These days I don't have a lot of time to dive into super tactical strategies and spending hours upon hours researching builds, so something like this that captured the look of older RPGs while utilizing some fun modern day mechanics of auto-battling, with a mix of chaotic RNG was right up my alley! I played a couple of runs and then shut it off to get back to work. When I got back however, all my progress was lost and I had to redo everything. Testing again, I did another run, shut it down, turned it back on...progress lost. I'm giving it a 5 because I see the potential and I know it will be my go to lunch game or in between stuff game, but I would say wait until they correct the bug that is causing all progress to be lost. Hopefully it gets fixed soon!
Not good at writing these, but just to give a bit of background... I grew up to the Gold Box RPGs and Wizardries. My fave among those were the Krynn series and the Dark Savant trilogy. When I got to college, I discovered JRPGs, specifically Shin Megami Tensei, and I played dozens, if not hundreds of hours of fan translated versions of SMT 1 and 2. Metro Quester gives me the vibes of SMT in regards to the atmosphere, and reminds me of the turn based preparing your party for the round mechanics of Wizardry. There is A LOT of clunk on the front end of the game, and I do think it is wholly possible to softlock yourself due to not having enough food to feed your party at the end of a run. However, once getting over the hump, once bosslike encounters will just be a breeze (YMMV, I did luck into a set of daggers that hits all opponents, as well as an upgrade for my 'mage's' bombing ability that also hits everything. I do think if you're willing to forgive some grammatical issues, and the disjointed art style, and you are a fan of turn based combat ala Wizardry that mixes post apocalyptic vibes, I think you'll come to enjoy this game. And yes, eventually you do find an item that lets your party members at camp earn XP as well (that was a big concern of mine when I started finding a bunch of folks).
