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galedekarios · 1 year ago

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gale & his mother, morena dekarios

i thought it'd be nice to have a place to compile everything i could find about gale's mother, morena dekarios.

the first time you as the player get a vague mention about gale's parents is after saving mirkon, when gale brings up a story about his parents denying him a kitten when he was still a child:

Gale: One time my parents denied me akitten, so I summoned myself a tressym.

if you play a gale origin playthrough, you get a mention of her much earlier from tara, after she joins the camp.

this is a camp dialogue with its variants from act i:

Tara the Tressym: Well, if it isn't my favourite fellow himself. Player: How are things back in Waterdeep? Tara the Tressym: More or less the same - though news of some mad faction calling themselves 'Absolutists' is starting to trickle in. Tara the Tressym: I told your mother not to worry. That if they were anything to worry about, Baldur's Gate would handle things quick-sharp. Keep them from spreading their tendrils north. She still wants to know when she'll see you again, sir. I avoid giving any answers. But she misses you. Player: I miss her too. Tara the Tressym: I'll tell her. With my Cat Flap of Displacement, I can afford the occasional visit. I'd bring you along, if I could. Perhaps some day. - Player: I can't risk putting her in danger. Tara the Tressym: I know that, but she doesn't. She'd keel over if she knew just how you'd tried to manipulate the Weave. Or maybe she'd just say something like, 'My Gale always was one to make the impossible possible.' Oh, but she adores you. - Player: No more guilt trips, Tara. Please. Tara the Tressym: But then whatever will we talk about? Anyhow - I'm keeping my senses pricked for any sign of another item that might be of use to you. Hopefully something will turn up soon.

it's clear from the dialogue that gale's mother worries about him and loves him - adores him, really.

it also becomes clear that she doesn't know what happened to gale and that he nor tara has not told her.

another mention from act i, again from tara:

Tara the Tressym: Please tell me you've at least made inroads when it comes to finding someone to settle down with. Myself and Mrs Dekarios are starting to think you intend to die alone. Player: You've been visiting my mother? Tara the Tressym: Naturally. After you abandoned her, there was only me left to keep her company. She's very good company, though. Ah, the stories we've traded over toast and tea. You're a highly entertaining source of speculation. But speculation only goes so far! Tell me, Mr Dekarios - how have you been?

tara and morena are implied to have tea together regularly enough to trade stories about gale. tara is implied to be a sort of messenger between the two of them, likely after gale's isolation and subsequent abduction by the nautiloid, keeping morena informed, yet without revealing gale's secret and shame.

the devnotes also state that tara loves morena - high praise since other devnotes states that tara hates everyone except gale - and that she talks of her in an affectionate tone.

this is a dialogue in act ii after mystra has tasked gale to use the orb the moment he finds the heart of the absolute:

Tara the Tressym: Promise me, Gale. Promise me you'll find another way. Promise me you'll return home, when this is all over. Player: I can't make that promise, Tara. Tara the Tressym: You're going to kill me. And your mother. And then there'll be no one to mourn you when you've wasted yourself for no good reason at all.

i find it very interesting here in terms of other relationships that tara explicitly says that there will be no one to mourn gale except morena and her should he heed mystra's instructions and sacrifice himself. it speaks of the bond between tara, morena and gale - but also even more of gale's isolation and loneliness. we know from tara that she considers herself to be gale's only old friend and gale echoes as much. we also know that gale describes the dekarios family as the dekarios clan, that is "scattered" far and wide.

at the same time, the loud silence about gale's father becomes really apparent again. a while ago, i speculated about gale's father and i truly do still think that he abandoned morena and gale.

another snippet from an act ii convo, before gale reveals the details of elminster's letter to tara (or chosing to keep it to himself):

Tara the Tressym: I'm not one to pry. I'd rather make up all the juicy details myself over tea with your mother.

which again ties in with a similar line from act i, further cementing the fact that this is a regular thing between tara and morena.

still in act ii, tara says this if gale asks her if she'll still love him if he is a mindflayer:

Player: Will you love me when I'm a mind flayer? Tara the Tressym: Depends. Are mind flayers warm-blooded? If so, my prize napping spot on your lap won't be compromised. In which case, I suppose we could find an accord. And, of course, your mother would still think you a prince, no matter how many tentacles you had. And with a nautiloid, you may even manage to visit her more often.

again, gale's mother truly adores him. tara is utterly convinced she'd love him even if he'd turn into a mind flayer. at the same time, the dialogue again hammers home the fact that gale's been keeping his distance from his mother after he has acquired the orb.

the following lines are a compilation of some of tara's lines from act iii, all once again stating that she is a messenger between gale and morena, keeping morena informed about gale's well-being, while also looking after morena in gale's absence from waterdeep:

Tara the Tressym: You're almost at the end of this, Gale. You're nearly there. And not a moment too soon. Myself, I must away to Waterdeep. Your mother will be worried silly not to have heard from either of us - and now I can bring her the good news. When this is all over I'll be waiting for you, with a crackling fire and good book at the ready. Good luck, darling. - Tara the Tressym: I'm well past due to return to Waterdeep. I'm going to tell your mother that you'll be home soon. Don't make a liar of me, darling. - Tara the Tressym: I'll have to make up some good news for your dear mother, then. I'm going home, Gale. To look after Mrs Dekarios, and to remind you that there are people waiting for you in Waterdeep.

going back to companion gale, the next mention of gale's mother after saving mirkon, is from gale in an ambient with karlach:

Gale: I don't suppose you've any clue where we are in relation to Waterdeep? Karlach: From this distance between Elturel and Baldur's Gate, I'd say... a long way away.devnote Gale: Ah. That will make getting word to my mother rather tricky. No matter - what she doesn't know can't hurt her. Not at this distance, anyway.

it echoes the lines of dialogue that origin gale has, believing he endangers his mother with his condition and thus keeping his distance.

gale mentions his mother in an act iii dialogue after meeting tara on the rooftop of the open hand temple:

Gale: My tower in Waterdeep boasts an excellent kitchen and a wine cellar to rival Ondal himself. Not to mention a larder stocked with my homemade hundur sauce. Player: Hundur sauce? Gale: A Waterdhavian delicacy, spiced to leave exactly the right amount of heat lingering on the tongue, and served with that most sharp-toothed of aquarian residents, the quipper fish. I make it to my mother's recipe. It packs quite a wallop. As does she.

we know that gale's the designated camp cook from a conversation with wyll, and i think the conversation makes it fair to assume that gale's mother taught him how to cook.

still, maybe it's because i'm not a native english speaker and i might be missing some cultural context here, but the line "it packs quite a wallop. as does she." stuck out to me:

wallop. to hit something / someone hard.

this could mean that gale's seen her hit someone and packing quite a punch behind it. with what's been described of morena so far, i doubt it's because gale's ever been on the receiving end of that.

or perhaps it's less literal and more in relation to her seemingly larger than life personality that gale also hints at later, describing his mother as "intimitable" and "sometimes unavoidable". this description is from the following conversation that is currently sadly still bugged:

Player: So your last name is Dekarios? Gale: It is. Courtesy of my mother, the inimitable, dare I say it sometimes unavoidable, Morena Dekarios. It's been so long since I've used it. 'Gale Dekarios' cut a poor figure next to the wizard prowess of 'Gale of Waterdeep'. Player: Gale Dekarios... I think I like him more. Gale: You like to many things about me I'd have sooner discarded... Your generosity is quite wonderful. Gale Dekarios likes you too. Very, very much. Though let's keep his exitence between ourselves for now. - Player: Doesn't your matter mind? Gale: Oh, she's happy if I'm happy. Morena couldn't care one jot what I call myself. Tara's the real stickler for using it. Has done since I summoned her. I'd prefer you not follow her exmaple, if that's all the same to you. 'Gale' is more than sufficient. - Player: You're right. Just 'Gale is better. Gale: I agree. And on the plus side, if I get myself into any truly cataclystic straits during the remainder of our journey, my family name will go untarnished.

i love this banter so much and it makes me very sad that larian still hasn't fixed the issue of it not triggering. there's so much lore to explore here:

from gale dropping 'dekarios' in favour of 'of waterdeep', at first, to appear perhaps more grandiose, more suited to the ambitions he held when he was younger, to morena, apparently, not minding it, yet tara clinging to 'dekarios' (perhaps to keep gale's feet on solid ground as much as she could), to finally finding out that the reason that the gale we meet now is not using 'dekarios' still is because he doesn't wish to tarnish his family name should he indeed fall victim to the orb.

the last mention gale makes of his mother is during his act iii post final battle dialogue, in which he proposes to the player:

Gale: That being said, I wondered if you might consider accompanying me back to Waterdeep as a new member of the Dekarios clan? Player: Are you asking me to marry you? Gale: I suppose I am. Tara would be delighted. Not to mention my mother. But I'd be just as happy without such ceremony, so long as we're together.

this again mirrors what tara has been saying in her dialogue with an origin gale in act i: that morena and her were hoping he would find someone to find happiness with.

i think overall, even with only the very few bits and pieces we learn of morena, it's easy to tell that she truly loves and adores and cares her son, and that that love and care is clearly echoed back from gale to morena.

still, or perhaps more likely because of that love, gale keeps his secrets and his distance to morena because of the orb and the shame he feels he brought to his family.

it's all too easy to imagine that he wishes her to be proud of him and that he feels he has disappointed her and given her little reason to be proud of him in the same vein that he feels he has done with tara:

Gale: She'd [Tara] be most impressed by our efforts saving these tieflings. Proud, even. And I've given her little to be proud of recently.

anyhow, i hope i caught all mentions and that this was helpful to someone. 🖤

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #morena dekarios #tara the tressym #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 meta #ch: gale dekarios #ch: morena dekarios #ch: tara the tressym #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #meta: mybg3

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eemamminy-art · 2 months ago

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If you're willing, would you share some of your thoughts about zenos? I just met him in my playthrough and I'm already obsessed and curious about how people misinterpret him

I have many thoughts on Zenos ahaha you can find a lot of my long-winded rambles about him in my tag for him! There will definitely be spoilers in this for both stormblood and endwalker, so if you're just going through stormblood for the first time I'd advise saving this to read later!

But in reference to the thing I was talking about with my partner yesterday was mainly like, how there's this idea people have of Zenos that he enjoys killing when it's simply not the case. Now don't misunderstand-- he doesn't hate it either. He's not remorseful. He's not even trying to justify the action. It's just totally meaningless to him.

