About the Npcs...

[Stanfreed]

I'm on the fence about buying this game, but I've seen all the negative reviews about the npcs being lifeless.

Have the devs addressed this at all? Are there any plans for a revamp or anything?

[Loún]

Haven't read anything about future plans for NPCs, but I'm also not in any discord or else.

The NPCs aren't as bad to be fair, the game offers quite some ambience, more than others I've seen in such a genre. The best (and only) way to learn more about an NPC is to get romantic with them (have a few dates). As long as you don't marry them in the end (because that is a ridiculously useless (and expensive as heck) thing) you'll learn why NPC left their home/family, the social struggles they have, what they dream of for their future, what makes them change or not, and so on.

On the other side, you'll be pretty busy with taking care of your farm and crops, the dungeons for ores and stuff, taking care of the animals, collecting items from critters, maybe working on plenty of jobs, catching fishes, etc. etc.
So NPC not being the most talk active beings in the game might not be such a big deal; and I, personally, have seen worse games in that topic.

[Taki]

I've only been charmed by the blacksmith's 1-3 total lines and the catastrophe fairy girl. It is hard to get invested in the characters of this game so don't play it just for that.