Well sure, but we already own it. So… back to my point. What player base out there is worth the development effort here in sales?
For one, those who just couldn't stand the art in the first one, since the art will be all-new in the second.
For another, those who want, as you put it, a much more directed title.
Will it be enough to justify the effort? I can't predict that. But given that Chris has already publicly stated that we're doing the sequel, and paid for the art, and sunk about a month of dev time (between us) into it, it's really not likely that we'd just junk it and move on to something else. The PR consequences alone would be pretty nasty.
Honestly, if anything, the design of this game is more different from the first than sequels are "supposed to be", which I think goes a long way to why it will reach parts of the audience the first one didn't.