When he's urging on the wol to be more violent and to let themselves loose against him, it's not for the sake of simply sowing more destruction. He wants to bring the wol down to his own level in order to debase himself. The reason he wants to encourage the wol to hurt him is because being challenged by them is the only thing making him feel alive. The destruction is something of just a natural consequence of that, of showing the wol that Zenos sees them as two sides of the same coin. Zenos is the emperor's attack dog more than his son, the wol is in turn the alliance's attack dog more than their ally (or so he thinks!).

When he talks about "the hunt" it's less this whimsical mass murder that people point it out to be, and really him seeking purpose, meaning, and happiness in the only messed up way he knows how. As a child he was only given praise and attention for causing harm, so he seeks an opponent that can harm him in return so he can feel something, anything. When he's collecting weapons from fallen warriors, they're not trophies or spoils of war, he's specifically interested in the history of the weapons.

I think it's maybe easy to forget, I mean stormblood was so long ago now and while the characterization is still there in endwalker, it's colored by the perception of others. Isse and the other Domans choosing freedom over fear, no matter how hopeless things are.

Jullus wanting to know why he would betray his countrymen and pleading to his empathy, when Zenos was shaped into a weapon by that empire and holds no love for his nation. Alisaie telling him that while he may have found a spark of joy in fighting with the wol, without empathy for others he will find himself alone and bereft of the one thing that makes him happy.

Zero trying to wrap her head around the way Zenos discarded lives as though they were nothing, while bearing some undefinable emotion toward the wol (obsession, competitiveness, devotion, fondness-- she's not able to define it and I think it's meant to be vague for the player's sake). All these characters in their words with and about Zenos do lay it out clear that he is someone who is devoid of emotions except for the relationship he has to the wol, but I think because they are rightly condemning him for the lives he has taken and destroyed, people misconstrue that to mean he likes killing. There's a sort of malice attributed to his actions when it's really just nihilism.

Now, I'm not saying that because he didn't like it, it means it's fine or something. I know people like to interpret it that way when you like a villain in anything lol. All this to say, this idea of Zenos being a psychopath gleefully murdering people is so far from the truth. He's a very broken man with deep traumas and depression, finding happiness only in wanting to be hurt and killed by the wol.

Maybe at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether he likes it or doesn't-- I find to most people it makes no difference, so it's easy for them to conflate the two things. But I think Zenos' very existence challenges how the player views their own actions. In the same way that Elidibus in the ShB 5.3 quest Faded Memories reflected back at them all the death and destruction that the wol has caused-- intentional or not-- I think Zenos serves a similar purpose narratively. He questions why, he questions what are good or evil really, and asserts that there's no point in trying to find a justification for death and murder.

I can see why it makes people uncomfortable! He's reminding the wol that they have killed just as much as he did, and questioning the "justice" behind the wol's actions. It's an uncomfortable thing to think about. I think it would be fun to have a wol that comes out of endwalker as a pacifist tbqh!

(Not to get on a tangent, but I totally thought post-HW and especially with the DRG 70 quest, that Estinien was going down that road. I was really sold on the idea just by my own interpretation of his actions and words, only for him to be not only just fine with fighting still but to be actually kind of into it for the sport, just with more humility and empathy now. Total missed opportunity imo! But this is not a post about Estinien!! 😤)

Going back to Zenos though, I think it's easier for people to not grant him a shred of empathy and to write off all his actions as those of a madman. He does after all say he wants the world to burn, for the selfish reason of having the wol all to himself. I get it's uncomfortable for the player character to be the one at the center of his attention. I get it!! But gosh there is a much more interesting character in there than just "guy who gets off on killing", if you just open your eyes and ears for a moment.

I do think that, given the themes in ffxiv's story overall, that granting empathy and forgiveness to even the worst of people is kind of the driving force behind a lot of characters' motivations. Raubahn recognizes Ilberd did all he did for the sake of their shared nation's freedom and future; Estinien recognizes Nidhogg was grieving and in pain as much as he was, leading to vengeance; Hien recognizes the cruelty of her family and others in Doma failed Yotsuyu every moment of her life, shaping her into a tyrant; Lyse recognizes the unrest in Ala Mhigo failed Fordola, pushing her into the false hope the Empire offered; all the scions and the wol recognize how the unsundered ascians bore the responsibility of their entire people on their shoulders and did the unthinkable to try to save their own; Wuk Lamat recognizes Sphene acts out of love and preservation for her people, no matter what it takes. On and on and on.

So I find it odd that Zenos never gets that sort of grace! It's easier to just make an enemy out of him than to see things from his perspective, even while most of the other antagonists are given some degree of empathy while still acknowledging they were wrong and had to be stopped.

He's really neat. I'd put him under a microscope and study him if his ass wasn't too big to fit on the slide.

#me: yeah I'll just write a quick explanation here #also me: let me cite my sources tho 🤪#I've probably said a lot of this stuff before but yeah here you go #hope that any of this makes sense #endwalker spoilers #ffxiv #text #zenos yae galvus

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alkalinebatteriess · 1 month ago

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Question for the class: Do you think, from a lore perspective, that the Dragonborn should encourage Serena to cure her vampirism? I'm sure this has been discussed before but idc. I've thought about it but can't come to a conclusion, I've even cured her on a playthrough or two, but I regretted it each time.

On one hand, she says this when you ask her about a cure in the middle of the dlc

Do you ever think about curing yourself? "A cure? Why even think of it that way? I can't think of any reason I'd want to lose my gift. Especially after what I did to get it. It may have driven my family apart, but I'm still here, and I'm alive. I won't give this up."

But after she actually cures herself she says

You're not a Vampire anymore? "All clean. I feel like I can breathe again for the first time since I was turned. The world is alive, and so am I, for once."

I mean, fuck Molag Bal, but I watched this video (would recommend his channel, its really good shit) about the DLC and the guy says at some point that he's glad she's non-romanceable because otherwise the arc would be about "fixing her", and I agree. I wouldn't want to take away her agency, and the writing isn't thorough enough to make me feel justified in initiating the dialogue. I think it could be earned if the dialogue tree was more elaborate in this instance.

#skyrim #elder scrolls #serana #love her lots but I genuinely cant settle my mind on this one #need some outside opinions please #tesblr

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wizardsix · 3 months ago

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ok... so I have finally finished veilguard after about 90 painful hours (two playthroughs). im not gonna write an actual review about all of my detailed thoughts bc it'll actually take days, this is just to at least get my general thoughts out and see if anyone else feels the same or if ive actually lost it.

overall it is the weakest dragon age game story-wise, and I'd give it a nice lukewarm 4/10.

(i wrote this post right after I finished the game on the weekend so maybe I sound a bit harsh, I tried to edit it to be more reasonable lol but I didn't really want to delete this since I do still stand by a lot of this)

I really tried to go in with an open mind, bc I always want to experience media in full before making any kind of judgement, but about a few hours in I had this horrible feeling that once again this was another soulless, rushed game, and I still don't feel any different after finishing the game.

what stuck out to me was that there's no sense of urgency despite what the plot is, serious topics are not treated with care as the writing overall is shallow, and the gods as well as any other enemy you encounter are just cartoon villains (and apparently the lore retconning, but I'm not well-versed enough to dissect that so I won't).

I can't take this plot seriously when it feels so disjointed and forced and lazy. and I see no point in caring about anything when choices literally don't matter. no say in who you recruit, no say in the relationships with them and they have almost no awareness of rook, definitely doesn't matter if you have allies or not bc they show up anyway, and only four companions are locked into unavoidable decisions where one of them bites the dust no matter what (which is strange bc why are harding and davrin forced to die no matter if they're at hero status while bellara and neve can literally survive blight if they're at hero status), so it's impossible to try to strategize for better (or worse) outcomes with all the people you've gathered when there's only one right answer that the game pretty much tells you instead of letting you think for yourself (and side note this game does an incredible amount of hand holding). the game actively tries to trick you into thinking your choices matter with the onscreen notifications, but nothing matters bc the devs clearly had only one story in mind and for some reason lied that it had "complex choices".

also rook in general wasn't interesting as a protagonist bc they were written to be perfect. they always know what to say and are so supportive of everyone. they never struggle with anything. not even with leadership beyond "man leading a team is hard :/" but it doesn't actually show how hard it is by having actual volatile conflict between the companions* or showing how their plans sometimes fail. which, if we actually had choices that mattered, would have helped develop that struggle. also? what's with everyone being so friendly? I'm not gonna get into that but everyone is so eerily nice and it's been said a lot but yeah, the world is extremely sanitized and devoid of any real conflict aside from the gods I guess.

*(like off the top of my head cassandra fighting with varric and accusing him of not being on their side or how the inquisitor can literally punch dorian and solas if approval is low enough or fenris and anders bordering on killing each other is not the same as lucanis and davrin distrusting each other or people being uncomfortable with emmrich's necromancy. it just scratches the surface of conflict and never goes anywhere)

and let me say real quick again, there's nothing wrong if they wanted to make a more rigid story about being a hero. it's been done a million times and it can be executed well, but if you do that you need to make sure you 1) don't lie to people and 2) actually flesh out your (especially main) characters and plot to give people a reason to care. look at dragon age 2. hawke is a fixed protagonist with their own life front and center. they ultimately only have two choices (siding with mages or templars), but it works bc the game took time to build up the conflict straight from act 1 so by the time chaos happens in act 2 and 3 you understand why bc it's Been brewing the whole time. it just makes sense. the villains as well have sound reasons and feel real instead of being evil just bc. the story is more grounded, yet you have choices. you decide if hawke ends up alone or not. you decide how they approach situations with force or diplomacy. there's none of that in veilguard. a game that supposedly took 10 years to make. when dragon age 2 took almost 16 months (yes I know da2 also has problems like the fact that the templars are always proven right but this isn't the place to dissect that).

