How much does the story relate to the first game?

[Fallaner, the Writer Eternal]

I was introduced to the first game during the initial run of the Valhalla collab in the US, and had consistently played the game for several years after that.

Unfortunately, I eventually hit a wall in regards to further progression, GFL1 spoilers: specifically during the chapter after G&K is disbanded and you unlocked the heavy weapon girls who make things go boom , and struggling to get past it, just stopped playing for a few years despite trying to check in every so often, which kinda sucks since I did rather enjoy GFL1, but just wasn't enjoying beating my head against it.

Which makes me wonder how much this game relates to that game's story, and if I would need to go learn more of the more-recent events of GFL1 to get what's going on in here.

[BobTank63]

Fellow GFL1 vet here. I stopped playing at around that point as well. After playing GFL2 since launch I can say the story is pretty separated. It's set 10 years after the events of the first game, and things have changed a lot since. The only big things you need to know lore wise are that the NUSSR has united with the rest of Europe in a government called the URNC (think EU but an actual state), SF and the KCCO are dead and buried, and SKK made a deal with a a guy called Griffin to protect himself and the dolls (he's the G in G&K) that involves him basically cutting all ties and leaving.

I think the GFL2 story is perfectly enjoyable without having played past that point, as the only enemies that reappear are Paradeus, the white dudes from the event you mentioned. Even then, they seem very different now. (Also I know some friends who did play all the way through and the writing falls off hard).

TLDR: You should be fine.

[Lucky_Star_Fan]

There is a 10 year timeskip between 1 and 2. You play as the commander from 1 and they explain the details of what has happened in the inbetween years slowly over the story. You don't really need to know the later parts of 1's story and you can find story compilations if you're curious on those details.

[JDumbz]

I fell off with GFL 1 mid-way through the game and more than likely left in the dark of the events of what happened. But as far as I enjoyed with GFL 2, I was able to connect the dots in reference to the first game very easily.