A triumphant success for Team Asano. Octopath 2 is an improvement over the first in almost all aspects. While the first game felt rigid with its repetitive chapter structure and circular world, this one feels open with a world that lets you go basically wherever you want. The writing is also tighter. While both games feature fairly by the number fantasy plots, this game features far more interesting scenarios that take advantage of the setting and characters.
Speaking of the setting, Octopath 2 features a far more fleshed out setting then the first. This time involving a world on the verge of an Industrial Revolution. It’s an exciting and fun world that feels good to explore and learn about. The game is packed full of cities bursting with npcs that can be interacted with in a number of ways and quests that involve actually thinking instead of simply following waypoints to the solution.
The battle system is largely the same but there are some minor tweaks that add a surprising amount of depth and strategy to the gameplay. While battles in the original game started to feel dry around the halfway point, this time battles remain exciting all the way to the end with many of the later bosses messing with the combat system in clever ways like obscureing the turn order or locking you out of your primary class.
The game is also better looking. While the first game looked nice, this game really shows the potential of the hd-2d look.
The only area I wouldn’t say is an improvement is the music. Which isn’t to say it’s bad or a step down at all. It’s pretty much more of the same although there is a bit more variety this time as far as genres go.
All around Octopath 2 is an amazing game that learned all the right lessons from its predecessor. If Team Asano continues to learn from the past and build on those lessons learnt then they have an extremely bright future ahead of them.
Speaking of the setting, Octopath 2 features a far more fleshed out setting then the first. This time involving a world on the verge of an Industrial Revolution. It’s an exciting and fun world that feels good to explore and learn about. The game is packed full of cities bursting with npcs that can be interacted with in a number of ways and quests that involve actually thinking instead of simply following waypoints to the solution.
The battle system is largely the same but there are some minor tweaks that add a surprising amount of depth and strategy to the gameplay. While battles in the original game started to feel dry around the halfway point, this time battles remain exciting all the way to the end with many of the later bosses messing with the combat system in clever ways like obscureing the turn order or locking you out of your primary class.
The game is also better looking. While the first game looked nice, this game really shows the potential of the hd-2d look.
The only area I wouldn’t say is an improvement is the music. Which isn’t to say it’s bad or a step down at all. It’s pretty much more of the same although there is a bit more variety this time as far as genres go.
All around Octopath 2 is an amazing game that learned all the right lessons from its predecessor. If Team Asano continues to learn from the past and build on those lessons learnt then they have an extremely bright future ahead of them.
few games have even half as much heart and care put into their characters and their stories, and the addition of actual banter and things like duo chapters do nothing but help to extenuate the already beautiful writing these characters are full of
idk what i could possibly write here to convey how much i loved octopath 2. it's everything i loved about octopath 1 but more. it's great. it's funny. it's dramatic. it's so pretty. it's great gameplay. it's loveable characters. it's super cool bosses. it's the jrpg ever. the 7th source is meat.
Octopath Traveler was a game that took me by surprise with how much I enjoyed it. Initially, I wasn't interested in the game due to it resembling Bravely Default and because I got filtered by both Bravely Default & Octopath Traveler's demos when those were released. In retrospect, I went into them hoping for and expecting them to be games that I could play and keep my brain turned off. Before & during my playthrough of the first Octopath Traveler I realized I was a total idiot. When I finally gave the game a proper chance, I found the strategy required in taking down bosses and enemies to be one of the best parts of the game. Octopath Traveler II keeps everything good about the first game and improves upon its shortcomings to deliver a fantastic RPG that is sure to become a classic in due time.
The gameplay is mostly the same with all of the primary jobs from the first game coming back. Even the new secondary jobs share some similarities to the ones in the previous game. However, they added one new mechanic and it is one that can become a game-changer in tough situations, Latent Powers. Each traveler has a unique one with different benefits. A few examples would be, Partitio's latent power that allows him to have max BP, Agnea's which allows her single attack moves to attack all enemies, or Hikari's & Ochette's which give them access to special attacks. I can't count the number of times this mechanic saved me from what would otherwise have been a game over had it not been added. There are also EX skills that grant you access to more powerful abilities but I didn't use them as much as I probably could have. They may not have been vital additions to the game, but they are welcome ones that make the game a little bit easier and each character more unique.
The biggest issues with the first game were the story and the 8 travelers you play as barely interact with each other. While there were a couple of travelers from the first game whose stories I ended up enjoying more, in most cases the stories were more interesting and an improvement over the first one. The pacing for each story was better too. Some chapters are split into two parts that give the game a little more breathing room to flesh out the story a little more compared to everyone in the first game where they only had 4 chapters. They fixed my biggest gripe with the first game's story and that was the lack of connection between each traveler's quest. The final chapter unites all of the characters together in order to save the world and also adds some lore that pieces some events in their respective stories together.
The travelers interact with each other a lot more and in a handful of others ways than they did in the first game. There is the banter dialogue which is a lot easier to find than it was in the first game (I didn't even know it existed in Octopath 1 till the end of the game), the crossed paths chapters that involve two of the travelers going on an adventure together, and the final chapter that unites them all. Seeing all your party members interact with each other might seem like a small, unimportant oversight, but it comes a long way in enhancing the experience.
While the first Octopath Traveler may have a special place in my heart, Octopath Traveler II is a game that surpasses it in pretty much every way. If this game is an indication of what is in store for the future of the Octopath Traveler franchise, then its a series that has a bright future ahead of it.
The gameplay is mostly the same with all of the primary jobs from the first game coming back. Even the new secondary jobs share some similarities to the ones in the previous game. However, they added one new mechanic and it is one that can become a game-changer in tough situations, Latent Powers. Each traveler has a unique one with different benefits. A few examples would be, Partitio's latent power that allows him to have max BP, Agnea's which allows her single attack moves to attack all enemies, or Hikari's & Ochette's which give them access to special attacks. I can't count the number of times this mechanic saved me from what would otherwise have been a game over had it not been added. There are also EX skills that grant you access to more powerful abilities but I didn't use them as much as I probably could have. They may not have been vital additions to the game, but they are welcome ones that make the game a little bit easier and each character more unique.
The biggest issues with the first game were the story and the 8 travelers you play as barely interact with each other. While there were a couple of travelers from the first game whose stories I ended up enjoying more, in most cases the stories were more interesting and an improvement over the first one. The pacing for each story was better too. Some chapters are split into two parts that give the game a little more breathing room to flesh out the story a little more compared to everyone in the first game where they only had 4 chapters. They fixed my biggest gripe with the first game's story and that was the lack of connection between each traveler's quest. The final chapter unites all of the characters together in order to save the world and also adds some lore that pieces some events in their respective stories together.
The travelers interact with each other a lot more and in a handful of others ways than they did in the first game. There is the banter dialogue which is a lot easier to find than it was in the first game (I didn't even know it existed in Octopath 1 till the end of the game), the crossed paths chapters that involve two of the travelers going on an adventure together, and the final chapter that unites them all. Seeing all your party members interact with each other might seem like a small, unimportant oversight, but it comes a long way in enhancing the experience.
While the first Octopath Traveler may have a special place in my heart, Octopath Traveler II is a game that surpasses it in pretty much every way. If this game is an indication of what is in store for the future of the Octopath Traveler franchise, then its a series that has a bright future ahead of it.
Octopath Traveler 2 was a nice surprise, as richly detailed diorama of a game that seeped soul. Each of the micro-stories worked in building out the tone of the world. The BP system is super fun, and breaking the battle systems was a great way to defeat some of the tougher bosses. The flow of combat is great, and the way the game forces you into making risky calls by letting you see an impending barrage from a tough enemy that will wipe your team makes those risky moves feel great when they pay off.
The character writing varies from story to story, but overall I loved the characters. In particular, Partitio, Throne, and Osvald were highlights. The day / night cycle and it's corresponding character skills is a really unique system, and I absolutely loved the soundtrack and sprite art.
Octopath Traveler 2 nails what it is going for, and feels like a perfect pastiche of SNES jrpgs. I really hope they keep the momentum going with a third entry.
The character writing varies from story to story, but overall I loved the characters. In particular, Partitio, Throne, and Osvald were highlights. The day / night cycle and it's corresponding character skills is a really unique system, and I absolutely loved the soundtrack and sprite art.
