selfish” trait and didn't last long, Luigi (highwayman) and Peach (vestal) were better team players until that same party wipe above. Toad (occultist) is the only surviving mushroom kingdom citizen, and is doing a good job temping in on other teams but feels like he needs a crew again.
12/24 update: I've beat the regular Necromancer and am now training up a crew of Occultists to travel together and heal each other, I'm mostly worried about their DPS so I need to pair them with a front-row class that does some serious damage, maybe the Hellion.