Console commands my friend, look at the trophy list and you'll see it's impossible to max out every skill and do everything even if playing around the clock in a few days, also he gets copies before release
Two words: Bewildering Grace! If you get lucky, it makes the level grind a lot more fun when you make Partitio a dancer and use his latent power to boost BP at the start of the battle. I had several 100x JP and 100x EXP bonuses throughout my playthrough! Fun times.
Bought this game from a combination of a Steam sale and your review Mortim! Just finished the game and I have to say this was a lovely JRPG. Pro tip guys, Temenos is straight up bonkers strong.
Thanks Mort for another great review. As a fellow steam deck owner I always appreciate your quick reviews of steam performance and this game in particular just suits that platform so perfectly.
The jobs system in particular sounds pretty cool as I just finished yakuza 7 and found that to be incredibly fun! I may be buying both octopath games in the future based on this review
I think this video is the final reason I need to pick up the game. I haven't really played a JRPG since the SNES and my teenage years and I never quite found one interesting enough on the switch. Now that I have more time (kids older) and a steamdeck I think this might be my jump back into the RPG genre. Dipped my toes with 13 Sentinels (fantastic) and now I want more. Glad I found your channel, cheers!
In terms of the grind, one thing that isn't made clear to the player is that gear is MUCH more impact full to stats than levels are. You can easily clear chapters underleveled if you spend time finding better gear through shops, exploring, and path actions. I had level 30 characters easily keeping up with level 60 characters in terms of damage output solely due to having endgame gear. The main difference levels make is in HP. Also, while the secret job skills are more expensive, they don't increase in JP as you buy them. This means that it takes roughly the same amount of JP to max them out as a regular job.
The first, was great for 30-40 hours, Then the difficulty wall / grind and pace change kinda killed it for me, I'm gonna go back and try again because it was a good game, just the sudden spikes were .. not great, But I also wanna try Octo 2, even though you mention it's got grind issues as well, but everyone says the game itself is largely improved as well
I recommend playing this game slowly and enjoying every moment. You can skip a lot of dialog and even speed up combat. But I recommend taking your time and savor every second. Play with audio on if you can too.
Just 100% this game today, quite a ride! One important tip: don't grind and overlevel your characters before finishing the main story quests for each character!! It makes the boss level too easy and not satisfying. The bosses usually have interestingly designed mechanics in place to challenge you, over-leveled character will totally neturalize it (except for the hidden boss). So I would highly recommend proceed with the main stories when you are close to the suggest level. I made the mistake of over leveling in mid game and that made chapter 4/5 fights very bland...
It's not just overlevelling. Equipment makes a much bigger impact than levels, so if you do like I did and beat the stories for 4 of the characters, getting all the powerful gear along the way, and then transfer that gear to new characters - you'll completely annihilate the lower level bosses. Equipping things around the power level of the area each boss is found makes the fights much more of a challenge and feel like you're playing them as intended.
i never played the first game so i didn't know how the game was meant to be structured and ended up wandering around bored out of my mind for hours because I didn't know i was supposed to just progress through the chapters for each character in my party till i looked up a guide.
A combination of being ambivalent to the story and the sheer amount of grind to meet the level requirement of the chapter 2-3 of each character's stories was why I never finished Octopath 1...seems like all that is still there.
Grinding is a funny thing in Octopath. You enjoy consistent gains at each level up to 20, but after that, the stat gain per level decreases significantly. There's a reason why people say that equipment matters more than levels. But besides that, just knowing anything about a boss beforehand, trivializes the encounter. If you know its weaknesses, you can bring in a party specifically designed to beat that boss. If you're breaking a boss consistently, they'll only attack once every few turns. So unless they can wipe your entire party in that ONE turn, there's no real danger. Some bosses try to prevent this by blocking off their weaknesses, but you usually get around that by defeating its adds. Overall, Octopath 2 was much easier than 1.
Good old Galdy is the exception to this though, since you have to split your travelers into two parties, and you can't have one traveler be in both parties. So even though I wanted Castii to be present in both phases to supply my party with free BP, I couldn't. It's a cool restriction that actually provides a good challenge. Dolcinea can be tricky if you don't kill her fast enough. And the Dreadwolf killed me once because I didn't understand how its gimmick worked. Ochette's final boss is also tricky, but that's because it literally can't die until certain requirements are met.
Or it could just set you to 1 hp then nuke the ground killing your entire party lol. It's a gamble, but it can be fun. Better way to grind is reducing a certain very rich eccentric from Partitio's story, since he can boost your EXP and JP 100x
The sacred flame, eh? When ever I hear somthing like thus I want someone to come out Baldurs gate style and say I serve the flaming fist lol. Only it could be Sacred Flame 😂.
*spoiler alert* I have to agree: "the why they team up" isn't handled well. You get a short sentence or two and a minor fight and there they team up. Then again I understand why SE did that. You can't realistically have them have a same goal, it would be too obvious. Too deus-ex machina, too mcGuffin ish. You want them to have different stories. It's a tough one. I guess what I would have done is soft-locking characters stories until they meet one specific member, to build more interaction. Like that you would have short fragments where they would team up in the character stories. Here is what I mean: Say you have Ochette. Maybe you want to get Tera, right and its in the.. spoiler alert *** canyons region. So why not have Partitio be there for this part! Would seem super logical. And make one of his skills necessary and build interaction around that. Capitalism meets jerky. Then for Cateracta have Cassty or Oswald appear given it's that region . Say you have Throné maybe you would have her team up with Hikari on a quest for virtue and abandoning her old ways in a way Hikari faces his demons. Say you have Oswald maybe you want him to team up with Temenos on a quest to finding meaning to a life you think you lost everything in.A quest of overcoming grief? And maybe Temenos can learn from that too. Say you have Partitio, maybe you want him to learn something from Ochette's natural way of life where there isn't capitalism, maybe he could learn something. But really let's be real he has nothing to learn and he is the most on point character of the bunch. xD And maybe they should have 2-3 campfires during the game, or more togetherness scenes where they discuss quests or situations. And on that my final thought. The final boss should be divided into a major story quest. With a soft-lock. Soft lock should be around Temenos story to face Mindt, Hikari about facing Zhuge Liang or whatever the strategist' name is. There should be phases to the dawn quest. I mean there should be more dark nights with them ending and being longer. But the protagonists defeating the mid-dungeon bosses. So it would be more intertwined and more dynamic. I am sure they will think about how to blend character stories more in future OT games.
