I was a very early adopter of Project Octopath Traveler hype. That first trailer all the way back in September of 2017 sold me instantly. From the beautiful graphics to the amazing music, I knew i would be buying it day one. And I did. And I dropped it almost immediately.

Aside from the soundtrack, which of course, was still amazing, and the visuals, which were also still very, very good, nearly nothing about the game hooked me. I found the combat to be just okay, and the the characters and story to be super boring. I think what turned me off most, though, was the lack of a connecting story. In the small amount of the game that I experienced, the characters didn't interact at all. That's when I decided it just wasn't for me, and went on with my life.

Flash forward to 2022, and Octopath Traveler II was announced. I once again, was interested, but this time, I was a lot more wary about it. When it was announced, I think I said something along the lines of "Man, I really hope this is good, but I'm not counting on it." When it was announced that characters would get crossover chapters, though, is when it really caught my attention. I still didn't buy it on launch, but I did get it for my birthday. and then didn't touch it for 7 months.

Listen, in my defense, my birthday came right after the Xenoblade 3 dlc came out, and right before Tears of the Kingdom came out. I had other priorities! Still, I regret not playing it sooner, because holy. fucking. shit.

This game is incredible. It's a completely magical experience, and an absolute love letter to JRPGs in all the best ways. This game somehow swept Digital Devil Saga 1/2 off its feet to become my new favorite turn based combat system out there. The break system is levels of genius game design my mind can't even begin to comprehend. And the gameplay twist that happens in the final boss? I don't remember the last time I've squealed like that because of a gameplay twist. I lost my shit. 10/10 combat.

The stories here are much improved from the first game. I wouldn't call them all fantastic, but all of them are at least great, with multiple making me tear up (Castti, Temenos, Throné, iykyk) and multiple making my jaw hit the fucking ground with their twists (OSVALD, THRONÉ, IYKYK), and the final chapter was, I think, a very nice ending, with quite possibly the greatest and most heartwarming title drop I've ever seen.

The cast here is a lot of what really makes this game special to me. Straight up, I think this game has one of the greatest casts in gaming. Or recent history, at least. I love every single one of them (especially Partitio, my fucking GOAT, greatest character of all time) and it makes me incredibly sad that I probably won't ever see them again unless octopath 3 has more connections to 2 past one boss fight. The travel banter, battle voice lines, and crossed paths really make this cast something special. Moments like when Partitio tried giving all his money to Agnea so she could live out her dreams, or when Ochette told Osvald the sixth source was meat, or every time Ochette called Castti Ma (MY FUCKING HEART AHHHHH), and everything inbetween. It's all so special. I can only hope Octopath 3's cast is half this good.

The last thing I'm gonna gush about here is the soundtrack. This motherfucker Yasunori Nishiki COOKED. All of the character themes are amazing, with Partitio, Castti, and Osvald's being straight up brilliant pieces of music, the environment and town themes are incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, and the battle themes. Oh my god the battle themes. Normal Battle III?? CRITICAL CLASH II???? FUCKING FOR THE DAWN????????????? peak. goated. raw. Ungodly levels of perfection here. Nishiki has to be a wizard or something. Don't even get me started on the remixed character themes before boss fights and how they transition perfectly into the boss theme. I could talk about this soundtrack, and frankly, this game, for hours, but I think I've about written enough.

In a comeback story for the ages, Octopath Traveler II has managed to steal my heart and become one of the best games I've ever played. Top 15 at least, if not higher. I cannot stress enough how special this game is. All I can hope for at this point is that this game somehow gets story DLC, and/or that Octopath 3 is at least half as good.

SPOILERS BELOW BECAUSE I HAVE AN INSANE STORY TO TELL.

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ok so that final boss yeah? the greatest fucking boss fight in gaming?

