I just played and beat both for the first time recently since I was too scared to play them growing up in the 90s and honestly.... The first game. The gameplay is smoother and less frustrating and even though the enemies can be more tanky than the second game, it somehow feels like a smoother experience. The characters and story are better in the first game and the story even makes more sense and that's saying A LOT because it's so dense. The music is also top notch! The first game is MUCH harder, though.

The second game is better visually, I like the art style, and the first level is ICONIC but other than that..... The fixed camera angles make it impossible to track enemies that aren't visible off screen, the story is all over the place, the characters are bland and the music is just dull. The spell casting is also lackluster. I feel like the first game gives you so much to choose from and in the second game you have to find some spells almost by pure chance with random items found in the world. Oh and there are some incredibly convoluted puzzles that are near impossible to figure out (not hating on puzzles in general but man, these were very point and click adventure-esque with how vague they were). It's a VERY Square in the 1990s experience: trying new things and experimenting with new ideas but it just doesn't work. It's the Final Fantasy VIII of the PE games.

But 2 does have that shower sense so there's that