Unfortunately, even though I've been trying to fix the last almost 24 hours, due to both big mistakes I've done previously in earlier releases, and overall small story flow/proofreading improvements that this new release is receiving (for ep1 and ep2 content too), many saves are NOT compatible.

As Beta testers have pointed out, there is quite a few spots where they break, and unlike in some games where a simple rollback/ignore fixes it, it doesn't work here. Something got corrupted that is above my levels of fixing knowledge.  

Considering I am not willing to revert to the old scripts as they were, as there are quite a few things the game didn't record (for example I didn't have the game record if you went with Koko or Avis on episode 2 when you meet the thug ), I decided that unfortunately, a saves restart is needed.
I am fully aware that this isn't favorable by many, as this isn't the first time a restart was required.   However, due to how badly Beta broke/corrupted the saves, I'll do quite a few fixes and changes till the next tier gets its release(Tequila tier on Monday), and I'll also try to update the game to newer Renpy while at it.

The old plan was to have Episode 3>Episode 4>Episode 4.5 (ep2 renders rework + code/gui/renpy improvements), however, instead I will do many of the simpler changes I planned for 4.5 now, so even when the ep 4.5 comes with the renders etc. rework, the games save files should  be compatible.
This won't influence the current timetable for releases, and if there are any further fixes from Tequila>Public release I'll let those tiers know. Thank you for reading and patience, and so sorry for the inconvenience.

I've just released the update for Tequila tier, if you wish to play right now you can do so on the link here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/72499486