Originally, I wasn't a big fan of the first installment, with its
cloying setting and uneven storytelling. I wasn't expecting
this game to be as good as it is, but I'm happy to eat crow.
on the one hand, the writing is exceptionally good, with a
particularly darker bent than the first game's feel-good tone.
and on the other, the combat is exponentially cleaner and
tighter than any of its modern jrpg contemporaries.
hot take: Temenos and Crick are boyfriends, right?
cloying setting and uneven storytelling. I wasn't expecting
this game to be as good as it is, but I'm happy to eat crow.
on the one hand, the writing is exceptionally good, with a
particularly darker bent than the first game's feel-good tone.
and on the other, the combat is exponentially cleaner and
tighter than any of its modern jrpg contemporaries.
hot take: Temenos and Crick are boyfriends, right?
(MY 500TH GAME LOGGED ON BACKLOGGD WOOHOO!)
I'm very happy that the greatest video game soundtrack of all time also came with a free incredible JRPG. Thanks Team Asano!
The best word I can use to describe Octopath 2 is delightful. This world, its various stories and characters, and the emotions that they evoke in the player, are all beautiful. I truly believe that this series has some of the best worldbuilding in video games right now.
I really enjoyed Octopath 1, but I had to always tell people to play the game for its combat, worldbuilding and music, instead of for its characters and story. I'm very happy that I can say Octopath 2 deserves to be played for all of the above. Not every story is a home run (Osvald's started out phenomenally but it started getting extremely messy by the end, and Temenos really deserved a better story given how interesting he is as a character) but the majority are very strong. I have to shout out Partitio's and Castti's in particular. Partitio's story just kept getting better and better until he was my definitive favorite character. Castti's chapter 3 is probably the best chapter in the game and chapter 4 genuinely made me cry.
I won't talk too much about the ending but I will say that the revelations were extremely interesting and the interactions between all eight characters were fantastic. The atmosphere and music were top notch in the final act, too. And of course, the final boss is a banger. It might be one of my favorite final fights in any game ever. Even the very last ending scene had me grinning like an idiot at 2 in the morning.
I struggle to think of what they can improve on if they were to make an Octopath 3, other than tiny quality of life stuff (the random encounter rate is a little high and got frustrating often), but that's just a testament to how fantastic this turned out. Please play this!!!!
I'm very happy that the greatest video game soundtrack of all time also came with a free incredible JRPG. Thanks Team Asano!
The best word I can use to describe Octopath 2 is delightful. This world, its various stories and characters, and the emotions that they evoke in the player, are all beautiful. I truly believe that this series has some of the best worldbuilding in video games right now.
I really enjoyed Octopath 1, but I had to always tell people to play the game for its combat, worldbuilding and music, instead of for its characters and story. I'm very happy that I can say Octopath 2 deserves to be played for all of the above. Not every story is a home run (Osvald's started out phenomenally but it started getting extremely messy by the end, and Temenos really deserved a better story given how interesting he is as a character) but the majority are very strong. I have to shout out Partitio's and Castti's in particular. Partitio's story just kept getting better and better until he was my definitive favorite character. Castti's chapter 3 is probably the best chapter in the game and chapter 4 genuinely made me cry.
I won't talk too much about the ending but I will say that the revelations were extremely interesting and the interactions between all eight characters were fantastic. The atmosphere and music were top notch in the final act, too. And of course, the final boss is a banger. It might be one of my favorite final fights in any game ever. Even the very last ending scene had me grinning like an idiot at 2 in the morning.
I struggle to think of what they can improve on if they were to make an Octopath 3, other than tiny quality of life stuff (the random encounter rate is a little high and got frustrating often), but that's just a testament to how fantastic this turned out. Please play this!!!!
What I came out of from this game was, I really want an Octopath game with a serious, real writer. More than any other recent rpg I can think of, this game really encourages you to play with its systems and worlds in creative ways and it rewards you for it. There is always something over that hill, past that door, and that's what carries the game through the early and mid sections.
The stories of the travelers themselves range from dull to deranged. Partitio's in particular is this absolutely bonkers random events plot about building shopping malls to abolish the concept of intellectual property(I'm not joking) and its so good just because you never know what the fuck is happening next. The one narrative thing the game does well is the "hype moments", all the travelers get their moment to shine, their cool little boss battle moments(Agnea, who has the least interesting story, has the best one). And it all wraps together in a way that is executed well for as well-played the tropes are.
Which I guess is the problem and why I can't put more heart into the game. Its the perfect example of a game where the game is just missing that ambition, that bit of magical quality to elevate from "pretty good" to "greatest of all time". I think if they hired a more ambitious writer, or went harder in the ludonarrative aspects of the gameplay, they could get there--the team has the talent, clearly.
Still, its a massive step up from Octopath 1 and that is worth applauding. Fun game.
The stories of the travelers themselves range from dull to deranged. Partitio's in particular is this absolutely bonkers random events plot about building shopping malls to abolish the concept of intellectual property(I'm not joking) and its so good just because you never know what the fuck is happening next. The one narrative thing the game does well is the "hype moments", all the travelers get their moment to shine, their cool little boss battle moments(Agnea, who has the least interesting story, has the best one). And it all wraps together in a way that is executed well for as well-played the tropes are.
Which I guess is the problem and why I can't put more heart into the game. Its the perfect example of a game where the game is just missing that ambition, that bit of magical quality to elevate from "pretty good" to "greatest of all time". I think if they hired a more ambitious writer, or went harder in the ludonarrative aspects of the gameplay, they could get there--the team has the talent, clearly.
Still, its a massive step up from Octopath 1 and that is worth applauding. Fun game.
Will re-review once I actually finish the main story, but so far this is an absolutely stellar game. The character storylines are subversive and varied, and the battle system is one of the best I've ever experienced in a JRPG. The huge enemy variety and overwhelming breadth of abilities means that even simple random encounters take planning and coordination, and the leveling mechanics eliminate the need to grind.
Todos os aspectos necessários pra se fazer um ótimo JRPG estão presentes aqui com absoluta mestria. OST que eleva a experiência, personagens super carismáticos e bem trabalhados e um combate original e divertido. Um dos melhores JRPGs que já joguei.
Octopath Traveler II not only surpasses the original game, but improves so much that it makes the first game seem like a proof of concept. The combat was definitely the best part of the original game and that's the thing that is arguably changed the least, but that's not bad at all! The shield break system remains one of the most addicting and fun system in any turn based RPG, on the same level as Shin Megami Tensei's press turn. It's even better than the original with fixed balancing and the addition of character's talent gauges that give each character a unique meter move, some I used far more than others but they were all very interesting.
The major improvement on the original is the stories and characters, the original had good stories but pretty generic fantasy tropes. The stories are much improved now with different chapter structures, less obvious stories, and a better cast of characters than the original. There's also a lot more traveler interactions than in the original with the major contributor being the cross paths chapters between two travelers, all really fun that build relationships between the characters. The XP gain was also a massive fix than the original, with A LOT less grinding required which is a welcome addition since the game still took me 75 hours to beat.
The visuals also are a MASSIVE improvement over the original, I thought the original looked nice but HOLY SHIT this game just ups the visuals even more with my full and complete environments. The visuals are also helped by more variety in areas and more unique areas to explore, goes from generic area types like grass and snow to old western desert, European folklore inspired forests, Feudal Japan, and literally just fucking London. This also applies to the dungeons and battle backgrounds, which repeat themes a lot less and some are actually notable now. Also, worth mentioning the music still fucks hard, like there is no bad music track in the entire fucking game.
(SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION) My only real complaint is the final chapter, not that it was bad or anything but some characters from the main story were just randomly evil the whole time and it didn't feel natural at all.
Overall, Octopath II is one of the best turn based RPGs I have ever played with fun gameplay, stories, characters, visuals, and music and any big fan of the genre should pick up this game immediately.
The major improvement on the original is the stories and characters, the original had good stories but pretty generic fantasy tropes. The stories are much improved now with different chapter structures, less obvious stories, and a better cast of characters than the original. There's also a lot more traveler interactions than in the original with the major contributor being the cross paths chapters between two travelers, all really fun that build relationships between the characters. The XP gain was also a massive fix than the original, with A LOT less grinding required which is a welcome addition since the game still took me 75 hours to beat.
The visuals also are a MASSIVE improvement over the original, I thought the original looked nice but HOLY SHIT this game just ups the visuals even more with my full and complete environments. The visuals are also helped by more variety in areas and more unique areas to explore, goes from generic area types like grass and snow to old western desert, European folklore inspired forests, Feudal Japan, and literally just fucking London. This also applies to the dungeons and battle backgrounds, which repeat themes a lot less and some are actually notable now. Also, worth mentioning the music still fucks hard, like there is no bad music track in the entire fucking game.
(SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION) My only real complaint is the final chapter, not that it was bad or anything but some characters from the main story were just randomly evil the whole time and it didn't feel natural at all.
Overall, Octopath II is one of the best turn based RPGs I have ever played with fun gameplay, stories, characters, visuals, and music and any big fan of the genre should pick up this game immediately.
I dropped the first Octopath after 15 hours but ended up finishing this one all the way through. A big step up from the original but still has some of the issues. My main complaint is how the stories are still disconnected but they do come together at the end which is very nice. Otherwise, there were a lot of odd moments in the story due to the game pretending the other characters don't exist during someone's story. In terms of character writing, I enjoyed half of the character stories and thought the other 4 were just decent - mid.
The gameplay, exploration, and combat is a ton of fun and carried this game hard. The random encounter rates can get annoying at some points and it did feel like the mid game level progression (lvls 15-30) was a slog. The end game is also ridiculously easy if you know what you're doing but its very fun to break. Aside from that, this is one of the best JRPG combat systems out there.
Overall, one of the best games of the year.
The gameplay, exploration, and combat is a ton of fun and carried this game hard. The random encounter rates can get annoying at some points and it did feel like the mid game level progression (lvls 15-30) was a slog. The end game is also ridiculously easy if you know what you're doing but its very fun to break. Aside from that, this is one of the best JRPG combat systems out there.
Overall, one of the best games of the year.
Very serviceable if somewhat unambitious sequel to a solid first game. By far the best part is the fact that it's a modern RPG that's absolutely bursting with towns, secret areas, and cool turn based abilities to unlock - just proves that this old school style still has its place. The combat system is also tuned just about perfectly, and the ending encounters genuinely force you to consider all of your tactical options in a really fun way. Story is still nothing to write home about which has so far been the biggest flaw of this series.
Total playtime: 103 hours.
There is nothing bad that I can say about Octopath Traveler II. The developers improved every criticism I had about the first game and delivered a truly remarkable gaming experience.
There is nothing bad that I can say about Octopath Traveler II. The developers improved every criticism I had about the first game and delivered a truly remarkable gaming experience.
While the first Octopath Traveler wasn't perfect, I thought it was a wonderful little game. The introduction of the HD-2D style, 8 little contained stories with a couple of memorable characters, a good soundtrack, and a fairly satisfying turn-based combat system. Octopath Traveler 2 improves vastly upon its predecessor in every conceivable way.
