Its an improvement over the first game in some regards, but it also introduces some pretty significant problems that really hold the rest of the game back.
Gameplay (especially regarding orbments and team-building) is a solid improvement and lets the game take advantage of the complexity of its systems far earlier. The only main downside is that the way teammates are shuffled in and out of the party throughout the game creates a lot of headaches and, unlike the rare and structured moments where it was done in the first game, SC does so far more often, far less predictably, and just feels very unwieldy in general. Once you've gotten a team set up the experience is fine, but the game seems to love interrupting that process too often for my tastes.
As for the story, SC has much higher highs than the first game towards the end, but some severe pacing issues in the first half are absolutely grueling and dont feel worth it. FC could afford to be a bit slow since everything was new, but SC is both far longer and introduces much less new content in terms of characters, worldbuilding, and plot which makes its runtime feel even worse.
The improvements outweigh the flaws overall, but they're significant enough that they shouldn't just be handwaved away. I liked the first game enough to give it a 6/10, so a 7 for this one feels like something I can be comfortable with.
Gameplay (especially regarding orbments and team-building) is a solid improvement and lets the game take advantage of the complexity of its systems far earlier. The only main downside is that the way teammates are shuffled in and out of the party throughout the game creates a lot of headaches and, unlike the rare and structured moments where it was done in the first game, SC does so far more often, far less predictably, and just feels very unwieldy in general. Once you've gotten a team set up the experience is fine, but the game seems to love interrupting that process too often for my tastes.
As for the story, SC has much higher highs than the first game towards the end, but some severe pacing issues in the first half are absolutely grueling and dont feel worth it. FC could afford to be a bit slow since everything was new, but SC is both far longer and introduces much less new content in terms of characters, worldbuilding, and plot which makes its runtime feel even worse.
The improvements outweigh the flaws overall, but they're significant enough that they shouldn't just be handwaved away. I liked the first game enough to give it a 6/10, so a 7 for this one feels like something I can be comfortable with.