During Chapter 3, Partitio could be seen being curious and particularly invested on Agnea's peaches. The resulting dialogue was part innocent, part steamy, and 100% hilarious.
Seriously, go play Octopath Traveler 2 if you haven't.
Just realized this now after 3+ years of playing (I don't generally go for character Eidolons).
The designers of Honkai: Star Rail have a quite specific language for letting the players know "you can totally get this new main push DPS for free, but just letting you know here that wink wink getting their E2 is a great bonus! wink wink" : Their E2s give extra turns.
With the release of Aventurine Waveflair's drip marketing and sneak-peek into his gameplay, we now have the archetypes and aesthetics of all Elation characters so far.
I think Hoyoverse really nailed the Elation feel of its characters. They all feel different from each other, but at the same time consistent in representing one facet of the delightful Aeon's path.
What do you think?
Kazuya Nakai voices both Roronoa Zoro from One Piece and Partitio in Octopath Traveler II in Japanese. This leads to interesting stuffs like hearing Zoro's voice talking about purchasing a ship during one of Partitio's optional Scent of Commerce quest! I guess his voice was really made to soar along the sails and the seas.
Near the end of May, I beat Octopath Traveler's notorious superboss Galdera's absolutely bloody two-phases fight, and boy do I have a few things to say about this game.
I absolutely love the eight characters. There's not a single one that I dislike—whether story-wise or gameplay-wise—and I'm thankful I leveled all of them equally during my playthrough. I ended up with everyone at level 70-71 before entering the Gate of Finis. I don't think I could have beat the final dungeon had I not done so. Their personalities were also unique to each other and complemented each other, and the conflicts they faced through their stories felt distinctive.
The combat system is great. I enjoyed how breaking enemies' weaknesses felt "tactile" and how its effects were consistent: anyone, normal mooks or the final fallen god of darkness alike, will have their turns skipped and their defenses lowered if their shields were broken. This made fights challenging without making them frustrating. I can cook up hundreds of different strategies to tackle a fight and not get confused about where it should take me.
One of the best extra features of the game was the secondary jobs. They came at the right point in the game and hyped me up for the rest of the playthrough with the added plethora of character customization options. The second half of the game was seemingly unlocked then, and it was like receiving your monthly salary with an annual bonus added. Oh yes, the battles ramped up in difficulty, too, but now I have double the amount of tools to beat them with.
Graphics were absolutely beautiful! Octopath Traveler is my first foray into HD-2D games and its use of Unreal Engine bore sweet fruits. Walking around the environments brought me back to my Final Fantasy VI days juiced up to modern standards. It doesn't have the "dreamy" qualities that I am fond of in fantasy settings, and it lacked dynamic camera, but the diorama-like settings are still eye candies for me.
As someone who appreciates JRPG stories very much, I agreed with the common sentiment that the stories of Octopath Traveler were lackluster. The disconnected and isolated nature of the eight main stories means that the game missed out on the inter-characters relationship dynamics that most other JRPGs depended on. The narrative leading to the final secret boss attempted to tie the eight paths to a common finale, but it was forced and unsatisfying. The characters don't even talk to each other in the final area.
This approach to storytelling means that the worldbuilding itself is a kind of restricted. There are exactly eight regions and each region has exactly three cities, and each has exactly one dungeon tied to them. Orsterra became a modular playing board mechanically designed to fit the story, instead of a world of its own that is organic and breathing. The main quests inevitably turned stale starting from chapter 2. Formulaic plots do that to people more than you think.
The developers clearly took drastic steps in the experiments that birthed this game. While the end results were greatly enjoyable, there were some obvious side effects that weren’t addressed properly and unfortunately took some points off my enjoyment. Overall, I am satisfied with this game and values the experience of completing it highly.
I began Octopath Traveler II immediately after, and the experience from Octopath Traveler makes me appreciate it almost twofold! I recommend playing this game before the second for a fuller experience.
Imagine you've been swimming in the sea for a couple hours on a hot sunny day. You're tired, parched, and was then immediately offered a slice of cold watermelon. Imagine that feeling when the red flesh touched your salty lips, and when its cool juices flow down your throat. Pure bliss. Watermelon is already an awesome fruit, but it somehow tastes much better eaten after certain activities.
Hikari, sighing in relief for NOT having to swim anywhere
Octopath Traveler was my swimming in the sea on a hot sunny day, and Octopath Traveler II was my cold, sweet, and juicy watermelon.
I'm currently three hours into OT II and felt like I should make an argument to help people who wonder whether they should play OT first before OT II. Here's a list of stuff I've noticed so far in OT II that was an improvement from OT (and greatly makes me enjoy it more), in no particular order of importance:
I'm sure there are more that I'll find as I progress. For now, I would like to simply appreciate these improvements and make a case for why I think you should play Octopath Traveler first before you attempt Octopath Traveler II, since it made the experience all the more sweet and refreshing for me.
Beat Galdera's absolutely bloody two-phases fight last week within two tries, and boy do I have a few things to say about Octopath Traveler (or two).
I absolutely love the eight characters. There's not a single one that I don't like—whether story-wise or gameplay-wise—and I'm thankful that I leveled all of them equally during my playthrough. Their personality seemed unique and complementing with each other, and the conflicts that they faced through their respective stories felt distinctive, too. Ended up with everyone at level 70-71 before entering the Gate of Finis. I don't think I could have beat him/her had I not done so.
The combat system was great. I enjoyed how breaking enemies' weaknesses felt and how its effects were consistent: anyone, normal mooks or the final fallen god of darkness alike had their turns skipped and their defenses lowered if their shields were broken. This made fights challenging without making them frustrating. I can cook up hundreds of different strategies to tackle a fight and not get confused about where it should take me.
One of the best things about the game was the secondary jobs. They came at the right point in the game and successfully hyped me up for the rest of the playthrough with the added plethora of character customization options. I felt like 50% of the game was unlocked then, and it was like receiving your monthly salary with the annual bonus added. Oh yes, the battles ramped up in difficulty, too, but now I have double the amount of tools to beat them.
Graphics were absolutely beautiful! Octopath Traveler is my first foray into HD-2D games and its use of Unreal Engine bore sweet fruits. Walking around the environments brought me back to my Final Fantasy VI days juiced up to modern standards. It doesn't have the "dreamy" qualities that I am fond of in fantasy settings, and it lacked dynamic camera, but the diorama-like settings are still eye candies for me.
As someone who appreciates JRPG stories very much, I agreed with the common sentiment that the stories of Octopath Traveler felt lackluster. The disconnected and isolated nature of the eight main stories means that the game missed out on the inter-characters relationship dynamics that most other JRPGs depended on. The narrative leading to the final secret boss attempted to tie the eight paths to a common finale, but it seemed forced and not satisfying enough. The characters don't even talk to each other in the final area.
This approach to storytelling means that the worldbuilding itself is a kind of restricted. There are exactly eight regions and each region has exactly three cities, and each has exactly one dungeon tied to them. Orsterra became a modular playing board mechanically designed to fit the story, instead of a world of its own that is organic and breathing. The main quests inevitably felt stale starting from chapter 2. Formulaic plots do that to people more than you think.
The developers clearly took drastic steps in the experiments that birthed this game. While the end results were greatly enjoyable, there were some obvious side effects that weren’t addressed properly and unfortunately took some points off my enjoyment. Overall, I am satisfied with this game and values the experience of completing it highly.
I began Octopath Traveler II immediately after, and the experience from Octopath Traveler makes me appreciate it almost twofold! (More about that later) I absolutely recommend playing this game before the second for a fuller experience.