The game takes place in Solistia, a country split across two continents. Similar to the first game, you pick a starting character to serve as your MC, and wander around the world picking up your other party members and experiencing their stories. The major criticism that many people levied against the first game was the lack of party interaction. There were brief little scenes you could see if you went out of your way to watch them at taverns, but they didn't really feel connected to each other for 99% of the game. In OT2, most major story beats will have a set of banter scenes you can view depending who is in your party (and all of them are available to watch through the menu). During battle, when a party member breaks an enemy, there is also a high chance that the next party member up to attack will directly compliment them for it. Additionally, there are four pairings of the main characters who have their own little side stories together. These extra little scenes, interactions, and scenarios really help the party feel closer to each other.
From a gameplay perspective, the major new addition is the day/night system. Different enemies, different party effects, different NPCs, and even different music(!) take effect depending on the time of day, and this is brilliantly tied to the push of a button so you can freely toggle it at any time. The combat is largely the same as in the first game, complete with a job system to mix and match to your preferences. There are some other pleasant surprises too that you will come across during your travels from dungeons, to job guilds, to COUNTLESS major cities and towns that truly reward your exploration.
One other key bit of gameplay that I'd like to touch on is the design of the side quests. Each NPC that has a side quest is marked on your map, however no markers are made as to the objectives themselves. The player must use the quest givers descriptions, or often context given by nearby NPCs for hints on where you can go to complete it. While a handful of them were obtuse enough that I looked up a guide, I ended up actually taking notes to remember who wanted what and where I could potentially find it. It was honestly refreshing to have a reason to do something like that again, which made me want to complete as many of them as I could.
This game also features yet another incredible OST and since every area features a day/night version of each song, I have no doubt it's their longest. One final improvement over the original I would like to highlight is the characters. Each and every one of them is memorable and goes through a unique and fairly developed story with different stakes. They are all special in their own way, and even the one I felt goes a little too far off the deep end still ends up being really cool and memorable in its own way.
For fans of the turn-based genre, Octopath Traveler 2 is absolutely worth your time. I only left a couple of major things left undone, but my final playtime clocked in around 75 hours so there is a LOT of meat to the game. I hope they get to keep making these and maybe shake things up again in an OT3 down the road.
The game takes place in Solistia, a country split across two continents. Similar to the first game, you pick a starting character to serve as your MC, and wander around the world picking up your other party members and experiencing their stories. The major criticism that many people levied against the first game was the lack of party interaction. There were brief little scenes you could see if you went out of your way to watch them at taverns, but they didn't really feel connected to each other for 99% of the game. In OT2, most major story beats will have a set of banter scenes you can view depending who is in your party (and all of them are available to watch through the menu). During battle, when a party member breaks an enemy, there is also a high chance that the next party member up to attack will directly compliment them for it. Additionally, there are four pairings of the main characters who have their own little side stories together. These extra little scenes, interactions, and scenarios really help the party feel closer to each other.
From a gameplay perspective, the major new addition is the day/night system. Different enemies, different party effects, different NPCs, and even different music(!) take effect depending on the time of day, and this is brilliantly tied to the push of a button so you can freely toggle it at any time. The combat is largely the same as in the first game, complete with a job system to mix and match to your preferences. There are some other pleasant surprises too that you will come across during your travels from dungeons, to job guilds, to COUNTLESS major cities and towns that truly reward your exploration.
One other key bit of gameplay that I'd like to touch on is the design of the side quests. Each NPC that has a side quest is marked on your map, however no markers are made as to the objectives themselves. The player must use the quest givers descriptions, or often context given by nearby NPCs for hints on where you can go to complete it. While a handful of them were obtuse enough that I looked up a guide, I ended up actually taking notes to remember who wanted what and where I could potentially find it. It was honestly refreshing to have a reason to do something like that again, which made me want to complete as many of them as I could.
This game also features yet another incredible OST and since every area features a day/night version of each song, I have no doubt it's their longest. One final improvement over the original I would like to highlight is the characters. Each and every one of them is memorable and goes through a unique and fairly developed story with different stakes. They are all special in their own way, and even the one I felt goes a little too far off the deep end still ends up being really cool and memorable in its own way.
For fans of the turn-based genre, Octopath Traveler 2 is absolutely worth your time. I only left a couple of major things left undone, but my final playtime clocked in around 75 hours so there is a LOT of meat to the game. I hope they get to keep making these and maybe shake things up again in an OT3 down the road.
octopath traveler was generally a game that I didnt grow enamored of granted I actually finished it even through all the fucking grinding and shit like that SO I may say that I liked it somehow
the HD 2D kinda of aesthetic kickstarted a lot of games that I do enjoy… namely live a live and thats it but that's still a feat . mixing high quality 2d pixel art and 3d environments with a lot of lighting tricks with unreal engine 4 made the game absolutely breathtaking to look at . the gameplay was also interesting for what it was a nice follow up to the raw combat system in bravely default with some incredible variety in classes and customisation and the story department was also kind of interesting dividing it in 8 parts and each telling a different story it was just incredible . until it was not due to 40 hours of grinding but that's another story
now I'm pretty happy to tell you people that all the issues I had with the original were addressed improved and expanded for a game that actually could shit in the mouth of its predecessor and leave it in a ditch if it weren't for the fact that octopath 1 still can boast the best storyline between the 2 games which is the one of primrose nothing can come close to that if you ask me thats a 10/10 and I wont even argue with people who don't think so too
let's get started with everything apart from the story since I know myself and I'm gonna get into heavy spoiler territory
listening to this again actually made me bawl my eyes out im sorry i got chills through my spine and i started crying i dont even like octopath 1 that much idk why that happened
most important part I had an issue with in the first game was the gameplay aspect and let me tell you people in the audience this game's gameplay is absolutely insane
largely the skeleton of the gameplay was kept the same as the original: its a traditional jrpg where you level up go through all the entirety of the world to get some new mates for your journey here and there listen to their story battle a lot and explore the shit out of every nook and cranny but the experience was enhanced to hell and back
the main combat is still fun as shit you can use that option to do a x2 x3 x4 enhancement of the action you will take or guard or attack to get more points or whatever this is fun and also makes for a great deal of strategising here and there where you can get 30.000 points of damage like nothing happened
so yeah whatever that's the main gimmick the other stuff is usual jrpg combat stuff PLUS the job system every single character has a class and unique abilities that you can use in battle and this also was present in the original one but got really upgraded to accommodate more interesting mechanics and not make some classes completely useless PLUS you can get a second class and really explore the incredible customization of this game also theres some new special classes which are really interesting and shrines here and there that can unlock special skills for each traveler and guilds to unlock new secondary jobs
that being said this is the combat now the other parts of the game actually concentrate on exploring and doing shit in the overworld here and there and when I tell you that after getting all the characters I spent like 40 hours just exploring and do dungeons I was so overlevelled that the chapter requirements were like LVL 15 and hikari was LVL 70 I went absolutely crazy I entered a trance like state and woke up with everyone getting 60 more levels whatever
so my main issue with the first game was 1) the incredibly slow leveling up 2) the super boring exploration 3) the tiring usage of characters abilities when interacting with NPCs and while not really a gameplay element 4) the samey dungeons
issue addressed you can level up pretty fast and with the new time mechanic you can generally travel the world during nighttime to make you level up faster (I basically had the night toggled all the time) so I could actually not kill myself this time
everywhere in the world map theres something to explore and it rewards your exploration sense and there's literally stuff to do in every corner side quests (they're still boring but they're something) challenging and interesting dungeons new towns to visit and literally chests on chests on chests
the skills of each character are still boring because you have to use them over and over again to steal get informations have steamy sex with someone and then use them in battle BUT since this game has the day and night thing at least theres some nuance to using particular skills for the day and others for the night do whatever
the designs of the dungeons for the original one were like 5 and reused for the entirety of the game this time theres a SHIT TON of different dungeons that have such a distinct feeling from one another so were so happy to be here
that being said we can talk about art design
this game is beautiful no point to argue about that and possibly even better than the first one in both art design art direction 3d environments and sprites theres literally NO bad sprite in this game and let's talk about boss sprites because those one are incredible im gonna talk about them during the route parts later you can't escape from hornyposting
in the first game those were usually just pngs moving a little to emulate movement but this time they actually have different sprites for different animations and thats cool as fuck I can remember vividly the mother in thrones route doing a gorgeous whipping animation and probably other stuff that I don't remember I played this some time ago I always take too long to make reviews
so anyway yeah every single part of the game is a painting the animation is great the towns and dungeons are filled to the brim with details and as I said the dungeons and also battle backgrounds are way way way better and diverse and I'm really happy about this
the music is also the one of the best parts of the entire experience but I don't have to be the one to tell you since octopath 1 had a lot of videos about the transitions between character themes and boss battles themes and YEAH theyre good as shit but wait a second I need to point out at least my fav themes or else I will explode
tempest on the battlefield was the very first song I heard in my experience with this game and it stuck with me so much so that I was always thinking about it in my playthrough and every time it would show up again I would cum all over my room I love this theme so fucking much its unreal I'm so glad I chose hikari
side note every single character theme is great (ochettes perfect) but they get taken down by square super fast so it's pointless to give you a link just listen to the ultra compilation
normal battle III is the one that makes me sweat more out of the 3 themes and the combo of electric guitar and strings was purposefully made to make me orgasm so I cannot do anything else but surrender
critical clash I is probably my fav ones of the two and it's really just because it's more heavy tone and has so many different vibes thrown into it and the beat is fucking sick and the string is fucking sick and the song is fucking sick
i unironically listen to fierce confrontation everyday dont @ me
so whatever all the songs are sick just listen to the illegal soundtrack online or play the game the fuck
so I guess it's time to talk about stories so here's my completely unbiased opinion in a handy tierlist
Tier S
Ochette (10), Hikari (9.5), Castti (9)
Tier A
Osvald (8.5)/Temenos (8.5)
Tier B
Throné (8)/Partitio (8), Agnea (7.5)
Ex
Ochette x Castti > Hikari x Agnea > Temenos x Throné > Osvald x Partitio
numbers don't mean anything it was just a way to keep track while playing what stories I liked more than the others
for this I'll also talk about each characters ost so you can check them here in this mega ost stuff thing and talk about them from best to worst be advised that the ones on the bottom aren't to be considered as BAD I just needed to make a tierlist and some of them would've to be in the bottom
so there's gonna be spoiler talk so SPOILER WARNING youre advised
OCHETTE
starting with ochette i can tell you that shes absolutely my fav character out of the entirety of the cast every time she says がお I cry like a fucking bitch she's funny and charming and goofy but also definitely a sweetheart at core and cares for everybody so i was already biased to begin with but her story is such a fucking blast from start to finish and has some of the most interesting tropes I see in videogames
