This game felt really special to me, and it kind of encapsulates a lot of the reasons why I grew up loving the genre. I enjoyed Octopath I quite a lot, in spite of the shortcomings it had. Octopath II however became one of my favourite JRPG's I've played in a long long time.

All of the stories feel very varied in tone, often in surprising ways to what my first impressions were, and there's even a fair share of twists that tripped me up along the way. What surprised me particularly is that no story ever felt like a drag. I played them in a similar way to the first, that being doing everyone's earlier chapter, then everyone's next part, and so on. However the formula for chapter progression feels a bit more unique this time, which made hopping back and forth that much more of a pleasure to find out what would happen next. The game also feels a lot more cohesive than the first, especially in terms of tying it all together.

There's so much flavour in the game too, with towns and the NPC's. Every NPC has some little story or background you can find out about them, and seeing these reflected in their items, dialogue or even their role in the town/quest/whatever they're involved in, was a special joy for me. Even a good handful of sidequests managed to get me invested in whatever little stories or issues were going on.

Combat feels great as expected, and the addition of an increased battle speed option is a much welcome addition. Jobs and skills feel quite similar to the first but with a lot of tweaks and new additions to give it a fresh feel. There's also a huge amount of bosses in the game, and every single time I see the spritework it just brings a smile to my face. Some of them are even sort of puzzly or gimmicky, which force you to play with an unusual approach. A special mention goes to a couple of endgame fights, one of made me bust out notepad to make notes to plan my strategy for it, and the final boss which is musically and mechanically just as epic as I'd hoped. The only downside I can say is there were times I felt like I'd gotten somewhat overpowered without really grinding, and even held back on some bosses because I wanted to see what they'd do next.

The music is on another level, and was honestly one of the parts of the game I most looked forward to prior to the release. Every character theme feels perfectly crafted for the traveller, and the variation of battle themes, town themes, and different versions of the character themes just hits the musical sweet spot deep within me. Special mention to Agnea's Theme, and a select few boss themes which were just amazing.

I have to gush over just how fun it is to explore in this game and find new things. Choosing when to risk going into higher danger level areas for some treasure, or finding new caves and dungeons with the excitement of seeing what cool new boss laid at the end of it, or big new equipment for one of your many travellers. Even just the loop of entering a new town and going to steal, lawfully buy from everyone, find out their information and scout for abilities for Hikari, or new partners for Agnea, Partitio or Temenos - it become something I missed when I inevitably reached the last town in the game. Well, granted I can see this being a little tedious for some people, not that it's mandatory of course.

I was really excited for this game, and honestly I'm just really happy that I enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a fantastic time. I'll be listening to the soundtrack and excitedly waiting a 3rd entry in the series for the foreseeable future.