>>724587528
It does have probably my favorite track in the game. I didn't find it tedious to explore, though, and I'm not sure where you're coming from there outside of the climbing sections in the second area. I think the only place I found kind of annoying was Hiori+Mio's heartscape where you occasionally have to mess around with the switches again to access certain areas.

>Rena herself is also probably the most boring character, being a straight man cliche
That was my initial assessment of her, but I thought she was fleshed out pretty well over the course of the game. She's not quite one of my favorite characters, but I ended up liking her a fair bit. At the very least I found her more interesting than Shiho, Mio, or Kokoro.

>>724587757
>BR2's appeal is having actually interesting worlds to explore
I actually prefer the aesthetics of the commons to the various heartscapes. There is less variety, though, and less of a sense of exploration since you aren't so much traversing the commons as getting warped to one particular area to complete a simple task and then leaving.