LA2 does several things really well, but several other things somewhat poorly. Overall, it's a mediocre experience.
However, LA2 does attempt to rise above the dozens of other SRPGs by having a lot of flair and style throughout, and very nearly succeeds. I made it through the main campaign once, but wow, I was good and tired of the game by the end. Again, just charming enough to play and enjoy, but some slow pacing, repetitive combat, and overly long/unnecessary talkie sections keep it from being a great game.
The good:
* Nice art style, though not overly unique, throughout
* Bits of spoken dialog are well done
* Good variety of enemies
* Engaging main story arc
* Some quirky characters
The not-so-good:
* Very little animation -- only the opening and closing cut scenes are movie-like, other interactions in the game are basically done by sliding still images around the screen.
* Combat is really nothing new, and follows are the normal conventions of equipment, buffs, potions, spells.
* Combat relies on making enemies harder by adding waves of "reinforcements", which makes strategy somewhat secondary to just basic stick-together-and-survive.
* Enemy AI isn't very good, so most combat is either too easy, or tedious cases of surviving large numbers of weaker enemies.
* Some conversation segments are long and very trite ("I'm hungry!" "Me too!" "My mom used to make great meals." "You always loved those." "Yeah, I like her noodles the best." "Me too!"...........)
Overall, it was engaging enough to play through, but at times was a struggle with boredom... still, if you really enjoy SRPGs, it's worth picking up.