Played Act 1 on Steam. I like the game and its themes but I do feel like it is a step down from the first game. Leveling and character progression is no longer on an individual basis and is instead tied to clearing a level which gives everyone the same amount of XP. You also don't seem to gain abilities as you level, instead you unlock slots in your inventory for which you can equip skills or accessories. I feel like this is overall a poor choice as you spend much more time between levels having to go to the shop, read the abilities and decide if you want to unlock/upgrade existing abilities, go back to the Manage screen and select the unit to then equip. It's too much inventory management where the first game had a more natural and better RPG progression.
The level and encounter design is also frustrating to me. I played through Act 1 on Normal which isn't the hardest difficulty and the amount of times my characters would just get 1shot made some floors and mobs very annoying to deal with. Some floors also swarm you and often times it felt like literally only Azar could actually fight anything cuz anyone else was just going to get 1shot or worse, if they missed their attack they would be dead at the end of the turn. I think there are way too many levels that do this and makes trying to see groping scenes less enjoyable. This was frustrating on a few levels but none moreso than the prison level where you only have Zaman, Azar, and Tariq. Enemy mages getting to do 2 attacks against your nerfed characters and could even put Azar in a bad spot which is bad enough but even the weaker enemies could also just randomly 1tap Zaman. This level also sucks for the added reason of no groping content available. In NT1, Kobold Joe turning into a dragon for the first time would elicit a reaction from the group but Tariq's old friend Zaman suddenly turning into a hot girl goes unnoticed until the designated cutscene for which he is set to discover this? In NT1, even just small cut-ins of the mage and lancer guy (cant remember their names lol) would have some eye candy of Gwen. Even small things like this can keep the player engaged and the progression of events feeling cohesive and natural.
As for the actual reason people play, the H content art is still great and the grope cut-ins are nice when they actually fucking happen. Unlike NT1 where Carwyn had to actually be close to prevent Gwen from being groped, Shah and Zaman seem to be able to stop the other from getting groped anywhere on the map. I'd find myself going multiple turns of just repeatedly getting the dialogue of "Hey stopping hitting on my gf!" which just gets annoying when it happens that frequently and in completely nonsensical ways when they're so far apart.
The overall trajectory of the story so far seems okay and sets the stage for many of the themes that made NT1 great but right now it feels very limited. male and Fem Zaman only seems to have grope options with Vashti. Azar only ever seems to grope Shah. The groping and interactions currently seem to be very much on rails. Azar doesn't seem to interact with Vashti at all despite how slutty she is. Azar doesn't seem to interact with fem Zaman at all. I'm sure this will likely change in future Acts but it would've been nice to at least get some interaction in Act 1. Even if Vashti isn't interested in Azar, isn't that the whole point of what made Gwen's interactions with the boys in NT1 great? I hope future patches will let these relationships intertwine and compete a bit more like they did in NT1 because the feeling of being on rails is not a good one.
Overall, a step down from NT1 but the greatness of NT1 also makes me hopeful that NT2 will be greatly improved upon as the dev has shown they aren't opposed to revisiting previously released content to add more to it. I hope for more intermingling of the characters instead of seeming to have set partners (and this being added even in small portions to Act 1) and maybe some improvements to the character progression and balance.
The level and encounter design is also frustrating to me. I played through Act 1 on Normal which isn't the hardest difficulty and the amount of times my characters would just get 1shot made some floors and mobs very annoying to deal with. Some floors also swarm you and often times it felt like literally only Azar could actually fight anything cuz anyone else was just going to get 1shot or worse, if they missed their attack they would be dead at the end of the turn. I think there are way too many levels that do this and makes trying to see groping scenes less enjoyable. This was frustrating on a few levels but none moreso than the prison level where you only have Zaman, Azar, and Tariq. Enemy mages getting to do 2 attacks against your nerfed characters and could even put Azar in a bad spot which is bad enough but even the weaker enemies could also just randomly 1tap Zaman. This level also sucks for the added reason of no groping content available. In NT1, Kobold Joe turning into a dragon for the first time would elicit a reaction from the group but Tariq's old friend Zaman suddenly turning into a hot girl goes unnoticed until the designated cutscene for which he is set to discover this? In NT1, even just small cut-ins of the mage and lancer guy (cant remember their names lol) would have some eye candy of Gwen. Even small things like this can keep the player engaged and the progression of events feeling cohesive and natural.
As for the actual reason people play, the H content art is still great and the grope cut-ins are nice when they actually fucking happen. Unlike NT1 where Carwyn had to actually be close to prevent Gwen from being groped, Shah and Zaman seem to be able to stop the other from getting groped anywhere on the map. I'd find myself going multiple turns of just repeatedly getting the dialogue of "Hey stopping hitting on my gf!" which just gets annoying when it happens that frequently and in completely nonsensical ways when they're so far apart.
The overall trajectory of the story so far seems okay and sets the stage for many of the themes that made NT1 great but right now it feels very limited. male and Fem Zaman only seems to have grope options with Vashti. Azar only ever seems to grope Shah. The groping and interactions currently seem to be very much on rails. Azar doesn't seem to interact with Vashti at all despite how slutty she is. Azar doesn't seem to interact with fem Zaman at all. I'm sure this will likely change in future Acts but it would've been nice to at least get some interaction in Act 1. Even if Vashti isn't interested in Azar, isn't that the whole point of what made Gwen's interactions with the boys in NT1 great? I hope future patches will let these relationships intertwine and compete a bit more like they did in NT1 because the feeling of being on rails is not a good one.
Overall, a step down from NT1 but the greatness of NT1 also makes me hopeful that NT2 will be greatly improved upon as the dev has shown they aren't opposed to revisiting previously released content to add more to it. I hope for more intermingling of the characters instead of seeming to have set partners (and this being added even in small portions to Act 1) and maybe some improvements to the character progression and balance.