as a hunter I also had so much fun playing with her also BECAUSE she can capture basically every single enemy and use their unique skills in battle and when I tell you at one point in the game I captured the mega shark or whatever I was basically living my best life with an assured 9999 damage once per battle
ochette comes from a village of half beasts that inhabit a forest in an island and shes also the successor of the head of this clan who funnily enough is a fucking lion that talks whatever so shit happens and they find out there's gonna come a red moon and its gonna bring destruction and the rebirth of something something evil and thats it
IMPORTANT ! at the beginning of her route the head clan will ask you to choose between either an owl OR a … fox ? what's akala ? I think he's a fox but also I think he's HOT AS FUCK LIKE umg sorry maybe I should not say that here ok anyway hes really the best choice of the 2 since people told me the owl acts as a younger sister and akela acts as an older brother and im really … interested in this relationship like umh …. yeah
so whatever semi beasts are also fighting for their land against a bunch of humans trying to take this land from them whatever not important the important thing is to contrast the red moon war flashbacks of botw and anyway you have to get the 3 sacred beasts back to the main land and do shit and then you get like 3 chapter 2 for each beast thats cool as fuck I mean due to levels differences probably you will get the recommended order but apart from that so cool
the sea guardian made me cry even if the quest has zero tension since no boss battles its cool anyway the volcano guardian made me horny … sorry and has a super bomb design and boss battle and the ice guardian also made me cry and also has an incredible boss battle I really like every single one of these chapters honestly
then you get back to the main land and the guardians all gather while the red moon arises you fight with hordes of monsters until you face the beast that you left behind in the beginning of the story and now its up to ochette to give them a good ending … IM SORRY THIS IS TOO MUCH I LOVE THIS ROUTE SO DEARLY I CRIED LIKE A BITCH AT THAT FINAL ENDING I HAD GOOSEBUMPS ALL OVER UGHHHHHHH THIS GAME ISTG
anyway since I chose akala instead of mahina I had to face mahina and it was damn fucking epic but I gotta say that feral akala is kinda hot im sorry I should say these things here alright
anyhow ochette saves the day everyone is happy the sexy lion boss says ochette is gonna be the next head of the tribe and the humans say alright we're gonna stop this war between us or something and then the end
I loved this route from beginning to end there was no dead moment every single chapter was packed back to back back to back thats fucking absurd ok anyway moving on or else I'm gonna stay here forever
HIKARI
hikari was my choice as the protagonist and I couldn't be happier being a warrior I was already interested in getting him super buffed for some incredible damage each turn and WHAT THE FUCK he's a BEAST after you get the arms master class he's basically your main character for damage he's gonna get some incredible numbers after you remove the 9999 cap and he's also a hunk to boot im absolutely free and I could suck your dick all day long if you want hikari hmu
as a warrior you can guess whats gonna happen and 2 seconds in his route he gets in a battlefield with my FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND UGHHHHHH I was already hooked I had no chance but Stan
after that shit you get a tale of betrayal between a royal family hikari is the successor of the current king of land of ku until his brother succeeds in a regicide and he's left to just run away
this was a great beginning for his story really full of hype I cannot really say that this hype will be up for the entire route theres some boring events here and there with hikari recruiting some people and the pacing gets back up probably when you have to get the girl from the other clan like that's probably where the events begin to unravel faster but this all pays out when you get to the final confrontation
here and there hikari will get delusions and voices in his head due to a homicidal other personality which is like due to his cursed blood or something so yeah when you get to battle against your brother its also gonna be a battle against hikaris self and shit so whatever this was really emotional and I ended up having goosebumps all throughout the final boss which was also the FINAL boss of all the routes I did so it was an incredible conclusion of the journey if you ask me
also can I say that hikaris brother is kinda hot like in particular his demon form
CASTTI
cassti is a weird case since I wasn't really vibing with her entire plotline until really late in the route not because it was bad but because I really didn't get what it was going to be
her being a whats the name ….. I don't remember the name in english ok anyway speziale is really half the character since she cares for others really tries her best to put people first and herself second and thats something in common with alfyn but the thing is alfyn was extremely hot and tempting and she is kind of an enigmatic character also due to the fact that her story revolves around her memory loss issues and shit like that so
slowly you begin to realise that she actually was part of a big group of potion people I still dont remember the name and after the chapter of the mother and daughter YKNOW THE ONE GOD FUCK LOED UGHHHHH I CRIED SO MUCH DAMN you realise that the girl who kept on following her and was allegedly one of her companions was a actually just her delusion and in reality the group of people she was a boss of was already dead and that point all my hair fell off everything made sense and my life and heart were completely ruined I hate this game with a passion
you get to know theres another herb user guy who just goes around spreading death because he's like omg why the fuck are we helping people out if they're gonna die anyway let's just kill all of them which is honestly kind of a weird statement to say but I guess it does make sense for the character whatever anyway cazzi goes there and says actually I didn't say this but I call her cazzi because it means dicks in italian and its pretty similar sounding to cassti moving on she battles with this guy saves the day and she's left with absolutely nothing but loneliness and the dread of recovering her entire memory and realising her companions all vanished from her life and so the team said ok let's just give them some more reason to cry and put her theme which is already sad as fuck and put an illustration of her surrounded by ghosts of her mates who the fuck im sorry
great story possibly my fav one in terms of how much mental distress it gave me 9/10 deserved
no hunks here unfortunately but the legion head guy sounds kinda hot yknow the one
OSVALD
osvald is such a weird contrast from what the cyrus route was in the first game there cyrus was actually treated almost like a prince he just fucks around all day being surrounded by chicks and studies everything in his damn books and then here ? they made osvald and said ok we are gonna put this guy through hell literally we are gonna ruin his life so much hes gonna be pitiful throughout the game and so scarred that the most character interactions he'll have they're gonna be pointing out him being silent af
this route begins with osvald making an escape from prison and this was caused by his bestie who he thought was genuinely sharing his knowledge for a research but was actually just trying to exploit him to take possession of the research and then just push him aside burning his house down killing his wife and daughter and then getting him arrested and put in jail honestly what a fucking master plan my guy that being said after escaping the entire route concentrates on giving more context to the relationship between this guy and dio brando which is kind of an homosexual relationship like the one jojo and dio have so it's all good and then just pursuing this guy all around the land until you discover that osvalds daughter actually alive and being mindbroken by dio so you go there and open his ass apart and everything is good until osvald just decides to live his little girl behind like why would you do that I'm sorry but anyway I still want to suck your dick … osvald please give me your junk I cannot do this anymore
anyway this route is kind of a mess but in a good sense I love how much they make osvald suffer im sorry if that sounds controversial teehee siamo ragazzi
I love men
TEMENOS
temenos is don matteo but japanese its literally that italian fiction but in a videogame if you for some reason know what I'm talking about you will get the reference that being said this is temenos just having a lot of gay sex
while ophilia was the pure and humble character you would expect from a religious figure temenos acts as an absolute contrast from that design he's shrewd he's malicious and he's cunning and all these are actually good aspects of his personality he's really a sight to behold since the religious person being actually fat from the canonic stereotype of the usual religious figure is one of the most interesting tropes around if you ask me
being a priest or something from a small town he lives his life as a town figure until obviously hell breaks and he has to cooperate with fellow knight creek to solve a political intrigue with some ties to cultist shit
now the investigative sequences were cool as fuck but what was actually cooler is the fact that temenos and creek have such a great chemistry like every time temenos calls creek little lamb you can really feel the sexual tension skyrocket I'm not even joking yall these 2 fuck and they fuck pretty hard while the hometown girlie friend of temenos gets cucked to hell and back
so whatever since square enix said too much homosexuality they killed creek and honestly I'm pretty mad about it since I wouldve honestly liked to suck his dick after the final battle but alright so anyway temenos goes to the guild master or whatever fucks her up and avenges her boyfriend back the end
interesting not too shabby
THRONÉ
femme fatale throné has some of the weirdest plot twists in history and I genuinely am still confused at what happened in her story but anyway
shes from a guild of thieves where orphans are trained into full-fledged ATTENZIONE PICKPOCKET and shit like that and the main figures are mother and father now throné at one point realises shits going down in this guild due to the fact that his bestie aka possible lover got killed (by her lmao) and so she goes on a quest to murder both father and mother
apart from mother being absolutely batshit crazy you can tell that father was actually the more full-fledged character since he got a damn good backstory if I do say so myself and thats like the highest point of the route for me like killing her father is something that reminded me of primrose so alls good
after that she has to follow leads to get to her real father which you find out is not only in a hidden village in the sky that you can only get with a whats the name in english whatever funivia and when you get there the huge plottwist is that his father is alucard castlevania and fucked a lot of human women for reasons ? so whatever you go there and fuck him up
now being a carbon copy of alucard he's pretty hot and I gotta say he also has one of the greatest boss sprites in the game so that's fine my real issue is that there was no foreshadowing to this ? like idk if I missed something but I don't think there's any reason to think that this plottwist has any sense in the plotline since the route was going completely elsewhere until chapter 4 but whatev3r I digress
still a great route and also the first one I finished so I had a good time with it
PARTITIO
now partitio is probably my favorite character of the bunch after ochette he's charismatic he's upbeat energetic and hunky hot and intelligent cunning and good willed and I am still looking for him on rule34 until I get satisfied
so why is he in the bottom mmmmm im not really a fan of the merchant stories in octopath traveler tressa was interesting but nowhere near some other routes in that game and the premise of yeah I do business usually falls flat for me since there's not gonna be a lot of plottwists or intrigue for a foundation like this one
you follow partitio since his childhood and his father's quest to build a village from zero after some sick timeskip you realise that 1) partitio became hot as fun 2) the village was completed 3) they are knee deep in debt so it's up to partitio to seek the one responsible to this which was also the business companion of his father
so yeah after some business ™ and really chill route progression you get to the ISLAND yeah the guy bought an island and fuck him up or better youre gonna fuck his locomotive up????? shits crazy I tell you what the hell
whatever you beat him you do some more business ™ and everyone's happy now that partitio is on top of his company and also on top of me god bless the end
this route is cool the side quests where you get the boat and shit are interesting and break the pace of the route but still it's not that much of a great route as I wanted it to be partitio as a character carried the route entirely and I still enjoyed my time with it anyway
partitio I'm single please
AGNEA
agnea is my third favorite character and it's pretty funny to me how both her and partitio are among the best characters and are both on the bottom
now before somebody comes for my neck no I don't think this route is bad in fact I think every single route in this game is delicious but of course someone had to be put in the bottom or else it wouldn't be a tierlist
maybe im biased by the fact that I wanted this to reach the same highs as primroses route but of course it would've not been possible and thats probably why they opted for another type of storyline entirely
agnea is a free spirited happy little girl with an incredible passion and talent for dancing and singing like her mother something that his father doesn't approve but of course in the hand he accepts that and its probably the most beautiful part of the route I cried like a fucking bitch at the end of the prologue and during the finale probably because an accepting father is something I don't have HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHQ LAUGH
so whatever she wants to travel the world and compose a song so here we go (she's not only very similar to tressa but also has similar motives as tressa) all around the world getting pieces and pieces
