OCTOPATH TRAVELER II

This is a great game and a perfect sequel. I liked the first Octopath Traveler, but only enough that I was left on the fence about buying this game. It was definitely flawed. I understood that though given some of the more unique elements of this JRPG series, from how it handles the story all the way to combat. So there were some things I thought the first game took some risks with that I thought really paid off, but also some aspects that really suffered. I can't tell you a single aspect of this game that wasn't only an improvement over the first game, but used as a launching pad for new ideas. That's what I mean when I call this a perfect sequel. The story is probably the biggest improvement. I like most of the individual traveler stories more in this game than the previous. The way they structure the story and the progression of it isn't too different for about 85% of it. However, the Crossed Paths chapters and the final chapter of this game gave us two things that the first game was sorely lacking: a feeling of relationship between the travelers and a grand conclusion that doesn't undersell the bigger plot of the game. The difficulty is just right. I breezed through the first game (I can't even if I ever died excluding one late game boss and the final boss). I felt like i hit the spike on the difficulty curve after finishing everyone's chapter 2. And that's important because this combat system can lead to some slower fights for a turn-based JRPG, so easy+slow can lead to boring at times. A lot of the both broken and useless aspects of certain jobs, skills, and weapons/armor/accessories were balanced out quite well here. This game is almost everything I thought the first game had the potential to be. I am definitely playing Octopath Traveler 0 after this.