More of what makes Bravely Default good, none of what made Bravely Default bad, but just a bit less of what made Bravely Default special.
Gameplay wise BS is a straight improvement; subtle changes make battles smoother and faster, and the new battle chaining system encourages you to put more thought into how you go about random encounters instead of quad-Braving your way through them. The newly added classes are varying levels of absolutely bonkers, and even though they rebalanced returning classes to get rid of old cheese methods, there are plenty of new wacky interactions to take advantage of to whatever degree of broken you desire.
The story, by unfortunate necessity of being a sequel, is not quite as fresh and exciting as the first game's. It doesn't go as wild places, and it spends just a bit too much time on its various romance subplots. But it is good; the new characters are all fun, the story works well to keep you invested the whole way through, and most importantly, it does not make the first game's fatal third act structural mistake. It stays consistent the whole way through; one way or the other, it is much easier to get all the way through this game than BD1. And the soundtrack, while not quite as stellar or diverse as the first game (RYO really likes his electric guitars), still has a good amount of slappers, the best of which you're blessed with as soon as you hit Start.
And for the record, if you hear anyone complain about sidequest localization, they're literally just wrong; ignore them.
All in all Bravely Second is a great followup to Bravely Default, and absolutely worth playing if you want more of that magic.
Gameplay wise BS is a straight improvement; subtle changes make battles smoother and faster, and the new battle chaining system encourages you to put more thought into how you go about random encounters instead of quad-Braving your way through them. The newly added classes are varying levels of absolutely bonkers, and even though they rebalanced returning classes to get rid of old cheese methods, there are plenty of new wacky interactions to take advantage of to whatever degree of broken you desire.
The story, by unfortunate necessity of being a sequel, is not quite as fresh and exciting as the first game's. It doesn't go as wild places, and it spends just a bit too much time on its various romance subplots. But it is good; the new characters are all fun, the story works well to keep you invested the whole way through, and most importantly, it does not make the first game's fatal third act structural mistake. It stays consistent the whole way through; one way or the other, it is much easier to get all the way through this game than BD1. And the soundtrack, while not quite as stellar or diverse as the first game (RYO really likes his electric guitars), still has a good amount of slappers, the best of which you're blessed with as soon as you hit Start.
And for the record, if you hear anyone complain about sidequest localization, they're literally just wrong; ignore them.
All in all Bravely Second is a great followup to Bravely Default, and absolutely worth playing if you want more of that magic.