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Inferior to the first in every way but graphics and music.
The writing and general plot structure are particularly bad, and will often have you doing things that make no sense at all.
Edit: I've had a few days to think about what exactly I feel lets Requiem down. Here it is:
Disconnected from the first game:
Am(n)ecia and Hugo seem to have forgotten a lot of what they went through in Innocence, apart from when it's convenient to the writers (so they can throw an arbitrary complication into an otherwise simple task). They both seem surprised that Hugo can control the rats despite him doing so at the finale of Innocence, as well as being surprised that the rat problem hasn't gone away despite there being no reason for it to have done so. They are also surprised at the scale of destruction during the fall of the Red City despite having seen the same thing happen at least twice in Innocence. I'm not expecting them to be numb to it, but it comes off as the characters or writers being ignorant of their own history.
In Requiem, Amecia makes much poorer decisions despite having lived through and overcome a lot of the same challenges and scenarios already, and despite knowing exactly who and what is at stake if she acts impulsively. She supposedly learned these lessons in Innocence, and even goes so far as to impress their importance upon Hugo, so I have no idea why she's having to figure it out again now.
Amecia's mother, Beatrice, does not seem like the same person that was portrayed in Innocence, and her apparent indifference to Hugo's suffering at the hands of Vaudin is strange to me, as is her blind deference to him when the first game establishes her as somewhat of an expert on the Macula. Also, why did she not consult with Vaudin before letting the Macula destroy her homeland? Nice work, Beatrice!

So many stealth sections:
The stealth sections are long and arduous, and while there are new mechanics to help, they don't quite make up for the scale of the new areas or the amount of enemies you have to contend with. There are frequent back-to-back stealth sections with nothing of significance happening between them and the same generic upgrade and crafting materials from the first game dotted around as exploration rewards. More enemies, more helmets, and Amecia apparently forgetting all of the skills she learned in Innocence result in her feeling like she's somehow become less capable. Enemies have maintained or improved their skills and abilities from the first game, yet Amecia's regressed pretty much back to her starting point in a mere 6 months.
Puzzles are also very simple, to the point where there's usually little to figure out, and it repeats much of the things done in the first game. Light the thing, move the thing, use the companion, etc. Rather than an exploration of ideas, this time it just feels like retreading ground because it's mostly ideas that were already fully utilised in Innocence.
Lack of plot grounding:
Personally this is my biggest issue with Requiem. Innocence told a fairly realistic story about a sister learning to love her estranged brother whilst keeping them both safe from a decidedly unrealistic apocalypse. The rats, the Macula, the entire apocalypse, is just a horrific backdrop to a very human story that we can all empathise with and connect to, and it works because it's built on that. I cared about Hugo and Amecia because I was invested in their changing relationship and the things they were learning about each other and themselves. It's the baseline reality that the story continually spirals outward from and no matter how unbelievable and clearly impossible the world and events became, they lent it credence by feeling real and genuine.
Requiem, however, tells a story without grounding. The main plot thread, as far as Chapter 7 (I gave up at that point), is about a magical dream island with a magical dream bird that Hugo thinks will cure him, and the sub-events and misadventures on the way are typically caused by the characters making decisions that are either illogical or outright harmful to their own goals.
A few examples are:
Amecia and Lucas trying to escape the guards of the Red City, with Amecia suddenly making a stand and going on a murderous rampage, ensuring they're both captured. This is during an attempt to return to Hugo with herbs they believe are needed to alleviate his seizures. Nice work, Amecia!
Beatrice allowing the abuse of Hugo at the hands of Vaudin with seemingly no challenge or inquiry as to his methods, causing the fall of the Red City.
Amecia abandoning her only form of transportation (and Lucas, her most reliable ally) immediately after nearly being killed by a mercenary who is likely still in the area, simply because she's upset with her mother for the prior inexplicable actions with Hugo (and not believing the magical-island-bird-cure thing). Amecia is, of course, almost immediately caught, but not before causing trouble for yet another group of innocent bystanders.
Amecia and Hugo accepting Arnaud, the mercenary who nearly murdered Amecia, into the party soon after the attack. Amecia is still struggling with complications from the injury when he catches them. The distrust is gone much too quickly, and it's genuinely only 5-10 minutes until they're making jokes at/with each other and sharing anecdotes.
Amecia has flaming crossbow bolts, but rather than ignite one and carry it she has to shoot it into Arnaud's shield, which is a bad idea on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin with it.

Summary:
I really, really liked Innocence, and I still like the franchise and Asobo Studios. I wanted to like Requiem too; I adore the soundtrack, it genuinely is the best part for me, and the acting performances are usually great even if the dialogue isn't. The set pieces and visuals are stunning (although not so much better than Innocence that it explains the absurd leap in required hardware).
At the core though, it's hard to care about characters who continually make their own lives harder and keep making poor choices for no clear reason or benefit. It's hard to care about a story when it takes 7 quite lengthy chapters just to have you set off on a quest for a magical island McGuffin that's of very little narrative interest to begin with. In truth, I think the recurring dream island plotline and all its content is extremely lazy and/or extremely unimaginative deus-ex-machina style writing, and it's at the heart of some important plot beats and character moments and becomes the main plot objective by Chapter 7.
It feels so video-gamey compared to the comparatively subtle and, again, grounded story of Innocence. If you managed to make it through this review and any of the points I've made seem like valid concerns, playing this game may end up being a bewildering experience for you.

Silly and pedantic things I couldn't stop thinking about:
Why does Amecia refuse to carry a light source? She absolutely will not take anything useful with her, no matter how many sticks/torches/lamps/candles you attempt to loot. If it burns for more than 10 seconds, she's just not interested.
She can carry multiple bottles of alcohol on her person right from the start, and infinite rocks, but only has room for 3-4 crossbow bolts, without which the huge and heavy crossbow is just dead weight.
She needs to loot disposable knives to unlock doors despite having the tools, materials and crafting skill to make a reusable prybar.