thestrongstylesmarks

Every Episode of Doctor Who Series 3 (2007) Ranked

Series 3 had quite the challenge ahead of it because it was the first series of New Who to not feature Rose as the companion. You can sit there and debate all day about how good of a companion Rose actually was, but in 2007, Rose was still a beloved companion that was fresh in the mind of the fanbase at large, so anyone that came along next was going to be heavily scrutinized.

I’ll get into detail on what I thought throughout this list, but overall I think Martha was a worthy replacement to Rose that took the characterisation of a companion in enough of a new direction to avoid feeling like “another Rose”.

However, there was a lot more to this series than just Martha, so let’s get into it and rank every episode of Doctor Who Series 3.

10 – The Lazarus Experiment

One of the things that distinguished Series 3 for me, is that even in episodes I consider bad, there’s usually a decent amount of elements that I liked. This episode is the one exception to that thought.

This entire episode really gives of “last minute” vibes. I’ve no idea what the situation was surrounding the writing of the episode, but everything just felt so rushed, and like the writer just needed to sit there for a while and think everything through and flesh it out a bit more. Even the CGI feels rushed, the visual of the Lazarus monster seems like it was supposed to be the rough render of the creature, but they just sent it out for broadcast instead.

Martha’s family are definitely the worst out of the domestic characters that we get to know throughout new who and I think that’s mostly because we never had any time to flesh them out. They’re in multiple episodes during this series, but this is the only episode where there’s any attempt at fleshing them out as people and unfortunately, it’s not a very good attempt. Martha’s mum is nagging and overprotective, her brother’s a bit too lax about life and her sister’s fairly useless but lucks herself into high-status roles. That’s pretty much all we get, not the mention her dad, who we get pretty much nothing on, other than he’s a bit of a player.

The bulk of the episode is pretty mindless running away from the monster, which isn’t always a bad thing, but I really think this episode needed more to it than that. The conclusion is pretty underwhelming too, with a chase scene that’s nothing special and The Doctor using sound waves to mess with Lazarus’ DNA, which works because…I honestly have no idea how that makes any sense.

The moment at the end of the episode where Martha puts her foot down about just “being a passenger” in the TARDIS was a nice development for the relationship between The Doctor and Martha, but other than that, it’s best to leave this one buried in the middle of the series.

9 – Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

A little tip for you, don’t spend 3 quarters of the episode setting up a big mystery about who the big bad guys are when the word “Dalek” is literally in the title of the episode.

If you ignore the fact that the big reveal is given away in the title of the episode, the mystery is plotted out pretty well. We find out people are disappearing, we find out it’s linked to something in the sewers until we get the reveal of what’s happening to the people who go down there. The pig slaves are a bit of a weird one because they don’t really thematically make any sense if the Daleks can manipulate genetics to this level, why not create creatures far more useful?

Then there’s the main focus of the plot, which is Dalek Sec taking on a human form and evolving. This is a really interesting concept, that I wish had a bit more time to flourish. I loved the scenes were Sec was confused, but also amazed at some of these human concepts that he’d never experienced in his life and how they slowly affect him, unfortunately, this sort of stuff gets swept under the rug a bit too quickly in order to get to the Daleks murdering everything in sight.

One thing I’ve noticed looking back is that The Tenth Doctor’s attitude towards the Daleks is actually quite inconsistent. The Ninth Doctor pretty clearly wanted to wipe them all out, but it’s never really made clear how this incarnation of The Doctor feels about them. He obviously hates them, but specifically how much is made unclear. In Doomsday, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with getting rid of them all, but in this episode, he’s suddenly all emotional about not wanting to cause another genocide.

I understand that it’s largely because he just saw the human/Dalek hybrids murdered, but not enough weight was really put on that moment for me to actually get the feeling that something had changed in The Doctor’s mind; these are his greatest enemies, it should take longer than a few seconds for him to change his mind about killing them.

This is one of those episodes that I like the concept of, but don’t think the execution lived up to what I wanted from it. If the human Dalek thing had a bit more time to grow I think it could’ve been a lot better, but unfortunately, the second part didn’t spend as much time on it as I would’ve liked and it meant the whole thing just devolved into The Doctor fighting the Daleks yet again.

8 – The Shakespear Code

This episode doesn’t do anything to break the pattern of “historical figure” episodes, The Doctor spends most of it fawning over Shakespear, they mention the darker sides to the character and then they find a way to save the day. I really enjoyed all of the little jokes throughout about Shakespear stealing some of his most famous lines and it puts me in mind of that “Bootstrap Paradox” scene from Capaldi’s era.

The thing is, these episodes tend to live and die on how compelling the historical figure actually is and honestly, I wasn’t overly thrilled by Shakespear. He doesn’t really possess much of a will of its own it seems and I’m not just referring to that bit where the witches possessed him. Shakespeare himself doesn’t seem to serve to move the plot forward at all, everything just tends to happen around him and he goes along with it, he contributes very little of his own thoughts.

