"think about it: you meet the world greatest alchemist hidden in a small house inside a huge forest, how cool would it be to convince him to move to your place, where he would have new toys to play with!"
You're a creepy man
I can't remember it being much better than the D:OS1 hub however, definitely no "well defined characters" or C&C. I do agree with your assessement it's much better to earn it rather than being lap-fed though.
