Sei

Randomness from 7th Dimension from not too long ago.
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Warrior of Light
WoL gained some better aerial control with his Shining Wave going up into the air now. But really, not much has changed about him. He's still the standard "balanced" character that is easy to see coming and easy to predict. If anything, he was hurt by the new system because assists can punish the hell out of him and the openings he could create with a bunch of his attacks in the first one are also countered by assists. Also, with EX mode being nerfed the way it is, you can't take advantage of his great attack boosts either. Well, you can with a build, but builds like that are going to cripple you in some way.

He's still the best when in the air with his shield attacks into Bitter End, but again, predictable. Dayflash is there too, but it's kinda slow and easy to avoid. Radiant Sword got better, so it's not completely useless now.

Oh, and Ultimate Shield is a pretty damn useless attack too. The wind-up is slow, but at least it has decent range. But really, I'd only use it if you set up with an assist like Gabranth or something.

Bitter End and Shield of Light is WoL's bread and butter. Also, as always, Blue Fang is a good idea too.

Cloud
Cloud...Guess I'll start off with cosmetic stuff. Sonic Break has that epic absorb affect now that takes new players by surprise. So really you don't have to be on top of your opponent to land a hit on them anymore. Still easy to do something about, but arguably a lot more useful. Cross Cut got a lot better. I hardly used it in the first game, but I'll use it all the time now. It hunts down people a lot further now and can be pretty scary if you mess up on your dodging. Throw this on top of guard crush, it's pretty much a staple attack. Blade Beam got better. Not sure if it's faster now or if it just goes further, but it has more combat potential now. And I'm not 100% on this, but I've noticed that sometimes it seems to ignore guards. Braver sucks now and the ground version of Meteorain has evil tracking. And lastly I think his Fire and Fira stun people more. Not to sure of this cause I like Blade Beam. But the Fire spells will still be better for mindgames.

As for his new attacks, Double Cut in the air really adds something to his game. We all knew that Double Cut was that one attack in the first one that no one saw coming. Well now he has one in the air. It's a little slower, but still faster than Slashing Blow. Also, using this after rising into the air from a Climhazzard is always fun. Oh yeah. It's been awhile since I've tried, but I don't think the Climhazzard + Dodge Cancel + Slashing Blow + Omnislash v.5 combo doesn't work anymore. As for his new Meteorain in the air, it's nice because it adds some aerial game to Cloud's weak air play, but it's kinda weak because it doesn't have the great tracking that the ground version has and is really only effective if the enemy is below you, isn't moving that much, and is at a certain range.

Where Cloud really excels in 012 is utilizing Assists. In the first one, we all know that if someone was playing as Cloud, they were going to either Finishing Touch you or Omnislash you. Well in 012 it's really easy to do because you can get your assist to setup for the attack and move in for the kill. And what's more, even if your opponent tries to escape the attack with their own assist, Cloud's Finishing Touch will just rise up into the air and catch them, or his Omnislash will just pursue them and finish doing what it does.

So really, still not much on his own, but with the right assist system, he's pretty scary.

Cecil
Cecil... I don't really have much to say on because he pretty much stayed the same. Dark Knight is still a lot more useful than Paladin (not to mention more fun) and his punishment game is still where he excels at. The Searchlight to Paladin Force combo is still there and his epic stomps seem to have a bit more recovery lag on them now or something (been awhile since I played to first).

The real attraction of Cecil in 012 is his new HP attacks, Shadow Bringer and Luminous Shard. Both of them are really useful, Luminous Shard being the better one in terms of use imo, but Shadow Bringer is just soooo fun to use. It just sucks that you can have both equipped at once.

So yeah, not much to Cecil really. :/

Firion
Firion was hurt sooooooo much by the nerfing of his Rope Knife! I can not stress this enough. In the first one, you could basically just win entire matches with this, Double Trouble, and Shield Bash. I mean, it attacked through walls, it destroyed guards, and it had good range and tracking. But that kinda a personal vent.

*ahem*

That being said, I do like what they did with Firion for the most part. First of, Lord of Arms is awesome. It's fast (something Firion needs) and has good distance. Plus it just looks and sounds cool. His magic attacks got better, improving his mix-up game and playing into pressure a bit too. For the most part, I like to stick with Fire because it has good tracking. Just toss out a couple of those (more than likely your opponent will block one or two of them) and counter it when it comes back to you with Shield Bash.

Thank god they did something about Straightarrow. It's faster and it can't be deflected by a normal block anymore. This makes it usable!

Even still, Firion is a ground fighter and I think they added more emphasis on this in 012. His sword attack in the air knocks people down now (instead of being just a really fast attack in the air) and I'm pretty sure you can change up Firion's combo with the analog stick kinda like with Jecht. And speaking of Jecht, he makes a good assist for Firion alongside Gabranth and Shantotto.

What else?

Oh. Again. Another character that was hurt by the crippling of EX mode. It's still useful, just not as useful as it was in the first one due to damage reduction. But then again, that just makes Firion more balanced.

Aside from that, not much else has changed.

Yuna
Yuna is actually pretty evil.

She has a small moveset, but the moves that she does have are just so good that they just about make up for it. She's really simplistic for a mage character, but still has that feeling of overwhelming power in the hands of a competent player. She has attacks that cover all ranges, are executed relatively fast, and really none of her attacks are useless.

Her HP Attacks are what really make her amazing. All of them are pretty fast and all of them are annoying to deal with. Energy Ray has that ridiculous range, Thor Hammer punishes aerial enemies that dodge too soon, Hellfire has that surprise element to it, Diamond Dust has virtually no start up, and we all know Megaflare is just plain evil.

What's more, the fact that she has such a small move set makes it really easy to know what she can and what you want her to do. Let's face it, Yuna has some nice combo potential for a mage. Heavenly Strike into and instant Diamond Dust and Sonic Wings and what not. This can also work against her sometimes though because you learn all of her moves quicker and know what to look for. But with their speed, that less of a problem.

Her EX mode is pretty useful too, changing up her BRV attacks and adding a bit of mix up.

But, if there's one thing I've noticed, it's that Yuna is practically helpless against characters that can be more aggressive than her. She just kinda falls apart. In the end, she's still a mage and needs that distance to maintain effectiveness.

If you want to make up for her shortcomings, I recommend an assist which will kinda preoccupy the enemy.