I want to be fair though and I do want to restate what I enjoyed about the game. the cc (though would it kill them to have more variety in face textures like age and body types beyond average.. also no colour wheel... especially since they claimed their cc was so good), the map progression/visuals/exploration (how certain places become more blighted overtime), the factions (though I feel there should have been more content for your faction, and helping them or not should have mattered more), the combat (did not feel like a slog, pretty fun and mindless), the companions (bellara, davrin, emmrich, harding, and lucanis had solid personalities and stories despite my complaints. neve was not memorable and I just feel sad for taash's bad writing), certain parts of the story were good, the intro and the point of no return sequences were solid, and the ending didn't feel rushed or boring compared to inquisition. and yes, I do appreciate that rook can be trans, I just think a little more subtly and care would've been nice.

another thing I did like and predicted was that varric died at the beginning of veilguard, and for a second I actually enjoyed that because i thought we were finally (a bit too late tho) getting some depth to rook and their own struggles of accepting his death and carrying this weight without him. and while I do think maybe they should've taken more time to establish the mentor/mentee relationship so we really feel rooks regret, I still think it was at least the right direction where in their grief they still see him, giving advice and narrating their journey.....but then it turned out to just be solas manipulating them the whole time, immediately destroying any emotional weight this reveal had.

whenever bioware has good ideas they shoot themselves in the foot and make it about solas. it's like nothing in the world exists without solas being involved somehow, and that is just incredibly boring and uninspired to me. not to mention solas just being an insufferable ass the whole time, which is fine, but it's not even in a compelling way like he used to be. he became so ugly by the end and the fact that the devs consider redeeming him the "good ending" and not giving him what he deserves is very telling and once again shows their own bias is king over good storytelling (solas' feelings should not come into play here, whether you/your companions live or die should determine good/bad ending since solas is trapped no matter what, only difference is who is trapped with him. idk but I personally think different endings actually means different outcomes). i will not go into the bs of the secret post credit scene, bc frankly I'm fed up with bioware's shitty writing and I won't be playing their next world ending space aliens game (unless they miraculously pull a good story out of their ass but lbr).

overall the bad outweighs the good for me. it's fun to play as a game, it's a decent fantasy game, but the story just doesn't do anything for me. sometimes I wonder if dreadwolf was a completely different game and was scrapped for veilguard last minute. maybe this was yet another inevitable industry fuck up and maybe there was a good story planned at one point. idk. all I know is bioware lied. respect and credit to the poor devs and writers who actually cared and to those who were kicked from the project, but in the end bioware promised too much and delivered too little.

#this is what happens when im forced to be on campus for 12 hours. bored out of my mind might as well make it everyone elses problem #anyway... i think I've said everything i need to. feel free to add on or whatever but if youre going to be an ass don't bother #or just send me an ask telling me how stupid i am and we can kiss about it #bioware critical #datv spoilers #dragon age spoilers #six speaks #i wanted to fix some of my points to be more clear but atp id never post this so ill edit when im more awake #please correct me if im wrong about anything. i don't really have time to dig deep into the game w college so id like to know

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retphienix · 7 days ago

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Well heck yeah :)

I finally beat a game I loved as a kid :)

So I'll say a few things on the whole run instead of just the ending :P

Surprise surprise, Kirby isn't really a hard game series at base line, but I DEFINITELY see where the hang ups were as a kid- 64 has a few more challenging moments (comparatively) that's for sure!

Some instant death crushing that kid me DEFINITELY despised for one, and those final two bosses for Shiver and Ripple aren't kidding around by asking the player to care more than not at all about their positioning when attacking (yes, basic stuff, but they got me!).

I FULLY get why kid me couldn't beat Shiver's robot boss and just kept loading the 100% save to play on, he killed me a few times here too!

He isn't like "CHALLENGE challenging" (not that he would be better or worse if he was, heck actually maybe he'd be worse because that doesn't fit the adventure in the slightest) but both him and the final bosses first form ask you to just. Not run into them when you attack them (Robot's slamming hands and the die eye's body after he transitions back to it) and something about that goes against my Kirby 64 instinct to "PRESS THE ATTACK BUTTON WHILE JUMPING TOWARDS ENEMY" lol

Basically, kid and adult me both treat this game as if pressing the attack button makes me invincible forever because 99% of enemies react that way, but bosses and a few enemies don't, so despite my brain screaming "Just Position Yourself Next To Them And Attack" I kept leaping into them and taking damage for no reason lol

Not sure why adult me continued that trend when I.... recognized it, but hey, Robot only killed me like once (or maybe twice?) before I corrected myself and the Die....

Well the Die killed me like 10 times because you can 'basically' leap into him for 2 of the 3 hits each form takes (because he'd either avoid hitting you by accident or the specific power kind of bounced you off) and something about that destroyed my brain's ability to process "But the 3rd hit he'll revert to the Die and you'll take damage so don't do that!" and I'd just keep doing that.

Lemming.

Anyways anyways, the main game of Kirby 64 fuckin' rules. Always has. It's chill like the entire time and playing with the abilities is a blast every time.

Like I want to go on and on about that but like, what do I say? This is the Kirby game where you can slap together 7 base abilities (which are great just on their own) into 49 combos, which + the 7 is 56 different abilities.

It rules!

You have powerful ones, referential ones, silly ones, just plain bad ones, it's awesome!

The game having such an incredibly Full toybox like this is why it was one of my favorite games to just turn on and jiggle the sticks as a kid. I never needed to progress because the best part was just seeing what 2 powers became and then using it for a while against a few levels :)

But yeah, beyond that my childhood memory was around collecting the enemy info cards (I got a ton on this run) because I loved having a little collectible to go after, and the AWESOME multiplayer mini-games.

This was the era of nintendo games often having tacked on completely "pointless" (the point is fun with friends!!!) multiplayer modes and I LOVED it.

The best will always be the block one because my sister and I would just play this against each other for like an hour at a time, just tossing in a stray run of catching fruits or jumping to break it up, but always returning to the fun as heck block drop.

Anyways this was a lot of fun to return to :)

I suppose there's a boss rush, and finishing my enemy dex, if I ever get the itch again- and I might :) Or when I get that itch I'll just take a couple hours out of my day to 100% the game again because despite taking a few days on the blog- that was with pacing myself and taking the time to record segments for gifs- the game is a delightful breeze of a playthrough all things considered- very digestible if beating it is your intent :P

Good time, this was a joy to cross off my list :)

Oh and I included the gif of the rock bomb specifically because I don't remember the hard hat at all- I think kid me never knew about it! I was using the move going "Jeez, I forgot this thing hurt you so much for no reason" and then I found it lol So either I forgot the hat and didn't take damage as a kid, or I never knew about the hat, either way I'm forgetful.

And I double checked the list of powers and can say this replay/first complete playthrough lead me to using every single power at least a little bit EXCEPT I never combined ice and rock for the curling puck lol

Funny that without even trying to specifically explore them this time, I tried nearly every power anyway :)

#retplays #Kirby #Kirby series #kirby 64: the crystal shards #Kirby 64

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ramonag-if · 4 months ago

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I have just played through all of Crown of Exile and Salyra is now my mortal enemy it is now my life goal to make her feel as bad as my MC feels and Danzor while not as bad shall not leave unscathed either I was completely prepared to fold on my anger if it wasn't for the fact that she seems as if she doesn't fully understand what she did wrong or at least doesn't fully care Danzor would get a pass but like the anger about Rana is partially being transferred to him and I just don't like him so he can join her now (Also I absolutely love Irus especially picking the shy flirting options this man has my heart)

Thank you for playing 🩷 Feel free to be as cruel and aggressive as you want with Salyra 😅 Danzor will also be upset if you are aggressive with Salyra, so it's really two birds with one stone.

I'd say she's more at the denial phase of not wanting to deal with what she did actually hurt the MC and the rest of the family, but depending on how you play your relationship, it will probably be different for everyone. There's more than one reason which can be possible for why Salyra is the way she is so feel free to choose a reason that fits your playthrough 😊

In later chapters, you'll see Danzor becoming more or less protective of Rana depending on how well you get along with Salyra and Rana, so if he comes off as an annoying idiot, it's likely because you upset his wife or daughter.

One day, I'll write just a romance game and we can all just have Irus-type love affairs with everyone 😆

#crown of exile #answered asks #princeirus #salyra #danzor #rana

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justali-anne · 3 months ago

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Thought Week: Asgore

Ooh, boy! Asgore, huh? It's really telling that a character with so little screen time compared to the others is much more popular than some of them. Well, better get into it.

(I'm sure you know the drill by now! If you have anything to say about Asgore, please reblog and write it down! I'd love to read them!)

First Impressions

The first time I think I heard of Asgore was in an Undertale playthrough? I can't exactly remember, but I definitely didn't see him in comic dubs because back then THERE WERE BARELY ANY WITH HIM IN IT! Jeebus! At least he's getting some focus now, but good gracious!

At first, I just saw him as a tragedy, but there wasn't really much for him to me. I guess I was busy hyperfixating on Papyrus because my early memories in the fandom with Asgore are just very blurry. He just wasn't really that interesting to me, I suppose. At least now, I figured it out, and now I'm like, "Oh, crap." He's just slightly more interesting to me now. Eh.

My Impressions Now

This poor man, honestly. He just wants his life back. His life got ruined by one stupid plan and one stupid decision that he made in a fit of rage over humans killing his kids. Which is honestly decently reasonable. Obviously, he wasn't reasonable in that moment, but if he could go back and do things differently, he would in a heartbeat. He's a kindhearted softie who put himself in a precarious position because of his grief. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Asgore's woes!

How about Toriel? This guy lost his only support system besides Gerson and when he finally sees her again, he just gets outright rejected, like DUDE! I'll cover my thoughts on her on Sunday, so I won't go into it right now, but poor Asgore, man! Having his wife around and helping each other through their grief would've been VERY beneficial to them! Could you imagine two vilomahs helping each other out and working together on human policies that could have benefitted everyone and helped them accept their loss? But then again, if it weren't for that, parts of the Undertale story wouldn't have happened, so I guess we're stuck with this timeline! Sorry, Flowey! You couldn't reset this one.

Oh, and it just keeps going! Remember Rudy? Asgore's "best friend" from a long time ago? I'm not talking about the Deltarune version, I'm talking about the Undertale version of Rudy that sadly passed away. At least from what I could tell, he lived a long and happy life, but it still hurts. Imagine being a boss monster. An IMMORTAL boss monster that stays the same age until you have a child. So for all that time Asgore didn't have a child, he had to watch as his "best friend" grew old and fell down.

GODDAMN IT, TOBY, COULD YOU GIVE THIS POOR MAN A BREAK??? Thank you.

The thing is, Asgore is by far the strongest monster in the Underground... besides Toriel (she was holding back). He's killed six humans and we all know how strong they are compared to monsters. Like no human soul was ever taken in the war, and he singlehandedly killed SIX of them. And we don't even know if all of them were actually kids or not, or if they were fighting back, or... Wait, the WAR!!! He was in the intro, wasn't he?!

Look, there he is! Unless that's his dad or something, which isn't actually a bad theory when you think about it.

GIVE. THIS MAN. A BREAK.

He can't even keep a marriage in Deltarune. Just make something go right for him, please.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! The strongest monster in the underground! And by the time he fights you, he's spent. He doesn't want to go through with the war. That's why he's hiding. That's why he's holding back. I think we all know that by now. Dude was just waiting to take himself out of the picture, so to speak. It's understandable to be depressed when your life is nothing but tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. But let's move on to his actual personality.

