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Octopath Traveler 2 is better than Final Fantasy 16 (and any Square Enix game since 2006)

LakeOf9

Member
Yes, I have made another octopath 2 thread. No I dont plan on stopping, because this game is amazing, and everyone needs to play it.

Octopath traveler 2 is a masterpiece. everyone who complained about ff16 not having party members, or not being turn based, or not having RPG elements, or not having optional dungeons, or not having much exploration, all your prayers are answered. Octopath 2 is all of that and more, all in one amazing package. and it is so good. it's mind blowing how great this game is. I can think of nothing in out thats bad. the music is amazing. the graphics are gorgeous. the characters are great. I really like the stories. the world and exploration are great. the dungeons and bosses are really fun. and the depth to the rpg mechanics is amazing, the amount of control you have over your character builds, and the ways you can break the game with those is so fucking fun to mess around with.

this is the best square game of 2023, far better than ff16, far better than forspoken, better even than star ocean 2r (but that was also very good). im going to go as far as to say that this is the best square game ive played since the ps2 era, only DQ11 comes close. you honestly NEED to play this if you haven't already, this is without question one of the best JRPGs ever made.
 

LakeOf9

Member
Also IMO i'm more of a Live A Live remake guy, even if it's not a new game.
That's next on the list! I got it for Switch at launch, but I've been waiting for an excuse to pick it up on Steam. Might just go ahead and play the Switch version.
 
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Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Star Ocean 2 Second Story R is better than OT2 just saying.

Yes, I have made another octopath 2 thread. No I dont plan on stopping, because this game is amazing, and everyone needs to play it.

Octopath traveler 2 is a masterpiece. everyone who complained about ff16 not having party members, or not being turn based, or not having RPG elements, or not having optional dungeons, or not having much exploration, all your prayers are answered. Octopath 2 is all of that and more, all in one amazing package. and it is so good. it's mind blowing how great this game is. I can think of nothing in out thats bad. the music is amazing. the graphics are gorgeous. the characters are great. I really like the stories. the world and exploration are great. the dungeons and bosses are really fun. and the depth to the rpg mechanics is amazing, the amount of control you have over your character builds, and the ways you can break the game with those is so fucking fun to mess around with.

this is the best square game of 2023, far better than ff16, far better than forspoken, better even than star ocean 2r (but that was also very good). im going to go as far as to say that this is the best square game ive played since the ps2 era, only DQ11 comes close. you honestly NEED to play this if you haven't already, this is without question one of the best JRPGs ever made.

I see we have a problem.

Stare Staring GIF


P.S NieR Automata, FF16 and FF7R I'd also put ahead of OT2 from S-E.
 
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LakeOf9

Member
Star Ocean 2 Second Story R is better than OT2 just saying.



I see we have a problem.

Stare Staring GIF


P.S NieR Automata, FF16 and FF7R I'd also put ahead of OT2 from S-E.
I like Star Ocean 2R I will never have any beef with anyone standing that game

NieR is good and FF7R is great. FF16 is so bad it made my balls shrivel up and fall off, so imma have to disagree with you on that one
 

Fbh

Gold Member
Chained Echoes was better than FF16 and most Square games of the last 20 years, and it was mostly made by 1 dude in Germany.
Square should really look at their approach to game design when 1 fucking dude is giving them a run for their money
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
It really is a shame. This game just didn't have great timing, unfortunately. It's a very similar-looking sequel from a presentation standpoint, despite it being so, so much better than the original in every possible way. And as OP says, an extremely top-of-the-line JRPG.

The issue is just coming out so late in the lifespan of the Switch, sequels tend to not do as well on an aging platform. Sales-wise I think, like Rabbids Sparks of Hope, this game would've benefitted greatly from launching with the next-gen Nintendo platform, Switch 2 or whatever they call it.

It is getting ported to Xbox this year, but I'm a little sad that it doesn't sound like it sold nearly as well as the original, so I'm not sure there'll be a third one. I hope to be wrong, though. It's turned into quite the little JRPG banger. Like literally one of the best out there, hands down.
 
