Got the sequel to Octopath Traveler and finished it in 98 hours time. Great, then I'm all set for Zelda in a month as of writing. Like its predecessor it was a great game. Much improved actually so that I did finish it this time around... I still adhere to finishing the main game, you can't have the final boss be behind side-quests that don't seems to be leading to a finale.
So the story like last time is that eight different travellers sets out for different reasons, ends up together and ends up stopping an evil lord of darkness. The first is Ochette, the beastling huntress from a tropical island. She is bestowed by her tribes guardian lion a spirit animal, either a fox or an owl that she will train with. I choose the owl. But all is not well as humans are expanding on the island and begins pushing the beastlings away, but one day a human child disappears and as the greatest hunter she follows it to some ancient ruins, but a monster appears that the guardian beast and Ochette defeats, but its arrival heralds the Crimson Moon and the dark forces that will overrun the island (and I presume the world) if Ochette can't find the three guardian beasts. She sets out alone, first looking for a water spirit, but that one had been killed by the dark hunter and plundered by humans. All that is left is an egg that finally hatches and the newborn follows Ochette. The second spirit is the sleeping fire beast Terra that fought a dark hunter to a stand still several years ago and now sleeps beneath a town as it slumbers stirs earthquakes around the town. The final one was the ice-bird Glacia that wreck havoc on a sacred mountain as her eggs was destroyed by the dark hunter. After calming all spirits she returns home and together with the beastlings and the guardian beast fight of the Crimson Moon and the monster they unleash, ending in a great battle with the corrupted fox from the beginning. After that the beastlings and humans makes peace and Ochette sets out again to find the dark hunter.
Out on the sea Cassti Florenz, an apothecary is rescued by a ship but have suffered amnesia. At the first town a string of sick people lead her to investigate the water supply that have been contaminated by a creature emitting poison. After rescuing the town the hostile people opens up to her. Her clothing ties her to a group called Eir's Apothecaries that seemingly poisoned a whole town. One person seems to recognise her and tell her to look for her past by following a diary detailing her healing trips across the land. She ends up in a town called Sai where Cassti and the other apothecaries rescued people from dying during a border war. Returning the war still goes on, but Cassti focusing on the creed to protect brings the soldiers back both from the brink of death as well as chasm of nihilism. She rescue soldiers from both side after getting caught up in a antlion's den (feels like an homage to Final Fantasy IV actually?).
I hate sand, it's course, rough and gets everywhere.
Throné Anguis is a thief in service of the Black Snakes, an organisation run by Father and Mother. On a mission that goes awry one of Thronés close friends are killed. This incident sets up several instances where a civil war emerges for the Black Snake as Father and Mother are looking for replacements for them. Throné wants out if it, but can only follow the steps of her "parents" as they have the keys to her collar. She finds them both and fights them of listening to their story and the reveal that they killed her mother and that her father is still alive, in a city long lost to time called Lostseed. There she finds her real father Claude... some immortal that pretty much have sired every person belonging to the Black Snakes. Yeah, it's pretty creepy. Although, I have a hard time grasping why? Claude just is and almost seems enjoying finally dying as if the years have driven all desire beyond continuing the eternal loop of the Black Snakes.
Osvald von Vanstein, a scholar that is falsely accused of murdering his wife and daughter and sent to a prison island in the icy north. There he makes his escape and after getting ashore vows revenge on Harvey, his supposedly friend that betrayed him. First he returns home and finds his old assistant that tells him that her husband was killed as he questioned the charges. Furious he infiltrates the guard mansion where the local captain reveals that he was bribed by Harvey to point the finger of accusation against Osvald. Osvald burns the whole place down. Following in Harvey's footsteps he follows him to his underground laboratory where Harvey has experimented with the Seventh Source and created an abomination with the blood of Osvalds wife as she belonged to a family of light. And here it is revealed that Osvald's daughter is still alive, but Harvey escapes to a ruin in the northern mountains. Osvald follows and arrives at the closest town which seems overrun by darkness emitting from the ruins. He stops Harvey from killing his daughter and use her blood. During the fight Osvald unlocks the Seventh Source himself, the source of... LOVE? What sort of saccharine Sunday school game is this? Whatever, it's the best spell in the game that trounces Harvey and saves the day.
Partitio Yellowil, the merchant we follow from a little child to adult as he lives trough good times in the town of Orecrush and then the bad times as the townspeople are swindled by the landowner that took control of the silver mine that used to bring in the money to the town. After having enough Partitio beats up the landowners muscle and learns that the mysterious landowner was an old friend of the family, mr Roque, that built the town along them and then disappeared right before the economy tanked, setting out for the mysterious steam engine. He wanted Partitio to join him, but Partitios duty to the town and his father made him stay. After this betrayal he sets out to end poverty... it's Torneko Talon from Dragon Quest IV basically. You follow Roque to Clockbank and confronts him about his deeds, swindling Orecrush and pretty much making Clockbank a boomtown where the industry owner owns the town and its people in servitude. He even taxes them for working at the company... which was a joke in Ducktales 1987 when Scrooge travels into the future and Magica took over Duckburg. He also are on the brink of finishing the mobile steam engine and use that to own the world. Partitio forces him allow him the chance to buy the steam engine so that he can end poverty in the world. Roque agrees if Partitio can pay him 80 billion leaves (that's the currency). Ori the scriviner has followed Partitio and writes about his adventure in the local papers as he sets out to find someone that can help with that. Which he does in the nobleman Alrond, the worlds richest man. On the condition that Partitio can breathe life the in the slumbering economy of Alronds home town. So Partitio sets up the worlds first department store, gets the check and travels to Roques private island. At a press conference Roque tries to renegade on their deal as a check can hardly work since it's not the real thing. Lucky Alrond thought ahead and gathered every single leave on a ship and sails right up to the island. Roque wont relent so you beat him up on his armoured steam train and spreads industrialism and prosperity to all over the world, capitalism at its finest!