On top of that, I’m not really a fan of the Carrionites either. I know they’re cheesy and over the top by design to mirror Shakespear’s writings, but they don’t really fit in with the tone of the rest of the episode. Their powers are also really vaguely defined and I really don’t buy the idea that you can do magic just by saying the right words, not least because it decides to stop working when the plot finds it convenient. That’s just a step too far for me to suspend my disbelief.

Also in this episode, The Doctor and Martha’s relationship accelerates way too fast. That scene where they’re laying in bed in the hotel and Martha just stares at him like she’s already head over heels for him and lets out a sigh is way too much, way too fast. They’ve known each other for a little over a day at this point and sure, if a guy like The Doctor comes along, you’re bound to fall for him quicker than other people, but this was so heavy-handed in only their second episode together, it doesn’t sit right with me.

The climax was actually quite fun to watch though, the sense of terror ended up being delt on quite heavy as the witches emerged from the crystal ball and I love the touch of the red tint to the whirlwind it creates. Although I’ve railed on the idea of words being magic, the solution to the episode does at least work well using that logic, although I’m not the biggest fan of “expelliarmus” being the word to seal the deal. It capped the episode off with a nice fun climax that just about hit the right notes to redeem some of the problems I had with the episode up until that point.

7 – 42

This is another episode that feels pretty throwaway in the grand scheme of things, but I think it has a lot more excitement to it than The Lazarus Experiment. The concept is given to us very concisely in the cold open, broken down spaceship, vaguely defined monster aboard, 42 minutes until everyone dies. It’s simplistic but honestly, I think that’s better for the episode, as where this one falls down is when it tries to add the complexity.

I’ll start off with what I liked. I thought the tension in this episode was done pretty well, the monster tended to pop-up when you weren’t expecting it to and it made for some really good scenes as it slowly killed people. As far as secondary characters go, I thought the crew on the ship was quite good for one-offs, Kath had a decent backstory to her and for what little we got to see of her, I thought she was a pretty well-rounded person. The moment where Martha and Riley are ejected towards the sun and The Doctor shouting “I’ll save you!” but it’s silenced by the vastness of space was a beautifully shot moment and the eery calmness of the conversation Martha has with Riley as they hurtle to what they think is their death was a very touching moment.

There was also a lot of not so great stuff in this episode. The pub-quiz to override the security deadlocks seemed very contrived and all of the questions were conveniently centred around 20th & 21st Century trivia, it really felt like Chibnall desperately needed a reason for Martha to call her mother, and this was all he could come up with.

I also thought the reasoning as to why the monster was attacking the crew to be quite lacklustre. It was because they absorbed the heart of a living star as a heart, I mean…ok? It makes sense and fits in with the story, but it doesn’t explain how this star can possess people and just generally seems quite uninteresting of an explanation. It also means that all they have to do to escape is dump the fuel, which again, makes sense in context and you can see why no-one would’ve thought of that, but the episode didn’t centre around the mystery of “why?” it just centred around trying to get the ship working, which means that the solution doesn’t feel satisfying, because it ignores what the characters were trying to accomplish up until that point.

The concept for the monster is good though, and I liked the visual of the possessed men lifting their visor and evaporating people, but some of the core elements of this story don’t work for me and it really overwhelms the good.

6 – Gridlock

Gridlock is an example of an idea Doctor Who attempts every now and then that I really like to see, even if the execution wasn’t perfect, which is taking a really mundane idea (in this case, a traffic jam) and taking it to its logical extreme, and then having that be the whole episode.

The bulk of the episode spent in the traffic jam, I think has a lot of stuff to like about it. Once Martha gets kidnapped by the couple and you begin to learn about the motorway, it becomes a very tragic tale, the episode is able to change your mind very quickly on what kinds of people these are because they’re just looking out for their family. The scene where the whole motorway lights up with song is such a heartbreaking moment as well, as these people hold on to the little hope they have that someday they might be freed.

It also manages to fit in its fair share of fun and humour into the episode without compromising all of the tragedy around it, with The Doctor’s journey through endless cars on the motorway, seeing all kinds of people who are in these cars. It also gives a really good impression of exactly the situation their in, because it’s all well and good knowing these two cars very well, but seeing flashes of these people living their whole lives in these cars gives a great view of the exact scale of what’s going on.

Unfortunately, I found everything outside of what’s going on in the motorway to be a bit lacking and it suffers from a notable lack of focus when it comes to exactly why everything is going on. The Macra are a fine enough villain and really the only place they could possibly fit is in a story like this, where there’s just something at the bottom of the motorway that kills people. The problem is, it’s never explained how they got there, I understand that they feed off of pollution, so all of the exhaust smoke is the perfect living space, but how did they actually get there in the first place and breed to be able to cover the entire motorway, which as far we’re told covers the length of the whole planet?