I shit you not I've spent like the last two weeks of my life trying to defeat this fucker. this absolute bastard. this complete son of a bitch who can stop you from reviving and kill pretty much anyone in one turn because of ruinous light and that other attack in phase 2. I had no idea that you had to use all 8 characters in this fight. I had used the same 4 characters for pretty much the whole game, the other 4 were all like level 35 when I strolled up to the final boss. I've been grinding and doing side content for two weeks straight and still this boss fight was the most brutal thing ever. the most raw fucking tooth and nail fight I've ever done in a video game. I've experienced nothing like it and I don't think I'll experience anything like it ever again. I was constantly on the verge of losing. I struggled to get past the first phase every attempt. my winning attempt though, oh my GOD. I had just about gotten the jackass to half health so he could initiate phase 1.5 and drag out the other half of my party when he killed two of my current party members and got another one to like, 50 health or so. I thought I was boned. I was so tempted to just restart. but I'm so glad I didn't. because I MANAGED TO BRANDS BLADE HIS NOT EVEN BROKEN ASS INTO PHASE 1.5 AND BROUGHT BACK AND HEALED MY WHOLE PARTY BEFORE THE SWITCH HAPPENED. I literally couldn't believe my eyes. I felt like a fucking god gamer. also the fight took me two fucking hours. 10/10 never fucking doing that ever again but its peak. ok reviews done now bye

THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING HIGH I AM ON RIGHT NOW, OH MY GOD. Just finished my first ever victory on this game (on monsoon difficulty btw), and yep, this game is incredible. The gameplay is tight and satisfying, the item system is still perfect, the visuals are some of the best pixel art i've ever seen, the music mindblowing (COALESCENCE AHHHHHHHHHHHH) and the final boss might be one of the greatest in gaming. It also might be one of the hardest games I've ever beaten, way harder than RoR2. My expectations were high, and god, they might have been surpassed. I just really need the mouse aiming patch to come out already, and maybe for chests and shrines and stuff to spawn more often/be more condensed, but otherwise, 10/10 I fucking love this franchise. I will be getting all achievements just like I did RoR2.

The only part of this game that doesn't perfectly hold up is how your Pikmin are just the dumbest little bitches on the forest floor and have pathfinding so bad its a miracle they survived on this planet without Olimar to look after them. They seem to go out of their way to get stuck behind things that are not in their way, they walk into fire, they fall off ledges they aren't even near, grab stuff you didn't tell them to, and try to help carry things only to randomly give up and just be left behind as an idle trail of pale fools lounging about as their friends do all the work. Several times i saved them from drowning only for them to literally go out of their way to run back into the water and finish drowning. They are always getting caught up in a nectar frenzy and hanging out under ramps and bridges cause they wandered in there and couldn't get back out. I was at my wits end dealing with these little freaks. And yet.... they are still my precious little idiot vegetable murder children, the bane of my days on this fallen earth, and I love them so much.

Shoutout to the mockingly loopy circus clown music in the final trial level for perfectly capturing the mental state i was in after dealing with the endless carrot-brained shenanigans of 100 primary colored nincompoops all day.

I think of this game in a very similar manner to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Both undeniably flawed in many aspects, but I had so much damn fun playing both that I honestly do not care. The open zone gameplay is insanely fun, the combat is satisfying as hell, the cyberspace levels are awesome (except for 1-2, fuck 1-2 and its bullshit s rank), THE SUPER SONIC BOSS FIGHTS, the writing is actually so much better than any sonic game from the past 10 years it shocked me, the characters are also shockingly great, and holy fucking shit the SOUNDTRACK. this game is honestly worth playing just for the soundtrack. I could not be happier right now, sonic is finally back.

The most fun I've had with a Pokémon game since Pokémon Sun.

Pros:
-Incredibly addicting gameplay loop
-characters that are a massive step up from swsh, and that I actually was kind of invested in
-a great art style
-a pretty good story.

Cons:
-While i like the art style, they really dropped the ball in execution. However, its never hard to look at so i feel this is just a minor complaint and something i really hope game freak fixes with future titles
-the postgame was kind of boring, minus the final boss
-Quite possibly the biggest difficulty spike I've ever seen in a video game with the final boss of the postgame. having a boss fight this hard is definitely not a negative, but having it after the rest of the postgame is relatively easy wasn't the greatest choice and made it more frustrating than it should've been.

I'm still working on completing the pokedex, so I'll update this review with my FINAL final thoughts once i do, but yeah, this game was absolutely a stroke of genius on game freaks part, and should definitely become a staple side series. 8/10