octopath 2 story ranking (full game spoilers)

8. Throné - This one isn't really in question, it is definitely the sloppiest of the stories, and I say this as someone for whom this kind of story is a super easy sell. Shit, I write about assassins with some regularity. I have like, at least three sympathetic assassin characters amidst my roster of characters. It feels distinctly disconnected from the rest of the stories in an odd way, too—in the sense that while its final villain does tie into the overall plot, it's in sort of a tangential manner... though I guess being a villain without a secret identity who's part of the overall vibe of the bad guys does help establish that aspect of the villains, I guess. Throné is a great character but she doesn't exactly do much in her own story, which is the primary problem. It's a confusingly-told drama with interesting ideas that don't really get the time to breathe—my favorite part of the story is actually the epilogue quest, Mira's Next Chapter, for the note it leaves the story's drama out on. This is the only one I'm overall a bit negative on.

7. Ochette - I do actually like a lot of this story. I find the human villagers' racism a bit odd because the rest of the world being totally fine with Ochette makes it feel like Cohazeh is just inexplicably the CEO of Racism, but that aspect of the story doesn't get much play outside of the beginning and ending, and the ending of Ochette's story is really strong, a great finale. All three parts of her Chapter 2, IMO, were great, too. Additionally, her story gets a lot of context from Osvald's and gives context to Temenos's, which is interesting. But, you know... I do kinda have to ding it points because you literally never meet its primary villain. The Dark Hunter isn't a character, and it's really weird that she isn't a character! I was distinctly befuddled by the party literally never even meeting the primary antagonist of Ochette's story. The story by itself is strong but in a grander scheme that just kinda sits weird with me.

6. Temenos - There are like... three successive secret masterminds in this story. It gets a little excessive. There are a few aspects that aren't very well-explained, and Ort is in like, two scenes and gets a Next Chapter. The fundamental through-line of Temenos's character and getting into the cosmology of the world, which his story does more than anyone else, is great! Crick's... also fine! I really wish Temenos's mystery-solving gimmick actually got more play—frankly, I kinda think his story could've done with being a bit MORE episodic. And I don't really know what's up with Cubaryi that character is weird. The fact that Arcanette is such a turbo ultra mastermind that she can somehow prank Kaldena into unwittingly working for the Moonshade Order is kind of astonishing though

5. Hikari - This is about the point where I get to stories I don't really have any fundamental problems with. Hikari is a kinda one-note character in a number of ways but IDK, it kinda works for me. I am, however, a huge weeb who's into samurai, so that's noteworthy. The finale was really strong and the battle against Mugen is one of my favorite bosses in the game, Rai Mei is the last boss in the game to get Critical Clash 2 and thus is good, the arena chapter was great. I'm not particularly interested by Ritsu, having seen his ilk a billion times, but Hikari's story felt nice as a pretty standard 'anchor' story. It's not particularly special, but I think it's cool when the pretty sword boy fights the people with his sword and then goes "my blood boils... yet... i desire only peace... and friendship"

4. Osvald - I really loved the sidequest about Emerald's mom. That aside, Harvey's a phenomenal villain, a real piece of fuckin' trash, and his VA's performance is great. I do kind of wish Osvald using magic in creative ways got a bit more play, because I really liked the ice boat in his intro, and his story is functionally the shortest so there aren't really very many characters in it. It gets points on how strong the confrontations with Harvey are, both of them, and it ends out on a somber but nice note that I'm VERY GLAD THE GAME ADDED AN ADDENDUM TO IN THE EPILOGUE THANK YOU. Points for the Crossed Path, too, which was really cute. This one made me feel Things, like a desire to murder Harvey.

3. Partitio - You might be surprised to see me put Partitio at the bottom of the top 3, seeing as I love him dearly and his story is amazing and he's wonderful. The top 3 here are all the ones that are amazingly good, and they're very close in my eyes. This story's phenomenal. Partitio is a delight, I love him, I love his story, I LOVE how his mechanics are used in the endgame, the boss fights are all hilarious, Alrond's a treasure. I don't really have any complaints? But I think the reason I rated it at the bottom of the top 3 is actually because of its length. Partitio gets a LOT, what with the Scent of Commerce quests. The pacing of the story can get a little strange because a number of its central characters don't even appear for what ends up constituting a fairly noteworthy chunk of the storyline. But anyway it's perfect and I love it and Partitio has the best theme song.

2. Agnea - Agnea has the lowest-stakes story, which means that a bunch of unabashedly goofy and silly shit gets to happen and that's great. It's low-stakes but it has exactly the stakes I wanted it to have, the supporting cast to a one are charming and endearing, and it has, for my money, the single best finale of all of the stories. Agnea's travel banter is also all just really charming, I love how she interacts with this cast full of incredible oddballs. It's pleasant, nice, and feels like it most captures the breezy, wanderlust-ridden feeling of travel, of adventure, that the game lives in. Agnea, essentially, (i)is(/i) Octopath 2, its tone as an overall narrative condensed into a single person, and that's why she gets the best finale and all the vocal songs and the ending monologue, because she's the main character. Great story. I love it. I hope La'mani cries himself to sleep every night lol

1. Castti - This one's pretty much perfect from beginning to end. It has great framing, an interesting central core mystery with compelling twists and turns, a great central character, generally just a fantastically low and somber but still hopeful tone. The reveal at the end of Chapter 4 was (i)crushing(/i), and the way Castti's personal philosophies never bend throughout these trying circumstances leads to a great finale. Which, speaking of, a number of the points here are for Trousseau, who is by a mile my favorite antagonist—his vocal performance is PHENOMENALLY good, and there's visible differences in how he treats patients to how Castti's that greatly foreshadow his villainy (i)and(/i) his empathy being his most tragic flaw. In terms of dramatic foils, he's easily the best, and his relatively small amount of screentime leads to some of the most compelling drama in the entire game. The final scene here, by the way, is heart-rending. Just a phenomenal story.