This was a game I played quite a bit of growing up. It takes many elements from the first game and enhances them, while losing a tiny bit of the charm the first game had. Instead of a tournament arc in a city, the game starts you off in a village with a more typical fantasy journey. You explore a greater range of locals and enjoy better visual variety. The game still has the post chapter chats with characters, only this time all the guardian beasts can speak english.
The gameplay has received a number of changes. First, durability damage remains after fights but drains far slower. Next, there are weapon techniques that can be added to spice up the gameplay. A good number of these are shared, but there are also some exclusive not only to weapon types but also specific weapons. The guardian beasts offer a little more variety by having 3 unique spells as opposed to 1, although these spells are very similar. The way you make weapons changed in a way that makes breaking people's weapons matter regardless of what weapon types you want to use.
That all being said, the game still has some problems. The story feels a good bit more generic compared to the first. The different guardian beasts still don't add much variety in gameplay. If you want to see what each ore makes, you either have to save and reload after each weapon or fish up enough points to buy the ore in the next chapter.
Like the first game, it's a solid first playthrough. The added variety gives it enough of an edge for me to prefer this one to the first.