There are 2 dumps of Gradius 2 I know of. I'll check if they are that different. I'll also test out the ips patch. I'll edit or post again when I have tested.
Edit: Initial tests with my Gradius 2 (J) show good sprites and all, really everything looked flawless, on Nestopia so far. I will test on Powerpak next. But I compared the alternate dump of Gradius 2. It seems to have a different CHR. CRC32 is 7E31C1D7. That's for the CHR, not the whole rom. Rom name was Gradius 2 (J) [a1].nes
Oddly, the program roms are identical. And there's no visible difference. But i'm not sure if it wouldn't work on it. I'll test it later. But so far it looks like you've done a great job, now I just need a game genie code to help me play through the whole game.
Edit:
From NESTopia
File: Gradius 2 (J).nes
Directory: D:\ROMS\NesFC\Japan\
CRC: 0x5ADBF660
Region: NTSC
Board/Chips: KONAMI VRC4 Y
Mapper: 25
PRG-ROM: 128k, CRC: 0xC71D4CE7
CHR-ROM: 128k, CRC: 0x537B6F6A
Mirroring: Mapper Controlled
Battery: No
Trainer: No
Condition: Good
---
File: Gradius 2 (J) [a1].nes
Directory: D:\ROMS\NesFC\Japan\
CRC: 0x779158DD
Region: NTSC
Board/Chips: KONAMI VRC4 Y
Mapper: 25
PRG-ROM: 128k, CRC: 0xC71D4CE7
CHR-ROM: 128k, CRC: 0x7E31C1D7
Mirroring: Mapper Controlled
Battery: No
Trainer: No
Condition: Good
Both work with the MMC3 ips. Atleast they play into the first level.
About the status bar, it stays where it should, except when there are alot of sprites on screen. Then it will glitch. I'll have to try the original rom to see if that happened in it or not. But it's still perfectly playable. Haven't tried it on Powerpak yet.
GTSVLGLA - Start with 99 Lives