I mean, Ep3 and to some extent Ep2 is almost a totally different game than Ep1. But new players will generally walk into Ep1 without knowing this. Had I just dipped my toes in Ep1 today, I probably would have given 2 and 3 a pass. I mean, Monica doesn't even get nailed yet. As far as Ep3 goes, I play the latest update once per year or so without using a save, and it's honestly quite quick and enjoyable. There's nothing I'd call truly grindy in the game anymore. But then, I enjoy sandbox more than VN, and IMO the game has maybe leaned a bit too far away from sandbox lately, instead becoming a VN with a map. But if that's what Patrons prefer then it's the natural evolution of things, I guess.
Many of the user interface annoyances that made Ep1 and early Ep2 annoying to play have been steadily ironed out over time. They're not all gone, but we now have a solid quest journal and progress tracker for one. And the fast travel with auto clothes-swap makes the game play experience so much nicer than it used to be. You no longer need fifty clicks to get dressed, get out of the basement and eat every damn morning. And lots of other big and small improvements like tracking which strip moves you've already done at the Shiny Hole and so on. I actually have a 3 star review of the game I should probably update at some point, because a lot of my main sticking points are no longer really valid, in Episode 3 at least.
I'm not sure yet another rename is the way to go for Ep1, but some way to communicate that "hey, Ep1 isn't as good as the later episodes" might not be the worst idea.
