Count me as another that feels like this game is way better and more impactful than it feels like it has any right to be. I'm actually going to have to go back and re-play the first one at some point after this; I had completely forgotten I'd played it until the cross-over / references in this one came up, and even then my memory of it was as being very much just in the 'fine / so-so' category.
I feel like the biggest issue about this game for me is that it falls into that realm of being just good enough that it really makes me end up focusing on all the ways in which I wish it were even better. Like I love the flexibility it offers, how it doesn't easily lock you in to a route, so you can create a story with the nuance you want, resistance waxing and waning along the way. I'd even argue the relatively short / 'thin' scenes plays into that, since it leaves room for you to fill in lots of blanks and details on your own. But the fact that the game achieves that flexibility by honestly just not really reacting to any decision you ever make, until the very end, definitely leads to some disconnects, and becomes really glaringly obvious on a replay.
A game like this, except more 'reactive' to your choices, would probably be a master-piece to me; something where it sees that you're picking options to not give in, and so ramps up / changes the corruption attempts accordingly. To run with an example, on my first play-through, I had Leo give in to all of Kurone's early advances, playing him as relatively weak-willed / her charm ability as that powerful. When it came to her asking for info the first time, though, I said no; I figured that would be an actual line for him that he would not easily cross. And then... that was pretty much the end of her events for that playthrough, because the game just kept waiting for me to go to her and choose it, rather than have her instigate more pro-active seduction.
Anyway, given how much more this has stuck in my mind than the first game did, as well as all the set-up for a continuation, I'm super looking forward to any further entries in the series.
PS Kurone4Life