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Mr Moose

Member
I'd probably enjoy it but I am not playing a game with pixel art characters unless it's the best game ever.
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
I'm just waiting for it's price to drop to 20€ to buy it.
Oh man, it's such a great game. Don't let the presentation fool you, it's worth every penny of a standard $60 game. I got it on sale on Steam Deck for $41, I think, over the holidays. Absolute steal for a 100 hour JRPG epic.

I'd previously bought it at launch on Switch, and I just couldn't pass up playing it in 60FPS on the Deck's beautiful screen, or even a TV. Switch version is just the typical herky-jerky 30fps with drops, and quite a bit blurrier.
 
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Ar¢tos

Member
Oh man, it's such a great game. Don't let the presentation fool you, it's worth every penny of a standard $60 game. I got it on sale on Steam Deck for $41, I think, over the holidays. Absolute steal for a 100 hour JRPG epic.
15-20€ is the max I'll pay for a AA game (25-30€ for AAA games).
It's OK, I don't mind waiting a year or two.
 

Dr. Wilkinson

Gold Member
Live a Live is turn based - it's just on a grid, which doesn't make it a strategy game.
Right. Yes, my wording was poor. Because it's on a grid, I passed. It's not straight-up turn-based strategy like Triangle, despite the very similar presentation style.
 

RavageX

Member
I personally did not enjoy OP1 very much story-wise and quest wise, something tells me the second is similar.

I also do not care about secret bosses and all that jazz, so I skipped all of that endgame stuff.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
The combat in Octopath Traveler is pretty good.
But I couldn't finish either of the games, because the story is just so damn unnecessarily wordy... and really not that interesting.
I was bored each time about 15 hours in and stopped playing.

Anyway... recently, the Japanese have been beaten at their "own" game by both Chained Echoes and Sea Of Stars.
Now THAT's how you do JRPGs.
 

The Shepard

Member
I played and completed octopath traveller 2 once I got a portal and it is absolutely an excellent game. I played the first on switch and bailed on it at about 40 hours. 2 is so much better. The music is excellent to, they should definitely hire the person to do the soundtrack on a numbered final fantasy.
 
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Klosshufvud

Member
I just finished OT2 and really enjoyed it. Highlights are the beautiful setting, gorgeous sprite graphics, wonderful music and thrilling RPG gameplay. I also enjoy how you can interact with NPCs and day-night cycles being so tied to gameplay mechanics.

Most of the stories were great but I think they should've removed Ochette's and Agnea's stories and focused more on the endgame section instead. Juggling between 8 origin stories felt overwhelming and several stories could have been expanded further if they had more breathing space. With that said, I loved how versatile the gameplay is while also retaining unique character traits. I ran an extremely dirty Osvald-Temenos-Partitio-Hikari crew in endgame that was highly entertaining see unfold.

All in all, a solid 8/10 but for me won't be as memorable as the genre legends due to its fragmented structure. Still a solid recommend.
 

blackjon24

Member
I really didn't care all that much for octopath 1 which has made me reluctant to give 2 a shot, especially since I don't like skipping to the sequels. I will say i had a great time with triangle strategies so I would be willing to give octopath 2 a chance one of these days
 

Paltheos

Member
Chained Echoes was better than FF16 and most Square games of the last 20 years, and it was mostly made by 1 dude in Germany.
Square should really look at their approach to game design when 1 fucking dude is giving them a run for their money

It really is remarkable. Chained Echoes doesn't even do that much new. Most of it is old ideas with a fresh coat of paint. Dude just understood and loved the genre he was building on.
 

Power Pro

Member
I disagree, and I prefer the turn based RPG stuff. Both Octopath games have been a huge let down to me, because the writing in both is just soo boring. Live A Live is the best game they've released in that style. That feels like the kind of game I wanted Octopath Traveler to be. It was soooo good.

I honestly don't know why Final Fantasy 16 is getting the extreme hate that it does. I didn't think it was perfect, and I agree it really kinda drags in some points, but I also thought there were parts of the writing that were some of the best in the series. Combat was not my favorite, and I realllly got tired of it, but it wasn't bad enough that I wanted to stop playing.
 