Then there are the emotion patches, which are never explained at all. We know they can make you feel certain emotions, but they can also induce sleep and cause amnesia and that really seems like the kind of thing that needs explaining. All we ever get is the knowledge that they’re some kind of drug, so making them the main explanation as to why everything’s gone wrong seemed like an odd move. We’re told that a virus mutated in the “Bliss” drug, but that means absolutely nothing to us when we don’t understand how these patches work, how can a virus possibly mutate in something, that from the audience’s perspective, is just a magic sticker?

I did like the classic Doctor Who twist at the end though where it’s revealed that trapping people in the motorway was actually an act of heroism, not villainy, whenever Doctor Who pulls something like that it always gives me a nice feeling inside, because I always like to think Doctor Who as a show that gives the attitude that humans are flawed but ultimately good.

The core idea of Gridlock hits the mark really well, and if the episode had focused on it a little more and cut some of the pointless guff, it probably would’ve ranked a lot higher. Unfortunately, the lack of focus at either end of the episode takes away from the impact of everything a bit and leaves me feeling unsatisfied when the episode reaches a conclusion.

5 – The Runaway Bride

This is quite the rarity for Doctor Who since we actually get to meet a future companion, a season out from them actually joining the TARDIS. However, at the time, this was intended as a one-off appearance for Donna, so I’ll be treating it as such.

As with most Christmas specials, there isn’t a lot to them in the way of grand plots or introspective narratives because it’s designed to be a healthy dose of fun for the family on Christmas Day, not to mention this didn’t have any heavy lifting to do in terms of establishing a new Doctor or companion which I personally think works to its benefit. The cliffhanger from the end of Series 2 was a great way to ensure that we could get into the whimsy of this episode quite easily, as there was a risk of everything being dragged down by The Doctor being mopey about Rose, but luckily Davies was able to avoid too much of that in this episode.

While this episode isn’t afraid to take it slow at certain points, it tends to keep it’s foot on the gas as much as it can, which would usually make for something quite boring, but I think the action here ends up being varied enough to keep the fun in it. The scene where The Doctor has to fly the TARDIS along the motorway while trying to convince Donna to jump is a joy to watch back, it hits the action, the fun and the small dose of emotion it throws in in just the right way to make it a great scene to watch.

I’m not a big fan of the Racnoss though. The spaceship looked very nice and the idea of a Christmas star made out of spider webs is something I like, my problem with the Racnoss however mostly comes from the queen herself. For one thing, it’s so obvious she was struggling to talk through the mouthpiece she had in and while they did try to make it into more of a style, I can’t help but hear someone who’s struggling to talk properly.

On top of that, the fact that she’s so stationary is really jarring when her torso upwards moves about a lot. I understand why that was the decision, of course, it would’ve been very expensive indeed to make the giant base move, but it creates such a disconnect when the part that is actually the actress is sitting there swaying around on the spot and being extremely animated, while the base just sits there lifeless. Then we get to the Racnoss’ plan, which at the very least makes sense, but I’m not sure it’s all that compelling, not least because most of it happens off-screen or in flashbacks.

I think there would’ve been something to be had in starting the episode with about 5-10 minutes of Donna going about her job and meeting Lance before hitting the wedding and reaching the cliffhanger point. I think it would’ve made the whole thing be woven into the story a lot better because it sticks out pretty hard when Donna has to explain it in the middle of the episode, not least because the whole thing just stops dead in order to let her tell it.

Overall, The Runaway Bride is a good episode to watch if you’re looking for a bit of lite fun from your Doctor Who, which is ultimately what Christmas episodes are designed for after all. That said, if you’re looking for something a bit deeper, then you’re best looking elsewhere in the series.

4 – Smith and Jones

I’ll be honest, this one landed higher than I thought it would.

This episode has so many moving pieces to it, that you almost wouldn’t think it was the first episode in a series, since they normally focus almost exclusively on establishing whatever new stuff needs to be established (in this case, Martha Jones) however, instead of specifically focusing on Martha the whole way through the episode, we only focus in on her for the first 10-15 minutes, before letting the plot and The Doctor take over, which actually does a better job establishing Martha than I think focusing solely on her would do.

Instead of making the episode about her, like Rose did, or anything involving Clara would later do, the episode instead makes sure we’ve got a rough idea of who she is and then just throws her into the thick of it to see how she’ll cope. That scene between her and The Doctor as they step onto the balcony of the hospital, looking out at the moon is brilliant. The way Martha just can’t quite take it all in, but still does her best to keep her cool and instead just starts talking to The Doctor about her family instead.

Not to mention, we also have a number of other trainees at the hospital around the place to better exemplify why Martha is the one that The Doctor gravitates towards. You have the woman who Martha is with for most of the first act, who acts panicked and clearly isn’t thinking straight given what’s going on. The way she panics when Martha goes to open the window, thinking they’ll lose the air even though the windows aren’t air-tight anyway, it shows someone who can’t keep calm in a crisis, which is someone who would be awful at travelling in the TARDIS. Then we’ve got the male trainee who spends most of it toadying to the Judoon and acts like he has things under control when actually he’s got no say in the matter, only to take credit for the whole thing after the fact. It’s always important in episodes where we’re introduced to a new companion to allow us to understand exactly why The Doctor picks them over anyone else and characters like the ones I’ve mentioned are the best way to make Martha look great.