Octopath Traveler 2 nails what it is going for, and feels like a perfect pastiche of SNES jrpgs. I really hope they keep the momentum going with a third entry.
my irks are restrictions regarding your party (i am fine with the protagonist lock until story completion; however, i believe exp should be shared across active and reserve members, we don't have to stick to that archaic restriction despite the visual aesthetics; once party formation is free to use w/o the taverns, they still don't treat it as if you can interact with all of them); wish the game speed went up to 3x; no clear data / new game plus option :(
i did not play the first octopath traveler beyond the demo, but i'm glad that party interaction went up a bit here with the crossed paths and travel banter (wish that was voiced). the battle system is great and i like the customization options, though adding additional job slots can be bit out the way depending on types. played in english and think the voice acting was top notch and quite like some localization choices (rendering partitio's kansai-ben as a southern accent >>>). music is great, they need to put it on spotify. plot is nothing special, but i enjoyed what it had to offer.
i did not play the first octopath traveler beyond the demo, but i'm glad that party interaction went up a bit here with the crossed paths and travel banter (wish that was voiced). the battle system is great and i like the customization options, though adding additional job slots can be bit out the way depending on types. played in english and think the voice acting was top notch and quite like some localization choices (rendering partitio's kansai-ben as a southern accent >>>). music is great, they need to put it on spotify. plot is nothing special, but i enjoyed what it had to offer.
Now I’ll be completely honest I never played the original Octopath Traveler though I heard a lot of mixed thoughts when it came to people I spoke to about it. So admittedly Octopath Traveler 2 was a bit of a gamble. Would I love this game despite my lack of knowledge of the first one? How would it compare to other RPGs that I’ve played over the years & would it do anything different to break the mould?
The answer is simply: this game absolutely rules & It’s worthy of every bit of hype in my eyes. This is probably my favourite game of the entire year so far & it really touched me in ways that I didn’t ever expect it to. Throughout my entire 100 hour journey I grew to fall in love with the world & the incredible cast of characters each with their own engaging stories & to be honest…it’s been a while since I’ve played an RPG with mature themes such as the ones that are tackled in Octopath 2.
Each of the eight main characters has their struggles. Hikari a prince driven from his kingdom by his tyrannical dictator of a brother & goes on a journey to forge alliances to reclaim his home & stop the long history of bloodshed his people have faced. Throné a thief enslaved by the abuse of the Blacksnakes searches for her freedom in order to escape from her chains. Osvald a man who was framed & locked up in prison for the murder of his wife & daughter plots his revenge against the person who ruined his life. Castti an amnesiac apothecary searches for her memories & who she once was before everything. Partitio a merchant who survived the suffering of poverty & wants to bring happiness to the entire world. And I mean sure not ALL of the stories are hits & feel very cliche & run of the mill (hello Agnea you’re very nice though) but I’d say more than half of these characters all have engaging plots & it’s well worth seeking out all of them on your journey. You’re gonna want to experience all of them & there’s no story that I consider to be genuinely bad which for a game as massive as this is a huge compliment & it says a lot about the quality of these eight compelling narratives. And seeing how they all come together is absolutely mindblowing.
The combat in this game is absolutely exceptional. Maybe one of the best turn based systems. In combat your opponents have a shield & in order to break through it, you need to find which attack they are weak to whether that be swords, knives, polearms, bows, staffs or magic. What’s really cool is you have an option with what’s called the boost system. If you have two boost points you can attack twice or alternatively you can wait after the turn to attack three or even four times or use a more powerful attack to deal massive damage. Once you get through the shield your opponent will enter a break state which then allows you to deal much more damage to them. There’s also latent powers which when your power gauge is full you can use an ultimate move depending on the character. For example Partitio’s allows him to have maximum BP, Agnea’s has her attacks/buffs reach everyone & Ochette & Hikari will be able to use extremely powerful attacks. These abilities are especially handy in tough boss fights as one wrong move could mean losing the entire battle. I found this game to be genuinely challenging at times especially in the early stages when I was still getting a hang of things. But once the combat clicks man it’s such a satisfying feeling.
On top of that there’s also a job system which allows you to acquire a license of a class to use a secondary job for each character. These include hunter, warrior, apothecary, thief, merchant, dancer, scholar & cleric. You can use the job points that you acquire from battles to invest in whatever job you choose as it will give your party more abilities & support skills. The combinations are endless & ultimately I feel there’s some jobs which suit characters much better but you’re free to experiment at your leisure to find the perfect fit. There are also secret jobs which are well worth seeking out especially in the late game which give you even more powerful abilities such as the Armsmaster which will allow you to wield all six weapons types or the Arcanist which specialises in much more powerful magic.
One thing i absolutely love about Octopath Traveler 2 is the amount of freedom you have from the very start. The world of Solistia is vast & sure you can follow your main character’s story but you’re free to roam wherever you choose, even higher level areas if you’re brave enough. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all, this is your adventure & you can go about it your own way. I haven’t felt an RPG has given me this kind of experience since the YS series & I much prefer this kind of game design over vast bloated open worlds. There’s also a day/night system which you can toggle at will. This is another mechanic I love about the game as you can do different things at day & night called path actions. For example Hikari can duel people to learn different skills during the day & bribe someone for information at night. It also changes the NPC’s that you will encounter depending on the time of day you choose. I find this to be such a unique inclusion of a day/night cycle & it really gives Octopath 2 an identity of its own compared to other RPGs.
I don’t think I even need to mention the artstyle do I? Square Enix have taken a lot of L’s recently with the decisions they’ve made especially in the business side of things but one thing I don’t think anyone can deny: these HD 2D graphics are absolutely GORGEOUS. I played this game on the PlayStation 5 & oh my goodness it looks beautiful. It’s got a very old school feel & I would love to see more of this kind of artstyle in modern RPGs.
And how could I forget about the incredible soundtrack composed by the wonderful Yasunori Nishiki whether it be the relaxing town themes or the bombastic battle music which pumps you up with untold amounts of adrenaline. There were so many tracks in this game that really went so much harder than they had any right to & it’s definitely one of the best game soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
Now does this game have any problems that stick out to me? Well…yeah. Kind of. While each of the stories are engaging I will admit it feels a little disjointed at times. When you start a character’s chapter the other characters kind of just bugger off & don’t have a lot of impact, which I’m aware was an issue with the original Octopath. To counteract this you do have travel banter which actually sort of reminded me of the skits from the Tales of series where two or more characters discuss what is happening in that moment or perhaps just bond & tease each other. This is definitely a good addition & I always enjoy when these scenes play out when you have the option to view them but I still wish there was more interconnection between the cast at pivotal story moments.
Overall though, I really loved Octopath Traveller 2. As a fan of RPGs you owe it to yourself to check this game out if you haven’t already. As long as Square Enix continues to make titles with as much love & care as this then I’m sure I’ll be more than happy to stick with them because it truly proves there’s still a place for turn based RPGs in the modern era of gaming. Definitely my game of the year for 2023 & will be extremely hard to top.
The answer is simply: this game absolutely rules & It’s worthy of every bit of hype in my eyes. This is probably my favourite game of the entire year so far & it really touched me in ways that I didn’t ever expect it to. Throughout my entire 100 hour journey I grew to fall in love with the world & the incredible cast of characters each with their own engaging stories & to be honest…it’s been a while since I’ve played an RPG with mature themes such as the ones that are tackled in Octopath 2.
Each of the eight main characters has their struggles. Hikari a prince driven from his kingdom by his tyrannical dictator of a brother & goes on a journey to forge alliances to reclaim his home & stop the long history of bloodshed his people have faced. Throné a thief enslaved by the abuse of the Blacksnakes searches for her freedom in order to escape from her chains. Osvald a man who was framed & locked up in prison for the murder of his wife & daughter plots his revenge against the person who ruined his life. Castti an amnesiac apothecary searches for her memories & who she once was before everything. Partitio a merchant who survived the suffering of poverty & wants to bring happiness to the entire world. And I mean sure not ALL of the stories are hits & feel very cliche & run of the mill (hello Agnea you’re very nice though) but I’d say more than half of these characters all have engaging plots & it’s well worth seeking out all of them on your journey. You’re gonna want to experience all of them & there’s no story that I consider to be genuinely bad which for a game as massive as this is a huge compliment & it says a lot about the quality of these eight compelling narratives. And seeing how they all come together is absolutely mindblowing.
The combat in this game is absolutely exceptional. Maybe one of the best turn based systems. In combat your opponents have a shield & in order to break through it, you need to find which attack they are weak to whether that be swords, knives, polearms, bows, staffs or magic. What’s really cool is you have an option with what’s called the boost system. If you have two boost points you can attack twice or alternatively you can wait after the turn to attack three or even four times or use a more powerful attack to deal massive damage. Once you get through the shield your opponent will enter a break state which then allows you to deal much more damage to them. There’s also latent powers which when your power gauge is full you can use an ultimate move depending on the character. For example Partitio’s allows him to have maximum BP, Agnea’s has her attacks/buffs reach everyone & Ochette & Hikari will be able to use extremely powerful attacks. These abilities are especially handy in tough boss fights as one wrong move could mean losing the entire battle. I found this game to be genuinely challenging at times especially in the early stages when I was still getting a hang of things. But once the combat clicks man it’s such a satisfying feeling.
