Xenosaga Episode II may fix a lot of the issues from Episode I, but in its stead, simply creates more to deal with.
With the welcoming and wonderful new art style, comes a new slew of issues. A lot of Episode II is new, including many of the voices for the characters. Some are good changes, like chaos and Jin. However, it seems as if Monolith went as far out of there way possible to find the worst voice actors for Shion and KOS-MOS. It's incredibly hard to maintain feeling for these characters when they don't seem like the same ones I guided through Episode I. Additionally, Episode II has incredibly boring structure. Nothing about the interfaces, sound effects, level design or environments seem unique or interesting. I wouldn't qualify many games as "bland," but with the amazingly poor music to only pressure it more, Xenosaga II's world just seems lame. The plot moves along more speedy than the original, and some kickass stuff happens, but everything in between just sucks. Traversing these dull landscapes is never fun, the boring soundtrack never heats up and while this may seem like a strange complaint, the animations in Xenosaga II are disgustingly rigid and bad. 20 hours may seem too short for an RPG, but its 20 hours too long for Xenosaga Episode II. The end is amazing and makes the whole thing worth playing, but it seems like every character takes a backseat to Jr and to a lesser extent, MOMO and Jin. Remember all of the awesome stuff KOS-MOS did in Episode I? Non-existent. In fact, I don't remember KOS-MOS ever really doing or saying anything in Episode II at all. Episode II does a fine job of continuing the Xenosaga mythos, but I don't think it could be any less fun to actually play.
To its credit however, Xenosaga: Episode II does an extremely, enjoyable, shocking and satisfying conclusion that almost makes it worth the torturous travel there.