Better than SMT1 in every conceivable way. The atmosphere and the explorable world are also very interesting and cool, from the post-apocalyptic cities of Tokyo Millenium, to the underground world and the demon world.

It goes way beyond the scope and ambition of SMT1, especially with the inclusion of real characters and an actual fleshed-out story.

Game has a lot of really cool moments and set-pieces that make it pretty memorable. My only issue with this game is that it's pretty held back by the gameplay.

Not only are magic attacks (and therefore a good chunk of the demon roster) completely worthless, but at a certain point the game gets pretty much trivialized by AoE guns and nerve bullets, so even to the end of the game the combat is not engaging in the slightest; I beat the final boss by buffing first and then just letting auto-battle do its thing, only stopping to heal every other turn.

All in all, it's definitely a great game that any SMT fan should try out but it requires you to look past a bunch of flaws.