Yep, essentially. It's a good continuation of the movie monster trope that KI established. Now we have a mummy, golem and an onryo to add to our robot, werewolf, skeleton.
The original KI was kusoge trash that really only got the praise for it's--at the time--impressive graphics and incredible music. Cinder was a broken character to the point where people outright hated him and got neglected In the sequel, the game in comparison to KI2 was incredibly slow/momentum less and the metagame/neutral plat is nonexistent. This was remedied in KI2 but there was still core issues with the combat. Not to mention the games never got arcade perfect ports in their times up until now to really learn and experience the games. SNES KI and KIG are completely differenr from the arcade run.
But here's my point: 2 set a beter foundation for what the new series establishes. The game is faster, linking combos feels more natural and doesnt fall under a dial-a-combo mechanic like the previous titles did.
I cannot, with good conscience say that S2 is worse than S1. Adding the recapture system, air breakers, and rebalancing that WORKS saved the games competitve edge. Yes the characters in S2 lack the quality of S1--but that's mostly because its a new team. Hisako is a symbol of IG's improvement and thats something I can appreciate.
But hey

maybe I just like soulless, dead and irrelevant games.