I have 45 hours into octopath traveler 2 so far and it's already way better than the first. I love the first entry but it felt empty compared to the second. This game a lot of content; main stories, cross paths, scent of commerce, collecting items for secondary jobs, etc. It felt so overwhelming with how much content they gave us, and that's a good thing personally!
@@maibignutt6434 thanks for responding. That was my biggest disappointment, because by the end of the game your team is so OP, with no bosses or challenges to face.
Been massively looking forward to this review from you! It’s a funny coincidence how both you and The Completionist managed to get Octopath Traveller videos out within 24 hours of each other - it’s still really impressive how you manage to keep up with so many 100% reviews :)
Octopath 1 was incredible. I'm glad to see they've improved on a couple of things people found lacking in the first game. Party banter is fun because you get some extra context and get to see the party interact with each other. The first game had some of that but it was odd seeing a party of 8 people traveling together with no real explanation and they barely even acknowledge each others existence. Great review. Definitely got me excited to start this second one.
Nice review. A few notes though (spoilers for others): 1. Warmaster is not a better version of Warrior. Saying that diminishes the roles provided by the 2 jobs. Warmaster is more about the utility of the divine weapons. For example, Temenos is a great Warmaster, as Temeno's Latent Power synergizes well with Sixfold, and Temeno's EX skill (no spoiler) greatly synergizes with Spiritlord's Staff. Warrior on the other hand provides you with Learned Skills (Hikari) and or access to the most powerful Physical Attack (Warmaster doesn't have this) or access to incite, if you want to build a defensive character that will eat up most enemies' attacks. 2. The actions of the characters, I agree, can seem overlapping, but the devs did that so you can build at most 2 groups (east and west continent groups actually) such that your group has access to ANY action for ANY time of day. And giving characters overlapping actions frees up players from going back and forth to the tavern to switch characters just to do actions in the overworld. I personally think this is a great change from the first game where getting an is just from thief/merchant. 3. I do agree though that Merchant is the strongest job. And the strongest Hired Help is unlocked later on where you have access to an assassin that hits a TON of damage, heals HP, AND SP for your entire party.
Pros: - Fun gameplay, Boost and break is satisfying, character abilities are fun to use in battle and outside of battle, secondary jobs and latent power adds to the strategy. - Good graphics - Amazing soundtrack - Details (almost every NPC has a description when inquired, side missions have unique solutions) - Unique Stories (all of them start off great and hook you in) Cons: - Balancing issues (a lot of the bosses feel too easy and can be cheesed, some skills are useless like Teach, etc) - Story outcome (although all stories start out amazing, some ended better than others, and some ended really bad) - Banter could be better. Lot of times it feels disjointed, unnecessary, and forced. Overall it’s a pretty fun game. The overall issues I had were with some of the stories and balancing issues. Other than that, it’s great JRPG with a lot of fun mechanics and a detailed world. 9/10
I only started playing a couple days ago, I’m already massively invested in these characters. The music is god tier as always. This game deserves so much more exposure and appreciation.
I love the art style & have heard many great things about the game! On the fence if I should try it out, since I'm usually not a big fan of the combat style used in this game 😅
Expand your horizons! This may become your favorite game...or not. But you won't know if you don't try it. Video games are art and this canvas is beautiful.
@@scottdixon2505 the second is better than the first in almost every way, and I would advise the OP not to judge the second on the quality of OCT1. I enjoyed the first few hours to be honest, but quickly got frustrated. I love the second. The first one had lots more grinding, especially for the final boss. The invidual stories are not as interconnected as OP2 and hardly any main character interaction. You need to have the thief in your party to get all the purple chests which kind of defeats the purpose of the flexibility of your party. It does have fantastic music and graphics. There’s a lot more faults than just those. It’s clear the developers listened to the criticisms and made a lot of attempts to address them with the sequel, although some of those problems still exist to an extent. The second has much better characters with more options for combat such as capturing monsters with Ochette which is much improved. All the characters are more customizable and strong in their own ways. The story, dialogue and voice acting is much improved too. The sound track is just as pleasing as the first was, though.
Current best reviewer out there. Your reviews are thorough and well considered. Thanks so much! Been looking forward to this one. It's on my short list of something to get soon.
Just beat the final boss and I loved it. The 8 characters fighting together was amazing to experience! I honestly wish they gave you the option to switch parties on the fly from the get go though. It was pretty annoying to have to keep going between taverns all the time (though I guess it made it so places were worth revisiting so I'm kind of mixed on it).
100% completion reviewers deserved my sub. Not like those big outlets playing on easy mode while not knowing they even finish the game. Then they plagiarizes other reviewer's article while insert their options and agenda where it got nothing to do with the game.
Is this as repetitive as the first one? I was really into it at first but you literally would do the same thing over and over and over again. Enjoyed the battling system though.