Because Asgore... is a dork. He's just as dorky as the rest of the cast, and it's adorable! This big guy stumbles through life with the charming unawareness of modern things, like anime, ("What is an... anime?") and he's so clumsy he fell in a fishing hole during a game of ice hockey!

(Here is the original video)

He gives you tight hugs. He's a botany nerd. He dresses up as Santa for the locals. He is the QUINTESSENTIAL Gentle Giant. He just deserves better, that's all.

A King, Not A Deity

Conclusion

It's intriguing to me how literally the entirety of monsterkind treats him like he's gonna bring salvation to them like some god. As if it was a guarantee. Well, apart from Toriel, of course, but she knew him on a very deep level, so of course she's not gonna see him as some sort of "chosen one." And that's not even covering her disdain for him.

I get that Asgore is the monsters' only hope, though. That's a huge contributing factor in their deitification of him. And in turn, it just pressures Asgore to kill the humans even more, which sends him into an even bigger depression, but also, he doesn't want to call off the war so the monsters could still have hope. It's a vicious cycle!

No hate towards him, but I wish Asgore would grow a backbone sometimes. Just saying. You're the KING, man! Not a god! A KING. And the monsters are expecting you to become their god, but you don't want to! And... Gah, monster politics are complicated!

The Narrative

Despite his very little screen time, Asgore is one of the most important characters in the story. A kind king driven to despair after losing the thing he loves the most - his family. The reason the policy exists. The monster you're gonna have to kill in order to escape the underground.

It sort of sucks that he dies in every route besides the best one. Like, I get why that has to happen, but come on, man. He deserves better.

Honestly, Asgore? He's not the most remarkable character in the game to me. I wish he got more screen time, at least. The poor guy needs a freaking break from everything. It doesn't make him a bad character, in fact, he's a really well-written, intriguing one. He's just not my favourite.

But if there's anyone out there whose favourite character IS Asgore, please give a shout in the notes and tell me what you think of him! Is there anything I missed?

#undertale #asgore #my thoughts #thought week #asgore dreemurr

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cannedwyrms · 7 months ago

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Spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree but...

So, Moore. I'll admit, didn't strike me as very interesting my first playthrough. Yeah, he was a funny little guy, but that seemed to be it.

I wanna talk about Moore for just a bit.

However, on a few subsequent runs and an unhealthy amount of thinking, I believe Moore is a lot moore complex than I originally thought.

When we first meet him, he's right outside Belurat, next to Ansbach. Most of Miq's followers can be found on close proximity to each other, which may just be to show that they are all fellows, united in common cause, but there might be some reason for specific placements.

As far as I'm aware, Moore's placement next to Ansbach doesn't have any significance, but I'd love to hear any theories or thoughts if you have any.

He's like the supplier for Leda's band, working with other members of the forager brood to find things, which he then shares with the others.

"Things give joy to all," as he says.

Moore talks in a very simplistic manner. To me, it almost seems like he's forcing some of the words out. This could be because he's actually not a guy, but one of the pests, part of the forager brood. That's just a headcannon of mine, but I do think there's some evidence for it.

Anyway, Moore's quest revolves, as all of the followers do, around the breaking of Miquella's great rune.

But there's quite a bit of missable dialogue before it that really adds to his character.

We learn he's part of the forager brood, who you can find, well, foraging all over the Lands of Shadow. They'll give you cookbooks, and generally be cute little guys (gender-neutral). There's one by the church of crusade that's shivering and cold.

Pop down a warming stone or other similar items, and it'll heat right up. If you go back to Moore after doing that, he'll give you a cookbook with two items that are almost useful.

If you attack any of the brood, he'll eventually invade you and you'll be forced to kill him.

After the great rune is shattered, Moore seems to have a bit of a crisis. He feels abandoned, and will tell you that him and his brood were abandoned by their mother.

Before we continue any further, let's speculate on who Moore's mother could be.

Personally, I believe the forager brood to have, in some way, been birthed by Romina. A bit obvious, perhaps, but the pests have always been associated with the scarlet rot, and Romina became pretty bug-like after she accepted the rot. As to why she would abandon her buggy children, that's where my theory starts to fall apart. If I end up making a post about Romina herself, I'll explore this idea further.

Back to Moore, we can now get into the specifics of what his quest is actually about. What the theme is, how it informs our reading of the rest of the game, etc.

Moore's quest is about trauma. And, to be moore specific, Moore wants to forget the trauma of his abandonment, and believes Miquella's love is the way to do that.

After the great rune is shattered, you are able to give Moore a rare three-way choice to end his quest. If you choose the "sad forever" option, Moore will tell you goodbye and be found dead, next to the corpse of one of his siblings.

If you choose the "put it behind you" option, Moore will decide to keep following Miquella, believing that his love will "banish the pain."

The next time you meet him will be in your fight against Leda, where he will remark about what a tragedy it is for you and the others to fight, and will die. He seems to regret needing to fight you. At his heart, Moore is kind and gentle, only moved to the tides of battle because he, like so many others, believes it will save him.

Accepting Miquella's love is not the solution to moving past his trauma. There is no easy escape, and even if Miq's love did banish Moore's pain, it might not even help him feel any better.

This is one of the moore interesting ends to Moore's quest, because it informs us a bit about the theme of his questline, and Miquella's faliure to understand others' suffering. Becaus Surprise! Somehow I'm actually still talking about Miquella!

Basically, if Miquella really wanted to fix things he would've invented therapy.

Moore's final ending is very interesting as well because he's the only character that can actually survive the whole dlc.

If you choose "I don't know," Moore will eventually come to the conclusion that, even though it hurts, even though he's still sad, he has his family and the things he enjoys doing, and concludes that that's enough for him. And because of that, he actually survives the dlc. He's still there after you defeat Miquella and Radahn, and even though he's sad that Leda and the others never come by to visit, he's still alive. He's still foraging.

And this, I think, is actually another thing the game is trying to tell us.

Amidst all of these great ambitions, these demigods and champions trying to bring about change, to "fix" the world as they see fit, the one person who survives is the only one who finds contentment not in some great goal, not in revenge or obsession, but in simply appreciating what he has and trying to make the best of it.

It's not a perfect solution, sure, but Moore eventually comes to understand that, while he might not be fully happy, losing himself to some goal is not going to magically fix his problems or give him some sense of fulfillment. That's why he's the only one that survives.

Even in the base game, most characters eventually die, mostly for the reasons I stated above. Alexander chases a glorious battle, Hewg loses himself to the promise and obsession of making a godslaying weapon, Melina burns herself to fulfil our goals.

But Moore can live.

And maybe this is what Miquella was missing. In the pursuit of a perfect world, he missed the fact that no world can be perfect, especially not one built off the back of suffering. Instead, Elden Ring says, true peace—true kindness—comes from making the best of your situation and appreciating what you already have.

Of course, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try to improve your surroundings any, it just means that often our happiness can come from things we might have taken for granted.

Personally, I like Moore's second ending the best, the one where he fights alongside Leda and the others, but that's only because I'm a sucker for a good tragedy. Moore's inclusion in that fight also strengthens the idea that what you're doing is kind of wrong (something I'll get to when I talk about Leda) and that there is no moral black and white, only shades of gray.

All in all, Moore is a lot moore interesting than he might first appear, and his inclusion reveals another theme and strengthens all the other ones we've talked about.

I'll get to Leda soon, and eventually to all of Miq's followers, but when I seriously started analyzing Moore I realized I needed to make a post on him. Although, I'll admit I'm still not completely sold on this interpretation, I'm still pretty proud of it.

Okay, bye.

#elden ring #literary analysis #analysis #media analysis #shadow of the erdtree #elden ring dlc #elden ring miquella #miquella the kind #miquella the unalloyed #thoughts #Sir Moore #Moore elden ring #elden ring moore #I'm considering whether to do something on Ansbach or Morgott after Leda #let me know what's more interesting #cause I have a lot of thoughts on Morgott #but I think Ansbach could facilitate an interesting discussion on Mogh and just elden ring fandom in general #so lmk if that's something you'd like #just kidding I do what I want; both of these will happen

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thegreatyin · 2 months ago

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How did you manage to handle not one, but FOUR separate accounts in fl? I recently made the account for my HD little guy but having to do the tutorial again just seems miserable

there's... weirdly several answers to that question, actually??

a HUGE part of it is due to the way FL is structured. the 10-minute action timer is a core part of the game on a fundamental level, and the fact that i can very easily run out of stuff to do on one character and thus have an excuse to quickly and easily swap to another is just... convenient? satisfying? i'm not entirely sure how to explain it. the fact that i can make progress even while i am fundamentally simultaneously Not Making Progress is like pure dopamine for my freak insane awful little brain. there's just something really pleasing about spending all of my actions pursuing The Goal Of The Day™ on one account before casually swapping to another and doing the same without feeling like i'm wasting time or acting to the first account's explicit detriment. the downtime helps! the recharge time helps! the structure really really works!!

i'm technically only actively playing three, maybe two accounts minimum. the only reason the fourth (the one that'll be my future BaL playthrough) currently exists at all is so i can get his earlygame completely out of the way now and not have to waste time running through it all later, when what i actually want to do is play the ambition i've made myself wait a full year to play. and also getting free goodies as seasonal stuff happens,, something something surprise tools to help us later. the only two accounts i'd say i'm really "actively playing" at the moment are caeru and lark- and of the two, lark takes the most priority, since his ambition is the one i'm currently pursuing in earnest. for a couple months now- despite being My Main FL Character- the scoundrel has actually been pretty inactive on a gameplay front outside of the occasional progression in TLC and discordance content. purely by virtue of having Very little left to do outside of Very long-term grinds and vanities. they're in their "now what?" "now you can start playing the game" era. they've graduated to previous protagonist background cameo in a sequel anime series. they're like the yin FLPC equivalent of red at the top of mount silver. they're Literally just vibing rn. i only keep posting about them regardless because i'm insane and i will never ever ever ever ever let that bat go. but yeah, big TLDR, outside of doing the bare minimum to keep making waves/notability up every week, i'm not actually spending that much time on accounts i'm not currently actively interested in playing. and that accounts for way more gaming spoons than you might think.

i have a virtually lifelong history of playing MMOs, especially and specifically world of warcraft. i was born in the endless grind for useless video game pixel vanities and/or bragging rights. molded by it. you all have merely adapted to doing the same piece of content a pointlessly excessive amount of times for literally no reason besides whimsy and folly. me? i've done my time. i've served my sentence. i've spent weeks doing the original burning crusade netherwing dailies. i've devoted days to running praetorium over and over and over again, back-to-back, nonstop, long before square enix cut it in half and made it NOT take at minimum an hour and a half per run. i've perfected my silverwastes + auric basin goldfarming strategies. i've (almost) crafted dragonwrath tarecgosa's rest. i've killed the sha of anger so many times its dying scream of agony is embedded into the very fabric of my being. ""only"" doing making your name content four times over? that is nothing to me. it means nothing to me. it is so infinitesimal i can do the persuasive seduction quests in my sleep. it's not a matter of handling misery, or having the capacity, or even sighing as i remember the brass embassy raid segment of the watchful questline seriously i don't know why i keep forgetting that exists or what even is my problem with it i just am so consistently mildly inconvenienced by it and its highly specific resource requirements and it is the worst thing ever. maybe i'm just so used to the scoundrel's near-infinite money and troves of disposable items that i've completely forgotten what being poor is like. despite having done that step 3 fucking times now. ahem. anyway. i have transcended the feeble mortal bindings of my resistant-to-grinding flesh and ascended to a higher plane of enlightenment, they may call me insane but they will be the ones left laughing when they see what that "insanity" has wrought, i've usurped them, i've usurped them all-

hacks and coughs and awkwardly clears my throat. i mean. uh. um. Ahem.

the empress' court artistry + tales of the university nerfs helped too.

