First, it fell like a downgrade.
The story was not as good as the first game.
No cutscenes made by Ghibli studio anymore ...
The characters were lame. Terrible dialogues that are not even dubbed.

But after giving it a second chance:
- I liked the combats but the first was better
- i liked completing many optional quests
- building our kingdom is fun, especially recruiting people
- skirmish missions were all right
- skipping dialogue made the game better
- main story was meh

So, overall it is a good JRPG but not as good as the first one.
The end game is grindy, like the first one