Also did they really remove diagonal movement in v2.0+, or is it buried in the options somewhere? Seems strange to take away features. The new choice of font combined with the black (dark brown?) on brown coloring also hurts legibility (really, really need to squint to read the text sometimes). Overall I have a better experience playing the v1.2 version so far. v2.0+ just feels... worse, even though it's supposed to be an upgrade with more features.
Edit: Odd, didn't see this part earlier:
No, it's suppose to be the exact same game just with a new system. But some of the changes dev did, I can't understand for the life of me. It's suppose to be a "do things your way" type of game. The way we posted earlier isn't THE way it has to be done, just the easiest way it can be done. That's why outside of tutorial you're just dropped into the game with basic info and told to have at it.
I do appreciate the sentiment of having a sandbox (wacky) 'lifestyle simulator' game (sorta like Elona), but the previous version has the tutorial enabled by default, and even with it disabled (no easy mode) it still gives hints to the player on where to go.
v2.0+ just... floods the player with a lot of options (well, option-looking shiny things that you can't actually make use of yet) straight from the beginning, with a lot of distracting sparkles all over the place that seem to explain things you can't do yet. It still gives the same hint to visit the Calm Field to capture some monsters after you pick up the pokeball collars, but since it's buried among so many other messages (most of them about things you can't do yet unless you order constructions from the carpenter), it's easy to miss it.
(The distracting font also makes it easy to accidentally skip parts of the text when reading.)
v1.2 doesn't even let the player visit the other places connected to the house if the relevant construction hasn't been unlocked yet. With easy mode turned off, there was just one sparkle (the one with the collars and other item) which directly hints the player to visit the Calm Field to capture some monsters (well, the game calls them "animals"). Exploring there would lead to the flower fairy and subsequent plot hooks (when the player goes to town to sell animals/restock on collars). Quite intuitive.
Overall, IMHO, v2.0+ just seems... filled with questionable design decisions. Again, IMHO, it seems rather hard for a player to play it without a guide or prior experience from v1.0+. It gave me the impression that it's some sort of 'expert mode' intended for veteran players, and I got completely lost until I fired up v1.2 and everything began to made sense.
(This isn't intended to be a review or any form of censure or criticism. I'm just, well, giving an honest impression from the perspective of a new player.)