Picked it up day 1 on Switch. JUST NOW finished it after 198 hours, secret boss included. IT'S SO GOOOOOOOOD. I looked forward everyday to spending hours on it. Did ALL the things, cleared the map entirely, and all quests done. I was so sad when it was over, I just want MORE even after almost 200 hours
I've played the pc demo for 15 minutes and then turned it off immediately. Not because it was boring but because of how much fun it was and I didn't want to further spoil myself. Hikari's path was epic, graphics are peak 2D pixel graphics. Gameplay is a huge upgrade to the classic turn-based combat system. And most of all, the music is just godly. I still have to play through the actual game once it's released on steam but for now I can't find anything I don't like about this game. It's exactly the kind of game I've been looking for.
@@saintofgayfrogs I'm currently playing Octopath Traveler I and it's the best turn-based game I've played in the last couple of years. The stories are not connected but that doesn't bother me. I like that everyone is the main character and that you can play everyone and their story in the same playthrough. Since they are all the MCs, the game at no point forces you to play any character. So you can also just play with the characters you like and ignore the rest.
@@pandaman1331 10/10 game. I'm at the very end of 2 right now before the super boss. If you love 1, get excited because I promise you 2 is even better.
@@pandaman1331 Also the stories will link up at the end once you've finished all 8. They improved on that at the end of 2. Once you get the end of 2 you'll probably be really hype.
I really want to see more Octopath content, so it was great to see your review on this even if you’re unlikely to revisit it. It’s really not gotten that much attention considering how fun and polished it is!
In depth review from someone who actually fully played the game and not just spent 4-5 hours on it. You covered most all of the topics someone looking for a review would want covered and clearly put a good amount of time and effort into not only completing the game but doing this review. Thank you. Subbed.
I loved the first one. Just finished it. Beat Galdera. Just bought this today and I am two chapters in. I can tell already that this game is a masterpiece! The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous and graphically it looks wonderful.
My only issue with the game is the pacing. It's either a roller-coaster between low and appropriate level content. Or you do a party of 4 first, get used to the late game fights, and then have to star over at lvl 15 for the other 4. This completely destroys momentum.
I love the game, but I have two major issues with it. - The characters who aren’t in your active party don’t earn XP so they’re always under levelled and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have over levelled character in your party when you do their stories. It would be nice if you could level your character down for these parts. A system like Xenoblade Chronicles where the XP isn’t applied to a character until you choose to add it would be even better. That way you have more control of your characters level and have the option to have more challenge when you’re using a low level party member. - The path actions are cool, but it’s annoying to have to switch out party members to see what you can do. It adds some tedium to exploring towns. It would be cool if you could at least see what the other party members could do if they were in your party even if they don’t let you use those abilities while they’re not there. It would save having to swap out most of your party to see what you could do.
This has been my airport game on Switch and I finally sat down this week to beat it, and as somebody who enjoys grinding I agree with you about the grinding in this game. The money grinding for equipment mid-game pretty much halted my progress between chapters 2 & 3. Needless to say, I just parked it in one area for a day and grinded until I was lvl 40+ for my characters and deep six figures with money and I think I’m set until the end of the game lol
When gaming is your job, 100% a game is quite easy. Though I'm not a professional gamer, I'm currently between jobs and wanted to catch up on some games I've missed. In the last month I have 100% a bunch of games. I put 110 hours of playtime into Elden Ring and that wasn't even two weeks. He also gets paid to do it and with each new game brings a level of something new and refreshing. I'm just curious if he ever goes outside. haha
Dammit I can't decide if I should play this game or not, I didn't really like the first game and some reviews say 2 is "basically the same" but Mortismal here seems to be showing some significant improvements to where I had my issues...I don't know...
Would have liked to play this since I liked what I played of OT1 (never finished it) but Square Enix being Square Enix decided to release it on everything but Xbox, despite OT1 being on everything but playstation...
Kinda surprised you had to grind. I did the 'split the party in two' approach and the first team ended up at about level 80 after doing all their stories and exploring the world a fair amount. I was diving into level 45 dungeons at level 20 and could clear the fights, then ochette could snag something like a revenant and proceed to one shot all the random encounters. Then the second team loaded up with the first teams gear was able to basically walk through their stories, just with low accuracy which added a little challenge if my big hits or break attacks whiffed. That could just be a testament to how strong my first team was though. Throne and temenos night time buffs went debuffs plus ochette and Osvald dumping raw damage
For people worried about the grind aspect, I myself never really had this problem by doing each chapter by it's recommended level and making sure I sub in my lowest level characters in every new chapter and honestly by the early mid game around lv25 you can probably be under leveled by like 5 and still be good (just put your best defensive gear on your more frail characters if they're dying) as your starting character will be way over leveled to compensate because you can't switch them out until you finish all their story chapters. Even if you're struggling to beat certain bosses you can cheese them with hired help like Mortismal mentioned that shit is so broken lol.
If it's anything like the first one,the recommanded LV is a straight up lie, in the first one I litterally never met the recommended and was like 5-7 LV behind, and I only got like 1 Game over outside of the true final boss.
Still absolutely plodding through this but I’m also really, really enjoying it. The first time I’ve fallen into a traditional JRPG since, like…FFXII maybe? It’s amazing.
I'm glad you liked it. When I watched your preview vid you mentioned that for you it might come down to if the 8 disparate storylines come together, which had me worried. I still haven't finished it, but I heard that they kind of do, but it's not a main focus of the game. Regardless it is super super fun, and I agree that it is stunning on the steamdeck. These days I rarely start a new game and continue playing it to the end without switching to other games, but OT2 has its hooks in me for sure.