after this it's a total blank to me the route is pretty chill and steady throughout to the point that I fell asleep during the circus guys thing whatever anyway main antagonist is another dancer singer diva whatever and shes bad because plot so you fuck her up metaphorically in the final battle and boom agnea is the new diva everyones happy the end
now putting the story like this you understand how laid back it is compared to the other routes and its a shame since she's such a beautiful character I love her so dearly
idk the end
CROSSED PATHS
these ones was a great addition they put some cool ideas here and there and seeing the pairs interact was pretty interesting but its so weird how ochette and cassti are absolutely above every other
TRAVEL TALKS
i read every single one of them i went fucking crazy I love every and each one of them
SIDE QUESTS
they suck
POST GAME / FINAL QUEST
for me the finale was a big slip up in the original octopath traveler due to the fact that It was 90% retconning and infodumping on wall of texts that made me think that i wouldve just reread umineko entirely instead
now this is actually not really different but it felt more streamlined since they didn't make me fucking fight against every single boss in the game again and there's still some degree of infodump through notes but it's less than the first one so yeah whatever
the plot is not as thick as they'd like to make you believe since it's just some loose ends that they left in the main game and they connected them together also recontextualizing some characters like mindt being evil ? right whatever
that being said the lead up to the final boss was actually kind of intriguing and the final boss in itself is kind of both tough and visually stunning they hinted for vide to be the end boss and here we go its still a nice fight if you ask me
the epilogue made me a bit teary eyed I gotta say and seeing all the characters interact make for a great conclusion to this tale
i hate postgames
SECRET BOSS
i hate galdera
CONCLUSIONS
I came in my pants
the more I thought about this game and the more I loved about it not only because of the game itself but also how they managed to make such a great fucking sequel to a game that I felt was flawed in every single way and it managed to keep me returning to it every single day for the span of like 80 hours this game is fucking insane ochette get the adoption papers we're going home
the HD 2D kinda of aesthetic kickstarted a lot of games that I do enjoy… namely live a live and thats it but that's still a feat . mixing high quality 2d pixel art and 3d environments with a lot of lighting tricks with unreal engine 4 made the game absolutely breathtaking to look at . the gameplay was also interesting for what it was a nice follow up to the raw combat system in bravely default with some incredible variety in classes and customisation and the story department was also kind of interesting dividing it in 8 parts and each telling a different story it was just incredible . until it was not due to 40 hours of grinding but that's another story
now I'm pretty happy to tell you people that all the issues I had with the original were addressed improved and expanded for a game that actually could shit in the mouth of its predecessor and leave it in a ditch if it weren't for the fact that octopath 1 still can boast the best storyline between the 2 games which is the one of primrose nothing can come close to that if you ask me thats a 10/10 and I wont even argue with people who don't think so too
let's get started with everything apart from the story since I know myself and I'm gonna get into heavy spoiler territory
listening to this again actually made me bawl my eyes out im sorry i got chills through my spine and i started crying i dont even like octopath 1 that much idk why that happened
most important part I had an issue with in the first game was the gameplay aspect and let me tell you people in the audience this game's gameplay is absolutely insane
largely the skeleton of the gameplay was kept the same as the original: its a traditional jrpg where you level up go through all the entirety of the world to get some new mates for your journey here and there listen to their story battle a lot and explore the shit out of every nook and cranny but the experience was enhanced to hell and back
the main combat is still fun as shit you can use that option to do a x2 x3 x4 enhancement of the action you will take or guard or attack to get more points or whatever this is fun and also makes for a great deal of strategising here and there where you can get 30.000 points of damage like nothing happened
so yeah whatever that's the main gimmick the other stuff is usual jrpg combat stuff PLUS the job system every single character has a class and unique abilities that you can use in battle and this also was present in the original one but got really upgraded to accommodate more interesting mechanics and not make some classes completely useless PLUS you can get a second class and really explore the incredible customization of this game also theres some new special classes which are really interesting and shrines here and there that can unlock special skills for each traveler and guilds to unlock new secondary jobs
that being said this is the combat now the other parts of the game actually concentrate on exploring and doing shit in the overworld here and there and when I tell you that after getting all the characters I spent like 40 hours just exploring and do dungeons I was so overlevelled that the chapter requirements were like LVL 15 and hikari was LVL 70 I went absolutely crazy I entered a trance like state and woke up with everyone getting 60 more levels whatever
so my main issue with the first game was 1) the incredibly slow leveling up 2) the super boring exploration 3) the tiring usage of characters abilities when interacting with NPCs and while not really a gameplay element 4) the samey dungeons
issue addressed you can level up pretty fast and with the new time mechanic you can generally travel the world during nighttime to make you level up faster (I basically had the night toggled all the time) so I could actually not kill myself this time
everywhere in the world map theres something to explore and it rewards your exploration sense and there's literally stuff to do in every corner side quests (they're still boring but they're something) challenging and interesting dungeons new towns to visit and literally chests on chests on chests
the skills of each character are still boring because you have to use them over and over again to steal get informations have steamy sex with someone and then use them in battle BUT since this game has the day and night thing at least theres some nuance to using particular skills for the day and others for the night do whatever
the designs of the dungeons for the original one were like 5 and reused for the entirety of the game this time theres a SHIT TON of different dungeons that have such a distinct feeling from one another so were so happy to be here
that being said we can talk about art design
this game is beautiful no point to argue about that and possibly even better than the first one in both art design art direction 3d environments and sprites theres literally NO bad sprite in this game and let's talk about boss sprites because those one are incredible im gonna talk about them during the route parts later you can't escape from hornyposting
in the first game those were usually just pngs moving a little to emulate movement but this time they actually have different sprites for different animations and thats cool as fuck I can remember vividly the mother in thrones route doing a gorgeous whipping animation and probably other stuff that I don't remember I played this some time ago I always take too long to make reviews
so anyway yeah every single part of the game is a painting the animation is great the towns and dungeons are filled to the brim with details and as I said the dungeons and also battle backgrounds are way way way better and diverse and I'm really happy about this
the music is also the one of the best parts of the entire experience but I don't have to be the one to tell you since octopath 1 had a lot of videos about the transitions between character themes and boss battles themes and YEAH theyre good as shit but wait a second I need to point out at least my fav themes or else I will explode
tempest on the battlefield was the very first song I heard in my experience with this game and it stuck with me so much so that I was always thinking about it in my playthrough and every time it would show up again I would cum all over my room I love this theme so fucking much its unreal I'm so glad I chose hikari
side note every single character theme is great (ochettes perfect) but they get taken down by square super fast so it's pointless to give you a link just listen to the ultra compilation
normal battle III is the one that makes me sweat more out of the 3 themes and the combo of electric guitar and strings was purposefully made to make me orgasm so I cannot do anything else but surrender
critical clash I is probably my fav ones of the two and it's really just because it's more heavy tone and has so many different vibes thrown into it and the beat is fucking sick and the string is fucking sick and the song is fucking sick
i unironically listen to fierce confrontation everyday dont @ me
so whatever all the songs are sick just listen to the illegal soundtrack online or play the game the fuck
so I guess it's time to talk about stories so here's my completely unbiased opinion in a handy tierlist
Tier S
Ochette (10), Hikari (9.5), Castti (9)
Tier A
Osvald (8.5)/Temenos (8.5)
Tier B
Throné (8)/Partitio (8), Agnea (7.5)
Ex
Ochette x Castti > Hikari x Agnea > Temenos x Throné > Osvald x Partitio
numbers don't mean anything it was just a way to keep track while playing what stories I liked more than the others
for this I'll also talk about each characters ost so you can check them here in this mega ost stuff thing and talk about them from best to worst be advised that the ones on the bottom aren't to be considered as BAD I just needed to make a tierlist and some of them would've to be in the bottom
so there's gonna be spoiler talk so SPOILER WARNING youre advised
OCHETTE
starting with ochette i can tell you that shes absolutely my fav character out of the entirety of the cast every time she says がお I cry like a fucking bitch she's funny and charming and goofy but also definitely a sweetheart at core and cares for everybody so i was already biased to begin with but her story is such a fucking blast from start to finish and has some of the most interesting tropes I see in videogames
as a hunter I also had so much fun playing with her also BECAUSE she can capture basically every single enemy and use their unique skills in battle and when I tell you at one point in the game I captured the mega shark or whatever I was basically living my best life with an assured 9999 damage once per battle
ochette comes from a village of half beasts that inhabit a forest in an island and shes also the successor of the head of this clan who funnily enough is a fucking lion that talks whatever so shit happens and they find out there's gonna come a red moon and its gonna bring destruction and the rebirth of something something evil and thats it
IMPORTANT ! at the beginning of her route the head clan will ask you to choose between either an owl OR a … fox ? what's akala ? I think he's a fox but also I think he's HOT AS FUCK LIKE umg sorry maybe I should not say that here ok anyway hes really the best choice of the 2 since people told me the owl acts as a younger sister and akela acts as an older brother and im really … interested in this relationship like umh …. yeah
so whatever semi beasts are also fighting for their land against a bunch of humans trying to take this land from them whatever not important the important thing is to contrast the red moon war flashbacks of botw and anyway you have to get the 3 sacred beasts back to the main land and do shit and then you get like 3 chapter 2 for each beast thats cool as fuck I mean due to levels differences probably you will get the recommended order but apart from that so cool
the sea guardian made me cry even if the quest has zero tension since no boss battles its cool anyway the volcano guardian made me horny … sorry and has a super bomb design and boss battle and the ice guardian also made me cry and also has an incredible boss battle I really like every single one of these chapters honestly
then you get back to the main land and the guardians all gather while the red moon arises you fight with hordes of monsters until you face the beast that you left behind in the beginning of the story and now its up to ochette to give them a good ending … IM SORRY THIS IS TOO MUCH I LOVE THIS ROUTE SO DEARLY I CRIED LIKE A BITCH AT THAT FINAL ENDING I HAD GOOSEBUMPS ALL OVER UGHHHHHHH THIS GAME ISTG
anyway since I chose akala instead of mahina I had to face mahina and it was damn fucking epic but I gotta say that feral akala is kinda hot im sorry I should say these things here alright
anyhow ochette saves the day everyone is happy the sexy lion boss says ochette is gonna be the next head of the tribe and the humans say alright we're gonna stop this war between us or something and then the end
I loved this route from beginning to end there was no dead moment every single chapter was packed back to back back to back thats fucking absurd ok anyway moving on or else I'm gonna stay here forever
HIKARI
hikari was my choice as the protagonist and I couldn't be happier being a warrior I was already interested in getting him super buffed for some incredible damage each turn and WHAT THE FUCK he's a BEAST after you get the arms master class he's basically your main character for damage he's gonna get some incredible numbers after you remove the 9999 cap and he's also a hunk to boot im absolutely free and I could suck your dick all day long if you want hikari hmu
as a warrior you can guess whats gonna happen and 2 seconds in his route he gets in a battlefield with my FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND UGHHHHHH I was already hooked I had no chance but Stan
after that shit you get a tale of betrayal between a royal family hikari is the successor of the current king of land of ku until his brother succeeds in a regicide and he's left to just run away
this was a great beginning for his story really full of hype I cannot really say that this hype will be up for the entire route theres some boring events here and there with hikari recruiting some people and the pacing gets back up probably when you have to get the girl from the other clan like that's probably where the events begin to unravel faster but this all pays out when you get to the final confrontation