#and yes #before you ask #i have forgotten which account has which items/has done which content many a time #i think the most painful incident was forgetting to keep up the scoundrel's making waves while i was still playing nemesis with caeru #given that im trying to build it up to 12 and reset their specialization... that was uniquely painful #then again they have like 40 BDR so it wasnt actually that inconveniencing lmao #fallen london #ask #long post #sorry for the infodump + sudden villain monologue.#all jokes and personal accounts aside i totally get the apprehension abt doing that stuff again #it's not for everyone. not by a long shot.#im only doing this because im genuinely invested and in love with this silly little browser game #and way back when i started i made a (only half metaphorical) solemn oath to experience all of its ''main stories''#and truly see everything it has to offer #(bc i like. physically cant do hyperfixations by halves. i need to consume Everything abt the thing or i'll explode)#(and even then i'll probably explode anyway. it's either completely drop it or go All In until it stops taking up so much space in my brain #(and. given the track record. that is not happening with FL for a while yet)#but like. that isnt actually normal behavior. just. just to clarify.#from what ive seen a VAST majority of people do not go out of their way to play literally every ambition #and that is so valid. it is so overwhelming. you have to juggle so much.#you have to play the earlygame So Many Goddamn Times.#(as i said. served my time. did my sentence. i am my scars. etc etc)#the best advice i can give as someone who's so completely desensitized to that repetition it doesnt even phase me anymore?#the same advice i can stress to all FL players. legitimately just take ur time with it. play when you want to.#dont when you dont.#sometimes you have to grit your teeth and bear things. and when it comes to alts you Will have to grit your teeth and bear it all again #but the beauty of this being a game that one plays for fun is that unlike. say. crushing deadlines or annoying coworkers in real life #you are completely within your power to decide when where and if you want to grit and bear it all #..wow this is ADVANCED yin rambling holy shit. i actually reached the tag limit. i think this ask should be put on some kind of list

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chrysanthemumgames · 5 months ago

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Hi again!

This time I come back after re-reading the entire thing! Of course, aside from fixes to small continuity error and other stuff like that, it didn't change much from the last time I've read it, so I won't be saying anything new in terms of how much I love it and so on! It's just awesome as usual!

But I have a few questions I'd love to delve into, that I just didn't ask when the book wasn't finished, either because I didn't think of them or because I sort of preferred to wait for it to be actually done.

Sorry in advance for the long post though! It seems I'm unable to keep things short!

On a Hades romance playthrough, especially with a reserved MC who doesn't overtly flirt… Who among the other ROs and other people close to the main cast notices or suspects that there's a spark of "something" between Hades and the MC at the end of book 1? Considering just how much of a slow burn this route is, there isn't much to see yet, romance wise, but I feel like some people may realize something is starting to "shift" there.

When dining with Hera during her visit in chapter 6, if the MC tells her they like the Undeworld and what not, she ends up commenting "A shame". This line always had me reeling, but I didn't re-ask about it after first reading the entirety of the book so I'll do it now. Did she know what Demeter had planned to do? I always wondered why she'd think it's a shame, and it's pretty clear from the climax of the story that Zeus prefers the MC to stay in the Underworld, so I don't imagine it would be something like Hera knowing her husband wants to bring the MC back against their will. And there is no reason for her to have wanted MC to be unhappy for whatever reason. So it only leaves the option of her knowing about Demeter's plan in my mind, but maybe I'm missing something?

After the whole Eurydice and Orpheus thing, Hades says "There are some fates which very much deserve the fight. I know not what yours is, but if it turns out to be one you don't want, I am glad you have the power to change it. Not that this means I wouldn't do everything I could to help as well, of course." - it makes me wonder… Since for the duo of lovers their fate should have been for Orpheus to fail and that changed in my playthrough's case with my Dionysus' influence, I was wondering if in the scope of this story, the MC's "fate" should be the original outcome of the Persephone myth, with the "spending half a year in one realm the other half in another", and any other outcome is a result of having changed fate? Or is this not a part of their story that's truly decided by Fate in this interpretation of the myth? Also side note if it's the case, I think it's funny and kind of poetic that my MC basically traded his fate with Eurydice? Because his fate should have been spending half a year here and half there, and her fate should have been being separated from the one who came for her again after he failed and returning to the Underworld alone. But here, she managed to make Orpheus sort of succeed thanks to MC and now THESE TWO will spend half a year in one realm and half in another, while my MC managed to make Demeter fail and make it so he could go back and stay in the Underworld full time.

And final one! How much did Pirithous and Theseus get to know about what happened after Demeter dismissed them? At the very least in a scenario where they actually kidnapped the MC, not one where MC followed willingly. Not only I'm curious of Pirithous reflected upon his actions, but I'm also intrigued as if Theseus was "satisfied" of sorts that MC managed to go back (if that was indeed the case), considering he seemed against the kidnapping at least to a degree. If they even COULD keep informed, since they are demi-gods living as mortals as far as I understand their situation. I was just always interested in these two since they only appear in that short part of the story but what they do is HUGE.

And that's it. Sorry again for such a long post, and thanks for indulging me if you decide to answer even only some of the questions!

So!

I think a few of the others have picked up on things. I would say Charon and Hekate definitely know something is going on there, and friend!Hermes might have picked up some vibes as well. Even Alekto might have had a passing suspicion, though she doesn't quite consider it her business, and so doesn't devote much thought to it. People will tell her things when they want her to know them, you know?

Hera didn't have specific information about Demeter's plans, but she did know that it was likely she would take some form of drastic action. From her point of view, the arranged marriage was something Zeus did to screw with her (Demeter), and he was likely to reverse his decision once he'd had his fun with it/gotten some kind of concession from Demeter. So to Hera it seemed likely the PC had just found someplace they enjoyed, but their being taken away from it was basically a given.

There isn't really an assumed or default end for the story (or rather, not one that is more mechanically likely than another), but sort of yes! The PC ending up with a different outcome from the source story could be seen as their fate-subverting power at work. :)

Pirithous and Theseus are basically aware of the trajectory of events after they left, and this is because they're eventually brought to the Underworld for trial by the Erinyes. This is dealt with in the first chapter of the sequel.

Thanks as always for your kind words, and no worries about the questions!

#ask #kind non anons

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gascon-en-exil · 16 days ago

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Sixty-Four Ways in which Octopath Traveler II Improves Upon the First Game

In honor of Octopath Traveler II's second anniversary, I've put together a list of the many ways in which this game excels above and beyond the solid foundation laid down by its predecessor. Why sixty-four? Because it's eight squared...or eight to the second power, if you will. This series practically begs for lame numerical jokes.

Obligatory disclaimer: I am not claiming that the original Octopath Traveler is a bad game.

I played and enjoyed OT quite a bit when it came out, and I completed another full playthrough during the last few months as I was starting to put this post together. Around half this list came about from stuff I'd only remembered in replaying OT for the first time in years. I do still think it's a good game, and I had a fun time going through it again - but I also think that OT2 surpasses it by just about every objective metric.

And that's a good thing! It's great to see game developers taking feedback on a first project and using it to make improvements to the follow-up. If there's ever an Octopath Traveler III I would only hope that they continue to do so and make the newest iteration even better in which case I'll then have to make a list of 512 reasons why it's better, God help me. I have however gotten angry anons in the past whenever I've praised OT2 too much over the first game, so this is my attempt at heading that off at the start. A bunch of these points are straightforward improvements in game design; it's only near the end where I start dipping into more subjective territory even though I do have my points to make there as well.

#64. Battle speed toggle

This is what you're going to notice first, no questions asked, and also why you should absolutely never play OT right after OT2. Double battle speed is something you won't realize you miss until it's not an option. As an added bonus, the x2 modifier isn't a basic fast-forward toggle but still allows the animations and audio to be fully enjoyable at double speed.

#63. No purple chests

This is one even the biggest OT defenders will concede. Forcing you to bring a specific character into almost every dungeon lest you miss out on some prime loot (or alternatively requiring you to awkwardly backtrack with Therion later) is just bad game design.

#62. More interesting Talents

Related to this, Therion's Talent slot being taken up by the purple chest feature is just one of several boring mechanics occupying that space, alongside Ophilia and Primrose's NPC summons, Olberic's group defend command, and Tressa finding money when entering a new screen. They're all functional, but it makes traveler Talents feel rather underwhelming on the whole. OT2 dispenses with this. Summoning is still present but not a Talent, and the others mentioned have all been replaced with more engaging stuff like AoE buffs/debuffs (Throné and Temenos), new mechanics for escort NPCs (Partitio and Agnea), and the ability to learn combat skills from NPCs (Hikari).

#61. Capture and Concoct are redesigned

Technically applies to the scholars' Analyze as well, but that only got a small buff in the second game. These two Talents on the other hand are vastly improved. Concoct in OT2 can now be boosted and also interacts with Castti's Latent Power for easier resource management, and is overall stronger and more versatile even if it lost three of its element-breaking options.

But Ochette is the real winner when it comes to Talents. H'annit's Beast Lore is a clunky Pokémon-esque system that's rarely worth using when there's a less awkward Path Action that does the same thing as hers (Olberic's) and when the limited summons on beasts discourages you from using them much outside of certain boss summons vs. Galdera or similar (and even then there are easier setups). In OT2 though beasts can be summoned any number of times, and Ochette has a chance to auto-capture them so she can build up a stable of summons even without going through the hassle of whittling down their HP and throwing a Pokéball spending turns trying to capture them. That beasts you don't need any more can be turned into consumable items adds yet another useful layer to the mechanic, and Ochette's companion animal and access to story-based summons grow along with her unlike H'annit's leopard.

