Long story short, it's better than the first one. You can now move the witch around, she's fairly sluggish but can still outrun any non-projectile handily. She also rezzes the hero faster if they're next to each other which is nice. This alone makes the game paradigm far more skill-based and less grindy than in the first game. Accordingly, there are now 30 levels instead of the first game's 20 and some bonus modes at the end. My gripe with how protracted the first game's final boss was and how unfair it was at the end is largely addressed, except maybe for one little detail, once again with the very final phase of the final boss where it looks like you're meant to have put a few levels into the speed stat (which I never did) to actually deal the final blow. Fortunately you can circumvent that by taking a risk and having the witch facetank some of the projectiles you have to get through to reach the boss in the end. That probably would've been a problem if not for the fact that you can also buy some time during this final phase to let the witch heal. Quite a difference going from the first game's "unbeatable" to "beaten on the first try, with some puzzlement".

Speaking of the first game's final boss, the dev clearly knew what a problem it was because if you have that save data when you start this one it starts you off talking about how you couldn't beat it and makes you redo that battle. It plays the same way so I still couldn't beat it, but at least now it rezzes you if you die and lets you get the remaining 20 or so hits in that I never managed to with vanilla settings and now it's over and done with forever. I concur.