On top of that there’s also a job system which allows you to acquire a license of a class to use a secondary job for each character. These include hunter, warrior, apothecary, thief, merchant, dancer, scholar & cleric. You can use the job points that you acquire from battles to invest in whatever job you choose as it will give your party more abilities & support skills. The combinations are endless & ultimately I feel there’s some jobs which suit characters much better but you’re free to experiment at your leisure to find the perfect fit. There are also secret jobs which are well worth seeking out especially in the late game which give you even more powerful abilities such as the Armsmaster which will allow you to wield all six weapons types or the Arcanist which specialises in much more powerful magic.
One thing i absolutely love about Octopath Traveler 2 is the amount of freedom you have from the very start. The world of Solistia is vast & sure you can follow your main character’s story but you’re free to roam wherever you choose, even higher level areas if you’re brave enough. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all, this is your adventure & you can go about it your own way. I haven’t felt an RPG has given me this kind of experience since the YS series & I much prefer this kind of game design over vast bloated open worlds. There’s also a day/night system which you can toggle at will. This is another mechanic I love about the game as you can do different things at day & night called path actions. For example Hikari can duel people to learn different skills during the day & bribe someone for information at night. It also changes the NPC’s that you will encounter depending on the time of day you choose. I find this to be such a unique inclusion of a day/night cycle & it really gives Octopath 2 an identity of its own compared to other RPGs.
I don’t think I even need to mention the artstyle do I? Square Enix have taken a lot of L’s recently with the decisions they’ve made especially in the business side of things but one thing I don’t think anyone can deny: these HD 2D graphics are absolutely GORGEOUS. I played this game on the PlayStation 5 & oh my goodness it looks beautiful. It’s got a very old school feel & I would love to see more of this kind of artstyle in modern RPGs.
And how could I forget about the incredible soundtrack composed by the wonderful Yasunori Nishiki whether it be the relaxing town themes or the bombastic battle music which pumps you up with untold amounts of adrenaline. There were so many tracks in this game that really went so much harder than they had any right to & it’s definitely one of the best game soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
Now does this game have any problems that stick out to me? Well…yeah. Kind of. While each of the stories are engaging I will admit it feels a little disjointed at times. When you start a character’s chapter the other characters kind of just bugger off & don’t have a lot of impact, which I’m aware was an issue with the original Octopath. To counteract this you do have travel banter which actually sort of reminded me of the skits from the Tales of series where two or more characters discuss what is happening in that moment or perhaps just bond & tease each other. This is definitely a good addition & I always enjoy when these scenes play out when you have the option to view them but I still wish there was more interconnection between the cast at pivotal story moments.
Overall though, I really loved Octopath Traveller 2. As a fan of RPGs you owe it to yourself to check this game out if you haven’t already. As long as Square Enix continues to make titles with as much love & care as this then I’m sure I’ll be more than happy to stick with them because it truly proves there’s still a place for turn based RPGs in the modern era of gaming. Definitely my game of the year for 2023 & will be extremely hard to top.
increíble juego, le quito un poco de puntaje solamente porque la estructura de ser 8 viajeros hace que se sientan un poco desconectadas las historias entre sí
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.
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 improved on the first in so many ways and really raised standards for modern JRPGs. Octopath Traveler is the whole reason I play JRPGs, but this second entry is awesome. (PS I 100% this game and the secret bosses)
I completed this game a month ago so my review points are a little buried in my memory, but what hasn't been buried is how much I adored playing through it. The visuals in Octopath are gorgeous, and the box art for this being so nice honestly had more impact on my interest in it than I care to admit, but what I didn't expect was for the music to surpass it.
The OST for this game has got to be one of my favourites, ever. Such an amazing number of tracks with a huge range of tones and styles, all of them a joy to listen to. It's hard to overstate how pretty some of the songs are, and I think if my bottom-tier memory remembers only one thing about Octopath Traveler II, I'd like it to be that.
... However, it won't be that, because this game made the eye-watering decision to lock it's platinum trophy behind it post-game megaboss. Now I love JRPGs, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at them. I get by for sure, but any time I look up a strat or hear how someone else is running their party I realise that mine is using maybe 15% of it's full potential. This game does not allow you to buy-back equipment that you sell, so when my dumbass sold a weapon that turned out to be essential in just about every megaboss build I found online.. 🥹
It took me around 100 hours to beat the story, maybe 20 to cleanup everything else for the platinum and (I can't be certain because reloading my save meant the time wasn't tracked) I'm certain I spent no less than 20 hours grinding and throwing myself at this boss for the final trophy. Honestly it was probably closer to 40.
10 days worth of on-off grinding/attempts, sometimes for hours, sometimes just 2-4 tries. At one point I was so discouraged and quite frankly broken that I uninstalled the game to spare myself the pain of failure, only to redownload it a few days later with hopes of beating it out of spite.
I have seen people beat this boss with ease over 30 levels lower than my party were (I grinded from 50-60 range to 80-90 just for this) and despite having almost exactly the same gear (aside from stuff I'd sold) I wasn't doing nearly as much damage as they were 🥹 (I had also spammed all my stat nuts in inopportune ways without realising bc I am ranked #1 worst jrpg player)
Anyway all this to say, I finally did it. I don't know how, the numbers fell in my favour and by some miracle I actually beat it, and that's rad 😭
This "review" is unhinged but I should also say that I love the characters and the combat system was immensely fun to use the whole time, really enjoyed it. Biggest gripe with the game would be the difficulty spike but I expect that's a skill issue. Also the way the travelers meet is kinda goofy but I really don't think that affected my enjoyment at all.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to anyone even remotely interested, it's a fantastic time and a really refreshing structure in how the story was told (for me, I haven't played 1 or Live A Live) -- Just maybe don't worry about the platinum or play on Switch (which I might have to for the first game 🥹)
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good mid-year, Final Fantasy XVI is around the corner and with this being my 124th platinum I'm hoping that one isn't quite so painful to make as my milestone 125! 😌
P.S. I just remembered there was a line near the end of Temenos' story that went so fucking hard, it was like "[Your Gods] created this world, and in their folly saw fit to taint it with humans" and that's so fkn raw😩
The OST for this game has got to be one of my favourites, ever. Such an amazing number of tracks with a huge range of tones and styles, all of them a joy to listen to. It's hard to overstate how pretty some of the songs are, and I think if my bottom-tier memory remembers only one thing about Octopath Traveler II, I'd like it to be that.
... However, it won't be that, because this game made the eye-watering decision to lock it's platinum trophy behind it post-game megaboss. Now I love JRPGs, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at them. I get by for sure, but any time I look up a strat or hear how someone else is running their party I realise that mine is using maybe 15% of it's full potential. This game does not allow you to buy-back equipment that you sell, so when my dumbass sold a weapon that turned out to be essential in just about every megaboss build I found online.. 🥹
It took me around 100 hours to beat the story, maybe 20 to cleanup everything else for the platinum and (I can't be certain because reloading my save meant the time wasn't tracked) I'm certain I spent no less than 20 hours grinding and throwing myself at this boss for the final trophy. Honestly it was probably closer to 40.
10 days worth of on-off grinding/attempts, sometimes for hours, sometimes just 2-4 tries. At one point I was so discouraged and quite frankly broken that I uninstalled the game to spare myself the pain of failure, only to redownload it a few days later with hopes of beating it out of spite.
I have seen people beat this boss with ease over 30 levels lower than my party were (I grinded from 50-60 range to 80-90 just for this) and despite having almost exactly the same gear (aside from stuff I'd sold) I wasn't doing nearly as much damage as they were 🥹 (I had also spammed all my stat nuts in inopportune ways without realising bc I am ranked #1 worst jrpg player)
Anyway all this to say, I finally did it. I don't know how, the numbers fell in my favour and by some miracle I actually beat it, and that's rad 😭
This "review" is unhinged but I should also say that I love the characters and the combat system was immensely fun to use the whole time, really enjoyed it. Biggest gripe with the game would be the difficulty spike but I expect that's a skill issue. Also the way the travelers meet is kinda goofy but I really don't think that affected my enjoyment at all.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to anyone even remotely interested, it's a fantastic time and a really refreshing structure in how the story was told (for me, I haven't played 1 or Live A Live) -- Just maybe don't worry about the platinum or play on Switch (which I might have to for the first game 🥹)
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good mid-year, Final Fantasy XVI is around the corner and with this being my 124th platinum I'm hoping that one isn't quite so painful to make as my milestone 125! 😌
P.S. I just remembered there was a line near the end of Temenos' story that went so fucking hard, it was like "[Your Gods] created this world, and in their folly saw fit to taint it with humans" and that's so fkn raw😩
Eu não gostei deste jogo, é um grindfest indutor de soneca com uma jogabilidade horrível e uma história previsível que perde o foco no meio do caminho e entra em uma confusão com muitos problemas em torno de pontos da trama e personagens e vilão malvado de desenho animado. há muitos problemas com o ritmo e o sistema de progressão de habilidades é desequilibrado e mal projetado.
gostei mais do primeiro jogo!!
gostei mais do primeiro jogo!!