here and there hikari will get delusions and voices in his head due to a homicidal other personality which is like due to his cursed blood or something so yeah when you get to battle against your brother its also gonna be a battle against hikaris self and shit so whatever this was really emotional and I ended up having goosebumps all throughout the final boss which was also the FINAL boss of all the routes I did so it was an incredible conclusion of the journey if you ask me
also can I say that hikaris brother is kinda hot like in particular his demon form
CASTTI
cassti is a weird case since I wasn't really vibing with her entire plotline until really late in the route not because it was bad but because I really didn't get what it was going to be
her being a whats the name ….. I don't remember the name in english ok anyway speziale is really half the character since she cares for others really tries her best to put people first and herself second and thats something in common with alfyn but the thing is alfyn was extremely hot and tempting and she is kind of an enigmatic character also due to the fact that her story revolves around her memory loss issues and shit like that so
slowly you begin to realise that she actually was part of a big group of potion people I still dont remember the name and after the chapter of the mother and daughter YKNOW THE ONE GOD FUCK LOED UGHHHHH I CRIED SO MUCH DAMN you realise that the girl who kept on following her and was allegedly one of her companions was a actually just her delusion and in reality the group of people she was a boss of was already dead and that point all my hair fell off everything made sense and my life and heart were completely ruined I hate this game with a passion
you get to know theres another herb user guy who just goes around spreading death because he's like omg why the fuck are we helping people out if they're gonna die anyway let's just kill all of them which is honestly kind of a weird statement to say but I guess it does make sense for the character whatever anyway cazzi goes there and says actually I didn't say this but I call her cazzi because it means dicks in italian and its pretty similar sounding to cassti moving on she battles with this guy saves the day and she's left with absolutely nothing but loneliness and the dread of recovering her entire memory and realising her companions all vanished from her life and so the team said ok let's just give them some more reason to cry and put her theme which is already sad as fuck and put an illustration of her surrounded by ghosts of her mates who the fuck im sorry
great story possibly my fav one in terms of how much mental distress it gave me 9/10 deserved
no hunks here unfortunately but the legion head guy sounds kinda hot yknow the one
OSVALD
osvald is such a weird contrast from what the cyrus route was in the first game there cyrus was actually treated almost like a prince he just fucks around all day being surrounded by chicks and studies everything in his damn books and then here ? they made osvald and said ok we are gonna put this guy through hell literally we are gonna ruin his life so much hes gonna be pitiful throughout the game and so scarred that the most character interactions he'll have they're gonna be pointing out him being silent af
this route begins with osvald making an escape from prison and this was caused by his bestie who he thought was genuinely sharing his knowledge for a research but was actually just trying to exploit him to take possession of the research and then just push him aside burning his house down killing his wife and daughter and then getting him arrested and put in jail honestly what a fucking master plan my guy that being said after escaping the entire route concentrates on giving more context to the relationship between this guy and dio brando which is kind of an homosexual relationship like the one jojo and dio have so it's all good and then just pursuing this guy all around the land until you discover that osvalds daughter actually alive and being mindbroken by dio so you go there and open his ass apart and everything is good until osvald just decides to live his little girl behind like why would you do that I'm sorry but anyway I still want to suck your dick … osvald please give me your junk I cannot do this anymore
anyway this route is kind of a mess but in a good sense I love how much they make osvald suffer im sorry if that sounds controversial teehee siamo ragazzi
I love men
TEMENOS
temenos is don matteo but japanese its literally that italian fiction but in a videogame if you for some reason know what I'm talking about you will get the reference that being said this is temenos just having a lot of gay sex
while ophilia was the pure and humble character you would expect from a religious figure temenos acts as an absolute contrast from that design he's shrewd he's malicious and he's cunning and all these are actually good aspects of his personality he's really a sight to behold since the religious person being actually fat from the canonic stereotype of the usual religious figure is one of the most interesting tropes around if you ask me
being a priest or something from a small town he lives his life as a town figure until obviously hell breaks and he has to cooperate with fellow knight creek to solve a political intrigue with some ties to cultist shit
now the investigative sequences were cool as fuck but what was actually cooler is the fact that temenos and creek have such a great chemistry like every time temenos calls creek little lamb you can really feel the sexual tension skyrocket I'm not even joking yall these 2 fuck and they fuck pretty hard while the hometown girlie friend of temenos gets cucked to hell and back
so whatever since square enix said too much homosexuality they killed creek and honestly I'm pretty mad about it since I wouldve honestly liked to suck his dick after the final battle but alright so anyway temenos goes to the guild master or whatever fucks her up and avenges her boyfriend back the end
interesting not too shabby
THRONÉ
femme fatale throné has some of the weirdest plot twists in history and I genuinely am still confused at what happened in her story but anyway
shes from a guild of thieves where orphans are trained into full-fledged ATTENZIONE PICKPOCKET and shit like that and the main figures are mother and father now throné at one point realises shits going down in this guild due to the fact that his bestie aka possible lover got killed (by her lmao) and so she goes on a quest to murder both father and mother
apart from mother being absolutely batshit crazy you can tell that father was actually the more full-fledged character since he got a damn good backstory if I do say so myself and thats like the highest point of the route for me like killing her father is something that reminded me of primrose so alls good
after that she has to follow leads to get to her real father which you find out is not only in a hidden village in the sky that you can only get with a whats the name in english whatever funivia and when you get there the huge plottwist is that his father is alucard castlevania and fucked a lot of human women for reasons ? so whatever you go there and fuck him up
now being a carbon copy of alucard he's pretty hot and I gotta say he also has one of the greatest boss sprites in the game so that's fine my real issue is that there was no foreshadowing to this ? like idk if I missed something but I don't think there's any reason to think that this plottwist has any sense in the plotline since the route was going completely elsewhere until chapter 4 but whatev3r I digress
still a great route and also the first one I finished so I had a good time with it
PARTITIO
now partitio is probably my favorite character of the bunch after ochette he's charismatic he's upbeat energetic and hunky hot and intelligent cunning and good willed and I am still looking for him on rule34 until I get satisfied
so why is he in the bottom mmmmm im not really a fan of the merchant stories in octopath traveler tressa was interesting but nowhere near some other routes in that game and the premise of yeah I do business usually falls flat for me since there's not gonna be a lot of plottwists or intrigue for a foundation like this one
you follow partitio since his childhood and his father's quest to build a village from zero after some sick timeskip you realise that 1) partitio became hot as fun 2) the village was completed 3) they are knee deep in debt so it's up to partitio to seek the one responsible to this which was also the business companion of his father
so yeah after some business ™ and really chill route progression you get to the ISLAND yeah the guy bought an island and fuck him up or better youre gonna fuck his locomotive up????? shits crazy I tell you what the hell
whatever you beat him you do some more business ™ and everyone's happy now that partitio is on top of his company and also on top of me god bless the end
this route is cool the side quests where you get the boat and shit are interesting and break the pace of the route but still it's not that much of a great route as I wanted it to be partitio as a character carried the route entirely and I still enjoyed my time with it anyway
partitio I'm single please
AGNEA
agnea is my third favorite character and it's pretty funny to me how both her and partitio are among the best characters and are both on the bottom
now before somebody comes for my neck no I don't think this route is bad in fact I think every single route in this game is delicious but of course someone had to be put in the bottom or else it wouldn't be a tierlist
maybe im biased by the fact that I wanted this to reach the same highs as primroses route but of course it would've not been possible and thats probably why they opted for another type of storyline entirely
agnea is a free spirited happy little girl with an incredible passion and talent for dancing and singing like her mother something that his father doesn't approve but of course in the hand he accepts that and its probably the most beautiful part of the route I cried like a fucking bitch at the end of the prologue and during the finale probably because an accepting father is something I don't have HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHQ LAUGH
so whatever she wants to travel the world and compose a song so here we go (she's not only very similar to tressa but also has similar motives as tressa) all around the world getting pieces and pieces
after this it's a total blank to me the route is pretty chill and steady throughout to the point that I fell asleep during the circus guys thing whatever anyway main antagonist is another dancer singer diva whatever and shes bad because plot so you fuck her up metaphorically in the final battle and boom agnea is the new diva everyones happy the end
now putting the story like this you understand how laid back it is compared to the other routes and its a shame since she's such a beautiful character I love her so dearly
idk the end
CROSSED PATHS
these ones was a great addition they put some cool ideas here and there and seeing the pairs interact was pretty interesting but its so weird how ochette and cassti are absolutely above every other
TRAVEL TALKS
i read every single one of them i went fucking crazy I love every and each one of them
SIDE QUESTS
they suck
POST GAME / FINAL QUEST
for me the finale was a big slip up in the original octopath traveler due to the fact that It was 90% retconning and infodumping on wall of texts that made me think that i wouldve just reread umineko entirely instead
now this is actually not really different but it felt more streamlined since they didn't make me fucking fight against every single boss in the game again and there's still some degree of infodump through notes but it's less than the first one so yeah whatever
the plot is not as thick as they'd like to make you believe since it's just some loose ends that they left in the main game and they connected them together also recontextualizing some characters like mindt being evil ? right whatever
that being said the lead up to the final boss was actually kind of intriguing and the final boss in itself is kind of both tough and visually stunning they hinted for vide to be the end boss and here we go its still a nice fight if you ask me
the epilogue made me a bit teary eyed I gotta say and seeing all the characters interact make for a great conclusion to this tale
i hate postgames
SECRET BOSS
i hate galdera
CONCLUSIONS
I came in my pants
the more I thought about this game and the more I loved about it not only because of the game itself but also how they managed to make such a great fucking sequel to a game that I felt was flawed in every single way and it managed to keep me returning to it every single day for the span of like 80 hours this game is fucking insane ochette get the adoption papers we're going home
I slow burned this tile the entire year full of game releases and it never failed to be engaging whenever I came back to it. It's my personal game of the year, from story, worldbuilding, music etc. Even after finishing I feel like heading back to finish the secret final boss since I love the mechanics of this game. Truly a step up from it's predecessor in every sense and I think a must play for every turn based rpg fan. Team Asano my beloved.
It's a rare and amazing sight to not only see a game come out with heavy, valid criticism, but to see that criticism be taken to heart into a brand new game that basically addresses everything. Octopath Traveler II is what I would consider the gold standard of sequels. It takes what worked in the first game and improved every issue it used to have. Now we have a game that is by far one of the greatest games I've ever played. This review will be different from the others I've made because there is so much I wanna talk about. Octopath 1 is one of my favorite games of all time and the sequel is even better. This review will not only talk about Octopath II but compare to the first game to see what was done better and differently.
Story/Writing:
This is the aspect of the first game that had the most criticism. While I enjoyed the stories in the first game, they all came down to very basic and standard plot beats. Alfyn wants to be be a traveling apothecary, Tressa wants to be a traveling merchant, Cyrus wants to gain more knowledge. There are more complex stories (Therion, Primrose), but people weren't a fan of how they were handled.
