izigame.me

It pains me to not recommend this game, because I really loved the original Road 96. It's not terrible, it's just that if you're coming from Road 96 looking for more, you'll likely get disappointed. Note: I played for 1 hour and then refunded and watched a full playthrough.
For starters, they completely removed the plot mechanic from the first game, it's now a mostly linear story. That's alright, the problem is it feels very hard to connect or care about Kaito (one of the two main characters besides Zoe) and his backstory because there is no previous connection at all. Unless you played a certain mobile game from the same studio released ages ago, and even then I doubt it makes you care particularly, as the mobile game barely contained story elements. Either way, super weird of them to expect their audience to have played that game and refuse to elaborate any further. Like, why are Zoe and Kaito friends to begin with, considering the circumstances?
As far as the gameplay, there are very few minigames or puzzles, it's mostly exploration and dialogue like the original, plus the "rythm game" sections, which are just so... mediocre. Turns out, if you take a mobile game's mechanics and port them to PC, AND EVEN DUMB THEM DOWN, it's not that fun to play. It's just so unsophisticated, like a game made for toddlers.
The setting itself is a straight downgrade, I get that the developers wanted you to truly feel the oppressiveness of the state that Zoe ran away from, but at the same time they still tried to sprinkle in some of the lighthearted/joking conversation style from the original. It just doesn't work and feels super weird, like they want you to feel tense but laugh at the same time. The original did a much better job seperating those scenes. The dream-like rythm game sections don't help either in creating a serious atmosphere, it's too arcade-y and jovial for that.
This also means that there were very few points where the game's pacing slows down and you would get to relax and really have the music and visuals pop, which were some of the best points of the original for me. There's two slow scenes at night on rooftops, which felt really reminiscent and were my personal highlights of the game, but that's about it.
The game does get slightly better in the second half, mainly because the story actually starts unfolding, but never gets to the level of the original. You don't even really end up learning that much more about Zoe's story that you didn't already know by what she told in Road 96.
Overall, it just feels uninspired. There isn't any of the magic that made the original special. The game is trying to tell a serious story, but it feels like the game doesn't even take itself serious most times. It's more like a bad comedy where nothing really matters. You came into this game looking for Zoe's backstory and some lore and you leave with even more questions, or potentially just utter disinterest because you don't care anymore.
I hope the devs can reflect on this and come back strong. The Road 96 universe and characters deserve it, and they already showed they are capable developers with the original. Speaking of which, the original has decent replay value, so for now I'd recommend doing just that if you ever feel like returning to Petria. You're not missing out on anything by skipping Mile 0.