I think this game is an overall improvement to the first one. Things it lacked was that I need to check a guide often or I'd get completely stuck on some parts. Magic was a plus but the only offensive magic being fire kinda sucked. The bosses were made around being killed with only magic until the last 2 which is cool but since you only had fire magic that did get to homing upgrades it was a bit of a let down and the homing sometimes was not reliable so I would just manual aim instead. Overall this game felt like more of a complete package then I did and had a better story that connects with the first at the end and great characters as well. If I didn't mention it for Ys I I'll say it here but the music in this game is way better then it should be, the composers did a great job on it to make so many song that just sound so good.