This a remark from someone who didn't play the previous game since it's supposed to be a standalone game.
Well as a standalone experience the beginning frankly was confusing, no idea what is normal or not in relation to magic, references without context to past events that meant nothing to me, then Ashley appears and more references without any context on characters : who is Samantha?, don't know never explained, what relationship did they have?, don't know, why should I care? don't know.
Since the mc is given a clean slate, kinda, why using the previous one? It's confusing and doesn't make me want to play the first game since it gave me the impression that no player choices mattered storywise or romantically.
What was the relationship with Ashley? Were they a couple? What is the relationship now?
I may have overthinked it but when I spend my free time on a porn game I try to be invested in the story and its characters and here it was not easy.
Not saying it's a bad game or the devs need to change anything but as an outsider to the story universe it was confusing.