#60. A recent inventory tab

Another small but appreciated quality of life feature. In OT items and equipment you obtain are immediately sorted into a set order within your inventory, which can make them tough to find if you just got a new weapon or armor piece and want to try it out on someone. OT2 has a tab organizing your inventory in the order it was acquired, so that's less of a hassle.

#59. Opening chapters are more organically handled

OT begins opening chapters for your non-starting traveler in medias res, allowing the rest of the party to come along for the combat segments and scaling up the challenge as you recruit more travelers. This would be nice for earlygame leveling...except for the nagging issue of your starting traveler being forced (something OT2 unfortunately does not fix) so it's impossible to keep everyone at equal levels even if you try.

OT2 improves this in several ways. One is that opening chapters for the other travelers are now optional if you don't want to bother with the easy early stuff. Another is that these chapters are now "instanced" in a sense, only available to their respective traveler. This allows their difficulty to remain evenly tuned for the specific experience of starting out with each character, and is also about as close as OT2 gets to acknowledging the disconnect both games have in their individual stories, i.e. that they're never written like these characters have an entire JRPG party behind them all the time. In their Chapter 1s (and Osvald's Chapter 2) at least, they don't.

#58. As well as being more fair if you start with one of the squishier travelers

Certain travelers are rough to begin with in OT because they're either glass cannons (Cyrus), lacking in offensive options (Ophilia), or both (Primrose). OT2 solves this by giving the travelers with these same starting jobs temporary party members who help them in their dungeons and boss fights and also do a good job of teaching the player how best to use these more group-oriented jobs.

#57. A smoother difficulty curve in earlygame

Even though the travelers can't tag along with the others' introductions anymore, OT2 makes up for this by reducing the challenge level of the early midgame. Chapter 2s in OT all have level recommendations in the 20s, whereas in OT2 they're all in the teens. This makes getting out of the earlygame and moving on to bigger things less daunting from the start, on top of several of the improvements coming up.

#56. Time of day acts as another difficulty toggle

The day/night system of OT2 impacts a wide variety of game elements, but one of its subtler effects is that the random encounter rate is higher at night. This allows you to more easily tailor your leveling experience to your party's current strength. Further, nighttime enemy groups generally being tougher can be counterbalanced by fielding Throné and/or Temenos with their night-based combat Talents.

#55. Redesigned job skill lists

Most of the base jobs have improved skill lists in OT2. Dancer has more offensive options like Ruinous Kick and Dagger Dance, scholar is more flexible both in terms of damage (Elemental Barrage) and support, hunter drops two low-accuracy, multi-hit bow skills in exchange for a more precise one and an actual axe skill, cleric can restore its own SP with Mystical Staff, etc. Warrior loses the easy opening cleave of Level Slash, but gets the arguably more versatile Aggressive Slash and the useful Vengeful Blade instead. The only ones that feel a bit weaker are thief for losing Share SP and merchant for losing out on its magical AoE option...but Sidestep, Donate BP, and Hired Help are all accounted for and just as strong as ever if not more.

#54. More flexibility with breaking and boosting

OT2 introduces a number of readily-accessible ways (ex. Ruinous Kick, Weak to Poison, Ochette and Temenos's Latent Powers) to break enemies regardless of their weaknesses, which cuts down on the annoyance of having to build teams around covering every possible scenario. There's also more uses for BP, such as the aforementioned Concoct as well as various other Latent Powers. Partitio's Latent combines with Donate BP and a support skill he can grab early on (see below) to make him into a reliable BP battery. As these are the two signature features of Octopath's battle system, these upgrades are much-appreciated.

#53. Earlier access to EXP/JP-boosting support skills and accessories

OT locks the support skills boosting EXP and JP behind secret jobs and the equivalent accessories behind post-story side quests. OT2 on the other hand provides the former from base jobs and the latter from chests in the late midgame, with the JP Augmentor in particular being accessible very early if you know where it is and don't mind cheesing your way through a certain area. There's additionally another base job support skill that increases gains in both at night, which makes early leveling even quicker.

#52. Overall stronger early support skill options

On top of these, Boost-Start (+1 BP at the beginning of combat) has also been bumped down to a base job. It's joined by powerful new additions like Full Power (full Latent Power at the beginning of combat), Vigorous Victor (30% HP and SP regen after each battle, which largely makes up for SP Saver now coming from a lategame secret job), More Rare Monsters (easier Cait and Octopuff hunting), and of course A Step Ahead from the early secret job Inventor which can break most encounters.

#51. The job license system

In OT no two travelers can have the same secondary job, but in the second game you can acquire up to three licenses for each of the base jobs for a maximum of four travelers using each at once if you choose. These licenses also provide some nice bits of optional gathering content, and apart from scholar and to a lesser extent apothecary - which require stealing rare drops off uncommon enemies - none of them are particularly frustrating to obtain.

#50. Caits (and Octopuffs) are more of an event but also easier to find

As mentioned, the hunter support skill More Rare Monsters exists to make these high-value enemies more likely to spawn, and there are additionally accessories that do the same thing (and stack with the skill, I think?). They also get their own distinctively quirky battle theme music so you're guaranteed not to miss them.

#49. More Path Actions offer more overall flexibility

OT2 doubles the number of Path Actions that serve the same purpose (obtaining info, escorting NPCs, etc.), which greatly increases the range of possible party combinations to cover whatever you might need as well as gives you more options for accomplishing specific goals, ex. getting items based on your level, or knocking out NPCs without having to fight them. The in-game time system does occasionally limit these options since not all NPCs are available both day and night, but all the same it's a welcome improvement.

#48. Variety in chapter and story structure

A common criticism of OT is that, with only one significant exception (Olberic's Chapter 2), every one of its thirty-two story chapters follows exactly the same format: town exploration, usually requiring the traveler's Path Action -> dungeon -> boss. In OT2 some chapters lack dungeons, bosses, or both. While less content might seem like a drawback, it really helps the structure feel less repetitive, and because there's forty total chapters, with the non-boss chapters being split evenly among the cast, the overall experience doesn't feel less substantial. It allows also for -

#47. Fewer random dungeons/bosses

A common problem of OT leashing its stories too strictly to the dungeon + boss structure is that several times one or both of those elements will feel tacked on purely out of obligation and not in service to the narrative. Take Ophilia's and H'annit's Chapter 2s, or Alfyn's Chapter 4...or both Chapters 3 and 4 for Tressa. Because OT2 is comfortable allowing certain chapters to pass without these, this is much less of an issue. Some of the game's most dramatic story beats come out of chapters that lack bosses, ex. Osvald's Chapter 2 or Castti's Chapter 3, while others like Agnea's Chapter 3 and Ochette's Chapter 2 (Cataracta) provide room for character moments by dialing back on the combat.

#46. More overall nonlinearity

That parenthetical up there is significant, because around half of OT2's stories have chapters that can be completed in any order. While this isn't executed perfectly - recommended levels will still railroad you in most cases - the greater variety of options at any one time gives you more choices when deciding which traveler's story to continue next in contrast to the strict linearity of each of the stories in OT. Further helping this is the fact that -

#45. Solistia is more geographically complex

Orsterra is so obviously laid out as a video game world that it could be called a deliberate stylistic choice: eight biomes in a ring around an inaccessible center, with all of its areas divided across three concentric circles starting from the inside and working outward. It's incredibly artificial, and opinions will vary as to whether that's charming or silly.

While Solistia still has the common video game issue of wildly contrasting biomes right next to each other (its western continent is especially bad about this), in all other respects it's a much less predictably-designed setting. There are no rings or obvious circular paths around the world, the regions are broken up across two continents and a large island, and chapters now jump around locations in a less blatantly linear way making the threefold division between early, middle, and lategame towns slightly less on the nose.

#44. The creepy RNG-dependent endgame previews

There's a lot of negative points to be made about how little effort OT makes in setting up its final boss that I'll bring up later, but one early quirk of OT2 is that you'll randomly enter a different screen only for it to be eerily dark and filled with strange shadowy monsters you won't fight anywhere else...and then once you beat them, the screen goes back to its normal state as if nothing happened. It's very unsettling the first time it happens, and even when you know it can happen it's rare enough to still catch you off guard.

#43. The ship opens up the world

And getting back to geography, once you buy a ship around the game's midpoint OT2's exploration opens up quite a bit compared to the first game. The Sundering Sea is a semi-open traveling space with treasure, distinctive enemy encounters, and optional dungeons and bosses all its own. It's an appreciated aesthetic addition as well, since it offers you a perspective on the world of Solistia that you wouldn't get to see otherwise. This is another worthwhile departure from OT's rigid wheel-and-spoke map layout.

#42. Fewer optional dungeons offset by more mandatory ones

Looking at raw data, OT has a larger array of optional dungeons: 28 vs. 19. Those numbers may vary slightly depending on how you define a dungeon in this series, but the point is that the first game has more of them. It doesn't really feel that way however, because with more chapters as well as the Crossed Path system OT2's overall dungeon count turns out to be roughly the same in the end. This also allows OT2's optional dungeons to stand out more as a group, with all but one of them by my recollection either having a boss, an associated side quest, and/or a unique piece of loot needed for one of the secret jobs. A handful of OT's optional dungeons seemingly exist only for level grinding as well as whatever's available in their treasure chests. But while we're talking about dungeons...

#41. (Slightly) more dungeon type variety

Try to name an OT dungeon, mandatory or otherwise, that isn't a cave, forest, sewer, ruins, or lavishly-decorated interior space. At times they'll vary based on which biome they're in, ex. the ones in the Frostlands will be snowy, but that's about it. OT2 brings back all of the above for its dungeon settings, but there are also some more inventive ones like a ghost ship, factories, a clock tower, a ruined castle, or canyon ravines. When there's over fifty such spaces in each game to explore, even that bit of extra variety is appreciated.

#40. Improved visibility in low light areas

Here's one I noticed only on my recent replay: OT is dark in a lot of places, particularly in many of the aforementioned cave and forest dungeons. While that's nice for atmosphere, the lighting can sometimes be so poor that it's hard to tell where you're going which is more frustrating than anything. In spite of its day/night system and its main plot about an endless night, OT2 is ironically the brighter game all around, with visibility noticeably better in even the darkest dungeons. The only times I can recall it being an issue are in the Cavern of the Moon and Sun where it's worked into exploration (you have to keep flipping between day and night to illuminate the path ahead) and in the dungeons you'll have to go into during the Final Story when everything is covered in dense purple mist. In that instance though the darkness matches the story, and additionally those dungeons are ones you've already entered before under normal conditions, so you're not fumbling around in the dark of a completely unknown space.

