izigame.me

This review will be aimed at people who, like me, already played through the original and wonder if it's worth their buck.
TLDR : yes, different experience, not sure if it's worth full price but definitely worth if discounted.
The game improves on many qualms I had with the original :
+ Monsters, weapons, accessories and consumables do not compete for active slots anymore. This was my biggest issue with the original.
+ You're not forced to equip the necromancer's sword all the time anymore
+ Monsters gain XP not only from being active in combat, but also from killing other monsters themselves. The XP bounty goes to whoever dealt the finishing blow, so your character won't get the XP from a mob killed by your summon anymore (was half the XP in the original game)
+ Monsters aren't limited to "level" 5 anymore.
+ Monsters don't disappear from your inventory when they die, they're knocked out instead and can be revived with items.
+ TWENTY monsters can be stored in your inventory. Only 3 may be active at a time, like the original.
+ You're not limited to 3 or 7 slots in your run anymore, there's an actual inventory now.
+ Improved mob AI that you can customise with the new gambit tactics system, FFXII fans will love it.
+ A LOT more content. E.g. Floor 1 has like 4 or 5 "subfloors" and each is as big as 1 floor from the original (at least, from floor 1 so far).
+ There's also optional bosses and challenge rooms, and you can replay previous rooms with special goals (finish under X times, no hit, no summon, use X weapon type, etc.)
+ More story cutscenes, cool for someone who liked the original story.

The changed gameplay has some good and some bad
+ More dynamic fighting
+ More attacks variety (aerial attacks, "semi"-charged attacks)
+ You can (double) jump! Aerial combat yay. You can dodge shockwaves by jumping over them for example
+ Most forge materials are now acquired from releasing a summon
+ Monsters can now have more than 1 skill (Restorebbit can attack now, wutwut!)
+ Everything has more HP and different stats and scaling, the original had this issue for me that I either dealt 1 dmg or one-shotted mobs. This is not an issue anymore.
+ Some extra content (e.g. challenge mode) is accessible from the get go
~ No directly adjustable difficulty setting that I could find so far, unlike the original. I personally don't mind as the game does feels a little more challenging overall and it appears the more you clear consecutive sections the
~ Lock-on and targeting is confusing at first (due to 2 indicators, one orange indicating targeting, turns blue if you're locked on. It's alright once you get the hang of it, but not super intuitive
~ You can see what's the next trait a monster will learn, but you need to have them equipped and open the "status" window for it. It'd be nice if we could see that directly from the summon menu, or allow us to see unequipped summon from the status menu.
- Dashing and dodging feels clunkier than in the original.
- Enemy levels scale much faster than your own monsters can keep up, so you end up releasing/reviving a lot just to keep your mobs higher level. This makes the tactics system a lot less interesting since you'll have to recustomize every new mob you get. The ability to customize tactics by monster type, rather than for each individual monster, would be much less of a hassle.
- You spend (much) more time in menus than in the OG due to the change in forging material drop, changes in trait system and the new tactics. You'll be reviving and releasing a lot of monsters in order to farm for mats, so that's the downside of it.
- Forging mats are seemingly capped at 99 of each.
- Minor hurdle, but it takes longer to unlock coop (you still need to beat the first boss and grab homunculus flask).
I still recommend the game in spite of that, it's really a new take on the original and not just a 3D version of it.