This is a pretty good step up from the first game. It's not as heavy on the backtracking and starts to delve more into the mystery elements that the series would eventually have as the focus. Only real problem is some runs can have you doing very little when getting the items you need. That doesn't sound bad, until you realize that means a good amount of screens in the game are just barren and characters have nothing to say to you since they're not needed for the path you got.