When the first Octopath game came out in 2018, it rocked my world. Even when the reception of the game online seemed very mixed, I couldn't help falling in love with the stellar orchestrated soundtrack composed by Yasunori Nishiki and the refined job and battle system that seemed to blow classic JRPG battle mechanics out of the water. The soundtrack in particular was a formative set of compositions that I showed to all of my friends, and to this day we perform arrangements of the pieces in our string ensembles. Even back then I acknowledged the game's narrative shortcomings, but I craved the game's lore and worldbuilding nonetheless. The endgame, while poorly explained and hidden behind minor sidequests, provided infodumps that captivated me. I itched to learn more about Orsterra's gods and minor bosses, optimized battle equipment sets and secondary classes, and the OST, including the wonderful Break and Boost Arrangements, was on repeat in my Spotify playlists. My love for this game is linked to my identity as a musician, and I can tell there's love and passion oozing out of every bit of this game's dynamic musical design. As I'm typing this, I'm sitting across from my shelf of vinyl records containing the Octopath Traveler Recorded Journey record alongside my various pop and rock records. Honestly, even if every other part of the octopath games were shit, I would still eat them up if they have soundtracks this good.
I'm thrilled to see the internet treat Octopath 2 more kindly than its predecessor, even if it makes me scratch my head a little. In my opinion, Octopath 2 is a marginal improvement on nearly every mechanic introduced in the original. Key word: marginal. Because I loved nearly every bit of the first game, I happened to love the second game a little more in every way. But it confuses me nonetheless when I see countless posts talking about how this game was such a big step up from the first.
Combat mechanics of the break and boost system are the same at their core - there are no new weapons or elements. OT2 added latent powers, overhauled concoct and beast lore, added use cases for summoned NPCs, added EX skills, added warrior skills, and did some overall balancing with the moveset of pre-existing jobs. We got just as many hidden jobs as before, but all of them feel like nerfed versions of the hidden jobs in OT1 except for inventor. This sounds like a lot, and all of these changes (except for removing warmaster smh) do improve combat. But not by much. The bread-and-butter setups are still there, you just need to tinker your level of micromanagement.
Individual characters' stories were always hit or miss, and that hasn't changed here. Hikari is just as much of a piece of cardboard as Olberic was, and Agnea's connection to the main story is just as irrelevant as Tressa's. Osvald's story starts strong but fizzles out with a laughably cliché villain, Castti's amnesia trope is also painfully cliché, and Ochette's story is bogged down by her one-note writing. I think the real standout story for me in OT2 is Throné's. It starts out as a combination of Primrose and Therion's stories from OT1 (they were my favorites from the first game) but unlike other stories in the series, after the predictable villain is defeated, the plot takes a huge left turn into unforeseen territory. The themes her story set up led perfectly into the dark twist, and I always love seeing this kind of stuff in JRPGs. Character dialogue and writing suffers just as much as it did in OT1, with the added benefit of not having to listen to H'aanit's fake old english accent. Each line of dialogue sounds like it was recorded on a separate studio day, and the writing of the dialogue is way too formal. These cracks show even more in OT2 given its more modern post-industrial setting. I have a feeling a big reason why the dialogue feels so unnatural is because each line is a separate recording in a separate speech bubble, which is required so the player can press the A button to advance dialogue at their will. It's customary of classic SNES-era JRPGs, but those games didn't have voice acting, so it wasn't a problem.
Crossed Path stories were an attempt to fix the most common point of criticism, which was that characters didn't interact outside of flavor text, but these chapters have very little substance or meaning until the buildup to the final boss. Temenos and Throné did feel like an awesome dynamic duo, though, so it was still fun to see their expanded banter. They're a welcome addition but I won't pretend like they fixed the problem.
While the Octopath games clearly draw heavy inspiration from 16-bit classic JRPGs, my wish is for the series to let go of a lot of those standards in order to grow. I want more seamless dialogue and deeper character writing, full uninterrupted cutscenes, more pretty camera angles (I still like the HD-2D visual style though), more jobs a la Bravely Default, less predictable story chapters, more party interactions...just more everything!
Complaints aside, the fact that OT1 even got a sequel is thrilling. While I don't think OT2's improvements are nearly as significant other people say, it won't stop me from coming back to New Delsta to hear that sweet marimba melody.
pleasedroptheOSTonspotifypleasemakeanewbreak&boostarrangementsalbumpleeeeeaaaaaseeeee
I'm thrilled to see the internet treat Octopath 2 more kindly than its predecessor, even if it makes me scratch my head a little. In my opinion, Octopath 2 is a marginal improvement on nearly every mechanic introduced in the original. Key word: marginal. Because I loved nearly every bit of the first game, I happened to love the second game a little more in every way. But it confuses me nonetheless when I see countless posts talking about how this game was such a big step up from the first.
Combat mechanics of the break and boost system are the same at their core - there are no new weapons or elements. OT2 added latent powers, overhauled concoct and beast lore, added use cases for summoned NPCs, added EX skills, added warrior skills, and did some overall balancing with the moveset of pre-existing jobs. We got just as many hidden jobs as before, but all of them feel like nerfed versions of the hidden jobs in OT1 except for inventor. This sounds like a lot, and all of these changes (except for removing warmaster smh) do improve combat. But not by much. The bread-and-butter setups are still there, you just need to tinker your level of micromanagement.
Individual characters' stories were always hit or miss, and that hasn't changed here. Hikari is just as much of a piece of cardboard as Olberic was, and Agnea's connection to the main story is just as irrelevant as Tressa's. Osvald's story starts strong but fizzles out with a laughably cliché villain, Castti's amnesia trope is also painfully cliché, and Ochette's story is bogged down by her one-note writing. I think the real standout story for me in OT2 is Throné's. It starts out as a combination of Primrose and Therion's stories from OT1 (they were my favorites from the first game) but unlike other stories in the series, after the predictable villain is defeated, the plot takes a huge left turn into unforeseen territory. The themes her story set up led perfectly into the dark twist, and I always love seeing this kind of stuff in JRPGs. Character dialogue and writing suffers just as much as it did in OT1, with the added benefit of not having to listen to H'aanit's fake old english accent. Each line of dialogue sounds like it was recorded on a separate studio day, and the writing of the dialogue is way too formal. These cracks show even more in OT2 given its more modern post-industrial setting. I have a feeling a big reason why the dialogue feels so unnatural is because each line is a separate recording in a separate speech bubble, which is required so the player can press the A button to advance dialogue at their will. It's customary of classic SNES-era JRPGs, but those games didn't have voice acting, so it wasn't a problem.
Crossed Path stories were an attempt to fix the most common point of criticism, which was that characters didn't interact outside of flavor text, but these chapters have very little substance or meaning until the buildup to the final boss. Temenos and Throné did feel like an awesome dynamic duo, though, so it was still fun to see their expanded banter. They're a welcome addition but I won't pretend like they fixed the problem.
While the Octopath games clearly draw heavy inspiration from 16-bit classic JRPGs, my wish is for the series to let go of a lot of those standards in order to grow. I want more seamless dialogue and deeper character writing, full uninterrupted cutscenes, more pretty camera angles (I still like the HD-2D visual style though), more jobs a la Bravely Default, less predictable story chapters, more party interactions...just more everything!
Complaints aside, the fact that OT1 even got a sequel is thrilling. While I don't think OT2's improvements are nearly as significant other people say, it won't stop me from coming back to New Delsta to hear that sweet marimba melody.
pleasedroptheOSTonspotifypleasemakeanewbreak&boostarrangementsalbumpleeeeeaaaaaseeeee
The reveal of Octopath Traveler II was both surprising and troublesome for me at the same time. Admittedly, I had gotten the first Octopath Traveler game soon after purchasing my first Nintendo Switch. And while I enjoyed the game, I never did beat it. The lack of interconnecting storylines, the backtracking required, the obtuse side quests, and necessary grinding left me unhappy with a game I desperately wanted to love. And while I may have several gripes with the first game that I won’t get into here, I am happy to say that Octopath Traveler II corrected every single one of my complaints and become an incredible experience that I won’t soon forget.
I want to start this review by saying that I am in love with the 2D-HD art style present in the Octopath Traveler series and pioneered by Team Asano at Square Enix. The 2D-HD art seamlessly merges the nostalgia of 2D pixel art with the modern aesthetically pleasing backgrounds and flair of modern 3D graphics and, for me personally, it cannot be topped.