The plot itself is pretty solid. Given the actual role of the Judoon in the universe of Doctor Who I do find it odd that they’re totally fine with potentially murdering everyone in the hospital just to find one alien, not to mention, surely if they have the technology to transport a specified piece of a planet to the moon, they’d also have the technology to provide enough Oxygen. I quite like the Plasmavore as a villain though, it has a genuinely scary concept behind it and the idea of someone sucking all of the blood out of your body is quite horrific when you think about it. The solution to the episode was quite clever, even if it was rather sudden and it keeps to The Doctor’s general ethos of out-thinking the villain.

Like most introduction episodes, it’s not the strongest overall product, but it’s very good at what it needs to do, in this case establishing Martha as the next companion.

3 – Human Nature/The Family of Blood

You know, I’m starting to think it isn’t a coincidence that these late-series two-parters keep landing so high on these lists.

There’s so much to this story that I couldn’t even begin to cover all of it, so I’m just going to cover the highlights. First off, is the performance of John Smith, it’s absolutely amazing how both the writing and the performance involved int his episode genuinely makes John Smith feel like a completely different character from The Doctor. I know that’s the point but given that it’s the same actor playing the role you’d expect they’d feel somewhat similar but they really don’t.

On top of that, because John Smith feels so different to The Doctor I find myself actually getting invested in him over the course of the story as a completely separate character. I want to see his romance work out with Joan, I want to see him discover the mysteries of these strange dreams he has and honestly I think there’d be some entertainment in watching him go about his day-to-day life in the school and interacting with the boys; and it’s exactly that sort of investment that makes the climax to this episode so heartwrenching.

The thing is, as much as I’d love to see this character grow and see his stories resolved, we never can, because we need The Doctor and that scene in the cottage where John, Joan and Martha are talking with him and arguing over whether or not John wants to sacrifice himself for the greater good is so emotional. What makes it sting the most though is having Joan there as a way to frame it all, because if she wasn’t there then as the audience I think we’d all just want The Doctor to hurry up and come back to get it over with, but keeping Joan there is such a brilliant way to tear the audience’s emotions and that scene after The Doctor returns where Joan asks him “Can you change back”, he tells her “Yes”, but when she asks “Will you?” He has to say “No” and it’s truly heartbreaking.

The Doctor as a human could’ve ended up being such a rubbish gimmick for an episode, but so much care was put into getting every detail just right that it actually ended up being one of the better Doctor Who stories to come out of the modern series. It’s an episode that my appreciation for grows every time I re-watch it and I’ll not tear up at the climax.

2 – Blink

I’m sure everyone’s very annoyed that this isn’t number 1, but my list, my rules.

It’s very rare that I actually find an episode of Doctor Who legitimately scary these days (of course, when I was a kid, it was easy) and the thing is, I don’t think there’s anything inherently scary about the Weeping Angels, in fact I think many of the later Angel stories proved that it’s very easy for them not to be scary, so what makes this episode so damn terrifying?

Simply put, this episode is a master at controlling the feeling of tension. For one thing, our protagonist is someone we’ve never met before, which instantly means anything can happen. We know that The Doctor or Martha would never be in any real danger if it were them because we’re only part-way through the season, but Sally Sparrow? She could easily die at any moment which means we’ve instantly got a protagonist that can actually be in extreme danger.

On top of that, the visual and sound direction in this episode is absolutely phenomenal, every time an angel moves and the camera cuts with an audio sting it sends chills down my spine. On top of that, throughout so much of the episode it’s always framed so that the angel is never in the foreground, which is brilliant at hiding the mystery early on and then once the audience knows what’s going on, the trick becomes a fantastic method of creating tension, because you know that something’s about to go down the moment you notice one in the background.

On top of that, the episode is great at slowly revealing it’s mystery to you, as Sally’s friends slowly disappear, first getting a letter and Sally being in total denial about it, only to come to that tragic scene where she finds an old Billy in the hospital, not an hour after having a conversation with the young version of him. Then you’ve got the elements of The Doctor having the conversation already written out in front of him for the DVD that ends up fitting everything The Doctor says, it even creates that nice timey-wimey loop of Larry writing a transcript of the conversation from The Doctor on the DVD, only for Sally to give it to him so he can say it on the DVD, so who originally wrote it?

This is an episode that manages to nail making you think and throw you through a loop with the mystery, while still nailing the horror aspect of it and creating an iconic monster in the process.

1 – Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords

This version of The Master is one that tends to divide opinion and it really depends what you want from your villains. If you prefer more serious menacing villains then this definitely won’t be for you, but if you’re more like me and prefer watching off-kilter psychopaths going around being psychopathic, then this is the best version of The Master there is.