Agnea Bristami is a dancer that wants to follow in her mother's footsteps and bring smiles to everyone so she sets out from her small village... and she pretty much does that. She end up in New Delsta where she teams up with a local tavern owner and dances there until the nearby theater chief decide to get rid of the competition by breaking some bones. Agnea gets pissed off and walks right up to him in his own theater and beats him up when the superstar Dolcinea shows up and chastises him for that petty behaviour. Agnea continues to Sai where she finds a statue of her mother raised by the citizens from the poor districts as she was there 20 years ago and gave them hope as well as Dolcinea that came from that town. Agnea helps another child that wrecks havoc in town and then drives Dolcineas henchmen out of town as she intended to demolish the whole district since she couldn't stand her roots. Agnea challenge her to a singing contest and Dolcinea agrees if they go to a certain temple area that is shaped like a theater. There Agnea is chased by thugs sent out by the theater manager and corners her right before the stage... until Dolcinea's bodyguard shows up and knocks him down so that Agnea can take the stage. They create the performance of their life and is praised to the stars. Dolcinea sees the errors of her ways and amends.
Temenos Mistral is a cleric that works as an inquisitor for the pontiff until the pontiff is murdered. Temenos tracks the murderer and capture him as he tries to recreate the death of the gods as some sacrifice to the dark god Vide that was defeated by them (this is another dark god than Galdera from the last game). He then tries to figure out why and stumbles upon a genocide on a people worshipping the sun in defiance against the Moonshade Order. He tries to confront the murderer in the Sacred Flames Headquarter, but the murderer have been killed by an unknown assassin. Temenos assistant discovers that it's the head of the Sanctum Knights but is killed before telling Temons. Temenos still deduces this and follows the commander to a temple on a tropical island where the beastling lives. The commander summons a dark flame in revenge of her peoples murder and is consumed by it until Temenos ends her life, but here starts the quest to find the Moonshade Order behind all this.
Hakari Ku, the second son of the Emperor has to flee from his kingdom as his brother Mugen kills their father as he intended Hikari to take the throne. Hikari seeks out the master tactician the Eagle of Ku, Kazan, that lives his days in an arena gambling for money. Hikari helps him and frees the gladiators that lives like slaves and they in turn decide to follow Hikari. Then Kazan sends him to stop a weapon delivery to defang Mugen. Then he travels to the Home of the Clan Mei and their leader Rai Mei and gets them to follow him as well. With his forces Hikari breaks through the royal cities defences and ends up fighting Mugen again, but during the travels Hikari had to fight an inner demon that seems to crave bloodshed and destruction. And after 4 boss battles in a row Hikari stands alone after defeating Mugens generals, Hikari's own demon and Mugen twice. He is then crowned king and the world is saved.
Well, not really. The travellers gather at a spot to enjoy themselves when the eternal night appears. The 4 flames of the gods goes extinct and monsters like those from the Crimson Moon event shows up. They travel too and light up them again and learns that while they have saved the world, the forces of darkness have worked right beside them. Kazan had fooled them all, together with Ori, the dark hunter and Sister Mindt that aided Temenos. By dousing the flames with blood from a sacrifice he was able to summon Vide, the dark god and only the travellers can stop him. Lucky for me it's just one boss this time and not a prelude of 8 bosses before the final one. Doesn't help the first time since my strategy was to just use three main characters (Osvald, Temenos and Throné) and a rotating forth. The main three are at level 70 and the others hovers around 45-50. Problem is that in the middle of the battle, Vide snatch my characters and push the B-team to rescue them... my B-team being 20 levels below the others and not equipped. Didn't last long there. So back 4 hours of the game and starting to grind the others. Did all the other quest (beside a quest to defeat Galdera again) and grinded a bit so that the others where at 65 instead and the main team at 75. And getting the side jobs and such and optimised the skills and such. Plus started out with the B-team. And it worked like a charm this time around... until the second form appeared. Damn cheating final boss! Still, cool to play with all 8 characters and lucky they weren't synced all the way with the cleric job and such. Took an hour or so, but I beat him... her or whatever, they?
It was really fun playing through it. I began with Osvald pretty much for the same reason as last time. Magic and the analyse skill unlocking the weaknesses of the enemies from the beginning. They added day and night cycle, the lead up to the real final boss worked better since they actually put them as a separate sort of quest and it needed two of the characters to interact off each other creating some sort of cohesion for them all. That little interlude before and after the final boss perfect. The 2D-HD engine still looks fantastic and the music is really good, I think Partitio's theme is the best one after playing through the game and I was sceptical in the beginning. Any problems? Pretty much the same like last time, even though it's better this time around with quests actually making them interact, some people don't fit in with the rest. Agnea and Partitio hardly have anything to do with the other story wise... well, Partitio had Ori, but that's a stretch. You could have had anyone else in that role as well. But Agnea is like Primrose in the last game, incidental to the rest of the game. Also miss references to the original game, or at explanation how we go from 12 gods to 8, how there can be new continents and no sign of the others as well as other version of "From the Far Reaches Hell" book Cygnus searched for and another placement of the Gate of Finnis. Lucky I finished it a month before Zelda so there will not be another mega-RPG for a while since I don't want to be distracted when that one shows up.
