#octopath traveler 2 SPOILERS

[kammoart]

Don't worry, Chief. I'll save you too.

[thanksvideogames]

happy first anniversary to Octopath Traveler 2!

[phlavours]

I started my story as Temenos and then grabbed Osvald. There’s something really funny to me about poor Osvald waking up to Temenos who exudes such bastard energy after being thru so much bad luck 

[khytal]

doggie :]

[spectral-muse]

One of my favourite moments in Octopath Traveler II that I don’t see anyone talking about is the approach to Stormhail.

First, though the game is open world, things like danger levels and character stories are likely to lead a player to Stormhail at a certain point. It is the lowest danger-leveled third-tier city (rather, the surrounding area has the lowest danger level of any third-tier city) housing three characters’ penultimate stories rather than anyone’s final story, but it still has a higher danger level than any other second-tier city by a considerable amount, and the three penultimate chapters it hosts are the three with the highest danger level. Therefore, it is likely to be the player’s introduction to late-game Octopath, to all of the pieces falling together, to the part where all of the Chekhov’s guns the story has created finally start firing.

And what an introduction it is! The city of Stormhail had been extremely hyped up throughout the game beforehand. Massoud’s mercantile manuscripts discuss the great kingdom of Delstadt that once stood high in the Winterlands, and the massive wall they constructed around the city, and how Stormhail is what remains of this great kingdom. One of the tomes missing from the Montwise library is of this legendary Great Wall. The Godsblades are based here. Glacis, likely to be the last of the beasts Ochette hunts but still on the map from the start, calls this place her home. Exploring near Montwise reveals that Stormhail is so intense that it’s only entrance is guarded. All this information is given well before the player gets to Stormhail.

And then the time comes for the actual approach. Once the guard is slain, the player first must navigate a great abandoned mine. In silence. Nothing but the echo of their character’s footsteps. Perhaps they will run into monsters, and assuming this is their first third-tier experience, they will hear the new, final, most dramatic regular battle music. It’s all so tense.

Then the player finally breaks free of the mine, and from a vantage point atop a snowy hill, they get to witness the absolute beautiful glory of the Stormhail wall, e captured brilliantly in HD-2D, illuminated by a blue and ever-falling snow, as vast and as imposing as the as the stories.

Like, WOW. I had to put my controller down and just embrace the beauty of this moment when I was playing.

[serennes-art]

the truth lies in the flame

[starkittnd93]

[summerf0x]

[gzeidraws]

"Tonight… let us share a drink."

A commission for Eric_Steegs!

[nicandragon]

For the "secrets" prompt, I did Giselle x Tanzy!

I think that they should have insane chemistry and tension, but... insurmountable secrets keep them apart 😔

[1driedpersimmon]

*gestures vaguely uueuuuhhrgg

[smilepebble]

funny octopath textposts part 2: ot2 edition

[part 1]

[saarovar]

Getting obsessed with a "perfectly fine and okay" character who inevitably snaps: Stage 1 -- "Oh I really like them, they're funny and I relate to them. They're my favourite and I really love seeing them so happy and carefree! :D" Stage 2 -- stuff starts going downhill, the character is getting traumatised and depressed and they're not happy anymore, but they're still them. You want to see them be okay again, you're sad they're not... you want so badly to protect them, to give them a hug, anything to make them feel better. And you hope that they will feel better eventually. :( Stage 3 -- and now there's the horror. Watching their thoughts go from "traumatised and depressed" to... that. All that you felt for that character is still there, but they're warped beyond recognition now. Remembering that original, happy character you originally got obsessed with is devastating, and even trying to empathise with the character isn't working that well. The desire to hug them, to make them feel better, is gone. You feel like there's a void in your chest where all the empathy is going, where you can still feel yourself empathising with the character but you don't "feel" that empathy anymore. You still love them, but they're too far gone and you can't even find that hope anymore that maybe things will get better for them. It's just... the horror... the devastation... the hope that if things can't get better, maybe, just maybe, your character will at least get to see the end... that they won't have to suffer anymore... Stage 4 (sometimes) -- and now they're dead. They're gone. That character you loved is gone. But now you can't even grieve them. You grieved them in Stage 3, and you're sad they're gone... but at least you saw them die... at least you know they found relief, they're not forced to continue suffering anymore. You're glad they found the end this way, after all of that. You're glad. And you can go back, you can remember how they were in the beginning, and imagine them being happy like that... but you also know what happened to them, you know all that they suffered. All versions of the character can exist in your mind at once, and you just... keep thinking about their downfall. And if it happened to them because they're just the type who couldn't handle it, or if it would have happened to anyone who lived the same. I don't know where I'm going with this. Why does my mind make me love characters like this? *has had this happen with more than one fictional character* I think... I think I finally understand how Castti must have felt at the end of her story. (I'm tagging ISAT because this is why I'm posting this, I just started Act 4 and am in "Stage 3" of this mind-thing I made up just now DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME IN THE NOTES PLEASE I HAVE NOT FINISHED THE GAME.)

[phlavours]

temmy and crick doodles...

they’re being nice in the second one I promise!!! I just really wanted to draw the sword staff chin tilt pose😇

[nyankocatnyan]

Bad shepherd.

[estusknight]

Osvald is fun to draw :)