You feel after every battle as if you've just barely won with one second or two able to make all the difference, an effect that keeps things taut throughout. Victories in battle don't feel like victories as much as they feel like survival, a superb way to integrate that sort of feature into a horror game. Though the combat evolution is appreciated, it in no way assuages the uncomfortable feeling that permeates Little Nightmares II. That feeling's explored in different ways throughout Little Nightmares II, but your first encounter is a special one. Everything up until that point had certainly been disturbing enough, but seeing the signature stretchiness of Little Nightmares II's inhabitants in person for the first time is enough to make you hold your breath and think on the fly while you try to adapt to these broken laws of anatomy.
Take the Teacher, for example, a recurring enemy in Little Nightmares II who's one of the first boss-type creatures players come across. The puzzle-platformer nature of Little Nightmares II with its unique mastery of the grotesque feels like something that's best experienced the first time, so I'm happy to experience the evolved and refined product first and go back to the original later should the desire arise (and it likely will).
I never played the first Little Nightmares, but after playing through the sequel and having seen plenty of the original, I think I might prefer it that way.