A beautifully environmental sequel that tends to draw on and ends with an anti-climactic end sequence.
In the first it felt a lot like a new and improved Zelda especially in the puzzle-like dungeon designs. Too, you found hints of Portal towards the end. In DSII there are continuations of these similarities but with some nice twists including a full section where, honestly, you are in FPS mode seemingly as a nod to many popular games of this generation.
The game did hold together in a fairly balanced way though as time grew on things did get a bid tiresome. Yet, not near as tiresome as the first DS where 4-5 hours in the final portion of the game just drew on endlessly. Here the balance of puzzles and generally solid boss fights made for a fairly fun game.
The RPG elements of the game were a nice additional bonus though all too often newly found items were worthless. As well, it was rare to ever need something from any of the stores throughout so the real power of the game simply came in its power chains which allowed you to have a variety of fun combat skills. Not until the end did I open up the coffins to have some additional fighters on the battlefield and I sort of wished I did more of this from the start.
Samael was definitely a better fit for a final boss as everything about him was more challenging, more interesting, and simply more in tune with what you would expect. That is to say, the final boss you encounter after him is such a breeze and an utter joke that you feel like it was entirely tacked on just to wrap up the story. Too, with a game this long you'd expect a bit better developed closing sequence which also wound up being a disappointment.
Overall a good game but I left wishing things were wrapped up a bit better considering all the goodness that was up to those final stages. If you're a fan of the first DS and, well, God of War, Zelda, Portal, etc you might just find yourself enjoying this one.