Like the first game, Octopath Traveler II tasks the player with choosing their starting character from, much like the name of the game suggests, eight different characters. There is Castti the Apothecary, Agnea the Dancer, Throné the Thief, Partitio the Merchant, Ochette the Hunter, Hikari the Warrior, Temenos the Cleric, and Osvald the Scholar. While none of these choices available are necessarily bad or make the game more difficult, since you’ll be getting all of these party members eventually, it is important to know that who you choose must remain in your party for the entire game.
I decided to start my personal journey with Osvald the Scholar. Imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit, Osvald’s story is one of betrayal and revenge. He must use his intellect and knowledge of magic to track down the man who set him up, betrayed his trust, and murdered his wife and daughter. As he draws ever closer to getting his revenge and finding the truth, however, the answers he uncovers along the way may be more than he can bear.
While the synopsis of Osvald’s tale hopefully peaked your interest, each and every one of the possible eight protagonists have an interesting story to tell. Whether it is a fight for freedom and acceptance, a journey to find ones place in the world, a mystery to uncover a forgotten past, or overcoming unsurmountable odds to save your homeland from a tyrannical ruler, Octopath Traveler II has something for everyone and will keep the player engaged from start to finish.
The turn-based combat in the game is almost unchanged from the first entry in the series, which is fine since there was nothing wrong with it. Although, there are speed up options in this game to alleviate some of the tedium of fighting lower leveled enemies or when you simply want to blow through an encounter.
Players familiar with JRPGs will also understand the Job System prevalent in this game. They’re of course magic users, defensive walls, glass canons and the like, but the system here shines best when it comes to Secondary Jobs and Secret Jobs. Secondary Jobs, of course, allow a character to have more than one job. This enables a Scholar to also be an Apothecary, have the ability to wield staffs and axes, have access to all 3 elemental magic attacks, and the ability heal the entire party. This makes for immense customization and increases the prospect of replayability. Within the game there are also 4 Secret Jobs to discover - Inventor, Armsmaster, Arcanist, and Conjurer. While I want detail each of these, suffice it to say that Inventor and Armsmaster are likely the best in the game.
Finally, I want to discuss the music of this game. Octopath Traveler II likely has my favorite soundtrack of any video game (maybe tied with Megaman X). It captures every necessary emotion at just the right moment and is able to deliver on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is no track in the entire game that doesn’t pull its weight and no track can conjurer up adventure like the Octopath Traveler II Main Theme. Yasunori Nishiki is an astounding artist and his work here is masterful.
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an incredible game. While JRPGs aren’t for everyone, the stories contained within this game are. I believe if you embark on this adventure you will find yourself enthralled in the journey and long for the next installment in this beautiful franchise.
I want to start this review by saying that I am in love with the 2D-HD art style present in the Octopath Traveler series and pioneered by Team Asano at Square Enix. The 2D-HD art seamlessly merges the nostalgia of 2D pixel art with the modern aesthetically pleasing backgrounds and flair of modern 3D graphics and, for me personally, it cannot be topped.
Like the first game, Octopath Traveler II tasks the player with choosing their starting character from, much like the name of the game suggests, eight different characters. There is Castti the Apothecary, Agnea the Dancer, Throné the Thief, Partitio the Merchant, Ochette the Hunter, Hikari the Warrior, Temenos the Cleric, and Osvald the Scholar. While none of these choices available are necessarily bad or make the game more difficult, since you’ll be getting all of these party members eventually, it is important to know that who you choose must remain in your party for the entire game.
I decided to start my personal journey with Osvald the Scholar. Imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit, Osvald’s story is one of betrayal and revenge. He must use his intellect and knowledge of magic to track down the man who set him up, betrayed his trust, and murdered his wife and daughter. As he draws ever closer to getting his revenge and finding the truth, however, the answers he uncovers along the way may be more than he can bear.
While the synopsis of Osvald’s tale hopefully peaked your interest, each and every one of the possible eight protagonists have an interesting story to tell. Whether it is a fight for freedom and acceptance, a journey to find ones place in the world, a mystery to uncover a forgotten past, or overcoming unsurmountable odds to save your homeland from a tyrannical ruler, Octopath Traveler II has something for everyone and will keep the player engaged from start to finish.
The turn-based combat in the game is almost unchanged from the first entry in the series, which is fine since there was nothing wrong with it. Although, there are speed up options in this game to alleviate some of the tedium of fighting lower leveled enemies or when you simply want to blow through an encounter.
Players familiar with JRPGs will also understand the Job System prevalent in this game. They’re of course magic users, defensive walls, glass canons and the like, but the system here shines best when it comes to Secondary Jobs and Secret Jobs. Secondary Jobs, of course, allow a character to have more than one job. This enables a Scholar to also be an Apothecary, have the ability to wield staffs and axes, have access to all 3 elemental magic attacks, and the ability heal the entire party. This makes for immense customization and increases the prospect of replayability. Within the game there are also 4 Secret Jobs to discover - Inventor, Armsmaster, Arcanist, and Conjurer. While I want detail each of these, suffice it to say that Inventor and Armsmaster are likely the best in the game.
Finally, I want to discuss the music of this game. Octopath Traveler II likely has my favorite soundtrack of any video game (maybe tied with Megaman X). It captures every necessary emotion at just the right moment and is able to deliver on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is no track in the entire game that doesn’t pull its weight and no track can conjurer up adventure like the Octopath Traveler II Main Theme. Yasunori Nishiki is an astounding artist and his work here is masterful.
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an incredible game. While JRPGs aren’t for everyone, the stories contained within this game are. I believe if you embark on this adventure you will find yourself enthralled in the journey and long for the next installment in this beautiful franchise.
This game was phenomenal, I really enjoyed it so much! I never played the first one but this game was on sale so I decided to buy it! The stories were all extremely interesting and I spent a lot of time playing it. I'm an Ochette no.1 fan! The game is really good if you like JRPG'S but to complete the main story make sure you have a lot of free time or it'll take you a month like me:).
Good game with calming bgm
Will surely play it again when I have the time
Will surely play it again when I have the time
Unfortunately, I have already finished the sequel to a JRPG that really touched my heart, and that I never expected to see again so soon. I've lived 5 months of hype since the game was announced and I've already reached the end of this adventure. But was it really worth it? Before talking about the overall plot, I will deal individually with the stories of the 8 protagonists of this game. Osvald's story is incredible, painful and emotional from beginning to end. A very good tragic story with good twists and told really well. Towards the end I was almost moved. Also Osvald as a character is very well executed, I loved him a lot. I'm really glad I used him as the lead protagonist. Regarding Castti, at first I had some doubts about the plot, but this too turned out to be a truly magnificent story with excellent twists. The way the narrative unfolds is really cool. Castti is an excellent character with a great evolution and very beautiful scenes. The story of Temenos i really incredible. It maintains a very high quality in each chapter both at the level of the story and at the level of the character. Especially Chapter 3 is structured really well and is very engaging. Temenos is also really great, I don't know how they managed to create such a wonderful character. Regarding Ochette, she has a rather simple story that goes straight to the point, however in some way this is consistent with the character. I'm a little sad because I had rather high expectations, but I didn't come out too disappointed in the end. Ochette is a very nice character who really was needed in the party of this game, I liked her enough. Partitio is HIM. He is THE man. His story and his character are amazing from start to finish, and really well told. I love him very much. Regarding Agnea, while her story is the weakest of the 8 and absolutely no match for the others, it's still very nice. There are some elements that cringe me a little bit but overall it has a very warm atmosphere, especially thanks to the characters you meet along your journey. Throné has THE CRAZIEST STORY EVER. I literally have no idea how they managed to put something like this in a game like this, it's a very dark and disturbing story but it still doesn't clash with the atmosphere of the game. I think it's perfect from start to finish, I really have nothing to complain about. Throné then as a character is truly magnificent, masterfully written. Regarding Hikari, he has a great story, more engaging than I expected. Hikari is a good character but he's probably the one I've grown fond of the least. The overall story of the game that is formed by connecting the stories of the eight characters in the final chapter is quite good. I really love that they have managed to create a new interesting and in-depth lore in this new continent and I had a lot of fun discovering the truth behind the mysteries of this game. I'm really amazed at the progress the team behind the game has made in terms of writing compared to the first Octopath Traveler. Both in terms of plot and in terms of dialogues, there is really a big difference between the two games from this point of view. The gameplay of this game is phenomenal. It hasn't undergone huge changes compared to the original, but still manages to be engaging and innovative thanks to several improvements. The new continent felt much more alive and enjoyable to explore than Orsterra in the first game. In this sequel I spent so many hours simply looking for secret caves and interacting with NPCs, something that didn't come naturally to me with the first Octopath Traveler. The addition of the day-night cycle also makes everything even more realistic and pleasant, and allows you to immerse yourself in the world in different ways and in different atmospheres. The Combat System, also largely taken from the first game with several improvements, is a lot of fun. The latent powers of each character make the characters even more unique, while the new classes and skills allow for much more complex battle strategies and make team-building more interesting than in the first game. Also, farming is easier and more satisfying thanks to being able to increase the speed of the battles. As for the interactions between the party characters, they remain almost absent within the individual chapters. When one character experiences his story, the rest of the characters are just there to fight alongside him, without appearing in cutscenes or helping him in some way. This problem present in the first game is also present in the second. The team behind the game promised more interactions between characters through the "double" chapters. These double chapters do not radically compensate for this problem of single chapters. They are certainly quite nice, but only focused on two characters at a time and very short. There is a section of the game where the characters interact with each other in quite an exciting way, but sadly it's only towards the end of the game. I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil, but I absolutely loved seeing ALL 8 adventurers talk to each other and I wish we had more moments like this sooner. Finally, regarding the difficulty of the game, I found it quite balanced. There were a few moments where I had a little difficulty against the bosses but nothing too stressful, I just changed my strategy and equipment. Regarding graphics, from the first to the second game there has been an incredible graphical improvement. If in the first Octopath Traveler the graphics and artstyle are already quite beautiful, in the second they have really surpassed themselves: they have created truly magnificent environments full of details, made even more pleasant thanks to even better lighting. I'm really happy with these improvements and can't wait to see how HD-2D will evolve over time. Regarding the soundtrack, it really is a masterpiece, I can't find other words to describe it. I love Yasunori Nishiki's style so much. Octopath II's soundtrack surpasses that of the first game in almost every way and is perhaps among the most solid soundtracks I've ever heard. Overall, I loved Octopath Traveler II. It definitely has its downsides, but I still loved it with all my heart and binged it in less than two weeks. I'm quite happy to have bought it and will look forward to a new entry in the series, although it is not currently planned. That said, I actually recommend it only to those who liked the first game. The basis of the second game is the same, and therefore you may experience the same problems that you had in the first game also in the second one. Having loved the first game as a result I loved this one even more.
