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.