The second game, however, took the complexity of stories like Primrose, but put that for basically everyone outside of maybe Agnea. The writing got a major improvement as soon as you start it. Each chapter 1 hooks you from the moment it starts, to the point you aren't even sure which party you want to start with. I don't want to dive into spoilers much as this game is still very new, but if you played the game, you know how insane some of the stories are cough Osvald cough.
Once you beat all 8 stories, you will unlock one final story that interconnects everything and give a really satisfying conclusion. They NAILED the conclusion this time while in Octopath 1, it was just a glorified lore dump and boss rush with a really really tough final boss. Octopath II, instead, had a 2-3 hour journey that ends with another really really tough boss. It's absolutely perfect with how the game set it up. I'm amazed at how the devs made such an incredible and engaging story.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is largely the same between both games, but the second game adds some new bells and whistles to liven up the battles. New to this game is the latent gauge, which is a unique ability to each of the 8 characters. Hikari's latent gives him three unique moves that are very good damage dealers, same with Ochette's with the exception of one move that's just a buff, Osvald's raises the potency of his spells but it can only hit one enemy instead of all, Partitio's raises his BP to maximum, and so on. All the latent abilities are useful for something so you are bound to use all of them eventually.
This is also a good place to talk about the bosses. The bosses in this game are WAY better than the first entry. Not only do all of the bosses offer a unique challenge, you also have to come up with new strategies on the fly. And all of them are fun! ...Okay there is one bad boss but it's still easy to take down when you know what to do. The later bosses especially gave me some trouble that I did not have from the first game outside of the final boss. This game will either be very moderately challenging or ball-breaking in difficulty depending on your strategies, but it never feels unfair. I think Team Asano finally manages to perfect the balance they were trying to accomplish from the Bravely Default games and even the first Octopath.
There's also the secondary classes/advanced classes that add even more freshness to the battles. The new advanced classes in this game are somehow even more insanely broken than before but in the best way possible. When you get good setups going, you will be steamrolling through all the bosses. The combat is some of the best I've seen in an RPG and I can't fathom anyone disliking it.
Exploration:
Exploration is honestly the one thing I think was done better in Octopath 1. The dungeons were more expanded and they didn't show everything on the map. While in Octopath II, it's still fun exploring around, but it felt like they stripped back this aspect of the game to put more time into the other aspects. I'm perfectly fine with that as the exploration is still good and everything else was improved tenfold, but I wish it wasn't so easy to discover all the secondary classes and secret dungeons.
The map as well is a little more tedious to traverse compared to before. This is more of a nitpick as you can fast travel when you enter a new town, it can be a little frustrating trying to figure out where the boats are to cross to the opposite region.
Visuals:
What do I even say about this game's visuals? The first game looked absolutely beautiful, inventing the HD-2D style that we are seeing with Triangle Strategy, LIVE A LIVE, and other games, but Octopath II manages to take it to the next level. So many shots have become dynamic with lots of different angles during cutscenes and even during combat to give everything that extra kick it needed. I can only imagine the future of this style, but my monkey brain can't even fathom how it gets better from here.
Music:
Do I even have to say anything about the music? It's Yasunori Nishiki for Christ's sake. I have no clue how this man managed to not only make a soundtrack on par with the first game, but to also possibly surpass it. The night themes that were added give this world a whole new air of life that was not present before. Hat's off to Yasunori Nishiki for making another outstanding score (also please release the ost on Spotify please please please).
Conclusion:
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is a step up from the first game in almost every single way. It's astounding that we have to praise the devs for simply listening to the criticisms, but that really is something that deserves praise. Not many studios and devs listen to the fans, or even listen to the proper criticism, but Team Asano is hellbent on perfecting their craft and I believe this is as perfect as it can get.
If you were not a fan of Octopath 1, even with the combat in mind, it's hard to say if you'd enjoy this one. As someone who stuck through the issues, I couldn't ask for a better title, but if you are still unsure, I can't say if you'd enjoy it. That's something you'd have to risk but I still 100% recommend it. Whether it's a new Octopath game or a brand new IP, I will be there day 1 for whatever Team Asano has in store. They've earned a lifelong and loyal fan.
Story/Writing:
This is the aspect of the first game that had the most criticism. While I enjoyed the stories in the first game, they all came down to very basic and standard plot beats. Alfyn wants to be be a traveling apothecary, Tressa wants to be a traveling merchant, Cyrus wants to gain more knowledge. There are more complex stories (Therion, Primrose), but people weren't a fan of how they were handled.
The second game, however, took the complexity of stories like Primrose, but put that for basically everyone outside of maybe Agnea. The writing got a major improvement as soon as you start it. Each chapter 1 hooks you from the moment it starts, to the point you aren't even sure which party you want to start with. I don't want to dive into spoilers much as this game is still very new, but if you played the game, you know how insane some of the stories are cough Osvald cough.
Once you beat all 8 stories, you will unlock one final story that interconnects everything and give a really satisfying conclusion. They NAILED the conclusion this time while in Octopath 1, it was just a glorified lore dump and boss rush with a really really tough final boss. Octopath II, instead, had a 2-3 hour journey that ends with another really really tough boss. It's absolutely perfect with how the game set it up. I'm amazed at how the devs made such an incredible and engaging story.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is largely the same between both games, but the second game adds some new bells and whistles to liven up the battles. New to this game is the latent gauge, which is a unique ability to each of the 8 characters. Hikari's latent gives him three unique moves that are very good damage dealers, same with Ochette's with the exception of one move that's just a buff, Osvald's raises the potency of his spells but it can only hit one enemy instead of all, Partitio's raises his BP to maximum, and so on. All the latent abilities are useful for something so you are bound to use all of them eventually.
This is also a good place to talk about the bosses. The bosses in this game are WAY better than the first entry. Not only do all of the bosses offer a unique challenge, you also have to come up with new strategies on the fly. And all of them are fun! ...Okay there is one bad boss but it's still easy to take down when you know what to do. The later bosses especially gave me some trouble that I did not have from the first game outside of the final boss. This game will either be very moderately challenging or ball-breaking in difficulty depending on your strategies, but it never feels unfair. I think Team Asano finally manages to perfect the balance they were trying to accomplish from the Bravely Default games and even the first Octopath.
There's also the secondary classes/advanced classes that add even more freshness to the battles. The new advanced classes in this game are somehow even more insanely broken than before but in the best way possible. When you get good setups going, you will be steamrolling through all the bosses. The combat is some of the best I've seen in an RPG and I can't fathom anyone disliking it.
Exploration:
Exploration is honestly the one thing I think was done better in Octopath 1. The dungeons were more expanded and they didn't show everything on the map. While in Octopath II, it's still fun exploring around, but it felt like they stripped back this aspect of the game to put more time into the other aspects. I'm perfectly fine with that as the exploration is still good and everything else was improved tenfold, but I wish it wasn't so easy to discover all the secondary classes and secret dungeons.
The map as well is a little more tedious to traverse compared to before. This is more of a nitpick as you can fast travel when you enter a new town, it can be a little frustrating trying to figure out where the boats are to cross to the opposite region.
Visuals:
What do I even say about this game's visuals? The first game looked absolutely beautiful, inventing the HD-2D style that we are seeing with Triangle Strategy, LIVE A LIVE, and other games, but Octopath II manages to take it to the next level. So many shots have become dynamic with lots of different angles during cutscenes and even during combat to give everything that extra kick it needed. I can only imagine the future of this style, but my monkey brain can't even fathom how it gets better from here.
Music:
Do I even have to say anything about the music? It's Yasunori Nishiki for Christ's sake. I have no clue how this man managed to not only make a soundtrack on par with the first game, but to also possibly surpass it. The night themes that were added give this world a whole new air of life that was not present before. Hat's off to Yasunori Nishiki for making another outstanding score (also please release the ost on Spotify please please please).
Conclusion:
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is a step up from the first game in almost every single way. It's astounding that we have to praise the devs for simply listening to the criticisms, but that really is something that deserves praise. Not many studios and devs listen to the fans, or even listen to the proper criticism, but Team Asano is hellbent on perfecting their craft and I believe this is as perfect as it can get.
If you were not a fan of Octopath 1, even with the combat in mind, it's hard to say if you'd enjoy this one. As someone who stuck through the issues, I couldn't ask for a better title, but if you are still unsure, I can't say if you'd enjoy it. That's something you'd have to risk but I still 100% recommend it. Whether it's a new Octopath game or a brand new IP, I will be there day 1 for whatever Team Asano has in store. They've earned a lifelong and loyal fan.
fixes everything bad about the original, and adds new stuff that makes it 10x better than octopath 1, stories are all great, ost just as fire as the original (maybe more), and the gameplay is so addicting, it's just a perfect sequel. (agnea's story is the best btw if you don't agree you're just bad). (i respect liking castti's too).
Octopath Traveler is one of my most favorite games, and somehow, this game surpassed it! It kept many of the same systems from the first game, but kept and expanded upon the good things and got rid of the bad things.
The best part of the first game was the art style, which they kept for this game as well. The best part of this game for me was hands down the music! Especially the 8 theme songs of each character and their unique battle music themes! There were times I would literally just sit still listening to the music playing and not even play the game...just listen. If you don't want to play the game, at least consider buying the soundtrack! Several of the character stories were amazingly written, and I just enjoyed getting to explore all the new places. I waited a long time for another Octopath Traveler game, and I was not disappointed!
The best part of the first game was the art style, which they kept for this game as well. The best part of this game for me was hands down the music! Especially the 8 theme songs of each character and their unique battle music themes! There were times I would literally just sit still listening to the music playing and not even play the game...just listen. If you don't want to play the game, at least consider buying the soundtrack! Several of the character stories were amazingly written, and I just enjoyed getting to explore all the new places. I waited a long time for another Octopath Traveler game, and I was not disappointed!
For all of its many, many faults - a story that drags its feet for too long, a few dull cast members, and a largely dull overworld - I loved the first Octopath Traveler. The music, the artwork, and the fantastic push and pull of the Boost and Break systems in the first game carried me... almost all the way to the finish line, before I got burned out hard in between every character's final chapter.
This game fixes all of that shit. Every character in the cast, even the ones I was pretty sure I wasn't gonna like (sorry, Partitio), grew into some of my favorite characters in an RPG (yay, Partitio!) ever. Character stories are varied and interesting, with characters like Osvald, Cassti, and Throne throwing exceptionally dark, while characters like Partitio and Agnea stay lighthearted and goofy in some spots that are more remiscient of the SNES-era of Square games. Regardless of the tonal whiplash that some of these stories can bring, I felt satisfied by every one of them.
The world feels more connected, there's more to do in between each capital city, and every character's story hits the ground running, and holds that pace until journey's end.
Another thing sorely missing from the first game is the feeling that each character's story was connected in some way, and without giving away too much, you'll see some similar words and phrases come up in separate characters' stories that give the feeling that there's a larger force drawing all of these characters together much earlier in the game; the suspense created by some of these similarities was enough to get me to power through any grind-heavy sections of the game as I worked to catch some of my lower-leveled party members up to speed to continue their stories.
