Just had the first second-tier boss fight in Octopath Traveller, and *boy* was that not much fun. It wasn't difficult--I was never even close to a TPK--but the boss seemed to take forever to kill and he had an annoying habit of knocking my characters unconscious. I wish the makers of RPGs would realise at some point that having agency taken away and having to watch the enemy smash you into pulp without being able to retaliate is just not enjoyable! I also think the usual JRPG "Oh, you have 8 characters but can only use 4 at a time, and the four you're not using don't earn XP" really hurts things here, because I've had to swap out my higher level party for a mostly lower-level one in order to ensure everybody is levelling OK. Sure, I could fix that by grinding forever in low-level areas, but that ain't much fun either.

Despite all that, though, still liking the game--I actually want to know what happens to these eight people and their distinct but interesting storylines.