Finally finished this after putting it off because I "didn't want it to end".
First off, this game took everything that was mildly annoying from the first Octopath and made it 100% better. I have little to no complaints about this game. All of the characters were amazingly written and the stories were engaging, and the epilogue tied everyone's story together in the most subtle but impactful way leading to an EPIC final battle with all of your party members working together. Contrary to what the group in the first Octopath felt like, this group felt very close knit. Even things like a few voice lines in-battle encouraging each other or showing genuine concern when one of their friends gets hurt, them talking to one another made all the difference. Not to mention the fully voice acted "Crossed Paths" that were incredible. These things made the 'goodbye' in the end SO much more impactful (Yes, I cried.)
I grew really fond of these characters over time and unlike the first game, never once did I have to grind levels to beat anything. Anything was doable, just as long as you had a strategy lined up (Archanist Partitio for the win). The game mechanics are so fun to work with and the latent power gauge was a HUGE upgrade with some of their powers being absolutely game-breaking (I'm talking to you, Temenos).
Overall, though I didn't think it was possible, I like this one more than the first one and I LOVED the first one. But like I mentioned, they just made it better. It makes me excited to see if they will make a third considering the feedback from this one is significantly better than the first one. Definitely recommending this game to everyone I can.