Alright, I replayed the day, and am somewhat more satisfied with the results.
Overall though I'm not sure I'm liking some of the differences between AA1 and AA2. Aside from what else has already been discussed (character models, simplified character generation, etc), everything feels a lot more... random. The character simulations don't seem as strong, and interactions are starting to get repetitive already on only the first day. I had interaction values set at 3x baseline because that was necessary in AA1, but now I'm wondering if that isn't too high for AA2, it feels like relationships are forming and breaking, whipsawing back and forth in the space of a single day. One day somebody's name is mud, the next your friends are telling you to be nice to them. One day a couple seem absolutely over the moon, the next day they're cooling off rapidly and maybe breaking up. Well, we'll see how this all works out I suppose. It'll take me a day or two to edit this footage, probably. I'm guessing sunday night for the upload.
If I'd had my druthers, I think I'd have rather done HFA2 in AA1 again... if not for that pesky self-hate bug.