Take away is: It's a gameplay improvement and a story/aesthetic lateral move. I might even say the story and world building are a very slight downgrade.

Some more detailed thoughts below

You're probably playing some video games, but if you're not playing a video game with this in its soundtrack, you could be doing better.

I guess everyone is doing Armored Core. (or are they? I've heard suspiciously little on this game in my circles). But I just got Blasphemous 2 after falling very much in love with the original game, both the gameplay and the lore.

We shall see if the sequel is able to keep that ball rolling. Very initial impressions below