The controls are solid. There's momentum, as you'd expect underwater (or in space), but it's not overdone and movement is very responsive.

I played Hollow Knight for a couple of hours, and found it to be over-hyped flavor-of-the-day bandwagon fodder, so I uninstalled it. I won't be reviewing it, but if you must know my least favorite of its many questionable mechanics and design choices, it would be the way knockback works. Instead of pushing enemies away as the hero hits them, the hero scoots backwards as he hits enemies.

And you said the secret word regarding Dead Cells, which guarantees that I will NEVER play or review it, but know it's trash already.

I often find myself frustrated by the controls of games that take place underwater and I've seen complaints elsewhere online saying that this game is like that. How did it play for you?

Also, I see that you said that Hollow Knight and Dead Cells are over-hyped. Have you played them? I don't see a review for either from you. I'm not sure you can compare Dead Cells to this, it's a rogue-like but I've only heard good things from Hollow Knight.

I have to say I spent a grand total of 1-2 hours solely dedicated to grinding in the game to up my levels for the boss rush. While there are no specific enemies you can seek out that will give you tons of experience, there are two accessories you can obtain in the game that will each boost JP and XP by 50% for the whole party in any given battle. Not only that, if you unlock one of the secret classes there are passive skills you can learn that will also boost each by 50%. That means with those two things you can double your experience and JP for all battles. If you go to the right area and quickly dispose of all your encounters and you can level up characters extremely quickly. And, if you want to take some risks you could always try bewildering grace with Primrose which could randomly give you HUGE experience bonuses. I thought I'd share that because I completely disagree with your experience obtaining thoughts.

And while you love to refer to "fan boys" in your blogs and reviews constantly I hope you're aware of that you are a "fan boy" of Dragon Quest. Without the epilogue to shake things up, DQ 11's story is about as predictable and shallow as they come. When the initial credits rolled I was actually disappointed. If you want to experience the good story of DQ 11 you have to play the epilogue, honestly I consider it an essential part of the game and not "bonus" content.

But, I do generally agree with the story telling. Octopath could have been much better, not sure that's enough to downgrade it to a 3/5, but that's up to you.

Lastly, I LOVED the soundtrack in Octopath. DQ 11's soundtrack was average at best, probably the most disappointing part of that game.

I responded to your questions in my Octopath review.

Well, the thought you expressed are quiete the same as mine.
But, I'd like to mention something else too: the sounds are perfect; lemme explain: they are believable, since I'd have imaginated the creatures' voice like they are; in addition, the music, which is something huge for such a game.
Besides, the humor: this was one of the games (and I played a lot of games) that made me laugh naturally because of its jokes.
Also, the story's premise was so nice to me: the mistery of these 2 creatures stayed in various planets is so misterious and fascinating to me.
Said that, this game could have been made way better, but, like I love saying: if you enjoy something, that's good and nought else should be done

Just Monika. (Glad you sorta kinda liked it anyway!)

Your review does not increase my enthusiasm for me to play my WiiU version of the game. I guess I'll put other RPGs higher on my backlog list.

Sounds terrible! But you'll be happy to know the only Dreamcast version of PIer Solar I could find was on Ebay and it was going for $125 - so you've already doubled your money! In ten years... who knows! All for a terrible game no one should play - huzzah!