OCTOPATH TRAVELER II

I decided to play this game on the strength of a Steam review that described it as "You fight capitalism and then you fight god." A pithy statement that actually captures well the grandiose themes of a game that, through cute graphics and a few storylines about being a great dancer and eating lots of jerky, tackles some truly complex and difficult questions. Can the wealthy ever be anything but greedy? Can the oppressed ever truly be free? Why do we value life, when so much of it is strife and sorrow? Octopath's main charm, for someone like me who plays RPGs mostly for their plots (and subplots, and side quests) and world-building, is its premise of offering a stunning eight parallel plotlines, evolving side by side as your travellers explore a world that is beautifully crafted and detailed, full of wonders and dangers. In fact, Octopath is a much more immersive experience than I had anticipated, and even with its relatively simple graphics and mechanics manages to create a vast world where every town has its own quirks and tensions, and memorable characters evolve alongside your gaming experience. As in all RPGs, the balance between character interaction, exploration, and fights is crucial, and I would say that in OTII this balance is quite good: simply by exploring the world and leaving no stone unturned I was able to level up my characters, and equip them with powerful enough items, to make it all the way to the end and beat the (very challenging) final boss. I have read opinions of players who found the game way too easy or, conversely, too hard at times, but I would say that (as a fairly casual gamer, and even though a couple of fights kept me on my toes) I thought the balance was alright. Back to the plots and characters, I would say that all eight protagonists are compelling and well-crafted, and that the game's mechanics, which forces you to play with all of them at various points, actually pushes you out of your comfort zone and encourages to explore the full gamut of what Octopath II can offer. The eight plotlines felt, perhaps, a little bit disconnected for most of the game, which made the final stretch feel slightly jarring - but this is a fairly minor complaint. The random encounter dynamics is one of the most tedious aspects of JRPGs for me, and it did feel a little boring at times (especially when you have to cross areas that are wildly below your characters' level), but this didn't happen often, and I rarely had to travel back and forth just to level my characters up. I think this is first and foremost a beautiful, moving game - alternately touching and silly in the manner of much Japanese storytelling - that will reward anyone looking for an immersive RPG. It's easy to pick up and the complexity curve is quite slow, so that, by the time the really hard bosses start appearing, you should have mastered most of the game's mechanics. A couple of twists were really unexpected, a few plots really packed a punch, and I found myself deeply invested in this game and its world, much more than I expected. It's proof of a great story when, after 85 hours of it, you are left wishing that you could experience more of it. Highly recommended!

improved a lot from the 1st game. I played this game everyday til I got to the secret final boss. I haven't beaten it yet and idk when I will but up until that point I enjoyed every moment of this game. Waiting for the 3rd one.

As a JRPG player since the 90s, I am going to say this much: I will give this a thumbs up, but only because it is much better than the first one (just skip it if you are still unsure, not worth it). First off, I need to get one thing off my chest right of the bat. The reviews for this game suffer from recency bias. Yeah, it is a good JRPG, but no, it absolutely does not rank among the finest of them ever made, thank you very much. It's more of an extremely good looking mobile game that does have its moments. Frankly, the story beats are done way better in this one than in its predecessor, but that still doesn't make the game objectively "one of the best ever made". It just sticks out more since the first one was such a mediocre turd. Omnipresent fast-travel and a bunch of accessibility features seem to be a welcome addition to what one would assume to be "modern", but instead make me feel like I was constantly working down a to-do list. You are zipping around the map like I rarely experienced in any other game, since there simply isn't anything in between the points of interest (cities), save for the obligatory three, and only three (!!!), treasure chests hidden on each screen/zone, and the very, very rare case of stumbling upon a camp of sorts that gives you access to some sort of functionality of the game, such as another class to choose from for you characters. There's no brain usage involved in this one, since the game does all the thinking for you. It's all mechanics and cut scenes, deal with it. Maybe add "endless grinding" to that list (admittedly, not as bad anymore in the second one, but still very noticeable). You'll be looking more at the minimap than whatever is happening on screen because even though the so called "HD 2D" art style and scenery is beautiful on first sight, it soon turns out to be nothing more than a twinkling facade, since there is absolutely NO interactivity to the world. You can't even look into a barrel or chest you find, for God's sake! The game only and exclusively wants you to find items in the predetermined, always identical looking chests even a blind, limbless man would find - as stated above - in between the cities. Credit where credit is due: they did add a little bit of interaction between the characters now, but always on some sort of meta screen that takes you completely out of the immersion, and never in any sort of meaningful way. And so infrequently that I forget to even press the button to initiate said dialogue, which is devoid of any kind of meaning to what is happening in the game, between two characters who couldn't care less about each other, since they have never known each other in the first place. Congratulations, Square, you almost managed to do what devs in the 90s were able to pull off on a budget of two half-eaten sandwiches and their uncle's used PC found in a dusty garage.

Great story, great art, great battle.

