The idea of an extremely unfair edgy RPG has some appeal but I think some of the ways the game is unfair aren't as intended as others. Not a fan of how enemies can only die at the very end of a turn, so even if you have extremely powerful weapons and attack an enemy with a blow that kills it multiple times over, it can still get an extremely debilitating hit off before instantly dying a second after (I'm not talking about the particular undead enemies who are supposed to be able to live after decapitation, just the combat system in general works like this)
The game is a bit unpolished in general, I encountered a (beneficial) bug with the 2nd bed in the game where no matter how many times I failed the coin flip I would never be attacked by an enemy. I would just have to walk a few steps to wear off the adrenaline and I could try again, which essentially allowed it to become my cheap savescum spot. I feel like this warped my experience quite a bit away from the "intended" one. Despite the lack of polish and budget you'll notice my score for the game is above neutral. Despite what the game was working with on a budget level I think it was still pretty effective in creating an extremely oppressive yet engaging atmosphere. I also really liked the limb based targeting system that let you cripple enemies and disable some of the more dangerous attacks, very similar to a system in xenoblade X that I always considered underrated and wished to see in more RPG's. I think the difficulty and ridiculously brutal scenarios your growing party can get put through endeared me to the characters quite a bit, its definitely one of those games where you're constantly thinking about conversations between characters as you go through each room. A solid formula that with much more polish could make for a fantastic game. Will try out the sequel to see if it lives up to the potential.

This game is fantastic. It fixes basically every issue I had with its predecessor.
Now not every single location in the overworld is filled with encounters, they actually let you rest with encounter free areas. You can walk through the town of Tsukudo-cho without being harassed by demons every 5 steps. Speaking of, Raidou's movement speed is practically doubled both in battle and out. He can travel at a reasonable pace and actually do some respectable moves in battle. The gun is way faster and so actually a worthwhile option, and he even now has a dodge roll move so he no longer feels like a sack of bricks on a trolley. The magnetite system has been completely revamped and is actually a factor in battles now.
Like its predecessor it still has an incredibly strong style and amazing 10/10 meguro ost.
The only thing I'd say is that I prefer the plot of the first game, but 2's is by no means bad and in the end thats just personal preference.
Its a shame that this is a niche game within an already niche series. I think more people need to experience this one, its seriously fantastic.

This game is pretty heavily boosted by the great aesthetic and style, cool character designs, and absolutely 10/10 Meguro ost.
The gameplay is pretty jank. About half of raidou's moveset is useless due to the massive amount of endlag after his moves that basically guarantee you being vulnerable and talking a blow to the face after you use them. The gun move in particular is only useful for hitting the frail element of a demon you plan to capture. Any other time its a complete waste of an action, as raidou plants himself like a tree to the ground for about 3 months to fire off 3 glacially slow shots after just a single press of the button.
Raidou feels very sluggish to control overall.
It takes a bit but once you get into the flow of the game it goes pretty smoothly for a while until I'd say about the end of chapter 8, when the bosses health bars get an obnoxious boost. The boss rematches in the final dungeon have an absurd amount of health that takes so long to whittle down it drained away any enjoyment I was having.
To top this off the encounter rate is absurdly high, and there are encounters EVERYWHERE. There is NO place you can walk in that is free of encounters in this game. You can be walking through a bustling city street surrounded by people or through a mansion filled with maids and still be getting assailed by demons and fighting for your life.
The magnetite system is barely a factor. Despite the latter half of the game requiring extreme amounts of recalling and resummoning your demons to make them avoid large screen covering boss attacks, I at no point ever even used more than half of my magnetite bar. According to some people I've talked to, the magnetite system is only balanced for the games hard "King" difficulty, but this is only unlocked after beating the game once and I did not play on that mode, nor do I have any interest in replaying this. So I will never know.
The story is pretty interesting and does some cool things.
The sequel is much better as a game.