how does this game improve on the original

[ace-mos]

im nearly done witht he first and while i like it its is abit tedious

as its just talk to new girl grind up bond do a few quests unlock next girl repeat

fight a boss once in a blue moon

also the combat is very easy even on hard do to the fact you end up over leveled so easy from grinding up the girls (i could have waited i know but then id just have to do abunc at end game)

[phenir]

Game is trivially easy until ng+ when you can actually set it to the highest difficulty (deathwish). It's just too easy to stack up advantages from leveling, TP, buildings, fragments, and item use. About halfway through the game, every boss fight was : 3x attack for knockdown > 3x+ attack for infight > dead boss. Boss usually wouldn't even get an attack off.
You don't need to grind up relations but it does give you stat bonuses and skills for your party and can unlock buildings which also gives stat bonuses.
There's a boss at the end of each chapter and I think there are 10 or so chapters + 2-3 mini bosses per chapter.

[abarax]

IMO the biggest step up from first game is that this one has more focus on all the characters relationships to each other, rather than the main characters to each side character (i.e. the first game is about Hinako's individual connection to her classmates, rather than all of them together).

Combat is faster paced, which is hit or miss for a lot of people, but still on the easy side.

Game flow is *kinda* similar, but characters don't really get sidelined after you see their stuff, a lot of new interactions/scenarios unlock as you progress, even with the starter characters.

Music and art is also subjective. I think the area music is improvement from first game but not battle music.

[ace-mos]

thanks