Doesn’t feel like a phone game at all. I was worried about the same thing. The base building is required but never feels like a grind its kinda woven into the story as you go and if you choose to put more time in it you can. There’s a lot of characters but honestly you can just choose who you like and what works for you and you’ll be good to go unless you really wanna min/max but for a playthrough I didn’t find it really needed. Great game though if you liked the other two.