On top of fixing the negatives, the positives of the first game have only been enhanced further. There's some genuinely jaw-dropping moments in the game's soundtrack, particularly in the ways they work each of the 8 characters' musical themes into some of the game's more important moments. You're given a wider variety of character actions in the overworld thanks to the addition of a toggleable day-night cycle that changes how each of your four party members interact with the world around them, ensuring that you're less likely to miss out on something by not having a particular party member with you in an area.
The base combat structure remains largely unchanged from the first game, poking and prodding an enemy with basic attacks to find their weaknesses, before depleting their Shield Points by targetting these weaknesses, then using Boost Points to power up your characters' attacks to burst them down. The single addition to the combat comes in the form of a Latent Power, an ability unique to a particular character that can have a wide range of effects depending on the party member. Some characters get an entirely different, more powerful moveset for one turn, other characters get the ability to turn their AOE attacks on a single target, or vice-versa. These abilities, plus the game's signature mix-and-match job system (borrowed in part from the equally fantastic Bravely Default games), allow you to exploit the game's systems and break the game over your knee in a really, uniquely satisfying way. The game encourages experimentation with its job system, and like with the changes to the overworld actions, you rarely feel like you're missing out on anything by not having a certain party member with you.
All of these changes help to make Octopath Traveler II one of the most wholly satisfying RPGs I've ever played. I've thought about what they could possibly improve on for a third game, and I can't come up with a reasonable complaint. It's the first RPG in a very long time that's made me feel that way.
This game fixes all of that shit. Every character in the cast, even the ones I was pretty sure I wasn't gonna like (sorry, Partitio), grew into some of my favorite characters in an RPG (yay, Partitio!) ever. Character stories are varied and interesting, with characters like Osvald, Cassti, and Throne throwing exceptionally dark, while characters like Partitio and Agnea stay lighthearted and goofy in some spots that are more remiscient of the SNES-era of Square games. Regardless of the tonal whiplash that some of these stories can bring, I felt satisfied by every one of them.
The world feels more connected, there's more to do in between each capital city, and every character's story hits the ground running, and holds that pace until journey's end.
Another thing sorely missing from the first game is the feeling that each character's story was connected in some way, and without giving away too much, you'll see some similar words and phrases come up in separate characters' stories that give the feeling that there's a larger force drawing all of these characters together much earlier in the game; the suspense created by some of these similarities was enough to get me to power through any grind-heavy sections of the game as I worked to catch some of my lower-leveled party members up to speed to continue their stories.
On top of fixing the negatives, the positives of the first game have only been enhanced further. There's some genuinely jaw-dropping moments in the game's soundtrack, particularly in the ways they work each of the 8 characters' musical themes into some of the game's more important moments. You're given a wider variety of character actions in the overworld thanks to the addition of a toggleable day-night cycle that changes how each of your four party members interact with the world around them, ensuring that you're less likely to miss out on something by not having a particular party member with you in an area.
The base combat structure remains largely unchanged from the first game, poking and prodding an enemy with basic attacks to find their weaknesses, before depleting their Shield Points by targetting these weaknesses, then using Boost Points to power up your characters' attacks to burst them down. The single addition to the combat comes in the form of a Latent Power, an ability unique to a particular character that can have a wide range of effects depending on the party member. Some characters get an entirely different, more powerful moveset for one turn, other characters get the ability to turn their AOE attacks on a single target, or vice-versa. These abilities, plus the game's signature mix-and-match job system (borrowed in part from the equally fantastic Bravely Default games), allow you to exploit the game's systems and break the game over your knee in a really, uniquely satisfying way. The game encourages experimentation with its job system, and like with the changes to the overworld actions, you rarely feel like you're missing out on anything by not having a certain party member with you.
All of these changes help to make Octopath Traveler II one of the most wholly satisfying RPGs I've ever played. I've thought about what they could possibly improve on for a third game, and I can't come up with a reasonable complaint. It's the first RPG in a very long time that's made me feel that way.
god damn, game of the year came real early this year, huh
a game unabashedly in love with humanity, and pretty much the perfect sequel. partitio yellowil is the character of all time
Just not feeling it. I like the music. I can't form my opinion about the look? I just genuinely cannot. I'm not compelled to play but I can't really find too much negative to say. I mostly feel uncompelled and unconvinced as to this game's quality either way.
**EDIT:
Thought about it more and I'm feeling real negative after my initial time with the game. Started with Castti and the first thing I had to do was a classic dungeon dive to kill a boss which was OK but the dungeon design is like... sub FF4 level quality. The dungeons/paths I went down were just straight lines with branches for treasure chests. And the treasures weren't very exciting!
The battle system has some cool stuff but I was already getting tired of random encounters after 3 hours. That's not a good sign!
The systems outside of the battles, like the bribing people or selling stuff to people (I got Partitio and Hikari) are just sort of... game design? Like what's the point of this stuff? It just feels inserted into the game to have stuff in the game. It doesn't really serve a fluid purpose.
Also I have decided... I don't like the HD-2D. The name is dumb. And... it looks bad!
The music is amazing I will probably listen to the soundtrack but I can't imagine spending 10 hours in this game, lest the 80 required to do all the stuff.
**EDIT:
Thought about it more and I'm feeling real negative after my initial time with the game. Started with Castti and the first thing I had to do was a classic dungeon dive to kill a boss which was OK but the dungeon design is like... sub FF4 level quality. The dungeons/paths I went down were just straight lines with branches for treasure chests. And the treasures weren't very exciting!
The battle system has some cool stuff but I was already getting tired of random encounters after 3 hours. That's not a good sign!
The systems outside of the battles, like the bribing people or selling stuff to people (I got Partitio and Hikari) are just sort of... game design? Like what's the point of this stuff? It just feels inserted into the game to have stuff in the game. It doesn't really serve a fluid purpose.
Also I have decided... I don't like the HD-2D. The name is dumb. And... it looks bad!
The music is amazing I will probably listen to the soundtrack but I can't imagine spending 10 hours in this game, lest the 80 required to do all the stuff.
Unfortunately, I have already finished the sequel to a JRPG that really touched my heart, and that I never expected to see again so soon. I've lived 5 months of hype since the game was announced and I've already reached the end of this adventure. But was it really worth it? Before talking about the overall plot, I will deal individually with the stories of the 8 protagonists of this game. Osvald's story is incredible, painful and emotional from beginning to end. A very good tragic story with good twists and told really well. Towards the end I was almost moved. Also Osvald as a character is very well executed, I loved him a lot. I'm really glad I used him as the lead protagonist. Regarding Castti, at first I had some doubts about the plot, but this too turned out to be a truly magnificent story with excellent twists. The way the narrative unfolds is really cool. Castti is an excellent character with a great evolution and very beautiful scenes. The story of Temenos i really incredible. It maintains a very high quality in each chapter both at the level of the story and at the level of the character. Especially Chapter 3 is structured really well and is very engaging. Temenos is also really great, I don't know how they managed to create such a wonderful character. Regarding Ochette, she has a rather simple story that goes straight to the point, however in some way this is consistent with the character. I'm a little sad because I had rather high expectations, but I didn't come out too disappointed in the end. Ochette is a very nice character who really was needed in the party of this game, I liked her enough. Partitio is HIM. He is THE man. His story and his character are amazing from start to finish, and really well told. I love him very much. Regarding Agnea, while her story is the weakest of the 8 and absolutely no match for the others, it's still very nice. There are some elements that cringe me a little bit but overall it has a very warm atmosphere, especially thanks to the characters you meet along your journey. Throné has THE CRAZIEST STORY EVER. I literally have no idea how they managed to put something like this in a game like this, it's a very dark and disturbing story but it still doesn't clash with the atmosphere of the game. I think it's perfect from start to finish, I really have nothing to complain about. Throné then as a character is truly magnificent, masterfully written. Regarding Hikari, he has a great story, more engaging than I expected. Hikari is a good character but he's probably the one I've grown fond of the least. The overall story of the game that is formed by connecting the stories of the eight characters in the final chapter is quite good. I really love that they have managed to create a new interesting and in-depth lore in this new continent and I had a lot of fun discovering the truth behind the mysteries of this game. I'm really amazed at the progress the team behind the game has made in terms of writing compared to the first Octopath Traveler. Both in terms of plot and in terms of dialogues, there is really a big difference between the two games from this point of view. The gameplay of this game is phenomenal. It hasn't undergone huge changes compared to the original, but still manages to be engaging and innovative thanks to several improvements. The new continent felt much more alive and enjoyable to explore than Orsterra in the first game. In this sequel I spent so many hours simply looking for secret caves and interacting with NPCs, something that didn't come naturally to me with the first Octopath Traveler. The addition of the day-night cycle also makes everything even more realistic and pleasant, and allows you to immerse yourself in the world in different ways and in different atmospheres. The Combat System, also largely taken from the first game with several improvements, is a lot of fun. The latent powers of each character make the characters even more unique, while the new classes and skills allow for much more complex battle strategies and make team-building more interesting than in the first game. Also, farming is easier and more satisfying thanks to being able to increase the speed of the battles. As for the interactions between the party characters, they remain almost absent within the individual chapters. When one character experiences his story, the rest of the characters are just there to fight alongside him, without appearing in cutscenes or helping him in some way. This problem present in the first game is also present in the second. The team behind the game promised more interactions between characters through the "double" chapters. These double chapters do not radically compensate for this problem of single chapters. They are certainly quite nice, but only focused on two characters at a time and very short. There is a section of the game where the characters interact with each other in quite an exciting way, but sadly it's only towards the end of the game. I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil, but I absolutely loved seeing ALL 8 adventurers talk to each other and I wish we had more moments like this sooner. Finally, regarding the difficulty of the game, I found it quite balanced. There were a few moments where I had a little difficulty against the bosses but nothing too stressful, I just changed my strategy and equipment. Regarding graphics, from the first to the second game there has been an incredible graphical improvement. If in the first Octopath Traveler the graphics and artstyle are already quite beautiful, in the second they have really surpassed themselves: they have created truly magnificent environments full of details, made even more pleasant thanks to even better lighting. I'm really happy with these improvements and can't wait to see how HD-2D will evolve over time. Regarding the soundtrack, it really is a masterpiece, I can't find other words to describe it. I love Yasunori Nishiki's style so much. Octopath II's soundtrack surpasses that of the first game in almost every way and is perhaps among the most solid soundtracks I've ever heard. Overall, I loved Octopath Traveler II. It definitely has its downsides, but I still loved it with all my heart and binged it in less than two weeks. I'm quite happy to have bought it and will look forward to a new entry in the series, although it is not currently planned. That said, I actually recommend it only to those who liked the first game. The basis of the second game is the same, and therefore you may experience the same problems that you had in the first game also in the second one. Having loved the first game as a result I loved this one even more.
Final grade: 93
Final grade: 93
Meus amigos, eu de fato fiquei contagiado do começo ao fim da campanha desse game, engoli ele com uma velocidade que até me impressionou.
Pontos Positivos:
Octopath Traveler II, depois de mais ou menos 60 horas de jogo, é uma experiência simplesmente fantástica, seus gráficos são, sinceramente falando, maravilhosos, no começo eu não achava que essa ideia de mesclar o 3d com 2d, dessa forma especificamente, daria certo, porém o primeiro jogo mais do que me provou o contrario, e esse aqui, apenas terminou de queimar minha lingua.
