*I am comparing this to the original, which I alllllmost beat.+WAYYYY more effort put into the visuals. All main playable characters, monsters, and environments got a HUGE facelift. A lot more detail in the dungeons, a lot more animation and detail on character models, and now there are CUTSCENES.
+ACTUAL STORY. This was promised on the back of the box for the first game, and the story was NOT THERE. Now there's a lot of story and cutscenes and a real plot beyond 'LOL WE'RE LOST AND POOR'.
+Gameplay expanded to include tag-team scenarios and multiple playable characters. This is a big step as it puts it at level of mechanics close to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.
+A little more challenging. Walking in place to heal in a dungeon now drains SP which reduces your ability to use magic items in a dungeon. This requires a bit more forethought with each adventure.
-There's voice in the game, and like FF4 its only during the major plot points. Whats ANNOYING is its only in japanese, and they don't remove that dodododoodod noise when text generates. So during voice sequences you have MUSIC + MOON LANGUAGE + DOODODODODOODODODOD. Its very disorienting.
-While more challenging it isn't nearly as hardcore as Shiren. This isnt REALLY a negative as the gameplay changes have increased its difficulty to that of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games which IMO is about where it needs to be. The first Izuna was far too easy.
-There's story, there's talkin, but a lot of the characters and dialogue are your standard animu stuff. For those playing roguelikes story doesnt matter that much anyway, but don't take my gushing over actual story as some indication that this is shakespeare or something. Im just happy they came through on a promise they made A GAME AGO.
