5/5 ★ – SilverScroll's review of Octopath Traveler II.

Wow, this game is truly special. It isn't for everyone but if you like old school jrpgs and clicked with this game like I did you will fall in love with octopath traveler 2. Its combat is sensational, it has some of the best, most lovable characters in any game I've ever played along with gorgeous, beautiful pixel art that manages to be expressive despite its seemingly primitive appearance. All of this topped of by one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. The story structure is weird, and the main thing that will make or break your experience with octopath 2. It features 8 protagonists with entirely different, seemingly unconnected stories that only link with each other about 67 hours in. This will throw some people off because these characters really have no reason to join with each other but the party banter during missions and in taverns, along with the joint quests help bring this group together and make the protagonists feel like a group of friends rather than a group of acquaintances. The way it manages to make all 8 stories intertwine with each other is impressive and it's final few hours are a complete masterclass. Octopath traveler 2 strikes a good balance between stories that are upbeat and happy, sad and dire and ones with elements of both. This creates variety that helps the game massively than if all 8 characters stories had been the same tone, all chapters are perfect length and this game is perfect to play if you are short on time. It's turn based combat is familiar to anyone who has played a game like this before but it's BP system and special character actions (I forgot what they were called) prevent it from getting stale and help craft one of the best feeling combat systems ever made, it has so much potential if your good with it and crafting the right party feels brilliant, with each squad ideally having a damage dealer, debuffer, healer and buffer, however the game is designed so that you can pick any character first and still have a good time. The combat gets no better than the final boss fight, which pushes you to your absolute limit, with all 8 characters being used, there is no better feeling than killing that boss and hearing the victory music. It creates a feeling of pure, unrelenting joy. It's graphics are the best pixel art ever made, with every environment feeling expressive and like you can reach your hand through the screen and touch it, helped by a unique 2.5d world structure that never gets boring to explore. There are a variety of environments to explore and this helps fully capture the beauty of this pixel art in its entirety. Octopath traveler 2 has one of the most incredible soundtracks I've ever listened to, second only to persona 5 royal. Every track perfectly conveys the mood of the scene, from pure melancholy to ecstatic joy, each characters themes match the journey they undertake and the environment and battle music never get old, with my favorite tracks in the game being the final chapters boss music and the final boss music, they help set the grandiose and importance of the fight and the struggle against it. My main problem with octopath 2 is that solistia never feels alive, in a lore sense I mean because it's never explained to us very well, the only distinct kingdoms properly developed are ku (to an extent) and toto'haha the rest of the locations in the game feel like places on a map, completely interchangeable and the npcs in the game never talk about the larger world around them, they act the same in timberain as they do in new delsta. Octopath traveler 2 is a much needed win for Square Enix after its last few non final fantasy releases have had mixed critical receptions and it insists on it's idiotic nft program. It is one of my favorite games of all time and is not getting nearly enough attention as it should be getting. It's characters are lovable, story fantastic, it's combat unbelievably good, with the best pixel art of all time and a soundtrack that is equally as special. You will not regret playing octopath traveler 2 and if you are a fan of turn based rpgs you will most likely become as enthralled as I am over this masterpiece.