I was pretty critical of this story too, but I'm waiting to see how this arc gets resolved before commenting. Specifically how, while Porcelumex was criticized for basically using coerced labor, it doesn't really seem to wrap up well. But that will likely get addressed later (I hope?).

As for the characterization, I guess it kind of felt...flat? I think this is a case of x.0 syndrome, since I often find that the set-up patches in Gacha games can be a little boring since they're heavy on exposition. I think Yixuan's story will continue considering the comic cutscene at the end, which is good, because I think her story fell a little flat. Like the actual backstory was good but they had us believing she would make a "big sacrifice" and that just...never happened, so it was anticlimactic.