As it stands, I think this was the right version of The Master to go with, not just because it’s the kind of villain I prefer, but because it’s the most interesting type of character to go up against Tennant’s Doctor. Tennant is a Doctor that often relies on being over the top with hyperactivity, making quips and bouncing off the walls while thinking his way out of problems, so I love the idea of a villain like this version of The Master, who forces The Doctor to act more seriously, while the villain himself is being rediculous all over the place. Not that I don’t see the appeal in a Master on the level of Anthony Head’s performance in School Reunion, but I think this one works best for the story being told.

First off, Utopia is an amazing episode all on its own. Derek Jacobi’s performance as Yana is absolutely inspired, the way he plays the confused old man that gives off the same vibes as The Doctor, only to suddenly turn into a menacing villain and nail that too is absolutely incredible to watch. The mystery builds so slowly and brilliantly, so when it finally hits the climax and everything goes bombastic it feels HUGE and the cliffhanger at the end of Utopia is my favourite cliffhanger in TV history.

Then we get into Sound of Drums and this is electric. Any time The Doctor and The Master are talking in some way it’s rivetting. The Doctor needs to stop The Master, but he still wants to hold on to the one part of Galifrey that wasn’t destroyed. More so than that, the chemistry Tennant and Simms have together is absolutely unstoppable, just listening to the two of them go back and forth weaves such a brilliant tapestry in the story that it really feels like these are two people who have known each other for centuries.

All three parts also do a great job of pushing Martha to her limits as a character, The Sounds of Drums systematically tears her life apart, taking away her family, her home and eventually even The Doctor, which is what makes The Last of the Time Lords so compelling to watch.

In The Last of the Time Lords, we’re not watching the crew attempt to stop something horrible from happening, The Master’s already won and has ruled over the Earth for a year. So we’re instead seeing a bunch of people who have nothing, try to build themselves back up take down The Master. It’s so clear that despite what Martha’s been doing for the year we didn’t see, she can’t forget the horror of what The Master did to the world and there’s also the worry that her family might not even be alive when she finally gets there.

This episode is what truly defines Martha as a character for me, because sure, The Doctor told her what to do and she undoubtedly had help from various people along the way, she travelled the war-torn world all on her own and became a totally different person because of it. No longer is she afraid to stare The Master in the eyes, or laugh in his face as he points his laser screwdriver at her. She spent so much time spreading this message around the world and it’s clear that all this time she was telling it, she started to believe in it too and became a better person because of it.

Say what you want about Tennant gaining Jesus powers as the solution to the episode, but I think it worked for the story. Setting up the archangel network as the downfall of the human race in the Sound of Drums, only for it to be the solution in The Last of the Time Lords was a very clever twist and I like the symbolism in the whole world being the ones to cause The Master’s downfall.

What’s even more compelling to watch is The Master’s breakdown once he knows he’s lost. Refusing to accept The Doctor’s forgiveness, threatening the Black Hole converters, only to realise that would be an incredibly stupid thing to do until finally beating The Doctor at his own game, be taking away the one thing he wanted more than anything else, another Time Lord. The Earth is safe and all the good guys survived, but in refusing to regenerate, The Master is causing The Doctor more pain than any death ever could and the moment where The Doctor is completely inconsolable as he holds The Master’s corpse in his arms is genuinely heartbreaking.

Everything in this finale pulls together so perfectly, all of the important characters get complete arches over the course of the three parts and by the end of it, you can clearly see the impact on each of them. Nothing is left as a loose end and there’s not a second wasted in terms of what’s shown on screen, it’s exactly what a series finale should be.

Every Octopath Traveler Protagonist Ranked

2021 UPDATE: Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ve decided to start streaming over on twitch.tv/strongstylesmark. At 2PM GMT Tuesdays & Thursdays I’ll be trying out indie games I’ve never played before, and at 6PM GMT on Saturdays, I’ll be playing games I love. I’ll be starting Saturday 16th January, so please come over and give me a follow to be notified when I go live!

Well, this is one I’ve been dreading…

As of July 13th, Octopath Traveler has been out in the world for a whole year. I absolutely adore this game and as of last week I just finished my second full playthrough on the PC version and I’m still as in love with it now as I was when I played it the first time around.

As I mentioned in my review of the game, one of the main things that makes this game so special is the characters, specifically the 8 travelers who you follow along their respective journeys; I only called them protagonists in the title because “Octopath Traveler Traveler” is a stupid title for stupid people, but I digress.

Design, personality, story, voice acting, gameplay; I’ll be taking all of these factors into account when making my rankings.

Before I rank these travelers, I will say that I love every single one of them, I think they are all well-written characters that I connect to in one way or another, however naturally I’m going to connect with some more than others. Moreso than perhaps any list I’ve ever done, this is VERY subjective, by the nature of the game, everyone will have had a different experience during their playthroughs with what characters they used the most, so I don’t expect this list to look even remotely similar to anyone else’s (especially number 1).

