DO NOT BUY Octopath Traveler II

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

recently I've been playing the brand new

Octopath Traveler 2, and as an avid fan of

the original game and JRPGs in general, I

knew I just had to play this game.

Unfortunately, so far I just find the game

kind of bland, boring, uninspired, and

rather lacking in luster. So the concept

of Octopath Traveler is basically— well,

it's supposed to hearken back to the good

old days of simple but good JRPGs. It's a

very simple and bare-bones kind of JRPG

that reminds you of the games you might

have played when you were a kid. The

problem is I'm not really a kid anymore

and I'm not really entertained by such

simple games. So it doesn't really have

any of the crazy stuff that modern JRPGs

usually have. You won't really find

anything groundbreaking or revolutionary

in this game. It's just going to be a very

simple experience that won't really leave

you surprised or shocked. And if all you

want is a very simple JRPG that won't blow

your socks off, then sure, this game might

be fine for you. But for the rest of us

who have kind of grown up and moved on

from our teenage days, we kind of want

something with a bit more oomph. So first

of all, the graphics of this game are not

quite up to my standards. Sure, they've

got this very nice and cutesy 8-bit retro

style that will remind you of your days as

a kid playing those old games on the

PlayStation that are only 8-bit or 16-bit.

So it looks kind of charming in its own

unique way. The game's visual style is

kind of a blend between 2D and 3D, so it

looks mostly 2D, but then the buildings

and objects look 3D as you walk around

them and the camera moves a bit. The thing

I don't like about the camera is how the

top parts of the screen and the bottom

part of the screen are kind of out of

focus and they're kind of blurry. In

photography, we call this the toy camera

effect, where by blurring out the top part

and the bottom part of a frame and keeping

the middle section in focus, you create

this kind of miniature photography,

miniature photo kind of effect. So I find

it kind of weird that they would want to

implement this kind of photography effect

on a video game. I guess they wanted this

toy camera effect where the characters

look like little toys running around a

map. I just find it kind of annoying

because the entire time half the screen is

blurred out with this effect, and the only

thing that's in focus is the middle part

of the screen. What is the point of having

a really cool-looking game when half of it

is blurred out most of the time? I don't

want to just be focusing and staring at my

characters the whole time when I'm running

around. I want to be able to look at the

map and look at the scenery and appreciate

graphics, but it's hard to do that when

it's all blurred out half the time. I

think the scenery in the game looks quite

nice. I like the picturesque art style,

but the characters in the game look kind

of weird. So they're not very high-res,

so even though they're kind of 8-bit retro

style, they look kind of fuzzy and blurry

to me. One weird thing is how different

your characters look to the enemy

characters. Sometimes you go up against

these enemy NPCs and their art style looks

kind of realistic and very detailed

compared to your own character's art

style. The art styles just don't really

seem to match. It's also kind of annoying

because even though you can buy upgrades

and new gear and clothing in this game,

when you equip it, you don't actually see

any difference on your character's body.

The only difference is when you buy a new

weapon and use the weapon, then you can

actually see the new weapon. But if you

buy like a new hat or a new coat, you

won't be able to see it on your character.

So the feeling of being able to customize

your character and make it feel like your

own character is kind of nonexistent.

They want you to play the character that

they've designed. I found that there's too

many cutscenes in the game as well. I know

story is a very big part of the game and

that's great and everything, but I just

didn't find any of the story in the game

to be interesting and I was just skipping

all of the cutscenes. I did try really

hard to not skip them and try to get into

the story, but the stories of each of the

travelers are all just so very boring,

especially this character I'm playing now

who has to escape from a prison. I felt

like the first 30 minutes I was just

spamming the C button to skip the

cutscene. There were so many damn

cutscenes in this stupid game. As for the

combat of the game, well, it's a very

bog-standard kind of turn-based RPG game.

You can't really expect anything

interesting or fun here. It's basically

just attack, then wait for the enemy to

attack, and then it's your turn to attack,

and then it's the enemy's turn to attack.

And then if your HP gets low, then you got

to do some healing, use a potion, and if

you've got any spells like AoE stuff, you

can use that as well. I found myself

really bored during most of the battles,

just spamming the attack button, waiting

for my turn, and then attack, and then

topping up my HP if needed. I just didn't

really feel that challenged. Some of the

bosses were a bit challenging where I

needed to strategize and use my potions

and stuff like that carefully. Now you

might be thinking I'm just hating on

turn-based combat when that's not true. I

actually like a game called Darkest

Dungeon, which has much better, much more

engaging turn-based combat system than

this game does. And I don't know why

exactly. I think Darkest Dungeon just does

a lot better of a job to make you feel

like you're under pressure and it's more

visually interesting, whereas this game

kind of just looks very bland and generic.

Actually, it kind of looks like a free

mobile game you'd expect to find on the

Android or iOS store. Now don't get me

wrong, I did manage to get a few hours of

gameplay out of this game and I did

actually feel like I was having fun, but

that's just because of the grindy nature

and my addictive personality where I

actually enjoyed seeing the numbers go up

and seeing my characters get stronger,

being able to do more damage as I do more

grinding and kill more stuff. But that was

just like the addictive hook of the game.

Apart from that, the rest of the game

wasn't that interesting. And to think that

I'd have to pay £50 for the full version

of this game when, like I said earlier,

the game just looks like a mobile game.

The graphics could be run on any kind kind

of mobile phone that has recently come

out. I wouldn't mind playing this game or

even buying this game if it was like £10

or £15 max, because I did actually enjoy

my time playing the game and I wouldn't

mind playing it further. But I just don't

want to spend £50. This is a new game, I

get it, and it's supposed to be a AAA

game, but this game did not cost so much

money to the point that they needed to

charge £50 for this game. This game feels

like it could have been made by a 2-man

indie team. I mean, the guy who made

Stardew Valley, who made it all by

himself, has made a more complex and

interesting game than this game has to

offer, and he's just working by himself.

This is made by Square Enix, which is a

massive team with huge amounts of money

funding them. It just doesn't really feel

like I'm getting good value out of my

money when there's countless games that do

the same thing as this on the Android and

iOS store, and a lot of these games even

play for free games, and they actually

look better than this game. I can go onto

Steam and probably find games just like

this that cost only £5 or £10, so I don't

really feel like this game gives you your

bang for your buck. So unfortunately,

even though I had some fun playing this

game, I don't really feel like I can

recommend it at this price point. Maybe

sometime in the future when it comes down

in price a little bit, I might consider

picking it up, but as of right now, I

cannot really recommend it. I think a fair

price for this game would be £20 maximum.