Still playing and can't really say much because nearly everything is spoilers for someone who hasn't played any Uta or finished 2 but they are indeed cooking. Haku is shaping up to be a goated protagonist if they weren't already

Not that far in yet, but man while Nekone's voice acting was good already we get another dimension to it here (surprise surprise Inori Minase is good). I also really appreciate the extra expressions a lot of characters seem to have in addition to increased staging if I'm not imagining things?

I have listened to 恋夢 a healthy amount of times after the ending

Is that who I think it is at the end of the opening? It's been so long if it is and I would be so glad to see them again. Opening goes hard btw

Kimigatame coming back in the climax was so cool. I was so into it I didn't even fully realize it at the time until I found myself humming it or reflecting back on it

Wow, that's why it's called "Mask of Deception"...

Peak

I'm close to the end of Uta2, and I see why the entire synopsis for Uta3 is spoiler text. 30-40 hours of characterization, manageable conflict, and world-building into greatly elevating the stakes with everything so far in the series. And there's a whole game left.
It's early, but dare I say; Peak.

Another lullaby with more-than-likely long-running emotional/story weight has entered the series. I love every time things like this have shown up so far.

The Tatari are way more unsettling in Uta2 than Uta1, where it was kinda a reveal, but otherwise they got their loredrop and didn't do much else. The new sound/voice work for them, and seeing some people personally affected by it does a lot more to make the whole thing a bit more unsettling

Hit me with some Uta1 music and a nice moonlight chat with Ukon into a new piece of music I hadn't heard yet when the conversation gets more personal. That scene was so good, and I sense the plot is about to actually really get going (~35-40 hours in lol)

The voice acting in Uta2 is such a step up from Uta1, especially for the protagonist. Some of these deliveries have me laughing. This and either the localization and/or the dialogue writing is clearly a step up between the two as well

Interacting more with Nosuri and wondering if all evankuruugans are like this or if a second "mana-transferesque scene from the first game" has hit the canon

My personal rating system is "recommend" or "do not recommend", and the rating changes depending on the audience. The interesting conversation comes from why or what for I would advocate either "score" for a given person

Seeing familiar faces and man the art glowup between Uta1 and Uta2 is insane