Now I’ve preemptively defended myself, let’s do this, here’s my ranked list of all 8 travelers in Octopath Traveler from worst to best.

…well that was a much better way of phrasing it.

Note: SPOILERS ahead for each of the traveler’s stories.

8 – Alfyn Greengrass

“Let me see to any bumps or scrapes, ya hear?”

I know. Honestly, if I could, I wouldn’t have put anyone last, but the only way to do that would be to not write this list.

Alfyn is a lovely guy, he’ll cure whatever it is that ales you and won’t charge you a leaf, but boy does he seem like a guy I’d get bored of if I knew him in real life.

Alfyn is a character who is extremely well versed in a single aspect of life, but terribly naive about everything else in the world around him. He gives off the vibe of a 10-year-old who’s trying really hard to be an adult but clearly doesn’t have the hang of it yet. His whole attitude to everyone and everything in the game gives off vibes of “Aw shucks, I’m just happy to be here” and while it’s adorable in its way, it doesn’t make for the most compelling of narratives.

Alfyn’s whole story seems to lack direction until the final chapter if you ask me. He encounters a few people, mostly Ogen, who challenge the way he views the world, but for the most part, he seems to just brush them off, almost arrogantly thinking he knows better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s refreshing to see a character who is pure and pure can be, but I can’t help but think things would’ve been a bit more interesting if there was a darker side to him. Coming across someone like Vanessa didn’t really mean a great deal to Alfyn because there were no similarities to be drawn between the two of them, Vanessa used her knowledge for evil, but Alfyn wouldn’t dream of anything of the sort, wouldn’t it have been so much more interesting if Alfyn started slipping down the same road as Vanessa, but sees the extremes Vanessa goes to and waking up? It would’ve provided a lot more growth than what Alfyn actually gets.

As a party member, Alfyn can be incredibly useful. I never really cracked the knack of his “Concoct” skill, but the apothecary class is so incredibly useful with its skill that it doesn’t matter. Not only does it work wonderfully as a support class it has the good offensive coverage that a class like Dancer lacks, making it work for a primary class since Axes are strong melee weapons and seemingly almost every enemy in the game has a weakness to it. In my most recent playthrough of the game, I found combining Alfyn’s apothecary class with the secondary class of Dancer (and later Starseer) made for a fantastic support character that could still pack a punch in a pinch (alliteration is fun!).

Like I said at the top, Alfyn is a wonderful and pure boy who always makes me smile when he comes out with his unadulterated optimism and cheesy quips, but I really would’ve liked to see more growth to the character as his story unfolded. I just don’t feel like the Alfyn at the end of Chapter 4 is a different person to the Alfyn at the start of Chapter 1 and he’s the only traveler I can say that of too. I’d certainly buy him a mug of mead though.

7 – Primrose Azelhart

“May I have this dance?”

I never really warmed to Primrose a great deal and unfortunately, it’s got nothing to do with her story, but more her gameplay. The problem with the Dancer class is that, as great as it is as a secondary class, it’s awful as a primary one. As an almost entirely support based class it isn’t helpful when you’re trying to use the character as one of your main party members, especially in the early game, her Elemental Attack leaves a lot to be desired and the only time I could get any real damage out of her is when I gave her a ridiculously OP dagger for that point in the game. I know that the dancer class isn’t designed to deal damage, but to have one of your four party members be completely defenceless is a pain in the arse early on so I never really kept her in the party for long.

From a personality standpoint, it’s also a little difficult to warm to a character who actively tries to shut herself off from everyone around her. Her whole MO is that she’s out for herself and that’s pretty much it, you get the sense that there’s a softer, kinder side to her in various travel banter scenes and perhaps that comes out of the character more once she’s avenged her father’s death and made peace, but we don’t get to see that part of the story, so we’ll never know.

While I don’t warm to Primrose as a person, I respect her as an individual. As she says at different points in her story, she dances for herself and herself alone, she’s easily had the toughest life of any of the travelers, yet she gives the impression of someone who hasn’t let it get to her all that much. She has her moments of weakness like anyone would in her situation, but she uses her tough life to bolster her motivations and stand stronger than she did before. Those looks back to her as an innocent child growing up in a wealthy household give a depressing window into what kind of a person she could’ve become because it contrasts so heavily to the Primrose we see on her journey.

Primrose is a character who keeps her emotions under wraps as much as possible and soldiers on no matter what awful things are happening to her, unfortunately, that makes a character that is hard to connect with, even though they are a very deep person when you view their life as a whole.

6 – Olberic Eisenberg

“My blade is UNBENDING!”

Olberic is the closest thing to a celebrity we encounter in Ocopath Traveler (not counting royalty), but he never acts stuck up or arrogant because of it, in fact for the most part he tries to hide his identity.

