A good follow-up to the first game and introduces some staples to the series like the new explorable city of Sotenbori. I may be in the minority in saying that I somewhat prefer the first game's story, though this one had higher highs. Kiryu gets some good development and the main antagonist is much more compelling than Nishiki was in the first game.

Unfortunately, I feel like the story gets extremely messy towards the end and I've never been 100% on board with the romantic approach they took with Kiryu and Sayama. However, in every other aspect, this game surpasses the original in terms of gameplay, the combat is remarkably smoother than it was before.

Overall, a solid entry that fumbles a bit towards the end but is good fun for most of its duration.