Actually fire in every way. The story is phenomenal and the combat is fun. This game also introduced me into the entire turn-based genre. HIGHLY Recommended that you play.

It really comes together when you finish all the character's main story and do their joined quest. The characters have dual episodes but I really wish the next game have you start as pairs and have them branch off to their respective endings so we can have more chemistry. That or have some NPCs that are more relevant to the 8 characters as a whole. Still, a strong recommend from me who didn't like the Bravely Default 1 and BD Second.

Fantastic JRPG. Great pixel art, music, and gameplay.

It's more easy side for the main game bosses, but it got side bosses which will test your mechanic within this game and get your ass whopped.

Fully beat the game and gotten all achievements. This may be the best game I have played in recent memory, the story? A+, the music? A+, the Gameplay? A+, combat? A+. The game is fairly straightforward in the beginning and quickly makes it challenging without farming a bit. Mid game is a great pace and then the end game can be quite challenging. The Superbosses? Banger fights that take a ton of prep and strategy. Very Very Fun.

Words cannot express how much I love this game. 10/10.

This game is leaps and bounds better than the original. I hope they make a third one. The fact that Throne references Kill bill alone is enough for the price of admission

currently at the 80 hour mark and I need a break before I go back and look for all the little things i missed and tie up the story lines for the characters I didn't focus on. If you liked the fist game this is more of that.

For turn based strategy this game is on point. Also I have never seen pixel art have as much beauty in it anywhere else.

The gameplay is good. The characters are interesting. The pixel art is beautiful. Spell/ability affects look good. This game is so close to being perfect if it weren't for the story being so thoroughly mid. There's not really a grand overarching story. There's no feeling of accomplishment or any kind of big threat. The whole game feels like a series of loyalty missions from Mass Effect only without any kind of core story. The characters are actually well written, but their missions and goals are very low impact. They don't really matter and ultimately it kills any kind of drive to keep playing. I do recommend this game though because the world is just so cool.

I want to recommend this game because there are good points but the bad points overshadow them, a lot. The GOOD - great visuals - unique art style - classic job system - good battle system - decent world building - cool looking enemies and bosses - good soundtrack that changes subtly depending on if it's day or night The BAD - shallow story - shallow characters - battles are often too easy, even during boss fights - lore of the game is too simple Basically it has promise but the story is just meh, the entire time. There is little to no character development. None of the characters have to make any hard choices, there are no moral grey areas. The characters barely show emotions and they sound like it too. The villains are simplistically evil with little to no reason to be so. They just are or they are one diimensional. It makes the game very boring. I never really thought "ooo I really wanna see what the mystery behind this is" or "I wonder what's gonna happen next?" It's an RPG, the main draw is supposed to be a good story. twists and turns. relatable, interesting characters. EMOTIONS. There is no depth. I'm really wondering what went wrong. It looks high budget. Did they spread themselves too thin with 8 different storylines? The combat is just too easy with not much strategy needed. after certain jobs are unlocked it's very easy. I was consistently winning battles with one action using the Inventor. Late game I was easily winning boss battles by negating all physical attacks, their magical attacks did not hit hard enough. They almost needed to give the bosses several actions in a row to be dangerous, or something. In a word. Dissapointing

Fun pixel RPG. It's what I've been looking for after playing Sea of Stars in the recent-ish past. If you like good pixel art turn based combat, look no further.

* RATING AFTER 100% ACHIEVEMENTS * - Game’s pixel art was *chef kiss. - Grindy (If you wish to get all the trophies) - All stories were great. I like Temenos. - Satisfying ending. - Can be repetitive sometimes. WOULD RECOMMEND!

The way this game presented as a recreation of the retro feel of the jrpg genre is actually a double edge sword. Still, those who love it will love it. And I am on the side of nitpicking every details this game has except for the art style and music because they are the very first factors that are directly presented even before opening the game. I am not finishing this game anymore and just accept the sunk cost I incurred at this point of time. Mildly spoiler warning here but i want to point out the negatives that break this game play experience ------ ------ ------ -the old fashion level grinding here while still wasting so much time, the need to gather certain setups in order to grind faster seems to me like the devs are gaslighting us that they helped you in a way to grind level faster but in reality the game itself just don't have a better alternative to grind past level 45 above. On top of that, i heard that beating the game requires two separate teams which means i have to grind two seperate teams which double the amount of time i have to waste on this game. -the world map and the environment despite being big and rich, having no other interaction with the scenes and objects other than chest or specific statues is a such a waste and so hollow. I know the focus here is on the characters and NPCs but i couldn't resist to ask "is that it? is that all i can do here?" -While i only finished Throne's chapter 1,2&3 on father's route, I can already predict what's coming on other characters. This predictable rinse and repeat character story telling mechanic despite being the very identity of this game, does not sell me well when i have other expectations arise during the game play. I'd wished that it should have been the MC entering into other playable characters' story and not just having presented like starting other 7 characters from zero, at the point of almost finishing the chosen MC's chapters. -the battle system here just gets old real quick here as you encounter more bosses and it's like your dealing a final end game boss every time when sets of choices are becoming limited and fixed. I hate the problem-solution feel here when you have to gather and experiment certain setups in order to increase your damage output just to be able to beat the bosses before they wipe your party in only few turns. It's like your always at the disadvantage and the only way here is to cheese the opponent with those one or two kinds of setups that people will always recommend. -while listing down the 4 different aspects to complain about, i realized that the 5th one is actually the "nothing else to complain". This game even if they improve the art style in 3D modern graphics, the emptiness can be still feel whenever you stopped what your currently doing. While it's a retro-feel game, i wished that the game might as well include some other side mechanics which modern games have even if it will destroy the retro feel of jrpg game play experience.