#39. More interesting rewards from chests

Another point I noticed only recently. An oddly large number of chests in OT contain either money or common consumables, which while undeniably useful also aren't the most exciting things to get when you open up a chest (especially if it's a purple chest!). OT2 largely fixes this by offering rare rewards from chests more often, whether that be equipment or less easily obtainable items.

#38. Major money sinks to make leaves more valuable

Money is more valuable in the Octopath games than in many other JRPGs due to everything merchants can do with leaves, but it's still fairly easy to amass a ton of wealth in both titles just from exploring and battling and getting most of your equipment from chests, stealing, etc. rather than buying it. It'll take longer to get to where you can thoughtlessly fire off a Hired Help every battle in OT2 however, because between the mandatory ship (100K leaves) and the two extra merchant job licenses (100K and 300K) there's enough big ticket items in the midgame to keep you watching your wallet.

Having three Path Actions that use money rather than just one also plays into that a bit as well, but to a lesser extent. On the subject of Path Actions, you likely won't need to shell out large sums of leaves as often in OT2 to restore your reputation in towns on account of there being more ways to get items, info, etc. without lowering it...but honestly the reputation system in OT2 feels like a vestigial, arbitrary relic of the first game. See, for example, why Agnea innocently attracting NPCs with her dancing can lower reputation, but Osvald mugging them or Temenos coercing them into confessions can't.

#37. Shops and inns can be entered

A minor point, but OT2 has so many more interior spaces in its towns. This not only helps with storytelling - recall the scenes in OT that take place in "inns" that are just a bare room with maybe one table - but it also allows for more architectural diversity like on Toto'haha as well as for the possibility that vendors appear out in the open like in Ryu.

#36. Party banters are easier to see

Another common complaint in OT is that it can be easy to miss party banters in chapters, and that there's no way to go back and rewatch them or see them at all if you didn't unlock them while going through. OT2 fixes these issues with the ability to watch them in the journal, even if you didn't see them at the time, and also removes some of the clunkiness of triggering them by spreading them across more chapters rather than needing each traveler to speak to all of the other seven in every chapter after their first.

#35. More thoughtfully utilized voice acting

Sadly, party and tavern banters are still unvoiced in OT2, which sucks because they're still the most frequent source of interaction between the travelers.

In all other respects though, the second game is much better in the ways that it makes use of its voice acting. In OT most NPCs out in the world choose from a selection of short voice lines to be tagged to their dialogue, while story cutscenes have a mixture of full voice acting and voice tags. The latter effect can be rather disorienting, especially when there's a mid-scene switch between the two styles for no apparent reason. OT2 scraps the voice tags for NPCs, but now every cutscene is fully voiced. The tradeoff is more than welcome and makes for a smoother, more cinematic narrative experience.

#34. The travelers are chattier in combat

In addition, the travelers have significantly more customized combat voice lines in the second game. This is especially noticeable in that they now react to the actions of their party members, such as when they break foes or get low on health. It's an extra level of banter that makes them feel more like they're fighting as a group, and allows for little character moments in the way they address each other. For example, Osvald is the only one of the travelers who doesn't refer to his allies by name, but he does have unique break lines for each of the others.

#33. As are bosses

Only a few OT bosses, like Darius and Simeon, have in-combat dialogue. This is far from the case in OT2, where a bunch of the story bosses - including all of the travelers' final bosses - have dialogue sequences with their respective characters. This can make the flow of combat a bit messy if you deal too much damage too quickly and end up getting rushed through different phases, but that mechanical hiccup aside this is a great way to layer on the dramatic stakes and work in some more character development for the travelers as they're facing down their greatest enemies.

#32. More diverse animations and weapon sprites

A simple improvement, but a nice one even so. Equipping different weapons of the same type is now more noticeable, and the travelers' combat sprites are overall more dynamic and expressive. Everyone loves the shamelessly horny Stimulate animation, just for starters.

#31. Bosses have more varied mechanics

Something I noticed on my replay of OT is that its bosses can be surprisingly simplistic. All the core ways the games have for ramping up difficulty are there - changing weaknesses, adding shields or actions per turn, inflicting status effects and massive amounts of damage - but with the obvious exception of Galdera that's more or less it.

OT2 compounds these mechanics with a wealth of new ones that turn many of the bosses into uniquely memorable experiences: concealing turn order, locking certain menu options, charming party members or copying their skills, countering boosted attacks, etc. There's even a pure puzzle boss in the forced solo encounter Karma, to say nothing of how the Vide fight actually allows you to use all eight travelers at once. This complexity is particularly noticeable with the optional bosses that appear in both titles, like the Monarch and the Dreadwolf, because if you compare their tactics across games they're much trickier the second time around.

#30. Secret jobs are more accessible before endgame

Each game has four secret jobs. In OT all of them are gated behind powerful optional bosses that you very likely won't be strong enough for until after you've completed most of the story. While these are indeed memorable fights, that leaves the problem of there being very little content left on which to actually use these incredibly powerful jobs. There's exactly three bosses with HP totals that surpass the gods that give you the secret jobs, and not much reason to try them out otherwise save for making the endgame grind faster.

OT2 locks one secret job (arcanist) behind a challenging lategame encounter and another (conjurer) behind a boss gauntlet that's only available after you clear arguably the hardest of the travelers' final chapters. But inventor can be unlocked as soon as you clear your starting traveler's opening, and it and armsmaster get their skills from turning in items acquired from the world and from dungeons meaning you'll get significantly more use out of them before endgame.

#29. Quality over quantity with side stories

This is another matter of raw numbers. OT has one hundred side stories; OT2 has only two-thirds that many. This does though allow for the second game's set to stand out a bit more overall, especially the ones that get creative with solutions. Additionally, when you factor in how many of OT's side stories are leadups to the final boss, or are three-part NPC mini-stories stretched out across each town in a single region, it rarely feels as though OT2 is really missing out. It's more than got that covered with -

#28. Scents of Commerce

Partitio comes with a unique mechanic that essentially amounts to three side stories just for him - only each of them gets the full cutscene treatment and adds something significant to the experience of the game: an in-universe sound test, a lore dump library, or the mandatory ship purchase that I've already praised for how it opens up the map.

#27. The Crossed Path system

Meanwhile, arguably replacing the multi-part NPC side stories are the Crossed Paths, four two-part stories that see the travelers broken up into pairs as they pursue unique narrative threads and add a few more dungeons and boss encounters to the total to boot. This is an extremely welcome addition that actually allows the travelers to interact with one another directly, and it's little wonder that it was such a big part of the game's prerelease marketing and so looked forward to among fans. The general consensus is that OT2 could have taken the idea further, but even so it's a massive step up from OT's travelers feeling completely isolated from one another for 98% of the game.

And hey, I turned the Crossed Path system into an entire partial AU for my fics, so it's safe to say it did something right!

#26. Traveler themes show up in their final bosses

Moving more toward lategame stuff now. Everyone loves how Octopath makes high-energy variations of its traveler themes to lead into their boss fights. OT2 though takes this a step further by having those "In Pursuit of..." themes come in as a bridge during their final story bosses, which makes each of those encounters feel a bit more personal. Agnea meanwhile goes even further with this idea. For her showdown against Dolcinaea she gets a unique vocal rendition of her theme music playing in the background, which is just one of many ways her final chapter builds on and surpasses Primrose's in fourth-wall-leaning theatricality.

#25. The credits don't roll after finishing one traveler's story

One of the first game's more baffling minor decisions is where it places its credits. In OT2 they're moved to the middle of the Epilogue, a much more fitting location that emphasizes that you're looking back on all of the travelers' journeys, not just your starting choice (or whoever else's story you finished first).

#24. EX skills

I didn't make a separate entry for Latent Powers because they're just a flat mechanical addition, but EX skills are different in that they either 1) provide a generally more interesting reward for tracking down the god shrines out in the overworld or 2) come in during or after the travelers' final bosses as an often powerful story-based upgrade, ex. Osvald unlocking the One True Magic, or Agnea putting together the Song of Hope. Some are just notably strong on their own merits, like a buffed Share SP, Prayer for Plenty repurposing a support skill from the first game, Windy Refrain for turn order manipulation, or Heavenly Shine as an endgame nuke with a massive damage ceiling. And even the ones that don't see a lot of use, like Negotiate Schedule or Disguise, usually have some interesting flavor to them.

#23. Lategame bosses have more even difficulty distribution

Optional bosses in OT at or above the levels of the travelers' final bosses are, with only a handful of exceptions, not all that impressive. This leads into the issue I mentioned with the game's secret jobs, where once you're strong enough to unlock them there's only three more bosses that will actually put up enough fight to warrant using them. OT2 has quite a bit more going on with late optional bosses built for endgame teams (Heavenwing, the Behemoth, the Scourge of the Sea, etc.) as well as the boss challenges that come out of the Final Story. And that's not even mentioning Galdera 2.0...

#22. And the endgame grind is less tedious

The snowballing effect of more readily-accessible EXP and JP-boosting skills and accessories is that grinding out jobs and levels takes significantly less time once the travelers' stories are done. In OT the lack of a true narrative finish means that around that point you'll hit a wall and have to do a bunch of grinding to get ready for Galdera (assuming you're not using some kind of cheese low-level strategy). But in OT2 there's just generally more to do and less needed to work on if you've been leveling consistently earlier on. Also, two of this game's secret jobs don't even require JP, so that drops the total needed for a traveler to max everything out by a hefty 30K.

#21. Next chapter NPC side stories get the full cutscene treatment

Both games have a selection of side stories involving story NPCs that unlock once the traveler stories are done, and which tend to be a bit more substantial than most others like them. This is even more true in OT2, where these side stories get fully-voiced cutscenes. A shame they're among the only ones of that sort to not get recorded in the journal...but still a plus.

#20. An actual Final Story

And yeah, I absolutely have to mention this too. OT's final encounter is locked unintuitively behind a number of sidequests, and it consists of a fairly easy gauntlet of reused bosses followed by an extremely difficult two-part fight with no way to save at any point in between. You get a short cutscene, and then a prompt like you've finished just another sidequest, and...that's it. Underwhelming doesn't begin to describe it.

