Part of the era of "weird" Nintendo sequels, FE2 takes the foundation that FE1 laid and leans so much harder into the RPG aspect of strategy RPGs.
The game offers explorable towns and dungeons where you can recruit characters and pick up items/weapons. Dungeons also bring in random battles that use the classic tile based FE gameplay for combat which offers a nice to chance to level grind characters to help push through the game.
There's also changes to classes here like mages and healers using hp to cast spells and archers being able to attack multiple spaces ahead of them instead of just two.
The game takes place on a world map with players progressing via battle after battle and eventually being able to switch between dual protagonists Alm and Celica at will, which gives a nice perspective change on the story.
Unfortunately the game is held back by awful map design leading to slow and slog full maps, especially when enemy cantors are able to constantly summon enemies and witches can teleport at will. That on top of the lack of enemy ranges and battle forecasts makes it a frustrating experience at times but still one that I can appreciate taking the series into a bold direction.
Also the soundtrack here is soooooo good