Since its release this has been one of the roguelikes I've been perpetually coming back to. The big question here is how it compares to the first game, even with the big change to the progression structure, the bones are still so similar that it's impossible to judge this game purely on its own merits. The combat is still largely the same as the first game, but has been improved in a couple of key ways - RNG has generally been reduced and the chance mechanics that do exist are more interesting to play around. In DD1 it was fairly common for attacks to have 85-90% accuracy, this time, most attacks are guaranteed to hit by default unless there are accuracy/dodge buffs involves. These buffs have been reworked too and numerical buffs like "+10% dodge for 3 turns" have been replaced by dodge tokens that increase the dodge chance of a character by a whopping 50%, but these are spend when they activate, regardless of whether the triggering attack is successfully dodged or not. This system makes especially high dodge enemies much more engaging to play against, and generally encourages planning your turns ahead to a degree that I don't think the first game entirely managed.
A lot of the best innovations in this game are just things it improved from DD1. One thing the first game struggled with for a long time and in my opinion never found a fully satisfying solution to is that it was, in earlier versions, fairly easy to kill all enemies except one support type, and then stall for however long it took to use healing skills to bring everyone back to full health. There were a couple of attempts to fix this, and in the current build of DD1, they'll spawn reinforcements if you spend too long without using attack skills. In DD2, support enemies will do a suicide charge that kills them, ends the battle, but takes a huge toll on your party if they're left alone and it feels more natural and works better as a punishment for stall exploits. Trinkets have been reworked across the board, they generally have more interesting and defining effects now instead of the mostly percentage based buffs in the first game, this is a knock on effect of the new buff system.
But the biggest change is turning the game in roguelike, which is far more divisive. Personally, I never liked the overarching progression in DD1 and I'd go so far as to say it's one of the worst attempts I've seen at doing XCOM-style base progression. Character upgrades get expensive late into the game, but they don't unlock anything new, they just make sure that your numbers keep pace with the enemy numbers and the enemies having higher numbers is the only thing that differentiates the hard version of an area from the easy one. In the roguelike progression of DD2, every skill only has 1 upgrade level, and you don't get enough upgrade points for all of them, which makes the choice of which skills to focus on more interesting. Many support and debuff skills also gain additional effects when upgraded, and trinkets have more interesting effects, which makes it actually feel like your ability to equip your party is meaningfully progressing over the course of one run, while upgrades in DD1 mostly felt like a linear obligation. Removing the worst part of the game is a change for the better in my book, but I'll acknowledge here that some people aren't fans of the roguelike structure, especially because runs can go south rather quickly even late into the game. I do think that runs are too long, even short ones go on for hours, which makes loosing in the third area a draining experience - this still sucks less then wiping against a tier three boss in DD1 and having to repeat the money grind for me but they are too long. I genuinely don't know what the travel sections that play like a slow, easy version of subway surfers are supposed to add to the game (these used to be slower at launch). It's overall a game I enjoy a lot and keep coming back to, but the sheer length of the individual runs can make restart loops much more draining then I find them in other roguelikes.
A lot of complaints I had at launch have since been fixed - they added party and character loadouts so you don't have to reconstruct your whole party every time you start a new run, the third confession boss has been nerfed (I actually haven't fought the nerfed version so I'll take their word for it), they made it easier to recover from loosing a character.
A lot of the best innovations in this game are just things it improved from DD1. One thing the first game struggled with for a long time and in my opinion never found a fully satisfying solution to is that it was, in earlier versions, fairly easy to kill all enemies except one support type, and then stall for however long it took to use healing skills to bring everyone back to full health. There were a couple of attempts to fix this, and in the current build of DD1, they'll spawn reinforcements if you spend too long without using attack skills. In DD2, support enemies will do a suicide charge that kills them, ends the battle, but takes a huge toll on your party if they're left alone and it feels more natural and works better as a punishment for stall exploits. Trinkets have been reworked across the board, they generally have more interesting and defining effects now instead of the mostly percentage based buffs in the first game, this is a knock on effect of the new buff system.
But the biggest change is turning the game in roguelike, which is far more divisive. Personally, I never liked the overarching progression in DD1 and I'd go so far as to say it's one of the worst attempts I've seen at doing XCOM-style base progression. Character upgrades get expensive late into the game, but they don't unlock anything new, they just make sure that your numbers keep pace with the enemy numbers and the enemies having higher numbers is the only thing that differentiates the hard version of an area from the easy one. In the roguelike progression of DD2, every skill only has 1 upgrade level, and you don't get enough upgrade points for all of them, which makes the choice of which skills to focus on more interesting. Many support and debuff skills also gain additional effects when upgraded, and trinkets have more interesting effects, which makes it actually feel like your ability to equip your party is meaningfully progressing over the course of one run, while upgrades in DD1 mostly felt like a linear obligation. Removing the worst part of the game is a change for the better in my book, but I'll acknowledge here that some people aren't fans of the roguelike structure, especially because runs can go south rather quickly even late into the game. I do think that runs are too long, even short ones go on for hours, which makes loosing in the third area a draining experience - this still sucks less then wiping against a tier three boss in DD1 and having to repeat the money grind for me but they are too long. I genuinely don't know what the travel sections that play like a slow, easy version of subway surfers are supposed to add to the game (these used to be slower at launch). It's overall a game I enjoy a lot and keep coming back to, but the sheer length of the individual runs can make restart loops much more draining then I find them in other roguelikes.
A lot of complaints I had at launch have since been fixed - they added party and character loadouts so you don't have to reconstruct your whole party every time you start a new run, the third confession boss has been nerfed (I actually haven't fought the nerfed version so I'll take their word for it), they made it easier to recover from loosing a character.