In terms of story development the game was all killer no filler... until you get to act 2 which felt like a grind to get through at times. That said, the finale and epilogue more than made up for any pacing woes I felt. The music is still awesome and the gameplay is as engaging as ever.

Overall: After putting some time into my final thoughts, I believe that Cold Steel 2 does have some better story beats than the first game, but 1's pacing felt more gradual whereas 2 can be a bit all over the place thanks to that second act (which still does have great emotional story beats I'll admit).