SMT2 is an awesome game. When considering its presentation and story, it's a perfect sequel. The cyberpunk aesthetic is one of the coolest in the genre, the crazy events and constant twists keep you guessing as to what's going on behind the scenes, and the characters reflects that going through their own arcs, switching allegiances, and having much more interesting fates than the protagonist just killing them. It's even awesome to see how much of the art of the entire series is defined by this one game, with so many iconic demons and designs making their debut here.
Unfortunately though, the game isn't perfect. While the gameplay is overall balanced, hell, they even lowered the encounter rates significantly, it's also pretty easy. Idk if it's just down to my strategy of using strongest physical attackers + tarukaja + rakunda, but so many bosses were over before more than 2 loops of the song. I think I had a tougher time with those heca-something demons in Lucifer's castle than ANY pre-Mara boss fight. But overall I think my least favorite part of this game is the backtracking. This is probably due in part to the game having a smaller map, but there's SO MUCH backtracking it's insane. Whether it's looking for another damn password, trying to get back to the Center any time in the 2nd half of the game, looking for that one shrine to get Masakado's body, or the entire fucking factory watchtower segment, the amount of time spent going through the same halls over and over again probably amounts to the same time you spend in If's world of sloth. You're going to be the Traport skill's bitch for the entire game. The gameplay's still enjoyable, especially considering cool dungeons like like the watchtower itself, the sealed cave, and Lucifer's castle, but god damn. Also the translation kinda sucks. Yeah, the important story scenes are translated well, but the demon dialogue, aka the shit I'm reading for 95% of the game is so low effort it's kind of embarrasing. It doesn't help the fact that the font is so fucking big even Abaddon couldn't eat it.
My negative points against the gameplay don't ruin the whole experience though, and overall I'd say the game is the best of the classics, and definitely worth playing. It might even be worth playing every alignment, which I'm still doing. You should probably play SMT1 before this though, considering while I do think 2 is better and more interesting, it's on thin ice.
Unfortunately though, the game isn't perfect. While the gameplay is overall balanced, hell, they even lowered the encounter rates significantly, it's also pretty easy. Idk if it's just down to my strategy of using strongest physical attackers + tarukaja + rakunda, but so many bosses were over before more than 2 loops of the song. I think I had a tougher time with those heca-something demons in Lucifer's castle than ANY pre-Mara boss fight. But overall I think my least favorite part of this game is the backtracking. This is probably due in part to the game having a smaller map, but there's SO MUCH backtracking it's insane. Whether it's looking for another damn password, trying to get back to the Center any time in the 2nd half of the game, looking for that one shrine to get Masakado's body, or the entire fucking factory watchtower segment, the amount of time spent going through the same halls over and over again probably amounts to the same time you spend in If's world of sloth. You're going to be the Traport skill's bitch for the entire game. The gameplay's still enjoyable, especially considering cool dungeons like like the watchtower itself, the sealed cave, and Lucifer's castle, but god damn. Also the translation kinda sucks. Yeah, the important story scenes are translated well, but the demon dialogue, aka the shit I'm reading for 95% of the game is so low effort it's kind of embarrasing. It doesn't help the fact that the font is so fucking big even Abaddon couldn't eat it.
My negative points against the gameplay don't ruin the whole experience though, and overall I'd say the game is the best of the classics, and definitely worth playing. It might even be worth playing every alignment, which I'm still doing. You should probably play SMT1 before this though, considering while I do think 2 is better and more interesting, it's on thin ice.