While at face value, Obleric’s story is one of vengeance, as it unfolds you slowly see that it’s more about an identity crisis. A warrior like Olberic associated his identity so heavily with the king and country he wields his sword in protection of, so without that, what is he supposed to do with himself? While he does seek out Erhardt for revenge, he also seeks him out for answers, to understand why he did what he did, the tournament was a great way to bring this identity crisis to Olberic’s attention, he sees each man he fights is fighting for something or someone and it takes a while for Olberic to realise what that reason is for him.

Olberic’s story ends with him in the same place as he started and he’s not necessarily changed a great deal as a person, except for one key difference, he understands who he is now and he knows what he wants to spend the rest of his life doing. The Olberic we saw at the start sees living in Cobbleston as a stop-gap until he can discover Erhardt’s whereabouts, but the Olberic that returns to Cobbleston at the end sees it as a home with a duty to protect those who live there.

When it comes to gameplay, the Warrior is definitely the best offensive non-advanced class. The sword strike are powerful and have the option to target one or all foes, along with lance attacks that provide great coverage for weaknesses, combined with the Hunter class (or eventually Warmaster) you have an all-out power character that can also tank a decent amount of damage to boot.

So, I’ve done nothing but praise Olberic in this entry, so why is he so low? Well honestly, it’s because I’ve never really played with him in my party very often, in fact, he’s the only character that’s never spent an extended amount of time in the party over my two playthroughs. Both times I started far away from Olberic on the world map, so by the time I got to him, I already had other characters that filled his roll so he was a bit redundant. With more time I’m sure I’d grow a larger fondness for Olberic, but as it stands, I haven’t had much time to get to know the guy.

5 – Therion

“Come on, I’ve got better things to do.”

Unlike most of the other travelers, we never find out Therion’s surname, which in a weird way adds to his character. Therion is a man who had tried very hard to build an aura of mystique around him, he works alone, doesn’t make friends and simply does the job he needs to do. He has a very bad attitude towards other people, which is why it was key to his story to strip away that aura so we could see the man that lies beneath.

While it would be so easy to dismiss Therion as an edgelord who just wants people to see how cool he is, there’s so much more to it than that. Finding out about Darius’ betrayal is a key point to this story because watching all of the flashbacks you realise that the Therion before Darius betrayed him, is almost unrecognisable from the Therion after the fact. That betrayal changed him into a cold, untrusting man who believes the whole world is out to get him, and really the first couple of chapters of his story seem to confirm that belief.

He’s baited into a trap by Heathcote and Cordelia and then blackmailed to go on a journey he couldn’t be bothered with, before being shown multiple examples of friends and brothers turning their backs on each other for one reason or another. The whole world seems to be reaffirming Therion’s idea that no-one is to be trusted, which is what makes Cordelia such a key character to Therion’s story. Here we have someone who suffered a similar betrayal to Therion and yet is still just as open and trust as ever and watching Therion try to deal with it makes for such a good story. He just can’t comprehend how someone could still believe in other people after what she’d gone through and while we don’t see him fully open up and trust people again in his story, it’s clear the attitude of Cordelia has wormed its way into his mind and you get the impression that he’s going to slowly change his ways.

The Thief class is surprisingly versatile, there are abilities like Armour Corrosive that are great at assisting others in their striking capabilities, but skills like HP/SP Theif and Aeber’s Reckoning still pack quite a mighty punch. I’m not sure what secondary classes work best, although I had some success with both Merchant and Runelord, nothing has quite lept out at me as a perfect fit for the class just yet; not to mention, the fact that you need Therion to open purple chests means he pretty much has a reserved slot in the party.

Therion is a guy who’s exceptionally closed off and moody, but unlike Primrose, the story goes to great lengths to strip that away and show us the soft person that lives underneath that armour. He’s a fascinating look at what can happen to people who try to be something they’re not, but God I wish I could be even half as cool as him.

4 – Cyrus Albright

“Now the true lesson begins!”

Cyrus is my kind of guy, someone who is unabashedly obsessed with something and that passion for it comes out in every single word he says. Cyrus could quite happily sit in the library studying tomes for days just to translate a single sentence of ancient text and he wouldn’t have a care in the world about how much time has passed.

When Cyrus speaks about how he believes knowledge is something to be shared and passed on, not hoarded I truly believe in his sentiments because of vigour with which he says them. His confrontation with Lucia is absolutely perfect at framing this, the debate those two have over how knowledge is supposed to be treated is honestly one of the most rivetting cutscenes in the whole game because of just how well performed both parts are, it genuinely felt like two opposing ideologies clashing in a major way.

Cyrus’ dedication to his studies does, however, lead to a lot of unintentional comedy at his expense however since he seems to be totally oblivious to everything else in life. I normally don’t care for every female character in sight swooning over a guy, but the fact that it’s Cyrus, who probably doesn’t even notice a difference between men and women, makes it absolutely hilarious. I can’t help but smile at scenes like his one with Ophilia where he just doesn’t understand what the problem is with stating a woman’s beauty in the flowery, over-flattering way that he does, to him it’s just a fact and facts must be shared with others, it’s adorable and I wouldn’t want him any other way.

