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I hit credits on Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection last night, and I loved it!

Zwei II is firmly in what I’m calling the “cute Falcom” genre: cute art style, charming characters, experimental mechanics (relative to its contemporaries), not-too-demanding gameplay, overall more comedic tone, and a simple story that gets the job done but with just a ~bit~ of that Falcom magic. The action isn’t as robust or satisfying as Ys, and the story isn’t gonna shake you like Trails. It’s ultimately just a fun little romp, and it’s not trying to be anything else. Other games in this genre are Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure and the first Zwei game, Zwei: The Arges Adventure

Zwei AA is not required reading to play Zwei II. There are definitely connections and nods to AA that made me happy, but it's nothing that makes or breaks II. They are both very similar in many ways -- a specific recipe that forms an unmistakable Zwei vibe, a Zweibe:

• Dual boy and girl protagonists. One uses melee combat, the other uses ranged magic.
• Lots of static dungeons that branch at rest areas, eventually ending with a boss or gear upgrade.
• A focus, albeit optional, on getting through dungeons under certain conditions (no damage, fast time, hit lots of criticals, etc) to get better clear rankings. Helps towards unlocking special gear 'n' such.
• Food (your healing items) are also the only way to gain EXP/level up. Every piece of food has a fixed amount of HP it restores and a fixed amount of EXP it grants you. You can trade in 10 of one food for 1 of a better food, so you're incentivized to hold out as long as possible without healing.
• There's a silent metronome of sorts that is always running, and if you attack on the "downbeat," you get a critical hit.
• Pet(s) that follow you around in dungeons, help pick up money/items, sometimes attack enemies, and level up through combat.
• Widgets -- a bunch of togglable HUD elements, some of which are super handy, some of which are silly but useless (or are they?...!)
• Cute, light-hearted, humorous tone to everything, but definitely not without some darkness.
• Fairies!!!

Like a home-cooked meal made by two different cooks, II and AA have surprisingly different flavors despite being made of the same ingredients:

• II's gameplay is more refined, slightly deeper, and more fun moment-to-moment.
• II's individual dungeons are not quite as interesting, and the dungeon-to-dungeon progression is more straightforward.
• II feels like it has fewer dungeons and secrets, but I think that's because they hold more stuff back for New Game+.
• II's protagonists are far more endearing and compelling. The writing is definitely stronger across the board.
• II has some voiced dialogue for key scenes, and it's usually quite good!
• II's controller support is much better.
• II's art style is obviously very different (being full 3D and all). I love both styles, but IMO AA's is more memorable and charming.
• Overall, II is a much more polished and refined game, for better and for worse!

I was super happy with Zwei II's final boss. It's got a great emotional climax, it's got a huge freaky creature to beat up in a forsaken realm, it's got big ol' scary attacks... and the way you have to fight it (or at least the most effective way I found) was simultanouesly extremely funny and made me feel extremely cool. It was exactly what I wanted out of the scrappy dual protagonists consisting of:
A freelance treasure hunter pilot,
and a sheltered vampire princess.

A fair warning: I experienced a handful of crashes throughout the game. In fact, I had the game crash on me three times during the final boss fight: once between phases and twice during the post-fight cutscenes! I'm not sure what the cause of the crashes was, but once I stopped launching the DirectX 8 version, the crashes stopped. It's a testament to how much I liked the final boss that I enjoyed fighting it four times throughout all that lol.

I put about 28hrs into Zwei II, which includes dilligently chatting with all the townsfolk after every story beat, plus seeking out a handful of extras. Despite putting slightly more time into it than AA, II felt like it progressed at a quicker pace. As I alluded to earlier, II focuses more on its story and characters than on its dungeons. It sacrifices some openness to lose yourself in levels so that it can take you on more of a story-driven ride. II feels like a JRPG style story featuring some dungeon-diving, whereas AA feels like the inverse. Both games are worth playing, but the one you prefer will just depend on which thing you're more in the mood for!

Play Zwei!!