Yes, I totally agree that Devil Survivor 2 does a lot of things that are really great. I totally agree that seeing characters be influenced by characters not Hiro was really poignant, because it really feels that the friendship doesn't hinge on the MC keystone, which is the gripe I had with Persona 3.
What's also really cool (that you wouldn't have gotten on your first playthrough) is that when you pick a route, Hiro's dialogue choices also reflect the choice he makes. If you compare his dialogue options with Yamato's route to his dialogue in, say, Anguished One's route, you'll see that Hiro's dialogue changes to reflect his merit system views. You see bits of this when he talks to Yamato in Yamato's Fate dialogues, too.
I think part of why DeSu 2 feels easier (which you touched on with DeSu 1's unfair diffculty) is there are few escort quests. And when there are, generally the guest characters are somewhat competent. And the people without demons generally don't die in one hit. DeSu 2 also generally gives you more options than DeSu 1, so there's that, too.
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What's also really cool (that you wouldn't have gotten on your first playthrough) is that when you pick a route, Hiro's dialogue choices also reflect the choice he makes. If you compare his dialogue options with Yamato's route to his dialogue in, say, Anguished One's route, you'll see that Hiro's dialogue changes to reflect his merit system views. You see bits of this when he talks to Yamato in Yamato's Fate dialogues, too.
I think part of why DeSu 2 feels easier (which you touched on with DeSu 1's unfair diffculty) is there are few escort quests. And when there are, generally the guest characters are somewhat competent. And the people without demons generally don't die in one hit. DeSu 2 also generally gives you more options than DeSu 1, so there's that, too.
But you're still a jerk, just so you know.