It has a hard time living up to its namesake, which ranks among my favorite games of all time, but they did a great job nonetheless. As is repeated everywhere else on the internet, the strong story and likable characters from the first game aren't matched by this one; the characters are a lot more flat and underdeveloped. It suffers from way too many homogenized characters, and the plot is short and doesn't have a lot going for it. That's not the main attraction, however. The setting is absolutely fantastic; I don't think it's matched by any other open-world game on the market. There's tons to explore, and it's consistently fun just to run around Mechanically, I think the battles are a bit worse than the original, since the uniqueness of the cast's movesets was abandoned for a much more generic class system, and in the end it didn't really seem to matter much which I chose, or who I took with me. The original made the contribution of you and your two party members important, and it really felt like a proper team. Here, the actions of your party is pretty inconsequential, especially later on. Sidequests were greatly improved, however. I always thought they were the weakest point of the original, and X gave them a lot of polish. That being said, compared to other games I would still call them bland and middling. It's a step in the right direction, but they still have a game or two to go before they get it right. Overall, it's not as beloved game to me as the original, but it's still a great game. I'd recommend it, especially for people who like exploration in game.s