Bayo 2 improves a lot of lackluster aspects that 1 had: the gimmick levels are actually fun; not held up with as many QTEs; instead of standing around during most giant bossfights, you fight them flying now. Your arsenal is fun & diverse instead of being clogged by reskins and downgrades, and you have panther within from the start for more fluidity.

You can also start on hard from the beginning, useful since the game is also twice as trivial as the first one. Umbran Climax (just like Witch Time) is a "press this to get free attacks" button. It makes torture attacks obsolete (a waste of magic) and the enemies being designed around this mechanic means they are much more prone to blocking and less susceptible to regular fighting, encouraging spamming UC as much as possible. Just compare fighting Grace and Glory in bayonetta 1 and 2. I don't think it's very fun; it's just a button mashing mode where any attack has WW and hyper armor and there's no need to focus on combos, positioning...

It seems more shallow, easier in general. I had a harder time playing 1 on normal than 2 in hard, and I didn't even die once because the game showers you with heals. It's much more smooth as an experience but it feels part of it was also removing any challenge in order to go through the game steadily. However, I see myself replaying it one day without many gripes, unlike with 1.