Final grade: 93
Final grade: 93
This game came out and I was like... woah... I haven't beaten it yet but holy this game is so good, its an actual direct upgrade to the first one and its so awesome. I love the characters, the story, the ost, and the art.
ive got to finish this... for khang... and roxas....
When Octopath Traveler 1 came out in 2018, it was kind of a big moment for pixel rpgs. The "HD-2D" art-style was a stunning graphical wonder. There was some broad criticism by some people who considered it ugly or "lazy", but like most of the endless online discourse, it faded away once there was something else to focus on. But within the last five years, the HD 2D style has shown it might be here to stay. It encouraged Square Enix to consider bringing back lost pixel RPGs that players are still invested in. After several poor remaster attempts, the Final Fantasy Remasters have been really positively received. Bolstered by that, the Live A Live HD-2D remake was released to rave reviews across the seas. I think there's an argument to be made that those re-releases wouldn't exist without the existence of Octopath 1.
Still, the first game was burdened with some major problems. Despite its marketing around 8 party members, the cast virtually never interacts with each other across the entire game. The "travel banters" where they did interact was exceptionally easy to miss content. The game also became notorious for its exceptional difficulty, making progression daunting for new players. Even finding the final boss of the game was locked behind various obtuse, unmarked side quests. The game sold a million copies, but the actual story didn't seem to leave much of a cultural impact.
Its why its kind of sad to me that the initial sales of Octopath 2 don't seem too hot, when I really do think its something special.
It took me a long time to fully decipher the mechanics. The overworld and battle mechanics aren't entirely well explained and it was one of the reasons I bounced off the first game. I'd say it took me 15-20 hours into the system to grasp its fundamentals. But once the system clicks with you, it connects together in a really crunchy way. Balancing the job systems, the special skills, and all the other layers makes for a truly gripping combination of systems and gimmicks.
One of the major criticisms of the first game was how little the cast interacted with each other. In 2, the Travel Banters are easily collected in your journals to view any time, even the ones you missed. It helps you get a good sense of each character's dynamic. This is expanded upon in "Crossed Paths", where two characters pair up to their own sidequest and bounce off each other more directly. Not only does it alleviate the concerns of the first game, it also helps flesh out the cast. How they act around different people and how their behaviors change in circumstances. It helps them feel more real and defined. And that's crucial for the kind of story Octo
The core theme of the game, as with many rpgs, is this idea of lightness versus darkness. Straight-forward enough. But how the game delivers that message is through this idea of the overwhelming horror of violent history. The cycle of betrayal, heart-break, corrupt systems, and how they make future seem so horrifically bleak. Its a hard topic to really deliver if the writers don't fully understand those systems. But for the most part, I think Octopath threads the needle. Its in the stories themselves
Castti the Apothecary
I don't often go for healer girls or amnesia stories. Healer girls are often a bit too soft for my liking, a bit too deferential and "traditionally" cute. So much of what makes Castti work is how tired she seems beneath the surface. She's treated as and performs as the "mother hen", fussing over the other characters. But she's old, she's seen things. A nightmare sequence features her chased down by all the people she's failed to heal. All the blame she places on herself for those deaths. It makes her decision to keep working all the more powerful and heart-breaking.
There's a narrative beat about the Book of Night. It appears to detail the worst of history, every nightmare-ish act of human villainy ever written down. Most characters go nuts and decide to burn the world down after they read it. Castti's just like "...yeah? And?" She's seen the worst and doesn't care. That's just more people to heal. She signed up for that. Seeing the worst and building something better comes with the job description. Its the kind of characterization the game needs for its core theming to work.
Throne and Agnea
I liked Primrose in 1. But, there was weird stuff too. Her "Seduction" mechanics as the Dancer just felt uncomfortable when paired with her history. Trafficking, exploitation... it doesn't mesh well.
Primrose's main traits are diverged into two characters. Agnea is the Dancer and she's portrayed as a joyous inspiration chasing her dream. I never quite fell in love with that story, but its a nice way to balance the game's darker tones and its a much better characterization for the Dancer type.
Throne gets the bulk of the darker storytelling. For the game's narrative of "finding hope in the future," they need a story about someone who seemingly has no future. No control. No options. The Blacksnakes are a team of criminals who are kept in line with their poison collars. The Mother and Father of the guild can activate the poison any time, killing their unruly children. So Throne's goal is simple. Kill her "parents", unlock the collars, gain freedom.
Through this darkness, we dive deep into the idea of freedom and control. What it means to fight for something everyone else has, discovering your identity when your identity has been determined since birth. What you have to sacrifice to win that fight. Its bleak, but its perhaps the most thematically interesting of the batch. It swerves into so many fascinating directions, none of them quite what you'd expect. How it establishes the systems a parent sets up for a child, what that child grows into, and all the complications through it all... its such a fascinating picture. The darkness works here. Its pointed and purposeful. I adore it.
Hikari
Takes a lot to sell me on a Royal Prince Must Win story. But Hikari's story really works for two reasons.
1. The nation of Ku has subjugated and massacred its neighbors for generations. Its a horrific place. Hikari is the only political force with the support to rework it into something better.
2. Hikari's power doesn't come from his royal bloodline. It comes from his humble roots. While the Ku family mocks him as part-royal/part-lowborn, his connection to the average civilian gives him a perspective the nobles lack. While the Ku Family embrace this weird demon power that encourages bloodshed, he can actively resist it by knowing the consequences of such violence on the average person. Its great. Its a good hook. Hikari's a good kid.
The thing I really had to let go of while playing this game is the wider political ideas of Ku. Hikari's goal to return to power kind of dances around the idea of what the public sentiment is. Ku massacres any dissident, yeah, but it never quite examines if there's a major political body that likes the murders. People kill because the royal family orders murders. Once Hikari's in power, everyone will happily not murder peasants anymore. That's the only logic we need to follow. Trying to overthink it past that? Not what the story is about. Sometimes, you just gotta accept what the story's doing.
Ochette
Ochette's just fun. In the midst of these darker tales of depravity and corruption, here's a shonen protag. I love it. Good tone balancer.
Osvald and Temenos
These are pretty good. Osvald's story is gripping enough, even if it just checks some boxes in my eyes. Dead family. Get revenge. Find a new way to live.
Temenos' story is probably the most connected to the Overarching Plot of the cast, which makes his murder mystery plotline a little difficult to follow at times. The narrative has to hide some of the cards for the finale. What you're left with is a Twink Church Cop who dances his way through some murders. They try to balance out the whole "I'm an inquisitor for the church chasing down heretics" tension with the characterization that Temenos himself doesn't... really care about religion. He likes to solve crime. Finding "heretics" is how he does that. Since the people that hate the Church in this game miraculously end up being murderers, it works out. Weird tension there. Hard to grapple with it.
