I think it goes without any elaboration necessary that the story is leagues ahead of the first game. I know people like 1's story so to avoid implying that my opinion is objective, I always found the first game extremely barebones, overly simple, had a very dull message about racism and extremely forgettable characters. There are some nice character moments scattered throughout but almost everything feels underexplored as though it banked itself on becoming a franchise to eventually branch off and further elaborate on its world in preceding entries. That's not the case in this game, with both memorable allies and villains to boot and a story that while still fairly basic is far more interesting due to how unpredictable it can get. I actually found myself really rooting for the main cast. I absolutely admit that some of their feats are a little ridiculous in some story beats but it's an anime video game so let's not act like this isn't par for the course. Also it's pretty hilarious how blatant the Space Battleship Yamato homages are once you reach a certain plot point (fucking Sanada clone had me smiling not gonna lie.)
One thing I cannot stress enough is the best addition is the squad side stories. Good god, your playable non-main characters are finally people. From a gameplay perspective they usually offer subpar maps but the stories are almost all good and even incentivise being done by the player to unlock new preferences and character relationships. From a story perspective some of the character pairings are really fascinating and I love some of the little character journeys within them. To avoid any specific spoilers while providing some anticipation Godwin and Nico is a really nice feelgood story that understood super well how to depict suffering, cynicism and prejudice without being preachy.
The gameplay in some ways feels way better than the first game but at the same time it's somehow way more broken than it already was. Like they completely did not learn what classes and mechanics were the most abusable, cause they only added more to enable them like the APC which allows scouts to partake in even more tomfoolery and Grenadiers which was probably the best worst idea you could've implemented as it's basically a sniper that goes vertical and ignores crouch defense. Do these additions feel fun to use? Sure. Do they undermine a lot of the gameplay? Pretty much.
The game still has hard portions but it's a lot more gimmicky than it was in the first game and restarting a map comes much less often due to the stage being easily solved once you've figured out the strategy for a map.
I wish this series took more steps in this direction cause this game does come close to being genuinely great in my eyes. On one hand it's a straight upgrade to the first game in almost every way, on the other hand it's an absolutely broken disaster that will almost make you feel like you're cheating if you figure out optimal strategy; something that isn't mutually exclusive to this game but significantly more apparent. If there's ever a new Valkyria game I'd love for the engine to see a revamp to allow for less tools to strengthen your units, instead opting for customisation that personalises and validates your choices more, paving the way for more variety in strategy without outright nerfing everything.
One thing I cannot stress enough is the best addition is the squad side stories. Good god, your playable non-main characters are finally people. From a gameplay perspective they usually offer subpar maps but the stories are almost all good and even incentivise being done by the player to unlock new preferences and character relationships. From a story perspective some of the character pairings are really fascinating and I love some of the little character journeys within them. To avoid any specific spoilers while providing some anticipation Godwin and Nico is a really nice feelgood story that understood super well how to depict suffering, cynicism and prejudice without being preachy.
The gameplay in some ways feels way better than the first game but at the same time it's somehow way more broken than it already was. Like they completely did not learn what classes and mechanics were the most abusable, cause they only added more to enable them like the APC which allows scouts to partake in even more tomfoolery and Grenadiers which was probably the best worst idea you could've implemented as it's basically a sniper that goes vertical and ignores crouch defense. Do these additions feel fun to use? Sure. Do they undermine a lot of the gameplay? Pretty much.
The game still has hard portions but it's a lot more gimmicky than it was in the first game and restarting a map comes much less often due to the stage being easily solved once you've figured out the strategy for a map.
I wish this series took more steps in this direction cause this game does come close to being genuinely great in my eyes. On one hand it's a straight upgrade to the first game in almost every way, on the other hand it's an absolutely broken disaster that will almost make you feel like you're cheating if you figure out optimal strategy; something that isn't mutually exclusive to this game but significantly more apparent. If there's ever a new Valkyria game I'd love for the engine to see a revamp to allow for less tools to strengthen your units, instead opting for customisation that personalises and validates your choices more, paving the way for more variety in strategy without outright nerfing everything.