The characters and stories were amazing, along with the music and voice acting. The improvements to combat were sweet too. If there's one thing I have to critize is still the fact that it's missing TRUE party feeling. They should have chapter 1's solo and then force you to gather the rest of the party to then have them all react to the main story content before progressing. But they did have a lot of good moments with joint chapters and especially the ending bits. So I hope there is a 3 and its truly joint.
Great video! Clearly you did a lot of work to plan out all of your points and thoughts! Love it! 🙌🏻 I think one thing that would take it to the next level is having some background music, either some from the game or if there are legalities around that, then some other good JRPG type music. I think that will bring an energy to it that would take it to a 10/10!! Great work! 🤓🤘🏻
Personally I didn't have any problems with the pacing I didn't have to do any grinding at all until the final boss cuz it wiped the floor with me U can look at the chapters recommended levels and do them in an order that sortof fits them and you will get through the game on a very smooth pace
Hope I can check this out soon. Really liked Octopath 1 but Octopath 2 came out like 3 days before Lightfall so I didn't wanna get too invested knowing I'd just drop it for a month. Really good review again my man.
Octopath Traveler 2 is one of the few games I'd like to play again right now. But after 92 hours for my first playthrough (everything done except the very, very final and secret boss) I'm not sure to start over. A bit sad is: It (probably) won't win the game award for best RPG. Hogwarts Legacy is too big and probably takes the crown. But there are still other categories (music eventually)?
I stopped playing the first one due to the mass grinding needed for levels. Is this addressed better in this one? Probably not I imagine due to that being a staple of old rpgs.Edit: Have my answer; you do. Not for me then.
Levels 1-65 are pretty easy to reach, but level 99 is a painful slog. The hardest content can be cleared between levels 50-70 so the grind isn't really mandatory to 100%.
after the huge RPG disappointment that is FFXVI i am really looking forward to this!! alone the fact that grinding is a thing is awesome!! i never struggeld so hard to finish a game! (FFXVI) is getting so damn boring after a while. all it has is cutszenes and flashy combat that gets just tidious after 40 hours. not even the amazing cast of characters helps with that.
I always stay til the ending credit words. "May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day." I don't know, something about them make me feel hopeful, happy, and gives me a smile to my face.
I do feel like this game was absolutely an improvement over the first game and I think it is a great example of a developer taking community and critical feedback to heart and producing a greatly improved sequel. With that said though, I still feel like this game falls a little short of greatness and there was definitely more grinding than I could stomach and I ended up setting this one aside around 60 or so hours in just because I didn't feel like putting in the grind for the end of the game and I just wasn't sure the plot payoff was going to be worth it as several of the 8 stories fell pretty flat for me though admittedly some of them were enjoyable.
I don't mind a combat grind, but I really hate other kinds of grinds. The damn chests in ff12 are the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in a game.
I started playing this on release and I’m not even done. You on the other hand has it at 100% already. Truly dedicated reviewer.
I mean it's his job
Job or not he's a pumper. Guy eats games for breakfast and always has
Yes
@@patrickmcpartland1398 Job or not this is impressive lol
Console commands my friend, look at the trophy list and you'll see it's impossible to max out every skill and do everything even if playing around the clock in a few days, also he gets copies before release
Your dedication is incredible. Keep up the good work!
Excellent review ! Thanks !
The fact that MG can play these games and 100% of them so fast is so incredible.
Great review as usual. I'm really looking forward to playing this game, so I'm glad to hear I like a lot of the stuff you mentioned in the review
It seems we have a winner! Thank you for another in-depth review, Mort.
Two words: Bewildering Grace! If you get lucky, it makes the level grind a lot more fun when you make Partitio a dancer and use his latent power to boost BP at the start of the battle. I had several 100x JP and 100x EXP bonuses throughout my playthrough! Fun times.
I have only one thing to say about this game:
Oswald
How can you already 100% this game? You're just incredible, and not just for finishing the game but also for giving us such comprehensive analysis
Another stellar review! Keep it up my dude!
It'd be awesome to see mana series in this style, octopath the action rpg. I think that'd be mega popular.
Bought this game from a combination of a Steam sale and your review Mortim! Just finished the game and I have to say this was a lovely JRPG. Pro tip guys, Temenos is straight up bonkers strong.
Thanks Mort for another great review. As a fellow steam deck owner I always appreciate your quick reviews of steam performance and this game in particular just suits that platform so perfectly.
The jobs system in particular sounds pretty cool as I just finished yakuza 7 and found that to be incredibly fun! I may be buying both octopath games in the future based on this review
Do it! The final "secret" boss of octopath 1 is everything I ever wanted in an RPG
I think this video is the final reason I need to pick up the game. I haven't really played a JRPG since the SNES and my teenage years and I never quite found one interesting enough on the switch. Now that I have more time (kids older) and a steamdeck I think this might be my jump back into the RPG genre. Dipped my toes with 13 Sentinels (fantastic) and now I want more.
Glad I found your channel, cheers!
Yes! More JRPG content! Granted it's understandable if you don't play them for the channel since JRPGs are infamously long haha
In terms of the grind, one thing that isn't made clear to the player is that gear is MUCH more impact full to stats than levels are. You can easily clear chapters underleveled if you spend time finding better gear through shops, exploring, and path actions. I had level 30 characters easily keeping up with level 60 characters in terms of damage output solely due to having endgame gear. The main difference levels make is in HP.
Also, while the secret job skills are more expensive, they don't increase in JP as you buy them. This means that it takes roughly the same amount of JP to max them out as a regular job.