More than anything, both of these lads just really excel as Travel Banter characters. Osvald is the grumpy straight man, gloomy and miserable and baffled by the wackier antics of the other characters. Temenos is the perpetual tease, needling others, getting under people's skin. For the dynamics to work, you need these guys! Essential for a large party! If everyone gets along too well, they become less interesting. With a grump and a jackass, you get good variety. Its perfect.
Partitio
A Kentucky-fried traveling salesman decides to end poverty with 1. the planned assassination of oil barons and 2. department stores.
Its weird.
Don't look to media for politics, its never a good idea. But its hard not to look at Partitio's weird balancing act between loving and hating capitalism. The villains use the word capitalism. They spew off hatred for worker's rights. The villain's final monologue involves proclaiming "money is meant to be hoarded by people like me!" The game's very intentional with this! The industrial revolution and its impact on society is the key center piece of what this story path is about. There's no denying that.
But I think fans who put Partitio as a socialist king are sort of missing the mark of Partitio's character. Because honestly, I'm not even sure the game knows what Party's beliefs are. Partitio likes trade and he likes money. He's fervently in favor of the industrial revolution and generally seems to like capitalism. But he wants a nice capitalism. An equitable enough capitalism. Fair wages and good bosses. Its a really specific needle the story is trying to thread and I can't say they succeed. Cause at the end of the day, Partitio's plan is to be a Good Billionaire. The only path out of capitalism is Good Capitalism. Its a really odd piece.
But he's fun. He says goofy folksy quips. He... offers to buy Throne's poison collar and find a way to make a "good" version of it, which seems like a loaded concept to drop casually in a travel banter. But he's fun. The charm overrides most of the head-scratching.
Ultimately
This kind of game has a lot to prove. Investing time into a huge rpg, especially right before Zelda ToTK release, is tough. And I think a lot of people passed on this for so many complicated marketing reasons. But despite my reservations on some story aspects... the game really hooked me. I dedicated a whole month to this monstrosity, after I expected to drop it from the first 10 hours. It grabs you. Its exudes charm and passion. It grows from the first game in such smart ways. And more than anything... I want more of these games. I want the Octopath franchise to keep growing and improving. They've got so much to show off and I think they have a lot more stories to tell. I loved this game. I hope to see more of it.
Still, the first game was burdened with some major problems. Despite its marketing around 8 party members, the cast virtually never interacts with each other across the entire game. The "travel banters" where they did interact was exceptionally easy to miss content. The game also became notorious for its exceptional difficulty, making progression daunting for new players. Even finding the final boss of the game was locked behind various obtuse, unmarked side quests. The game sold a million copies, but the actual story didn't seem to leave much of a cultural impact.
Its why its kind of sad to me that the initial sales of Octopath 2 don't seem too hot, when I really do think its something special.
It took me a long time to fully decipher the mechanics. The overworld and battle mechanics aren't entirely well explained and it was one of the reasons I bounced off the first game. I'd say it took me 15-20 hours into the system to grasp its fundamentals. But once the system clicks with you, it connects together in a really crunchy way. Balancing the job systems, the special skills, and all the other layers makes for a truly gripping combination of systems and gimmicks.
One of the major criticisms of the first game was how little the cast interacted with each other. In 2, the Travel Banters are easily collected in your journals to view any time, even the ones you missed. It helps you get a good sense of each character's dynamic. This is expanded upon in "Crossed Paths", where two characters pair up to their own sidequest and bounce off each other more directly. Not only does it alleviate the concerns of the first game, it also helps flesh out the cast. How they act around different people and how their behaviors change in circumstances. It helps them feel more real and defined. And that's crucial for the kind of story Octo
The core theme of the game, as with many rpgs, is this idea of lightness versus darkness. Straight-forward enough. But how the game delivers that message is through this idea of the overwhelming horror of violent history. The cycle of betrayal, heart-break, corrupt systems, and how they make future seem so horrifically bleak. Its a hard topic to really deliver if the writers don't fully understand those systems. But for the most part, I think Octopath threads the needle. Its in the stories themselves
Castti the Apothecary
I don't often go for healer girls or amnesia stories. Healer girls are often a bit too soft for my liking, a bit too deferential and "traditionally" cute. So much of what makes Castti work is how tired she seems beneath the surface. She's treated as and performs as the "mother hen", fussing over the other characters. But she's old, she's seen things. A nightmare sequence features her chased down by all the people she's failed to heal. All the blame she places on herself for those deaths. It makes her decision to keep working all the more powerful and heart-breaking.
There's a narrative beat about the Book of Night. It appears to detail the worst of history, every nightmare-ish act of human villainy ever written down. Most characters go nuts and decide to burn the world down after they read it. Castti's just like "...yeah? And?" She's seen the worst and doesn't care. That's just more people to heal. She signed up for that. Seeing the worst and building something better comes with the job description. Its the kind of characterization the game needs for its core theming to work.
Throne and Agnea
I liked Primrose in 1. But, there was weird stuff too. Her "Seduction" mechanics as the Dancer just felt uncomfortable when paired with her history. Trafficking, exploitation... it doesn't mesh well.
Primrose's main traits are diverged into two characters. Agnea is the Dancer and she's portrayed as a joyous inspiration chasing her dream. I never quite fell in love with that story, but its a nice way to balance the game's darker tones and its a much better characterization for the Dancer type.
Throne gets the bulk of the darker storytelling. For the game's narrative of "finding hope in the future," they need a story about someone who seemingly has no future. No control. No options. The Blacksnakes are a team of criminals who are kept in line with their poison collars. The Mother and Father of the guild can activate the poison any time, killing their unruly children. So Throne's goal is simple. Kill her "parents", unlock the collars, gain freedom.
Through this darkness, we dive deep into the idea of freedom and control. What it means to fight for something everyone else has, discovering your identity when your identity has been determined since birth. What you have to sacrifice to win that fight. Its bleak, but its perhaps the most thematically interesting of the batch. It swerves into so many fascinating directions, none of them quite what you'd expect. How it establishes the systems a parent sets up for a child, what that child grows into, and all the complications through it all... its such a fascinating picture. The darkness works here. Its pointed and purposeful. I adore it.
Hikari
Takes a lot to sell me on a Royal Prince Must Win story. But Hikari's story really works for two reasons.
1. The nation of Ku has subjugated and massacred its neighbors for generations. Its a horrific place. Hikari is the only political force with the support to rework it into something better.
2. Hikari's power doesn't come from his royal bloodline. It comes from his humble roots. While the Ku family mocks him as part-royal/part-lowborn, his connection to the average civilian gives him a perspective the nobles lack. While the Ku Family embrace this weird demon power that encourages bloodshed, he can actively resist it by knowing the consequences of such violence on the average person. Its great. Its a good hook. Hikari's a good kid.
The thing I really had to let go of while playing this game is the wider political ideas of Ku. Hikari's goal to return to power kind of dances around the idea of what the public sentiment is. Ku massacres any dissident, yeah, but it never quite examines if there's a major political body that likes the murders. People kill because the royal family orders murders. Once Hikari's in power, everyone will happily not murder peasants anymore. That's the only logic we need to follow. Trying to overthink it past that? Not what the story is about. Sometimes, you just gotta accept what the story's doing.
Ochette
Ochette's just fun. In the midst of these darker tales of depravity and corruption, here's a shonen protag. I love it. Good tone balancer.
Osvald and Temenos
These are pretty good. Osvald's story is gripping enough, even if it just checks some boxes in my eyes. Dead family. Get revenge. Find a new way to live.
Temenos' story is probably the most connected to the Overarching Plot of the cast, which makes his murder mystery plotline a little difficult to follow at times. The narrative has to hide some of the cards for the finale. What you're left with is a Twink Church Cop who dances his way through some murders. They try to balance out the whole "I'm an inquisitor for the church chasing down heretics" tension with the characterization that Temenos himself doesn't... really care about religion. He likes to solve crime. Finding "heretics" is how he does that. Since the people that hate the Church in this game miraculously end up being murderers, it works out. Weird tension there. Hard to grapple with it.
More than anything, both of these lads just really excel as Travel Banter characters. Osvald is the grumpy straight man, gloomy and miserable and baffled by the wackier antics of the other characters. Temenos is the perpetual tease, needling others, getting under people's skin. For the dynamics to work, you need these guys! Essential for a large party! If everyone gets along too well, they become less interesting. With a grump and a jackass, you get good variety. Its perfect.
Partitio
A Kentucky-fried traveling salesman decides to end poverty with 1. the planned assassination of oil barons and 2. department stores.
Its weird.
Don't look to media for politics, its never a good idea. But its hard not to look at Partitio's weird balancing act between loving and hating capitalism. The villains use the word capitalism. They spew off hatred for worker's rights. The villain's final monologue involves proclaiming "money is meant to be hoarded by people like me!" The game's very intentional with this! The industrial revolution and its impact on society is the key center piece of what this story path is about. There's no denying that.
