Among my circle people hated the new characters and the characters/stages from the past. A barbarian and amazonian was seen as a step down from the dark future aesthetic of the original. That's not me though, I loved KI 2.
I think the game suffers from the general brokeness and bad balance of most 90's fighters too, although I can't remember the details. I don't remember anyone liking the new mechanics like the weird parry and everyone complained that the breaker system was simplified to just guess between kick and punch.
I see. Were there any legitimately good Western made fighting games back then? Or did the Japanese only make fighting games that stood up for competitive play?