The best Pokemon game I have played since Black/White 2. But for real, this game is GORGEOUS. Feels like it was made to be played on an OLED handheld screen like the Steam Deck. I love how bite sized it is and how easy it is to complete a little chapter in an hour. The characters are enjoyable. The turn based combat is engaging with the break and boost methods. Music is amazing. Just such a fantastic game. I am glad I finally played i!

I've had the hardest time getting trying to get myself to really enjoy this game and it hasn't worked. It's got some major flaws for me, at least. I don't need a game to hold my hand for me but it's really hard to figure out just what I'm supposed to do next which leads me to just walking around aimlessly for a while. That brings up the second problem, the encounter rate. Every few steps is excessive for any game. I've been playing JRPGs for, well since FF1 on NES so it's not that I'm not used to a bunch of random encounters. It's just there's so damn many. Like others have stated 8 separate story lines is a different idea but it doesn't work for me. I can't get invested in my party as a whole which is usually the point in this type of game. Characters not leveling unless their in the party blows. I get why, they want you to play each ones story but I'm not interested in stretching out the game that long. The game looks and sounds great but that's not enough for me. After playing Clair Obsure I realized I need to just cut my losses with this game. My time is too valuble to waste trying to enjoy a game that isn't for me.

It's like 8 bad RPGs instead of one good one. The stories are very bland and the combat isn't feeling very in depth either (use weakness, break armor, boost turn to use 4 turns at once and hit as hard as possible rinse and repeat). But the reason for that is probably because you can just kinda go anywhere and do anything so figuring out how to keep the game balanced / engaging is super hard to do. It's taken hours just to collect your party and once you have them you are always outleveling areas and kinda aimlessly picking which route to complete next so you're just kind of trudging along a lot of different boring stories. The characters are each totally unique to one another and disconnected - so you just kinda do one story after another with random people showing up to tag along without ever getting that feeling you want in a good story where there's character interaction or growth as a group. I really want to like this, it's modernizing RPG's just not in a way I think is great. Given all the positive reviews I'm shocked because I really thought I'd love this.

I had a lot of problems with Octopath Traveler I, and they accumulated to the point where I dropped the game after completing all Chapter 3 segments and only one Chapter 4 segment. To keep it brief, the story was generally lacking, the characters were bland and shallow, and the general strategy for enemies boiled down to "buff your allies, then deal damage until you need to heal" just like any other JRPG--the Break system offers some variety, but not enough to remain engaging after 50 hours. Octopath Traveler fixes almost every problem that I had with the first entry. The characters regularly undergo change and actually show the player how they're not bland templates of their class. Most of their stories not only excel in telling an actual story that ties to the narrative, but also in a way critiques the faults of OT1's stories (such as Tressa focusing only on treasure, Olberic on blind revenge, and Ophelia on blind trust in faith) without sacrificing the story itself. There are more ways to deal strong damage than "use the expensive attack with 3BP" here than in OT1. Unfortunately, this game still chose to force the first selected character to be in the party until you complete their story. I didn't like that in OT1 and I still don't like that in this game. I was forced to complete other characters' chapters who were 10 levels behind my Osvald and had no way to even out everyone's levels. Despite this, Octopath Traveler II is a must-play for any JRPG fan. If you felt burned by the first entry, then give this one a try and you'll be impressed by how much everything has improved here.

Dealing with the stereotypes of nurses in my work life, personal life, and NOW on this game sucks. I uninstalled when I got to the apothecary's story. There was a massive opportunity to create a character full of depth but nope. No purpose to their existence except to heal others and put up with abuse. Not to mention the hunter's storyline is just BOTW. It feels lazy.

Okay its 100% achievements. I have no regret now. 10/10 RPG.

Nice and easy, pure joy.

I think Octopath Traveller 2 much better than the first one

Good, but has some bugs.

im octopathing it!

I love this game so much.

certified hood classic

Great game

Great game.

Love it

Love it

It's wonderful.

gud gud

Great!

4 + 4 = octo

worth every penny

PLAY WITH OCHETTE