Great to see this being revitalized! Looking forward to meeting the princesses again.
That old saves won’t work isn‘t really a problem to me. 1. I can‘t remember much of the story, since it‘s been so long (I still remember that I liked the story and the beautiful characters) and 2.This way I can see the new textures in all their glory.
That the freeroam wasn‘t added is a bit of a double edged sword to me. On one hand it needs to be implemented in a „good“ way, so it doesn‘t feel tedious. On the other hand I saw the possibility that seeing an extra scene in freeroam and gaining information that way to maybe make story scenes play out differently. But maybe that wasn‘t even intended so I‘m not too sad about seeing that it wasn‘t implemented.