I played so2r this weekend about 12 hours. I also played the original on the ps1 back in the day.
It does feel like so2, story is the same music great and famillar. The basics are all there.
The new stuff, Shields on enemies, sp bp split, are welcome. The new graphics are great and really look retro and good. There are several qol improvements, mostly about telling more about skills. I really did love those.
What dont i like. Well the battles have so many effects coveting up enemies it hard to tell whats going on at times. Also spells not stopping means the battles always have a supet fast pace to them.
Its great overall not perfect
Yeah from a tactical perspective it’s better. You don’t miss the attack and the chars are quite vulnerable in so2r. But i tend to play magic units and seeing about 100 crush (i exaggerate) in a boss battle from millie (first departure r) was a bit to much to feel confortable with it. I’m only 6 hours in so2r and so far it’s fine, but i will see if there are very fast enemies or tornado rushing mages that could be annoying with this magic system.