I agree with the characters.
Travelling around the world wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a monster every few steps. If only you could map avoid to a button on the world map, or got a hard avoid that costs twice as much and works twice as long. Other than that, while it's not that long to get to a specific spot, the problem is that there are a lot more "dead ends" in GS2 than GS1, and I found all too late that R brings up the world map view [found out once I got the ship]. I mean, monster encounters aren't so bad when you are at the right level, but when you are going back through an old place, they aren't even worth my time.
Best part was that I skipped Airs Rock [I didn't even GUESS that I had to go there], came across so many reveal spots and I had to grind to beat Briggs, and I had to read a guide to see that I skipped something.
Going to a specific spot is faster in GS2 post Piers, but you are not given any hint on where to go, or any hint on where to go to find something, so often I had to go to both ends of the map twice and multiple dead end dungeons before I found a dungeon that I could go through. That, and GS2's map is larger, the locations are much closer together in GS1 pre-Gondowan.
I still liked the game, but that alone was enough to sink it below the first for me. Though, I have a fondness for partially non-linear games [GS1 is a bit non-linear, but with a more set dungeon order]. Full non-linear games with a high monster encounter rate that takes you away from exploration piss me off.
