Personally I prefer Sandbox than VN. I find the freedom of actions and the need to think your steps better than a simple VN (I'm not against VN, I like it too, but I find it a bit boring in some cases). However the big problem with the Sandbox is that it becomes very easy to lose actions when we play and lose focus when DEV and without a good walkthough it's almost impossible to play and release all the content.
I congratulate DEV for changing the project in the beginning instead of abandoning it like many others do after some updates.
Although I don't understand why they want the old version knowing that it won't be continued and that probably something or part of the content can be reused in the new game is there the link.
Good luck to DEV and good game to all.
Mega