Pretty big improvement on 1. You could tell they put more time in with all the extra dialogue from burning NPCs and talking to enemies. The bosses mainly being magic only was rough though, it just felt awkward sometimes, Zava especially.
I was actually fine with Solomon Shrine, I felt they notated the sections well enough and the layout was different enough to make me remember where I was (plus the Chronicles version of the song goes so hard). I actually had issues with the sewers more, and partially the volcano too. Everywhere there looked the same.