Octopath Traveller 2 is remarkable in the sense that I've never seen a game that went so far out of its way to sabotage itself to no apparent benefit. The improved strength of character of the cast and the addictive gameplay fall way to the astoundingly bad story decisions and almost mean-spirited nature of the messages this game is trying to project. I haven't finished a single storyline- but I am 35 hours in and I am so incredibly tired of every single character. I will talk about the game itself and then give a quick overview of how the game handled each traveller's story.

The gameplay itself is as great as ever, it's incredibly fun and a fantastic modernization of typical jrpg combat. For most of the game, battles feel quick and satisfying, and the break mechanic is an entertaining strategy to play around. I love the additions of the dual-story chapters, which help to make your cast feel like friends and build their character. The game is still visually gorgeous, in fact my favorite parts of playing Octopath have been exploring all the various areas and just taking in how beautiful everything looks. It feels like you're wandering around a little diorama set.. like you're on a real adventure. That's easily my favorite thing in this game... which is sad, considering Octopath 2 refuses to let you skip or turn off random encounters. There's a skill or two that reduces the rate, but it's still really annoying when you just want to go for a walk, listening to the calming music but every 3 seconds you're forced into a battle. Escape is not guaranteed, which makes matters worse.

I also said that the gameplay is fun at first, but towards the end of your party's storyline it gets harder and harder to raise your level. I hate grinding, and you apparently have to grind a lot- I'm level 40 and every final boss has a recommended level of 45... but you should be comfortably above this because the final bosses of this game are an absolute disgrace. I've only done Throne's and Agnea's but they are frustrating. Agnea's takes forever and it's split into two parts, and your opponent can steal your party members? Two of them? She stole Hikari who I made into an absolute powerhouse, so I basically just lost in a way that didn't feel to be my fault, with 30 minutes of my time out the window. It's so demoralizing and to be honest, makes me feel like quitting.

But I could power through it if the story was good. It started strong but slowly snowballed into being just utterly irredeemable in my eyes. I will go character by character and dissect each story, but first let me say that I can really, really, really feel the Shinzo Abe influence in this game. The biggest fault Octopath 2 has for me is this: every character is somehow connected to a parent or is doing what they're doing for a parent. By everyone, I mean it even extends to NPCs. There is even a very morbid underlying message to the way this game conveys parenthood. The children in this game are treated as an extension of their parents, no exceptions. Your mom is a dancer? You want to be a dancer. Your dad is a baker? You're a baker. There are no bad families in this game.... in the characters eyes. Because even when a mother WHIPS AND BEATS children en masse, and raises them to be assassins, she still deserves forgiveness because she was nice a few times and she's your mother! I can not overlook this philosophy the game is insistent on pushing onto the player. And that extends to the forgiveness part too, someone could kidnap a child, drug her, tell her ailing mother she should just drop dead so he can capitalize on the town... but it's OK! He had everyone's best interest in mind, murder is bad and we should forgive him!

I will go into more issues on it this next segment but you can feel the old conservative Japanese man blood flowing through this game, and it's a real shame. It's obsession with procreation and their visions on autonomy turns this game into something of a disgrace to read through. Octopath 2 has really amazing female NPCs but unfortunately all that progress is reduced by the inherent misogyny this game presents.

Now onto the character plot break downs:

Hikari:
Of noble birth, Hikari wants to free his country from the oppressive rule of his brother and become a king that ushers in an era without bloodshed. A pretty basic tale... I actually like the character of Hikari a lot, but if you know anything about history, his entire story is impossible to take seriously. First off, his evil brother... this goes for all villains in this game, but they are cartoonishly wicked. With no depth at all, he wants to rule because he desires the world to be his. He also wants to call for every lowborn in his country to be executed. What? Even soldiers pick on the poor folk, but aren't soldiers barely above peasants if we are going off patriarchy? Even the most tyrannical of kings ushered in debt-wiping "clean slates" because they KNEW their kingdom rode on the back of the farmers and the slaves that built their buildings. You're just going to have a kingdom with only an upper-class? Who is going to do your work?? Everyone seems to go along with this without thinking and it's impossible to even give a shit when everyone's dancing around, showing off how evil they are. Hikari himself has a major flaw, which is that his "cursed blood" is just embarrassing to watch and I'd never say this about anything. It sucks. I will not get into the fact that Hikari wants a kingdom of equality... but still strives to be a king, and doesn't seem to have an interest in actually changing the hierarchy of their social classes.


Agnea:
The best story in the game by far, warm-hearted and Agnea is just fun to watch. It is still plagued by the fact that apparently no one in this world is capable of doing anything without their parent doing it first, but I enjoyed watching her grow as a person with her new friends, and I love Giselle.

Throne:
Her adventure started out so good, ended up so bad. I... have no words for her final chapter... just revolting. I thought Throne would be a character that broke the weird parent thing this game had going on, because her metaphorical parents were the ones keeping her chained, but apparently even abuse is not enough to warrant hating someone. Her big reveal basically crushed anything she had going for her- relying on her heritage yet again more than her personal accomplishments. And that final boss? Had nothing to do with Throne's story, nothing! It was so revolting and misogynistic. And not to mention unfun to fight.

Castti:
My starting character and one I generally liked... till everyone started calling her "mother hen" cause she's an apothecary, though that's her job. Her big reveal too was not written with much care. I haven't done her last chapter but I can't imagine how it can get worse. Spoilers- this game really said to me that even the man who randomly decided to massacre untold amounts of people deserves forgiveness. Is he supposed to be mentally ill? Because that is some poor writing. A healer spontaneously turned bad because "life is suffering so I'll just kill everyone to free them" is so childish.

Ochette:
This character is unforgivable. Where do I begin? To start with, she is a race of humanoid beast that is very, very clearly inspired by island indigenous people. Already off to a bad start, but of course they talk in broken English. Ok. Do you not get it yet? Apparently not because there's human colonists that liken them to "dogs who can barely speak" and wants to take their territory. I could maybe, maybe see any of this as something in good faith but they couldn't even do any research into indigenous societies at all. Not in the way they are socially organized, not in the way they treat people, not in their philosophies, not even something as simple as what- if any- economy do they have. Ochette, the saying of your tribe is "the weak are meat for the string to eat?" and if that's not all, you're a hunter that feels as if they have direct control over the 'balance' of the forest. And of course, she can hear the trees and all that shit. You have to TRADE meat with the shopkeeper, instead of just giving them coin, somehow even going more out of their way to be ignorant. I don't know if anyone told them this, but the concept of money and exchange doesn't persist in every society from every time and place ever. I could go on, but this character just spits in the face of native peoples. A native character would of been interesting! In fact, Haanit from the first game might of been a better example than this girl.

Temenos:
An interesting character with a humorous and alright storyline, held back by the fact that the mystery present in his path is not strong, therefore making the investigation segments come off as stupid. I'm only halfway through with him so I hope this doesn't end badly like the others

Partitio:
He is blatantly stated to be capitalist that wants to end poverty.... through capitalism. I don't know what to say to that.

Lion Guy:
Haven't even started him though I am not really interested, at this point.

I truly do not know why the first Octopath got so much backlash. It had some flaws, but unlike this game it was very simple and did not go out of its way to seemingly destroy what is a very good base premise for no real reason. How the stories are now all connected in 2 does not matter to me, because the way they are connected is really insulting and ruins the quality of each characters tale. I want to have fun with this game so badly, but each time I try to appreciate something, for one reason or another, it gets in my way. I love Octopath and I see the ways in which this game shines, but it is so dulled by its final acts.

It was between this game and a hitachi magic wand and I think I chose wrong. Thank you so much for reading!