Seus gráficos como dito antes, são lindos, a jogabilidade tem um ar de clássico ao mesmo tempo que é nova, e condizente com o que o game se propõem, sendo aos moldes do primeiro.
Ainda porém tenho que destacar que, a trilha sonora, a história e os personagens são a melhor coisa do jogo, com toda certeza, a escrita e o desenvolvimento de toda a narrativa contada foi feita com primazia.
E é isso que mais dá pontos a Octopath Traveler II. Eu não sei dizer se esse game é ou não melhor do que o primeiro, saiba que se você gostou do game anterior, provavelmente vai gostar desse, já que acredito que ambos alcançaram um ótimo nível de qualidade.
Ponto Negativo:
Octo 2 é uma continuação interessante, porém, o que me impedi de dar a nota máxima, é a problemática de que no fim das contas, ele melhora pouco as coisas, no quesito técnico, que vimos no primeiro game. Passados 5 anos desde 2018, data de lançamento do jogo anterior, acredito que muitas de suas mecânicas poderiam ter sido aprimoradas ainda mais, do que vimos aqui.
Conclusão:
Estou desde 2018 esperando uma continuação boa, e essa aqui chegou a um ótimo nível, 2023, tem sido maravilho até agora, e se o ano acabasse nesse momento, já seria melhor que 2021 e até mesmo que 2020. 9/10
Pontos Positivos:
Octopath Traveler II, depois de mais ou menos 60 horas de jogo, é uma experiência simplesmente fantástica, seus gráficos são, sinceramente falando, maravilhosos, no começo eu não achava que essa ideia de mesclar o 3d com 2d, dessa forma especificamente, daria certo, porém o primeiro jogo mais do que me provou o contrario, e esse aqui, apenas terminou de queimar minha lingua.
Seus gráficos como dito antes, são lindos, a jogabilidade tem um ar de clássico ao mesmo tempo que é nova, e condizente com o que o game se propõem, sendo aos moldes do primeiro.
Ainda porém tenho que destacar que, a trilha sonora, a história e os personagens são a melhor coisa do jogo, com toda certeza, a escrita e o desenvolvimento de toda a narrativa contada foi feita com primazia.
E é isso que mais dá pontos a Octopath Traveler II. Eu não sei dizer se esse game é ou não melhor do que o primeiro, saiba que se você gostou do game anterior, provavelmente vai gostar desse, já que acredito que ambos alcançaram um ótimo nível de qualidade.
Ponto Negativo:
Octo 2 é uma continuação interessante, porém, o que me impedi de dar a nota máxima, é a problemática de que no fim das contas, ele melhora pouco as coisas, no quesito técnico, que vimos no primeiro game. Passados 5 anos desde 2018, data de lançamento do jogo anterior, acredito que muitas de suas mecânicas poderiam ter sido aprimoradas ainda mais, do que vimos aqui.
Conclusão:
Estou desde 2018 esperando uma continuação boa, e essa aqui chegou a um ótimo nível, 2023, tem sido maravilho até agora, e se o ano acabasse nesse momento, já seria melhor que 2021 e até mesmo que 2020. 9/10
The first Octopath game was a 10/10 for me, but man, they went and improve on everything with this game, enjoyed every second of it so much, definitely my GOTY for 2023 so far, and I think it will be really hard for others games to steal the spot
What a wonderful step up from the first game (which I love wholeheartedly as well!). The music is absolutely incredible as always, and the battles, bosses, characters, storylines all come together in a world that feels so alive, with each town and NPC having their own distinct personalities and little stories that you can't help but snoop into at every chance you get with a variety of path actions.
It's clear that Team Asano took the first game's criticism to heart - this time, you can actually feel that these travelers are friends, as their storylines intertwine towards a very beautiful and satisfying ending and epilogue.
After 85 hours and doing everything there is to do in this game, I sincerely feel like Octopath Traveler II is right up there with the best of the best in the genre.
It's clear that Team Asano took the first game's criticism to heart - this time, you can actually feel that these travelers are friends, as their storylines intertwine towards a very beautiful and satisfying ending and epilogue.
After 85 hours and doing everything there is to do in this game, I sincerely feel like Octopath Traveler II is right up there with the best of the best in the genre.
¿Y si Octopath Traveler fuese un buen juego? El videojuego
i do enjoy experimentation in games. i swear i do! but i think having us follow eight different characters around was a bit more than the writers and the devs could handle.
as a result, every character's route feels more like a rushed summary, than an actual story that you can get emotional about. hikari's story is really very tragic! temenos's story could have been a great murder mystery! but we move around so fast, constantly swapping between characters, that it's difficult to get attached to anyone. the pacing is off, too. it's bad.
another thing: why are these characters all following each other? i mean, really. osvald was imprisoned for murdering his wife and child. one of his actions is mugging strangers. so why would relatively normal people like agnea or partitio even believe a thing he says? the group dynamics are so bland! bland, bland, bland! they accept each other without a single thought. they all come from different backgrounds, so why would they choose to travel together? fight for each other?
i think a game like dragon age origin does this better. these people all have a good reason for travelling together, but most of them can't stand each other. which is fun! i love seeing people bicker and argue just because they're petty! a manga i enjoy (dungeon meshi) does fun group dynamics really well, too. i like it when characters are weirded out by each other! it's even better if they don't bother to hide their discomfort!
all in all, my thoughts are: this is game is a mess, with some fun ideas. i would recommend it to others! the music is beautiful, the gameplay is fun, and if you're lucky, you might like one or two characters. but in the future, i hope the devs ignore the title OCTOPATH and let us follow... maybe four or five characters in total, with stronger, better written stories. that is my hope for octopath traveler 3.
as a result, every character's route feels more like a rushed summary, than an actual story that you can get emotional about. hikari's story is really very tragic! temenos's story could have been a great murder mystery! but we move around so fast, constantly swapping between characters, that it's difficult to get attached to anyone. the pacing is off, too. it's bad.
another thing: why are these characters all following each other? i mean, really. osvald was imprisoned for murdering his wife and child. one of his actions is mugging strangers. so why would relatively normal people like agnea or partitio even believe a thing he says? the group dynamics are so bland! bland, bland, bland! they accept each other without a single thought. they all come from different backgrounds, so why would they choose to travel together? fight for each other?
i think a game like dragon age origin does this better. these people all have a good reason for travelling together, but most of them can't stand each other. which is fun! i love seeing people bicker and argue just because they're petty! a manga i enjoy (dungeon meshi) does fun group dynamics really well, too. i like it when characters are weirded out by each other! it's even better if they don't bother to hide their discomfort!
all in all, my thoughts are: this is game is a mess, with some fun ideas. i would recommend it to others! the music is beautiful, the gameplay is fun, and if you're lucky, you might like one or two characters. but in the future, i hope the devs ignore the title OCTOPATH and let us follow... maybe four or five characters in total, with stronger, better written stories. that is my hope for octopath traveler 3.
The fact this is not nominated in any category in the 2023 Game Awards is the most egregious omission possible. When it comes to modern retro jrpgs, there isn’t a better game than this. Sea of Stars who?
After the credits rolled, a feeling of warmth enveloped my heart. This is one of those games that truly touches the soul. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the developers.
claro que tem os textos entre os bonecos em tavernas e lugares importantes da história de cada um, as historinhas em duplas e o epílogo. mas o que conecta os oito protagonistas mesmo é andar pelo mapa e encontrar um lugar com uns inimigos bem fortes, sair pelo mar e pegar uns tesouros, passar por dificuldades numa batalha só pra habilidade inata de um dos personagens salvar tudo. a narrativa só enfraquece se a afeição do jogador pelo mundo pelas batalhas pelas interações é pequena, é que nem o guia de imaginação do etrian odyssey - cada batalha, cada saída para explorar fazem parte do texto, são elas que tornam a reunião dos personagens na fogueira, como a capa ilustra, um evento nostalgico, que provavelmente aconteceu diversas vezes, longe dos nossos olhos mas pertinho da nossa mente.
A triumphant success for Team Asano. Octopath 2 is an improvement over the first in almost all aspects. While the first game felt rigid with its repetitive chapter structure and circular world, this one feels open with a world that lets you go basically wherever you want. The writing is also tighter. While both games feature fairly by the number fantasy plots, this game features far more interesting scenarios that take advantage of the setting and characters.
Speaking of the setting, Octopath 2 features a far more fleshed out setting then the first. This time involving a world on the verge of an Industrial Revolution. It’s an exciting and fun world that feels good to explore and learn about. The game is packed full of cities bursting with npcs that can be interacted with in a number of ways and quests that involve actually thinking instead of simply following waypoints to the solution.
The battle system is largely the same but there are some minor tweaks that add a surprising amount of depth and strategy to the gameplay. While battles in the original game started to feel dry around the halfway point, this time battles remain exciting all the way to the end with many of the later bosses messing with the combat system in clever ways like obscureing the turn order or locking you out of your primary class.
The game is also better looking. While the first game looked nice, this game really shows the potential of the hd-2d look.
The only area I wouldn’t say is an improvement is the music. Which isn’t to say it’s bad or a step down at all. It’s pretty much more of the same although there is a bit more variety this time as far as genres go.
All around Octopath 2 is an amazing game that learned all the right lessons from its predecessor. If Team Asano continues to learn from the past and build on those lessons learnt then they have an extremely bright future ahead of them.
Speaking of the setting, Octopath 2 features a far more fleshed out setting then the first. This time involving a world on the verge of an Industrial Revolution. It’s an exciting and fun world that feels good to explore and learn about. The game is packed full of cities bursting with npcs that can be interacted with in a number of ways and quests that involve actually thinking instead of simply following waypoints to the solution.
The battle system is largely the same but there are some minor tweaks that add a surprising amount of depth and strategy to the gameplay. While battles in the original game started to feel dry around the halfway point, this time battles remain exciting all the way to the end with many of the later bosses messing with the combat system in clever ways like obscureing the turn order or locking you out of your primary class.
The game is also better looking. While the first game looked nice, this game really shows the potential of the hd-2d look.
The only area I wouldn’t say is an improvement is the music. Which isn’t to say it’s bad or a step down at all. It’s pretty much more of the same although there is a bit more variety this time as far as genres go.
All around Octopath 2 is an amazing game that learned all the right lessons from its predecessor. If Team Asano continues to learn from the past and build on those lessons learnt then they have an extremely bright future ahead of them.
Always tough to play a game 40 hours and to be like “nah I’m good.” I had beaten the 5 stories I cared about and even figured out how to cheese EXP and skip grinding. But I just didn’t care about the dancer/priest/assassin arc.
I remember really liking it at the time though. It was like a beefed up Live a Live and sped up the pace of the first OT. Partitio is amazing, some of the arcs are great, but I just got bored man. Preferred Live a Live because it got in and out in 20 hours.
I remember really liking it at the time though. It was like a beefed up Live a Live and sped up the pace of the first OT. Partitio is amazing, some of the arcs are great, but I just got bored man. Preferred Live a Live because it got in and out in 20 hours.