Too early to call it a Masterpiece, like D: OS2.
Def not AAA in the sense of production value, etc. The ACG review above I would mirror having actually played for a few hours.
Everything ultra. i5-6600k 3.5GHz, 32gb ram, gtx 1070. periodically hit major performance spikes, walking around out of combat.
npc faces, and resolution is pretty lol, as he notes as well.
Very fun so far. Right on par with Grimrock, and might and magic x: legacy. although a different flavor of dungeon crawl each.
I saw a "Soandso joins the party" message during that review, so I'm not super hopeful, but my ultimate fantasy would be to make my entire party, and then have 1 or 2 slots for temporary companions that only stick around for a specific quest or tw
So far, while you CAN have player created characters, it does seem to be heavily leaning towards premade. kindof like a Divinity:OS.
From my couple hours played. you start with the premade bard. do some tutorials, get to the adventures guild. At which point you can drop her, and make your own, or keep her.
From there, you go out alone, and pick up two premade npcs you have to use. You have to get "Mercenary tokens" to hire custom characters. I havent seen any yet. but are likely tied to completing premade npcs quests. aka, you aquire a premade companion, and you also get a merc token, to replace them with. So far, it seems to force you to play with the premades , to some extent.
Spoiler for the classes of the first two premades, if you desire.
Max party size is 6 by the end of the game. with like 15 slots of reserves for back up characters.
So far, I am sticking with the premades. given the 6 party size, there are plenty to choose from imho.