I have some mixed feelings about the Ys 2 anime. The art in this is show is very beautiful, and I think it's probably on par with record of lodoss war, however I think the direction was generally pretty lacking in episodes 2 and 3, very specifically in 3. It was fun, but you won't feel very connected to the characters at all. I know this is all part of OVA syndrome, but they really tried to cram as much as they could from the game. Don't get me wrong, I do think they overall re-wrote the story in a way that should have worked, just the execution still felt quite undercooked, as if they animated an summary rather than a story. Many of the scenes just felt like they had no weight. The voice acting was great, though the script/translation seemed to be lacking (there was a point where they called the "Bell Tower" "Dharm Tower"... seems like a pretty obvious mistake to me). My last rag on this anime was the music. Falcom music is everything to me, and I think because I know these songs so well, it sorta broke the immersion a little bit. It did make me fall in love with "The Morning Glow/Endless History" though lol. HOWEVER, when episode 4 hit, oh my goodness gracious that was really REALLY GOOD. Lilia's scenes had me on the edge of my seat, and the fantastic performances by all the english VA's was also really great. I like how Lilia was written so much more in this anime than I did in the game. And although I think Lilia stole the show here, Adol's character is quite good as well. His personality in this show is pretty proactive, and if I remember everything properly, about the previous anime, I liked him better here.
I saw the anime for the original a while ago and i forgor. From what I remember it was pretty close to the game but very cheap looking. It was okay. Idk if i feel like doing a full review though.
Anyway watch Ys II it's worth it for episode 4 alone. This show serves as a pretty fun accompaniment to the game if nothing else. I actually like the story so much that I'm even more motivated to play Ys II special now since I heard that that game adapts this anime.