The first, was great for 30-40 hours,
Then the difficulty wall / grind and pace change kinda killed it for me,
I'm gonna go back and try again because it was a good game, just the sudden spikes were .. not great,
But I also wanna try Octo 2, even though you mention it's got grind issues as well, but everyone says the game itself is largely improved as well
I recommend playing this game slowly and enjoying every moment. You can skip a lot of dialog and even speed up combat. But I recommend taking your time and savor every second. Play with audio on if you can too.
Amazing comprehensive review. I'm looking forward to play this game ... once I finish my 2022 backlog LOL
Thanks for the review.
Have this game on my wishlist. Once I'm done with my other adventures + enough time on my calendar, I will give this one a try
Been looking forward to this review 😁
Just 100% this game today, quite a ride! One important tip: don't grind and overlevel your characters before finishing the main story quests for each character!! It makes the boss level too easy and not satisfying. The bosses usually have interestingly designed mechanics in place to challenge you, over-leveled character will totally neturalize it (except for the hidden boss). So I would highly recommend proceed with the main stories when you are close to the suggest level. I made the mistake of over leveling in mid game and that made chapter 4/5 fights very bland...
It's not just overlevelling. Equipment makes a much bigger impact than levels, so if you do like I did and beat the stories for 4 of the characters, getting all the powerful gear along the way, and then transfer that gear to new characters - you'll completely annihilate the lower level bosses. Equipping things around the power level of the area each boss is found makes the fights much more of a challenge and feel like you're playing them as intended.
i never played the first game so i didn't know how the game was meant to be structured and ended up wandering around bored out of my mind for hours because I didn't know i was supposed to just progress through the chapters for each character in my party till i looked up a guide.
Hmmm, I might have to check this out.
Great Review
@MortismalGaming what are your thoughts one 1st one? (especially the Endgame)
Crazy you completed this in 50 hours lol game so large and I've been addicted
A combination of being ambivalent to the story and the sheer amount of grind to meet the level requirement of the chapter 2-3 of each character's stories was why I never finished Octopath 1...seems like all that is still there.
Grinding is a funny thing in Octopath. You enjoy consistent gains at each level up to 20, but after that, the stat gain per level decreases significantly. There's a reason why people say that equipment matters more than levels.
But besides that, just knowing anything about a boss beforehand, trivializes the encounter. If you know its weaknesses, you can bring in a party specifically designed to beat that boss. If you're breaking a boss consistently, they'll only attack once every few turns. So unless they can wipe your entire party in that ONE turn, there's no real danger.
Some bosses try to prevent this by blocking off their weaknesses, but you usually get around that by defeating its adds.
Overall, Octopath 2 was much easier than 1.
Good old Galdy is the exception to this though, since you have to split your travelers into two parties, and you can't have one traveler be in both parties. So even though I wanted Castii to be present in both phases to supply my party with free BP, I couldn't. It's a cool restriction that actually provides a good challenge.
Dolcinea can be tricky if you don't kill her fast enough. And the Dreadwolf killed me once because I didn't understand how its gimmick worked. Ochette's final boss is also tricky, but that's because it literally can't die until certain requirements are met.
Easily my game of the year until now. Still have to play a handful of titles that I listed but I doubt any of them would beat it.
first wasn't on PlayStation and I couldn't play,so I'm glad I can play this one without first.
My biggest issue with the game is how easy it is. So easy to get over leveled and everything just becomes story.
ive never played a jrpg or a turnbased game... should i get this or sea of stars? im in a pickle
If you use bewildering grace right, you can keep grinding to a minimum and reap the rewards of exp boosts
Or it could just set you to 1 hp then nuke the ground killing your entire party lol. It's a gamble, but it can be fun. Better way to grind is reducing a certain very rich eccentric from Partitio's story, since he can boost your EXP and JP 100x
@@boianko thanks for the tip!
thanks for another great video
Cool thanks for the review ❤ would you say this game is worth $50 for a physical copy?
Got the game 100% all achviements yesterday aswell
If Mortim, mister 100%, says the grinding was tideous, you better watch out!
The sacred flame, eh? When ever I hear somthing like thus I want someone to come out Baldurs gate style and say I serve the flaming fist lol. Only it could be Sacred Flame 😂.
end game be like: do it for me peasant *throws money
this style woul be perfect for pokemon
Bookmark, to watch later
I haven't even finished the first one.
Good video!
*spoiler alert*
I have to agree: "the why they team up" isn't handled well. You get a short sentence or two and a minor fight and there they team up. Then again I understand why SE did that. You can't realistically have them have a same goal, it would be too obvious. Too deus-ex machina, too mcGuffin ish. You want them to have different stories. It's a tough one. I guess what I would have done is soft-locking characters stories until they meet one specific member, to build more interaction. Like that you would have short fragments where they would team up in the character stories. Here is what I mean:
Say you have Ochette. Maybe you want to get Tera, right and its in the.. spoiler alert *** canyons region. So why not have Partitio be there for this part! Would seem super logical. And make one of his skills necessary and build interaction around that. Capitalism meets jerky. Then for Cateracta have Cassty or Oswald appear given it's that region .
Say you have Throné maybe you would have her team up with Hikari on a quest for virtue and abandoning her old ways in a way Hikari faces his demons.
Say you have Oswald maybe you want him to team up with Temenos on a quest to finding meaning to a life you think you lost everything in.A quest of overcoming grief? And maybe Temenos can learn from that too.
Say you have Partitio, maybe you want him to learn something from Ochette's natural way of life where there isn't capitalism, maybe he could learn something. But really let's be real he has nothing to learn and he is the most on point character of the bunch. xD
And maybe they should have 2-3 campfires during the game, or more togetherness scenes where they discuss quests or situations. And on that my final thought. The final boss should be divided into a major story quest. With a soft-lock.
