Continuing the "duology" structure of the arcs, Cold Steel II is a "conclusion" to the first Cold Steel game--except it is not. The game has two acts, first of which is more of an extended introduction where you visit the previous maps in a limited manner, while the second act, which is definitely longer than the first one, is where everything opens up for a grand finale.
But there is no grand finale. The game FEELS like there should be one, there are even two huge final dungeons and everything, but narratively speaking, nothing is really fully resolved. It's good if it's just an ending that isn't happy, but instead it's less of an ending and more of teasing an ending that does not come. Imagine Endgame where it really doesn't have conclusion to Thanos' story and instead has two huge post-credit scenes that's like 30 minutes long and has almost nothing to do with the conflict in the main story. It's weird and unsatisfactory, I don't understand why the epilogue dungeon exists (even the boss flat out says there is no reason for it to be there), and overall feels messy for the sake of setting up for the next entry.
Gameplay-wise, it's mostly the same except for some minor quality of life features, such as making fishing notes much easier to complete. It's same with the first game, but these two have very much unbearable pacing issue with combat, since an encounter basically grinds everything to a halt. The fact that the loading issue for Vita is one of the worst ever in JRPGs, makes it worse. Another thing is that because this game has such depth with equipments and orbments, sometimes it is overwhelming to change party members (which in a lot of cases is forced) since there are so many things you have to check in terms of party composition. The Crossbell Saga was much more manageable in that regard, even though Cold Steel games have the advantage in terms of depth.
But there is no grand finale. The game FEELS like there should be one, there are even two huge final dungeons and everything, but narratively speaking, nothing is really fully resolved. It's good if it's just an ending that isn't happy, but instead it's less of an ending and more of teasing an ending that does not come. Imagine Endgame where it really doesn't have conclusion to Thanos' story and instead has two huge post-credit scenes that's like 30 minutes long and has almost nothing to do with the conflict in the main story. It's weird and unsatisfactory, I don't understand why the epilogue dungeon exists (even the boss flat out says there is no reason for it to be there), and overall feels messy for the sake of setting up for the next entry.
Gameplay-wise, it's mostly the same except for some minor quality of life features, such as making fishing notes much easier to complete. It's same with the first game, but these two have very much unbearable pacing issue with combat, since an encounter basically grinds everything to a halt. The fact that the loading issue for Vita is one of the worst ever in JRPGs, makes it worse. Another thing is that because this game has such depth with equipments and orbments, sometimes it is overwhelming to change party members (which in a lot of cases is forced) since there are so many things you have to check in terms of party composition. The Crossbell Saga was much more manageable in that regard, even though Cold Steel games have the advantage in terms of depth.