Man, what is with all you guys.
Midori was great. Yeah, she was an idiot at first, but she toned it down severely by the time Keisuke went all *spoilers*.
And I know that this will seem less credible after explaining my character preferences in the first game, but I think DS2 has a much better cast of characters. All of them have some amount of depth, while the DS1 characters, with the exception of Keisuke, were pretty generic and could be taken at face value. Only character in DS2 that I don't like is Keita. What an ass.
The second game is also much better at pacing the characters. In the first game, you had your main trio, plus either Midori or Keisuke, and then on the last day you would suddenly get another five party members that you would never use. In the sequel, you meet almost all of your party members in the first few days. It helps get to know them better.
The main thing I feel like the original game did better, though, was the survival aspect. It feels like your party is actually fighting for survival in the lockdown. In DS2, that feeling disappears as soon as you join up with JP's.
I'm almost at the end of DS2 right now, and I still can't decide which one's better. I'll probably finish the game another four times in order to figure that out.
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xfd dude, it's just a popularity contest on the internets.
-Vlado