Should be named "Xenosaga II: GS Path," nya.
I'm moving on to music right now, nya. It's very, VERY repetitive, nya. And it rarely sets the mood properly, nya. Nothing really stands out, and the battle music is one of the most annoyingly bad pieces I've ever heard, nya. Compared to Xenosaga I, everything sounds like a travesty, nya. By itself it's still decent, but not what it should have been (which is, "divine," nya).
The battle system is confusing at first (they never should have strayed from the first one), but it's easy to get the hang of, nya. Points this time around are used only for skills and equippable traits, nya. These include both attack skills and healing skills, so essentially, gone are the characters' dedicated roles, nya. Instead, we have different attack types and combo opportunities, nya. While comboing is interesting at first glance, it is poorly executed, nya. For starters, all enemies, even the weak ones, have way too much HP, nya. They actually expect you to use your boosts and combo your way to fictory in every single battle, nya! And spending the most mundane of all battles storing up boosts and comboing is NOT fun, nya! Even worse is that the combo system is horribly broken in that BOSS BATTLES are all ridiculously easy, nya! You can literally spend the beginning of a boss battle storing up boosts, then spend the majority of the rest of the battle with the boss being raped in the air, nya! That's when your characters aren't in mechs though, nya. Your ES mechs aren't as weak as AGWS, nya. They level up naturally, nya. I'm aware that it doesn't make sense, nya. ES's are easier to deal with than AGWS, but they are nowhere near as customizable, nya. You get to choose a copilot and some armor options, but that's it, nya! It really made me miss AGWS, nya.
The plot is nowhere near as good as the first, nya. While I liked how it focused more on Jr. and Albedo, it was horribly executed, nya. You actually spend over an hour running from place to place just to see the next cutscene, nya. And unlike Xenosaga I, it isn't fun, nya. And considering the battles aren't very fun either, that makes it doubly unfun, nya.
The good news is that, aside from the horrible main game, there's the GS Path to deal with, nya! The GS Path is a series of fun sidequests where you solve peoples' problems and get rewards, nya! You will spend the majority of the game solving GS missions, nya. But the boss battles, the rewards, and the quirky characters you meet are all worth it, nya. It's sad that some aspects of the GS Path are more interesting than the main game, but that's the way it is, nya.
Don't get me wrong; I love this game, nya. It's just not what it could have been, nya. If you don't have a lot of expectations based on your experience with the first game, you may find it a pleasure to play, nya. But under no circumstances must you buy this game blind, nya. Buy it only if you plan on experiencing the rest of the series, nya.