Soft lock should be around Temenos story to face Mindt, Hikari about facing Zhuge Liang or whatever the strategist' name is. There should be phases to the dawn quest. I mean there should be more dark nights with them ending and being longer. But the protagonists defeating the mid-dungeon bosses. So it would be more intertwined and more dynamic. I am sure they will think about how to blend character stories more in future OT games.
The SPEED at which you 100% so many games remains INSANE to me!
Keep it up, Morti!
My thoughts exactly!
He ods on Adderall
Same comment every video.. don't you get tired of it?? Why nobody comments about the actual content of the review..
kinda unhealthy but damn
@@NotCharAznablehe must be nerfed
I have 45 hours into octopath traveler 2 so far and it's already way better than the first. I love the first entry but it felt empty compared to the second. This game a lot of content; main stories, cross paths, scent of commerce, collecting items for secondary jobs, etc. It felt so overwhelming with how much content they gave us, and that's a good thing personally!
Exactly my thoughts, also at 45 hours
One thing I wished the first game had was a new game plus in order to take everything you accumulated into a new game. Does the sequel allow that?
@@caxshen shorter? Each character has about 5 or so chapters to them as opposed to the first game which has 4 so I don't think so..
@@skepticalbutopen4620 honestly didn't finished the game yet but I haven't heard anything about a new game plus🤔
@@maibignutt6434 thanks for responding. That was my biggest disappointment, because by the end of the game your team is so OP, with no bosses or challenges to face.
Been massively looking forward to this review from you! It’s a funny coincidence how both you and The Completionist managed to get Octopath Traveller videos out within 24 hours of each other - it’s still really impressive how you manage to keep up with so many 100% reviews :)
Octopath 1 was incredible. I'm glad to see they've improved on a couple of things people found lacking in the first game. Party banter is fun because you get some extra context and get to see the party interact with each other. The first game had some of that but it was odd seeing a party of 8 people traveling together with no real explanation and they barely even acknowledge each others existence. Great review. Definitely got me excited to start this second one.
For whatever reason this clicked with me A LOT more than the first one. It's an improvement in every way.
Nice review. A few notes though (spoilers for others):
1. Warmaster is not a better version of Warrior. Saying that diminishes the roles provided by the 2 jobs. Warmaster is more about the utility of the divine weapons. For example, Temenos is a great Warmaster, as Temeno's Latent Power synergizes well with Sixfold, and Temeno's EX skill (no spoiler) greatly synergizes with Spiritlord's Staff. Warrior on the other hand provides you with Learned Skills (Hikari) and or access to the most powerful Physical Attack (Warmaster doesn't have this) or access to incite, if you want to build a defensive character that will eat up most enemies' attacks.
2. The actions of the characters, I agree, can seem overlapping, but the devs did that so you can build at most 2 groups (east and west continent groups actually) such that your group has access to ANY action for ANY time of day. And giving characters overlapping actions frees up players from going back and forth to the tavern to switch characters just to do actions in the overworld. I personally think this is a great change from the first game where getting an is just from thief/merchant.
3. I do agree though that Merchant is the strongest job. And the strongest Hired Help is unlocked later on where you have access to an assassin that hits a TON of damage, heals HP, AND SP for your entire party.
The sound tracks in both these games are next level. An underrated part of a great package.
Finally getting around to this one. Playing a jrpg during Christmas really takes me back to my grade school days.
Pros:
- Fun gameplay, Boost and break is satisfying, character abilities are fun to use in battle and outside of battle, secondary jobs and latent power adds to the strategy.
- Good graphics
- Amazing soundtrack
- Details (almost every NPC has a description when inquired, side missions have unique solutions)
- Unique Stories (all of them start off great and hook you in)
Cons:
- Balancing issues (a lot of the bosses feel too easy and can be cheesed, some skills are useless like Teach, etc)
- Story outcome (although all stories start out amazing, some ended better than others, and some ended really bad)
- Banter could be better. Lot of times it feels disjointed, unnecessary, and forced.
Overall it’s a pretty fun game. The overall issues I had were with some of the stories and balancing issues. Other than that, it’s great JRPG with a lot of fun mechanics and a detailed world.
9/10
Eh I'll say a 7/10
I only started playing a couple days ago, I’m already massively invested in these characters. The music is god tier as always. This game deserves so much more exposure and appreciation.
I love the art style & have heard many great things about the game! On the fence if I should try it out, since I'm usually not a big fan of the combat style used in this game 😅
Expand your horizons! This may become your favorite game...or not. But you won't know if you don't try it. Video games are art and this canvas is beautiful.
I think it's on gamepass! Give it a try there. Double check first though
If you have a PC(and probably xbox), the first octopath is on game pass so it'll only cost you a few bucks, play the game and then cancel.
@@scottdixon2505 the second is better than the first in almost every way, and I would advise the OP not to judge the second on the quality of OCT1. I enjoyed the first few hours to be honest, but quickly got frustrated. I love the second.
The first one had lots more grinding, especially for the final boss. The invidual stories are not as interconnected as OP2 and hardly any main character interaction. You need to have the thief in your party to get all the purple chests which kind of defeats the purpose of the flexibility of your party. It does have fantastic music and graphics. There’s a lot more faults than just those.
It’s clear the developers listened to the criticisms and made a lot of attempts to address them with the sequel, although some of those problems still exist to an extent.
The second has much better characters with more options for combat such as capturing monsters with Ochette which is much improved. All the characters are more customizable and strong in their own ways. The story, dialogue and voice acting is much improved too. The sound track is just as pleasing as the first was, though.