But I think fans who put Partitio as a socialist king are sort of missing the mark of Partitio's character. Because honestly, I'm not even sure the game knows what Party's beliefs are. Partitio likes trade and he likes money. He's fervently in favor of the industrial revolution and generally seems to like capitalism. But he wants a nice capitalism. An equitable enough capitalism. Fair wages and good bosses. Its a really specific needle the story is trying to thread and I can't say they succeed. Cause at the end of the day, Partitio's plan is to be a Good Billionaire. The only path out of capitalism is Good Capitalism. Its a really odd piece.
But he's fun. He says goofy folksy quips. He... offers to buy Throne's poison collar and find a way to make a "good" version of it, which seems like a loaded concept to drop casually in a travel banter. But he's fun. The charm overrides most of the head-scratching.
Ultimately
This kind of game has a lot to prove. Investing time into a huge rpg, especially right before Zelda ToTK release, is tough. And I think a lot of people passed on this for so many complicated marketing reasons. But despite my reservations on some story aspects... the game really hooked me. I dedicated a whole month to this monstrosity, after I expected to drop it from the first 10 hours. It grabs you. Its exudes charm and passion. It grows from the first game in such smart ways. And more than anything... I want more of these games. I want the Octopath franchise to keep growing and improving. They've got so much to show off and I think they have a lot more stories to tell. I loved this game. I hope to see more of it.
I'm still not really sure what possessed me to go all-in on Octopath Traveler II. Team Asano's 2018 outing felt like a miss to me; among a slew of complaints about OT1's mechanics feeling half-baked and Team Asano's now-signature HD2D look not quite finding its footing, its very loosely connected plot and minimal character interactivity felt like a waste of a wonderful setting and good characters and left me lukewarm on the possibility of more Octopath. As it'd turn out, it's always darkest...
Flash forward a bit: Team Asano's much-praised LIVE A LIVE remake (I've had some choice words to say about it here on backloggd) went WAY over on me while raising questions. "If this existed before, why did Octopath feel like a step back?" The blueprint was right there! LAL didn't even play around with the pretense of needing the characters to all be in the same region -- without spoiling much, characters' connectivity felt thematic and driven by a late-game plot event -- and the way things came together legitimately felt like a surprise. My faith restored, even if only in part, I figured the team could learn from both longstanding criticisms of OT while looking toward a game like LIVE A LIVE to draw some inspiration. With that in mind, I decided to give Octopath Traveler II a tentative go.
I came out of it feeling vindicated for taking a leap; Octopath Traveler II is everything its predecessor couldn't be. Although it doesn't change much of its series core DNA -- you're still playing through 8 different narratives, combat is largely untouched save for a couple new bells and whistles, the music still absolutely rocks -- II massively improves on many of the weak points presented by the original. Characters' stories now sprinkle some breadcrumbs hinting at an overarching narrative, the cast now acknowledges each other more frequently (even in battle!), and perhaps most importantly, a few joint chapters and skits throughout the game give some of the main cast an opportunity to bond and lean on each other's strengths to solve problems and uncover truths of their world in a way that doesn't feel cobbled together and inelegant. They really did it.
Of course, I do have my squabbles. Exploration feels very dioramic; although the world is "open", for lack of a better term, nearly every field and dungeon lays its cards out on the table with a minimap/radar highlighting points of interest for players to simply sprint over to without a second thought. It does work for some highly "Point-A-to-Point-B" gaming -- I lovingly referred to it more than once as a "blue collar RPG" -- but it's the sort of inorganic lean that really does turn the moments between into box-ticking with some turn-based combat sprinkled in. Personal actions are very similar in that regard, making every town a checklist of NPCs to harass for info, hidden treasures, skills, and so forth. The world of Solistia is teeming with a ton of essentially non-essential lore revealed by using these actions, though; every town feels like Value Town. This focus on details permeates through other portions of the game, too, with some incredibly well-planned moments even revolving around integrating character abilities directly into plot progression.
Character stories are largely better in II (Agnea's and Partitio's were personal favorites), though it was a bit strange that the scenario team still hasn't quite nailed how to put the cast in situations that at least consider the presence of party members, be it through a couple extra lines of optional dialogue or even a slight deviation in how a chapter plays out. Still, it's a monumental step above OT, even moreso emphasized by a jaw-dropping final chapter that felt like it was crafted specifically to address everything I thought the first game missed out on.
Octopath II sticks its landing cleaner than I thought it would. Really, I think the only place it DOESN'T far outstrip its predecessor is its music...but even that isn't because of a dip in quality, I just thought OT1's soundtrack was that good. By the time credits rolled, I had been moved and entertained in ways that OT hadn't compelled me to be, making this one a huge bright spot in my recent gaming landscape and a worthy GOTY candidate. Go into this one with confidence if you love and appreciate modern craftsmanship and classic RPGs.
Flash forward a bit: Team Asano's much-praised LIVE A LIVE remake (I've had some choice words to say about it here on backloggd) went WAY over on me while raising questions. "If this existed before, why did Octopath feel like a step back?" The blueprint was right there! LAL didn't even play around with the pretense of needing the characters to all be in the same region -- without spoiling much, characters' connectivity felt thematic and driven by a late-game plot event -- and the way things came together legitimately felt like a surprise. My faith restored, even if only in part, I figured the team could learn from both longstanding criticisms of OT while looking toward a game like LIVE A LIVE to draw some inspiration. With that in mind, I decided to give Octopath Traveler II a tentative go.
I came out of it feeling vindicated for taking a leap; Octopath Traveler II is everything its predecessor couldn't be. Although it doesn't change much of its series core DNA -- you're still playing through 8 different narratives, combat is largely untouched save for a couple new bells and whistles, the music still absolutely rocks -- II massively improves on many of the weak points presented by the original. Characters' stories now sprinkle some breadcrumbs hinting at an overarching narrative, the cast now acknowledges each other more frequently (even in battle!), and perhaps most importantly, a few joint chapters and skits throughout the game give some of the main cast an opportunity to bond and lean on each other's strengths to solve problems and uncover truths of their world in a way that doesn't feel cobbled together and inelegant. They really did it.
Of course, I do have my squabbles. Exploration feels very dioramic; although the world is "open", for lack of a better term, nearly every field and dungeon lays its cards out on the table with a minimap/radar highlighting points of interest for players to simply sprint over to without a second thought. It does work for some highly "Point-A-to-Point-B" gaming -- I lovingly referred to it more than once as a "blue collar RPG" -- but it's the sort of inorganic lean that really does turn the moments between into box-ticking with some turn-based combat sprinkled in. Personal actions are very similar in that regard, making every town a checklist of NPCs to harass for info, hidden treasures, skills, and so forth. The world of Solistia is teeming with a ton of essentially non-essential lore revealed by using these actions, though; every town feels like Value Town. This focus on details permeates through other portions of the game, too, with some incredibly well-planned moments even revolving around integrating character abilities directly into plot progression.
Character stories are largely better in II (Agnea's and Partitio's were personal favorites), though it was a bit strange that the scenario team still hasn't quite nailed how to put the cast in situations that at least consider the presence of party members, be it through a couple extra lines of optional dialogue or even a slight deviation in how a chapter plays out. Still, it's a monumental step above OT, even moreso emphasized by a jaw-dropping final chapter that felt like it was crafted specifically to address everything I thought the first game missed out on.
Octopath II sticks its landing cleaner than I thought it would. Really, I think the only place it DOESN'T far outstrip its predecessor is its music...but even that isn't because of a dip in quality, I just thought OT1's soundtrack was that good. By the time credits rolled, I had been moved and entertained in ways that OT hadn't compelled me to be, making this one a huge bright spot in my recent gaming landscape and a worthy GOTY candidate. Go into this one with confidence if you love and appreciate modern craftsmanship and classic RPGs.
Octopath 2 fulfills the promises made by the first game. Every aspect of the game has been improved upon to make for a wonderful experience.
This review contains spoilers
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.
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.
boring af imo
detective twink, wolf girl, music too good
A step above its predecessor in almost every regard. I think the only thing it doesn't do better is in its music, which is still phenomenal. Just goes to show how much I loved the first game's soundtrack. Octopath Traveler 2 has so much love and care put into it. I enjoyed every character's story, and I loved what they did to connect them all together at the very end. I wanted to cry at the end thinking about how it was all over. Took me 85 hours, and I loved it. There were a few difficulty spikes here and there, but nothing impossible, even if you don't play RPGs often.
I want to sink my teeth into this one more, seems like it'll be a good time. Also I love this boxart
Great refinement on the original game, doesn’t change the formula too much but also doesn’t need to
I loved the first and this is a better version. I just couldn't find the time to play it all. I played over 25 hours and I know I was just starting the game!
A sequel that improves on the original in pretty much every way imaginable. Amazing OST, generally good plot and unforgettable bosses make for a fun experience.