I agree with you, the original story made sense as to why these people were living together, now without it, it just doesn't flow as well. The whole landlady/friend thing is narratively very weak. As you said, it loses its heart, and just becomes a more generic game overall. There are still aspects that are great (i.e.- the artwork), but the connections to the MC's "roommates" is very very loose and far less believable in my eyes. Same goes for Erik and his "landlady". Those connections are now very forced and less natural, it's just a shame. Hopefully, we get a patch for this version. I will just wait and see, because I don't see me playing any more updates without it.