Pejo

Member
I agree with your premise OP. The battle system is deep enough to keep it engaging throughout, there are a ton of customization options for your team compositions and character builds. The stories are smaller scale and more character driven, with some nice side content and superbosses. The music is good, and it felt like a proper world hopping adventure instead of a theme park where you only play the flashy parts without any of the worldbuilding or buildup. It's all of the things that I consider "Classic" Final Fantasy to be.

I wish it had about 2-3x the budget than it had so that they could have really gone all out with more branching paths/choices, but I'm satisfied with the game and it was my favorite JRPG since DQ11.
 

sigmaZ

Member
Star Ocean 2 Second Story R is better than OT2 just saying.



I see we have a problem.

Stare Staring GIF


P.S NieR Automata, FF16 and FF7R I'd also put ahead of OT2 from S-E.
In many ways yes, but I prefer OTII's soundtrack (not to say that SO2 has bad music by any means ) and battle system by far. Transversal and overall story, SO2 easy.
 
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Dynasty8

Member
Bought the game during the Steam winter sale last month. About 40 hours in. It's alright...7/10

Half the stories are boring, predictable and just not interesting IMHO. Still suffers from the same issue of characters not really being involved in each other's storylines at all and the very predictable "dungeons" if you want to even call them that.
 

Kumomeme

Member
This is how you know something is mediocre. It's the dissonance caused by wanting to like something but that thing that you want to like leaving you unfulfilled. Like a Paris syndrome of sorts.
nah at this point this is beyond that. it end up as a 'hate' validation target from certain group. for example out of all games out there, on this post mention Octopath Traveler which is a lower budget, turn based game 2D traditional style game. you can piece the puzzle next.

this is not first time stuff like this happened. i seen on various place like reddit or even social media, do this, with various game against it. it is understandable to dislike and critisize a game but this kind of things, show that there is something else behind that. sometimes its like out of spite, or someone holding a grudge or something.

different story if it come with proper, argument on both side of it (which is exist out there) but mostly nothing much on the context aside usual typical stuff "XXX game is suck because it dont have stuff i prefer" while disregard other aspect it has.

OP probably might indeed has genuinely different point of view but as i mentioned above, this is not first time i see stuff like this.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
I only played some of the FF XVI demo (didn't grab me) so can't really compare, but Octopath Traveler 2 is truly an awesome game.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
I haven’t liked any Final Fantasy since 6 so I agree with the OP. I loved both octopath games (although I haven’t gotten around to finishing the second game). I love how even in regards to music, they try to mimic the 16-bit style (short catchy tunes). Would love them to do a game similar to FF4 or 6 in the octopath graphics style.
 

IAmRei

Member
To each to their own, i'm more to bravely default than OT, although the music is superb. But as for FF16, i think its better than OT. It might be me, everyone got their opinion.
 

Poppyseed

Member
I really didn't care all that much for octopath 1 which has made me reluctant to give 2 a shot, especially since I don't like skipping to the sequels. I will say i had a great time with triangle strategies so I would be willing to give octopath 2 a chance one of these days
Octopath 1 was a "fine" game. I beat it, but it wasn't super compelling, but 2 is so much more - pretty much the game 1 should have been. That said, there's still some QoL things that Octopath needs, like being able to drop pins on the map to mark areas to come back to, and less obtuse side quests where you'll just never find the people to speak to unless you go round every single town to see if that's the quest person you need to find.

Also, I was super over leveled and the end boss still kicked my butt so hard that I never actually finished it, and just watched the ending on YouTube. I don't need someone to tell me to git gud, or whatever, but that end boss was such a jump in difficulty that it lowered my game euphoria significantly. I did watch some YouTube videos on how to win, and yeah - you can mega win if you're one of those crazy theorycrafting gamers who knows how to just "make things work," and some of these guys literally beat the end boss without taking a hit.

For us normal gamers, naaaaaa. Anyway, fantastic game, marred by a far-too-difficult end boss.
 
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