@@makasete30 my mistake
Current best reviewer out there. Your reviews are thorough and well considered. Thanks so much! Been looking forward to this one. It's on my short list of something to get soon.
I didn't 100% the game ,more like 95% but the final boss fight was so fking epic, it was incredible.
@@johndodo2062 the final final boss galdera took me about an hour to beat. Epic fight. Animations are great. Music is great.
@@johndodo2062 Tell me again when you get there.
Just beat the final boss and I loved it. The 8 characters fighting together was amazing to experience! I honestly wish they gave you the option to switch parties on the fly from the get go though. It was pretty annoying to have to keep going between taverns all the time (though I guess it made it so places were worth revisiting so I'm kind of mixed on it).
Heh. It was the opposite for me - the final boss spoilt the gaming experience for me
@@cleniad😂
The art style for this game is gorgeous!
Here because of Gamepass. Like if ya agree 😂
😂😂
Bro got me!! I was sneaky 😂😂
Goatpass
Basically
No I don’t agree
100% completion reviewers deserved my sub. Not like those big outlets playing on easy mode while not knowing they even finish the game. Then they plagiarizes other reviewer's article while insert their options and agenda where it got nothing to do with the game.
Is this as repetitive as the first one? I was really into it at first but you literally would do the same thing over and over and over again. Enjoyed the battling system though.
Picked it up day 1 on Switch. JUST NOW finished it after 198 hours, secret boss included. IT'S SO GOOOOOOOOD. I looked forward everyday to spending hours on it. Did ALL the things, cleared the map entirely, and all quests done. I was so sad when it was over, I just want MORE even after almost 200 hours
I've played the pc demo for 15 minutes and then turned it off immediately. Not because it was boring but because of how much fun it was and I didn't want to further spoil myself. Hikari's path was epic, graphics are peak 2D pixel graphics. Gameplay is a huge upgrade to the classic turn-based combat system. And most of all, the music is just godly. I still have to play through the actual game once it's released on steam but for now I can't find anything I don't like about this game. It's exactly the kind of game I've been looking for.
@@pandaman1331have you played it yet?
@@saintofgayfrogs I'm currently playing Octopath Traveler I and it's the best turn-based game I've played in the last couple of years. The stories are not connected but that doesn't bother me. I like that everyone is the main character and that you can play everyone and their story in the same playthrough. Since they are all the MCs, the game at no point forces you to play any character. So you can also just play with the characters you like and ignore the rest.
@@pandaman1331 10/10 game. I'm at the very end of 2 right now before the super boss. If you love 1, get excited because I promise you 2 is even better.
@@pandaman1331 Also the stories will link up at the end once you've finished all 8. They improved on that at the end of 2. Once you get the end of 2 you'll probably be really hype.
This was just added to gamepass ! This vid about to gain second wind !
I really want to see more Octopath content, so it was great to see your review on this even if you’re unlikely to revisit it. It’s really not gotten that much attention considering how fun and polished it is!
In depth review from someone who actually fully played the game and not just spent 4-5 hours on it. You covered most all of the topics someone looking for a review would want covered and clearly put a good amount of time and effort into not only completing the game but doing this review. Thank you. Subbed.
I just finished the game yesterday. It's definitely there as one of best JRPGs of recent years.
I loved the first one. Just finished it. Beat Galdera. Just bought this today and I am two chapters in. I can tell already that this game is a masterpiece! The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous and graphically it looks wonderful.
My only issue with the game is the pacing. It's either a roller-coaster between low and appropriate level content. Or you do a party of 4 first, get used to the late game fights, and then have to star over at lvl 15 for the other 4. This completely destroys momentum.
I love the game, but I have two major issues with it.
- The characters who aren’t in your active party don’t earn XP so they’re always under levelled and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have over levelled character in your party when you do their stories. It would be nice if you could level your character down for these parts. A system like Xenoblade Chronicles where the XP isn’t applied to a character until you choose to add it would be even better. That way you have more control of your characters level and have the option to have more challenge when you’re using a low level party member.
- The path actions are cool, but it’s annoying to have to switch out party members to see what you can do. It adds some tedium to exploring towns. It would be cool if you could at least see what the other party members could do if they were in your party even if they don’t let you use those abilities while they’re not there. It would save having to swap out most of your party to see what you could do.
This has been my airport game on Switch and I finally sat down this week to beat it, and as somebody who enjoys grinding I agree with you about the grinding in this game. The money grinding for equipment mid-game pretty much halted my progress between chapters 2 & 3. Needless to say, I just parked it in one area for a day and grinded until I was lvl 40+ for my characters and deep six figures with money and I think I’m set until the end of the game lol
Man, it's unbelieveable how quick you actually 100% all these games. How do you do it without feeling burnout?
When gaming is your job, 100% a game is quite easy. Though I'm not a professional gamer, I'm currently between jobs and wanted to catch up on some games I've missed. In the last month I have 100% a bunch of games. I put 110 hours of playtime into Elden Ring and that wasn't even two weeks. He also gets paid to do it and with each new game brings a level of something new and refreshing. I'm just curious if he ever goes outside. haha
Dammit I can't decide if I should play this game or not, I didn't really like the first game and some reviews say 2 is "basically the same" but Mortismal here seems to be showing some significant improvements to where I had my issues...I don't know...
If you didn’t like the first one this one isn’t for you lol
I am playing the first one I am a fan
Would have liked to play this since I liked what I played of OT1 (never finished it) but Square Enix being Square Enix decided to release it on everything but Xbox, despite OT1 being on everything but playstation...
I really loved the soundtrack of this game too.
