Nice artstyle and interesting concept. Majority of the game is played by taking photos of different things from different perspectives or solving puzzles. Relaxing pace, great chill out game.

Music is a highlight, actually went and found the soundtrack afterwards to play in the background around the house.

Short game and easy Platinum Trophy. I ended up completing it and then immediately jumping into the Basto DLC and finishing it in the same day.

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.

This game kind of fucking sucks, but also really doesn't. I have been a big defender of this game since day 1 man, when it was basically in hospice before the DLC and updates. FFXV is such an intensely flawed experience it's almost unbelievable how enjoyable it is in comparison. The overall story sucks, a lot of the quests suck, the combat and world design can suck so much, but it's the pathos man. It is the healthy brotherly friendship between 4 guys who love each other. It's the nicknames, it's the team up attacks, the bickering, the growth, it's everything having to do with the core of the game. The writing of the main cast truly is special. With the presentation and with the chemistry between these 4, FFXV gets away with a ton of shortcomings. A lot of "better" games than FFXV say a lot less, and that's all there is to it.