I'm like 99% sure, that shit game argument always is brought into the light of day when low budget games are in question. You don't even know how many times I've heard that Atelier games are shit, while Mana Khemia is on my all time best games list, pretty high too.
It's no secret that most people prefer high budget games, that's why these games have high budgets. But how do you get that high budget to begin with, unless you already had successful games and got rich, you start from small budgets and go from there. That's what Gust do, that's what IF do. Arguably Gust games got worse when they were bought, at least I think so, but they are still good games, but we talk about IF here. So lemme tell you my story.
I was reading and hearing constantly how bad IF games are, how shit and all that, to the point that I got curious and bought Cross Edge, it was my first IF game, one that nobody even played or talks unless it gets mentioned like one of those "terrible games everybody should stay away from". And oh boy what a surprise it turned to be. It's one of my most played games. It has probably the best, or one of the best combat systems I ever encountered in any game. It looks and feels awfully cheap, with recycling pretty much everything many times over. But it is fun to play, as I said has one of the best combo based combat systems ever and amazing post game stuff after the true ending, which if it would be in more popular game, would be the stuff of legends, but as it is in Cross Edge, nobody knows or cares.
After that I've played many IF games, some are better than others, but none that I've played were horrible, plus they are improving all the time, they are getting better and better. Not to mention that they can have all female cast and not give a damn that "female protagonists don't sell". I think even budgets of their games are slowly rising.
So no, they are not devil, they are just doing what they can with what they have.
about fanservise: Nep Nep is comedy-parody-silly series, they are good at what they are and they are fun to play, they are nowhere near so fanservisy as many people imagine.
I'm not a fan of fanservice, inspite of being Gust fan, I plain hated Ar tonelico Qoga, you see, that's fanservice for the sake of being fanservice and not what IF games are, or most of them anyway, I haven't played all.
In short IF is not a devil, not a saviour either but they might become one or another one day, That day is far away though.