In the second game though the Final Story has numerous cutscenes, a temporary new world state, multiple all-new boss encounters that you can save in between, a proper ramp-up to the final boss, and then of course the final boss itself which is powerful but not overwhelmingly so like Galdera is in OT. It's dramatic, cinematic, and gives all the travelers a chance to shine both in and out of combat, with callbacks to the Crossed Path system and the ability to use all eight at once against Vide.

#19. And an actual Epilogue

And once you're done with Vide, you're free to start the proper Epilogue sequence. The travelers bid farewell to each other, the appropriately-timed credits roll, and then everyone's back in New Delsta for a big party ending where all the surviving NPCs show up and give you a big sendoff. Needless to say, it's an ending that actually feels deserving of the label.

#18. Both of which give a bit of weight to your initial choice of traveler

It's nothing huge, but OT2's ending wraps back around to caring a bit about who kicked off your journey. Your starting traveler gets a handful of unique lines before and after the final boss, and they're also the last left behind in the Epilogue so they get to deliver a quick monologue once everyone else has gone on their way (in reverse order from how you recruited them, no less). This is most noticeable with Agnea, in that her sister becomes temporarily playable in the New Delsta sequence since Agnea herself takes the stage for the ending.

#17. Party members can be switched at any time after a point

Another small but very noticeable perk is that once the Final Story begins you can now switch travelers in and out of the party at any time outside of combat. No more needing to return to a tavern whenever you need a different Path Action or have to switch equipment between active and inactive travelers!

#16. Postgame challenges are harder but less frustrating

That's a big help for the bosses in the Final Story as well as those that surpass them in difficulty, because it's so much easier to prepare for them (on top of the aforementioned benefits of less EXP/JP grinding, etc.). Galdera is back and harder than ever, but you can save directly before the fight and there's no need to do a boss gauntlet first making the experience much less annoying.

#15. The Extra Battles update amps up the difficulty even further

And if that wasn't enough, OT2 got an unexpected free update in 2024 adding four new ultra-difficult boss encounters from the main menu. These handily put to rest the accusation that the second game is easier than the first because of how much stronger and more flexible your characters can be early on. True Vide the Wicked especially blows both Galderas out of the water in terms of challenge.

#14. While also working as an homage to the first game

Two of the Extra Battles are against the eight travelers of OT. Getting to see them all as incredibly powerful enemies working together to take you down can be quite entertaining, and their abilities combine direct nods to the first game with new material (like Crossed Path-esque paired skills) built off what OT2 adds to its mechanics.

#13. Solistia has more adventurous worldbuilding

Now onto some more subjective stuff. Orsterra is a stock JRPG fantasy setting, lovingly recreating the tropes and clichés of that type of media to get the whole HD-2D aesthetic off the ground back in 2018. It recalls the classics of the genre, as well as series that continue to make that its stock in trade, ex. Fire Emblem...but it's certainly stuff we've seen before.

That's why I was so pleased to see the second game move the timeline forward, pulling from 19th and early 20th century referents and giving Solistia more of an Industrial Revolution feel. There's urbanized cities, early modern tech just ignore the lack of firearms, and light prodding at themes like colonialism and income inequality. It's mildly less Eurocentric, from the Wutai-flavored Hinoeuma to areas that call to mind the 19th century US. There's also a society of infantilized animal people who are subjected to racism and colonial incursions, which...we're probably all better off not reading too far into.

#12. And also more substantial (if sometimes tongue-in-cheek) lore dumps

The Mercantile Manuscript, a reward from one of Partitio's Scents of Commerce, is a treasure trove of lore for Solistia. Some of it can be rather silly, like why there are still only the six weapon types from OT, but it's all in good fun - and unlike the first game, you don't have to go through a tedious boss gauntlet to get these lore dumps either.

#11. New Delsta is a huge step up for Octopath towns/cities

I've gotten a ton of mileage out of it in my fics, in part due to some substantial real-world additions of my own, but New Delsta really is a cut above anything else we've seen from cities in this series in size, scope, and narrative significance even in spite of it not actually featuring in that many chapters. Nowhere else better captures both the glitzy surface and seedy underbelly of large early modern cities; honestly, the likes of Atlasdam and Grandport from the first game can't even begin to compete. (This, incidentally, is a big reason why I find it so odd that both Octopath canon and fandom mash the two games together so readily, when it's immediately obvious just from looking at these cities that Solistia is centuries ahead of Orsterra technologically and socially speaking. I suppose it doesn't bother everyone.)

#10. The day/night system makes NPCs feel less static

Somewhat related, but another bonus of the ability to toggle between day and night is that NPCs are sometimes in different places depending on the time of day. This helps further the sense that they're not just stationary sprites delivering their canned dialogue and waiting for you to use your Path Actions on them. It's nothing on the level of, say, Majora's Mask or anything, but it's still appreciated.

#9. It also avoids the awkwardness of lategame sunset areas

And while we're back on time of day, most lategame areas in OT are blanketed in a perpetual sunset. One could say that this adds to the dramatic feel of those final areas...but it's also every bit as artificial as Orsterra's map, especially since it doesn't impact all regions (ex. the Woodlands). Almost every location in OT2 has both day and night lighting variants, with sunrise and sunset transitions between them, so that artificiality is a thing of the past. Funnier still is that the game nonetheless produces a similar effect by covering Solistia in perpetual night during the Final Story, so it gets to have its cake and eat it too.

#8. The traveler stories showcase more diversity in genre and tone

Like the setting as a whole, OT2 simply has more going on in terms of its narrative referents. This one game containing a rightful-king-reclaiming-his-throne story, a temporally-messy nod to the actual Industrial Revolution, a somber tale of a wrongfully-accused prisoner straight out of 19th century French literature that takes a hard right at the Power of Love right at the end, and a very dark family drama that ends on a note too overwhelmingly bittersweet for the game's overarching destroy-an-evil-god schitck to even handle. It's certainly not all perfect, but damned if OT2 doesn't go places.

#7. And (some of) the travelers themselves are less tied to stock archetypical traits

Along with that comes the game stepping away from some of the familiar clichés of fantasy JRPG characters. The premiere magic character is a buff bear daddy. The warrior is a lithe twink prince. The cleric is skeptical of everything and only pious in a very unorthodox sense. The dancer literally is just a stage performer and not a sex worker under some thin euphemisms. It really helps this cast stand out from that of the first game's, and with all the extra character moments these guys come off rather stronger overall.

#6. Select chapters go the extra mile in terms of structure and/or atmosphere

You can probably already pick out the chapters I'm referencing. Partitio's Chapter 1 is a self-contained bildungsroman that uses multiple time skips to convey the growth and decline of a town along with basically all of Partitio's character development in a very short span of time. Osvald's opening is a structurally and mechanically claustrophobic prison break sequence that hits the ground running with showing off how OT2 likes to vary its storytelling techniques. Castti's Chapter 3 is bleak and melancholy, letting flashbacks do the heavy lifting in a sequence with no significant combat but a ton of gruesome death. And Throné's Chapter 4 is the darkest thing Octopath has ever done, with an eerie ramp-up of a gondola ride leading to a nightmarish town area that's all the worse because of how much is left up to implication. The boss himself is even worse, and even if the story fumbles Throné's distinct lack of a happy ending you can tell that it at least tried.

There are others in here of course, like Hikari's climactic battle or the fourth-wall-leaning in Agnea's finale, but you get the idea. There's a ton of memorable story moments in this game.

#5. Actual narrative tie-ins to the Final Story

While the Final Story does hurt some travelers' individual stories, like Throné's or to a lesser extent Partitio's, the buildup is much more palpable and appreciable than it was for OT's series of seemingly innocuous side quests and 11th hour text dumps building to Galdera. The amount of thought that went into piecing together the actions of the Moonshade Order across all the stories and Crossed Paths is quite impressive, enough to where I can mostly forgive certain clumsily-handled threads.

#4. A better realization of the overarching theme of both games

The loose thematic concern of this series as a whole is, fittingly, the idea of traveling, of finding oneself and connecting with others through journeys both physical and otherwise. OT nods to this in a more literal sense as well at the end via a side quest in which the king of Marsalim vows to put on a play about the travelers' stories. It's the game's way of commenting on itself as narrative.

This is incredibly easy to forget about, as it passes with little fanfare through a minor NPC. Not so in OT2, where the last part of the Epilogue sees Agnea get up on stage and monologue this theme outright before putting on a show (not seen by the player) implied to be about her experiences traveling with the rest of the cast. Needless to say, that's much more thematically resonant and leaves you with a much stronger impression compared to OT's total lack of an ending.

#3. It's a good bit gayer

Me being me, of course I'm going to point this out.

It doesn't matter which level we're talking about; whether it's between the travelers, NPCs, or some combination thereof, OT2 lays on the gay subtext much more heavily...even if it's still quite mild, to be fair. OT has Leon and Baltazar; OT2 has Papp and Roque. OT has Lianna and Eliza; OT2 has Pala and Mikka. OT has Olberic and Erhardt; OT2 has Temenos and Crick. Castti and Malaya, Dolcinaea and Veronica, the Timberain princess and her female gardener, Partitio in general, crossdressing NPCs in the Brightlands...and then on top of that there's a distinct lack of no homo'ing arrangements in a lot of these cases, unlike disappointments like Alfyn and Zeph. Osvald and Clarissa are totally platonic, Throné and Temenos get a Crossed Path but no real shipping fodder, Partitio is kind of clueless and innocent about women, etc. Hell, just the fact that not all of the Crossed Paths are M/F helps a great deal with OT2 not feeling like it's trying to neatly and heterosexually pair off all the travelers.

#2. And just all-around shippier if you're into that

But even so, no matter what kind of ships you like the extra character interactions really add to the shipping content. That's true from the straightforward, ex. Hikari/Agnea, to the just-barely-shy-of-text, ex. Papp/Roque, to the obvious juggernaut and spawner of many a fix-it fic that is Temenos/Crick. Actually, that last one has more fanfics for it on AO3 than the most popular OT pairing...even with the first game having had an extra five years' worth of fanwork for it!

#1. Them

Look, if you know anything about my OT2 work, you saw this coming.

I have a lot of feelings about Osvald and Partitio, both as individuals and even more as a pairing that isn't exactly canon but nevertheless works incredibly well if you read it as such, from their Crossed Path to that one extremely gay party banter to how perfectly it works out for cute post-story family fluff to the ending CG sticking the two front and center and also touching. It's kind of silly that they're not even Partitio's most popular gay ship, because the game itself tees these two up beautifully. Osvald is just too much bear daddy for some people to handle, clearly.

I've had many OTPs over my years in fandom, but Osvitio is the first one that's actually gotten me to write fanfic. Go them.

#Octopath Traveler #Octopath Traveler II

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