Especially the final boss bgm was truly epic and fitting for the encounter.
I knew you would beat me! I am wrapping up 100% today.
Great work friend you are a real pro haha.
Do you have a review of the original octopath traveler ?
Kinda surprised you had to grind. I did the 'split the party in two' approach and the first team ended up at about level 80 after doing all their stories and exploring the world a fair amount. I was diving into level 45 dungeons at level 20 and could clear the fights, then ochette could snag something like a revenant and proceed to one shot all the random encounters. Then the second team loaded up with the first teams gear was able to basically walk through their stories, just with low accuracy which added a little challenge if my big hits or break attacks whiffed.
That could just be a testament to how strong my first team was though. Throne and temenos night time buffs went debuffs plus ochette and Osvald dumping raw damage
I don't know if it's just how I played but I didn't have to grind one bit except for the secret boss.
For people worried about the grind aspect, I myself never really had this problem by doing each chapter by it's recommended level and making sure I sub in my lowest level characters in every new chapter and honestly by the early mid game around lv25 you can probably be under leveled by like 5 and still be good (just put your best defensive gear on your more frail characters if they're dying) as your starting character will be way over leveled to compensate because you can't switch them out until you finish all their story chapters. Even if you're struggling to beat certain bosses you can cheese them with hired help like Mortismal mentioned that shit is so broken lol.
If it's anything like the first one,the recommanded LV is a straight up lie, in the first one I litterally never met the recommended and was like 5-7 LV behind, and I only got like 1 Game over outside of the true final boss.
I’m like 40 hours in and still feel like I haven’t did much lol
Still absolutely plodding through this but I’m also really, really enjoying it. The first time I’ve fallen into a traditional JRPG since, like…FFXII maybe? It’s amazing.
I'm glad you liked it. When I watched your preview vid you mentioned that for you it might come down to if the 8 disparate storylines come together, which had me worried. I still haven't finished it, but I heard that they kind of do, but it's not a main focus of the game. Regardless it is super super fun, and I agree that it is stunning on the steamdeck. These days I rarely start a new game and continue playing it to the end without switching to other games, but OT2 has its hooks in me for sure.
guess this will fill the void for a few weeks
thanks gamepass
The characters and stories were amazing, along with the music and voice acting. The improvements to combat were sweet too. If there's one thing I have to critize is still the fact that it's missing TRUE party feeling. They should have chapter 1's solo and then force you to gather the rest of the party to then have them all react to the main story content before progressing. But they did have a lot of good moments with joint chapters and especially the ending bits. So I hope there is a 3 and its truly joint.
Great video! Clearly you did a lot of work to plan out all of your points and thoughts! Love it! 🙌🏻 I think one thing that would take it to the next level is having some background music, either some from the game or if there are legalities around that, then some other good JRPG type music. I think that will bring an energy to it that would take it to a 10/10!! Great work! 🤓🤘🏻
Personally I didn't have any problems with the pacing
I didn't have to do any grinding at all until the final boss cuz it wiped the floor with me
U can look at the chapters recommended levels and do them in an order that sortof fits them and you will get through the game on a very smooth pace
Happy to hear such positive thoughts on this game. Makes me excited to play the first game so I can dive into this one as well 😁
Hope I can check this out soon. Really liked Octopath 1 but Octopath 2 came out like 3 days before Lightfall so I didn't wanna get too invested knowing I'd just drop it for a month.
Really good review again my man.
Octopath Traveler 2 is one of the few games I'd like to play again right now. But after 92 hours for my first playthrough (everything done except the very, very final and secret boss) I'm not sure to start over.
A bit sad is: It (probably) won't win the game award for best RPG. Hogwarts Legacy is too big and probably takes the crown. But there are still other categories (music eventually)?
Love your videos man
I would love if they gave the early FF games this HD pixel art tresatment
I stopped playing the first one due to the mass grinding needed for levels. Is this addressed better in this one? Probably not I imagine due to that being a staple of old rpgs.Edit: Have my answer; you do. Not for me then.
Levels 1-65 are pretty easy to reach, but level 99 is a painful slog. The hardest content can be cleared between levels 50-70 so the grind isn't really mandatory to 100%.
I've not played it but people are saying it's not that grindy compared to the first one. So not sure why you're saying it is?
I recommended chained echoes
I wasn't a huge fan of the first one but the sequel has been excellent.
after the huge RPG disappointment that is FFXVI i am really looking forward to this!!
alone the fact that grinding is a thing is awesome!!
i never struggeld so hard to finish a game! (FFXVI) is getting so damn boring after a while. all it has is cutszenes and flashy combat that gets just tidious after 40 hours. not even the amazing cast of characters helps with that.
thanks for this review, it's very thorough. Between this and chained echoes I don't know what to play next.
I always stay til the ending credit words. "May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day." I don't know, something about them make me feel hopeful, happy, and gives me a smile to my face.
Hi Mortym! Looking forward to playing this one. Right now, I am working my way through some of my backlog...and it's a looooooong list.
Keep it up! Need to support people who 100% their games before giving a proper review!
I do feel like this game was absolutely an improvement over the first game and I think it is a great example of a developer taking community and critical feedback to heart and producing a greatly improved sequel.
With that said though, I still feel like this game falls a little short of greatness and there was definitely more grinding than I could stomach and I ended up setting this one aside around 60 or so hours in just because I didn't feel like putting in the grind for the end of the game and I just wasn't sure the plot payoff was going to be worth it as several of the 8 stories fell pretty flat for me though admittedly some of them were enjoyable.
I don't mind a combat grind, but I really hate other kinds of grinds. The damn chests in ff12 are the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in a game.