I've been following this thread for some days now, obviously since this is the closest we got to an AA2 sequel (apart from Koikatsu, which is not this close but at least they tried). I'd like to share my thoughts, not talking from experience since I did not play this one (created chars and stuff alike for fun but so far didn't actually play anything lol).
Regarding the "AA2U is better" and "SVS looks meh". I'm pretty sure it's better in some aspects, but lacks in others, a ten years apart (spiritual) sequel featuring a smaller map, the same amount of chars (or even less), and almost same gameplay, is not acceptable. It's sad but you had 10 years, even remaking the exact same game but with more of everything and new graphics, was enough (ehem, look at AA1, AA2 and AA2U, each one features half a polygon more or less than the prev one, in a way, AA2U feels like a proper update for AA2, which is a small update over AA1). In terms of graphics, SVS is just superior, done with it, don't deny reality, yes it features more polygons, yes it's technically superior too, yes the chars look more anime, yes everything now features more resolution. You can debate from an artistic POV (but this is always subjective, and seems like majority think SVS > AA2, later if we get some SVSU, we can compare it to AA2U, will surely be the same anyway).
Regarding the modding issue. Judging by what others said here, the game seems to be harder to mod due to some compilation issue (don't remember, but basically, instead of having all the files there ready to be modified, now they're all hidden, all obscured, all encrypted, all less manipulable without rebuilding the entire solution). The moment modders manage to break through this, we will surely get a better SVSU (since Unity as an engine already supports more stuff compared to the original AA2 engine). Let's just hope modders stay (since we're all humans, maybe some are dead, or lost interest on this stuff, or aren't into modding anymore). In a way I see a bright future, illusion ("illgames") seems to be re-making every prev game, so expect all the old ones to be remade with cute graphics, and this one (since it's the only game that relies on gameplay, is not only about f#cking things) will surely feature some expansions and DLC like stuff, happened with Koikatsu before and will surely happen with this one, or at least I hope so .-.
That being said, amazes me how some stuff is entirely missing, a smaller map? 2 male personalities? Non voiced? Damn, hope mods can solve all this eventually (specially since many are just random variables, adding personalities should not be that hard, the important thing is to be able to modify this stuff, "just change personalities from 2 to 3", how the hell do you do that if instead of C# you have compiled stuff with 0s and 1s from time to time?)
