The reason why this turned into such a mess is much more complicated than a single thing you could point out. I follow this game from the very first releases, even though I only engaged in conversations much later about it. To understand where I'm coming from, the context as a whole needs to be seen, so this is going to be another long post.
The original game was kind of an oddball within the adult games flood we currently have, in a good sense. It didn't had any overarching storylines, didn't had the usual protag-antag setup, didn't had some desperately story focused goal that we had progress towards, didn't have overly complexed characterizations but they were all likeable, it was about a young guy fresh out of high school in a small city, full of big busted milfs that he wanted to capture. He had several goals that a young adult would have, loosing his virginity, get experienced, get some financial stability, but in pursuit of that, everything was rather relaxed. The sandbox aspect was never overly grindy, you could progress with it if you put some time into laying some foundations in an almost seemless way, and there was something new week by week. I could easily recommend the game to anyone that wanted some chilling but fun and rewarding experience. In one word, it had a HEART. It was a silly, funny, relaxing game that anyone could get into it regardless of their current mood. I remember having a good laugh rather often while playing it, because even though it was over the top at times, it had a certain charm to it overall.
Then we arrived to the point of the infamous Christmas update. Although in my opinion, it wasn't exactly that where it all started to derail, but with the reintroduction of Alice, namely the second part of it. The first version of that, with how she returned, how we acted during that day, and the story with the wrong book and all, was still within the boundaries of the game as we know it. Then the second part brought the whole clothing store event which was already a bit weird, especially with how it turned out, and Alice kind of became a bipolar person. After that, we hit the Christmas update, and when I started playing with that, I barely recognized the game. You implemented several changes in there, which that you genuinely thought were making the game better, but they weren't, and I'm not only talking about the design changes for Kate and Elena here. What hit me as a surprise there, was some of the personality changes. Katie and Melissa, regressed back to their default personalities, with how reluctant Melissa was about you overall, or how Kate turned into basically an asexual. These changes ignored the progression we managed to get in the game so far, and while this did disappear with the orgy scene, them going back to how it should be, it felt rather alien at that point. Just as how much the sudden characteristic change came to the MC, the guy who was living his life to the fullest, within the circumstances he was able to, but then he started to question every action he took so far and guilt tripped himself for having fun with several women. These were things that either weren't present in the game at all, or we were way past behind those issues, and yet they suddenly resurfaced. I think this was also a big part of why the Christmas update tanked, not only the design changes for the girls.
And now we arrived to this remake versions, which did brought some improvments on technical aspects, mostly the visuals and some new ideas like the wiki, but bleeds from a thousand cuts, both if we're comparing it to the original game, or if we're looking at it as a standalone game. While the new version now has a defined goal, to where it wants to go, it has some characters defined of being allies or enemies, the world had been expanded, and several original characters were expanded upon, the things that made it to have that certain charm were all sacrificed in order to do this. While we knew that the nuns were slutty and kind of a bullies back in the day, we saw flashbacks regarding to that, and we also knew what were their original goals, which helped the MC to break that religious wacko shield that they put around themselves, they weren't really malicious. Yes, they did body shame Kate for her weight, and had a bantering relationship with the MC in the class, but that was it. Now, Sofia is an unlikeable cunt, that tricked you, accused of you being a rapist, got you beaten, bullied you constantly, and turned a nice girl into a slut. This makes her personality straight garbage, and no matter if she found God, Allah, Budha, or every higher being in existence, she can rot in the church for all I care, I don't really want to do anything with her anymore, let alone building a romantic relationship. Then we have Elena, who before the remake, really was the personification of the Tsundere Milf, but now, she's just a dick. It's not only about how she fucks over the MC with the recommendation, also if you don't flip out, she has an inner monologue about how she also percieves Alice, her supposed best friend, a straight failure. This is a character, that was a fan favorite, the design change regarding her body caused a riot, and yet again, for some reason that is beyond me, you decided to screw with her again. Then there's the granny, whom of we only saw one scene in the original, and a reference in here, but there's already a massive difference. In the original game scene, while she did berate Alice to an extent, it was about her being genuinely concerned about her, and that grandson she has. Now, it seems she's just on the Alice hate train for funs and giggles, which already paints her as an unlikeable twat. While as I mentioned before, not every change was for the worse, there's also the expanded dating scenario, which I think looks better so far then the previous one, there were also important story related changes that makes the whole remake rather bitter compared to the previous version.
If we're look at as it's own thing, a standalone game, there are many visible problems, both in game mechanics and in writing all over the place. I have to circle back to Elena here, who is right now a walking-talking hypocrisy. She claims to be a friend, an ally, and a teacher above reproach who's life goal is only to help her students on the one hand, while on the other, she was all too eager to screw over someone who she almost claims to be a son, hiding behind for the whole "my values" reasoning. Normally, this would work fine, but here we're talking about a guy, who's situation is so bad, that would already send many to the brink of suicide, something she knows perfectly well, and yet she pushes him down the rabbit hole even more without any second thought, then she offers "help" and claims to be wanting to help. That's just makes her a complete cunt that you'd never want to interact again in your life. Then there's the family, like Alice, who now is also painted in a rather contradictionary light. On one hand, she's supposed to be this cool, unshakable women that does have her major flaws, on the other, she's being stepped over every possible occasion. The aunt that is already a blatantly unlikeable asshole, who has an influence so big that she even can send the police after you based on false accusations, and it seems like the cousin will also be the same. The game got a theme of "saving the princess from the forces evil", where Alice is the one you need to save ultimately and the aunt and others will try to tackle you every time along the way. This is basically makes the new version something generic that we already saw a gazillion times when it comes to adult games, with all the typical flaws they usually have, being already present in the writing. The MC also became a severly mentally damaged person with some serious PTSD only to create some sort of tension and dramatic effect that is utterly unnecessary. I also don't see any reason why the MC was made into a 150 cm manlet that has a face of a 14 year old while claims to be 20, it only reinforces the feeling of a generic incest vn. I'm not against some of the new characters like Lorelei, but with her came Zack, the typical rich bully rival whom we'll can have an antagonistic relationship, but has a hot mom that we'll tap, so we have to bear with him regardless. The mentor system seems rather unecessary too, while it expands on the world overall, the MC opening his wings by himself would also work just as fine. The minigames are super annoying, the car washing one is buggy, and laggy on a computer that shouldn't have any problems with it. The intro advertises choices having consequences, but so far these choices doesn't serve for any branchings, but to restrict the player from getting certain content. If you decide to flip out against the principal and Elena, which given the MC's situation is most likely how anyone would react normally, you'll get locked out of the Principal mentor content, and even if you basically tell Elena to go fuck herself, she goes all crying which is too little too late, but all is forgiven, because she's a main girl, but in that case, making her pulling that shit was completely unnecessary. I guess the psychologist will be the third mentor, which also seems to be tied to how you act in the principal office, so that's already more than two third of content being blocked, because the Oxford and old man route wasn't equally long either. This comes down for the choices not really presenting to you different outcomes, but enticing you to be a little rollover doormat yes man, as much as it possible, no matter how much you're being stepped on, which is also another generic trope dropped in again. The problem is, that this new version already have severe flaws, even if I only look at it as a standalone game.
In my opinion, the best course of action would be taking those tidbits from the new version that works, mostly the graphical improvments and some of the mechanics, and throw the rest away, instead of just sticking to either to the new or old versions. You could implement some of the characters later onto the old, but that should be in a way that fits the original theme.
