It's pretty much like the frist one, some polish here and there and a couple of QQL changes...and the jumping controls are still as infuriating as ever.
Especially with an XBox-Controller. The d-pad isn't used at all, literally. You can't even rebind it.
There is a surprising variety of experiences you can have playing the La-Mulana games, and at the very least you don't have to worry about it being 2005 so that your only option is to play the freeware original in Japanese with exactly two half-finished machine-translated guides as your only reference materials.
That being said, having experienced that, it was still a significantly richer experience than this new sequel is.
Every La-Mulana game has its issues. The freeware release with its unwieldy save and healing system, grapple gloves, ROM carts, etc., the remake with its super-OP bosses and complete lack of retro aesthetic, and now the sequel with its hordes of exquisitely crafted B.S. unfunny and unfun "gotcha" moments.
Nigoro did manage to successfully streamline LM2 somewhat, easing you into the game better, but seemingly in an attempt to maintain the notorious difficulty in the face of simpler enemies and puzzles, the level design is now completely riddled with invisible traps at every turn. Moreso than the original, certainly. Picture the Hell Temple from LM1, except instead of being designed to break your spirit it's just to tick you off constantly. Trapdoors that drop you into spikes that bounce you into enemies and force a 10-minute trek back; enemies that bounce you into instadeath "poison lava" pits or inescapable drowning traps; bats that have been deliberately redesigned to blend into the background; overpopulation of basic enemies rather than a sparser but more engaging bestiary; the list goes on.
Perhaps the single best illustration I can make of my argument is to compare the first hub of both games. LM1's Guidance Gate allowed you exploration into multiple other areas right off the bat each with valid means of progression. LM2's Roots of Yggdrasil will offer you entrance into multiple other areas right off the bat, most of which are actually late-game areas that will kill you outright for daring to enter because they're gated by progression items that you won't get until hours later. You're handed a series of baited mousetraps and get to figure out how to progress by setting them off in sequence until you find the one that DOESN'T snap shut on you. LM1 punished overzealousness. LM2 punishes just for sake of punishing.
There were dozens of ways to brick your save file, multiple mistranslated hints and one critical hint that was omitted entirely by the translation until several patches after release and the Hell Temple equivalent is paid DLC, so all signs point to the game being a bit rushed next to the original. Puzzles are more obtuse than cryptic, exploration is more railroaded than open and more punishing than rewarding, and the whole thing is basically all of the frustration La-Mulana is known for with less if any of the satisfaction that should come with it. It looks and sounds nice, but that's about all I can give it.
The puzzles are impossible to solve without outside help and the bosses are the very meaning of frustrating. I quit the game when a boss that should have been fun turned out to be maddening.
If you like games that are consistently fun, then don't buy this one.