The first game had very poor balance. After the first 5 missions you are basically unkillable and most fights are done in 2 turns. The leveling up letting you pick any ability was poorly designed and balanced, the free canticle is pure cheat code. The armour equipment also had big problems with some pieces been straight up better than others while in late game it just feels bad to be forced to get them as you progress with the skill tree. Enemy variety also is poor and on top enemies are too few per encounter after early game, maps are too small and after the change to the "awakening" system you can pretty much do all missions in one playthrough making replaying the campaign pointless. The unlimited movement even if fun at first makes the tactical side of the combat very disjointed, at mid game you can pretty much win most encounters in one turn while taking all the blackstone points and destroy them to lower the awareness. That felt very Valkyria Chronicles-like.
On the other hand I really liked the weapon balance and the armour system, that side of the game was top-notch even if it could be better with particularly more types of melee weapons. The mission seletion was totally ruined with the change to the awakening meter and that is unfortunaly a bad sign for the sequel, as it show that they are going in the wrong direction and pressured by moron fans that whined about it at release.
On the other hand I really liked the weapon balance and the armour system, that side of the game was top-notch even if it could be better with particularly more types of melee weapons. The mission seletion was totally ruined with the change to the awakening meter and that is unfortunaly a bad sign for the sequel, as it show that they are going in the wrong direction and pressured by moron fans that whined about it at release.