The scholar class is an interesting one, it’s very useful early on in the game, but once you have the Sorcerer advanced class it becomes pretty useless since it’s entirely focused on elemental attacks, which Sorcerer does much better, although Cyrus’ talent that instantly reveals a weakness of an enemy is very useful indeed.

Cyrus is a man who is driven by his passion for knowledge and the desire to be able to pass that knowledge on, while his relative naivete about many other aspects of his life makes for a character that always makes me smile whenever he talks.

3 – Tressa Colzione

“Now to seal the deal!”

Tressa is everything about the joy of youth captured in a character. Almost nothing gets Tressa down, even in her lowest moments, it doesn’t take her long to pick herself up off of the ground and push forward full of determination. She takes the time to find the joy in everything she does and as she rambles on about all of her passions and travels, I can hear the smile in her voice.

Having her as a merchant was a very interesting idea for the character too, because it means she’s very smart and savvy – she doesn’t let much get by her – but she’s also still got that level of naivete that comes with being that young. She does all she can to see the best in people, sometimes to her detriment but she refuses to let any bad experiences sour her view on the world. She meets someone like Ali who totally undercuts her profits, which she’s salty about, but when he needs help, she won’t hesitate to lend a hand because the joy in her life comes from the people around her and bringing the smiles and joy out them; be that through being a good friend or selling them something they’ll truly treasure, it’s what makes her tick.

There’s not a great deal of complexity there, but there doesn’t really need to be. In her journey, she has her view on the world challenged, but she sticks true to herself and finds exactly what she was looking for out of her time away from home; she knows what she wants, and she keeps going until she finds it. Tressa doesn’t change as a person all that much in her story, but that’s because her story is about her changing everyone around her. She gets a softer, more sensitive side out of Ali and inspires Noa to stay strong and go on a journey of her own, despite her condition.

On top of that, the Merchant class is a deceivingly powerful one. The Transfer Rune & Sidestep combo is well known by now of course, but you’ve also got the invaluable skills of Donate BP which is always useful and Hired Help which can be extremely powerful if you have the cash to spare.

I always like a character that is unabashedly happy and joyous all the time, but the difference between Tressa and Alfyn is that Alfyn’s happiness seems a little forced and like nothing ever phases him, but with Tressa that happiness is built into her character and absolutely flows out of her whenever she’s on-screen.

2 – Ophilia Clement

“The flame guides us true.”

Ophilia is quite simply the purest human to ever live.

From her flowing blonde hair to her pure white robes, everything about Ophilia is clean, soft and elegant. Every single one of her actions in her story is motivated by doing kindness for other people: She takes on the kindling so Lianna can stay with the dying archbishop; the only reason anything happens in her Chapter 2 story is simply because she wanted to chat with some children and help them out; She puts herself in harms way to rescue the Bishop’s daughter in Goldshore and she does everything she can to pull Lianna out of the pit of despair she falls into.

Nothing sways Ophilia from her belief that the is kindness in every living creature, no matter how bleak things look for her. The irony in the way Ophilia acts is that it’s motivated by an incredibly traumatic childhood, she lost her parents and was taken into a family that she could never truly call her own, even when they welcomed her with open arms. She can never bring herself to call the archbishop “father” because it just doesn’t feel right to her and yet at the same time she’s dedicated herself to expressing the kindness to everyone else that these people have shown to her.

What’s more, is she’s willing to stand up and fight for those beliefs when they’re challenged. I feel that emotion in her voice as refuses to let Mattias get the better of her, as she defends her belief that kindness and love will always win over the darkness, she refuses to be moved because the highs and lows in her life have made her so much stronger than anyone could imagine.

Not only is she a wonderful person, but she’s an extremely strong party member to boot. Cleric is a fantastic class with widespread healing, reflective counters and powerful elemental attacks, I find Ophilia tends to have the most powerful elemental offence of anyone on my team, especially when she’s given the Sorceror class, she’s an absolute mainstay of my team.

Ophilia is a character with many layers to her past and her motivations as to why she does what she does and she stands firm when those motivations are challenged or called into question. No character in the game is kinder or purer than Ophilia, but you’d also be hard-pressed to find anyone mentally stronger than her.

1 – H’aanit

“Standest thou against me? Then be hunted!”

Thy may speakest liken a twat, but goddamnest I loven everything abouted thou.

I did consider writing like that for the whole thing, but that one sentence took 5 minutes so sod it.

H’aanit was the first traveler I picked when starting up the game, so I don’t think it’s that surprising that I like her as much as I do, since across my two full playthroughs there’s literally never been a time when she wasn’t in my party and that’s the kind of thing that tends to endear you to a character.

I know most people hate how she speaks, but I find it pretty cute. It’s so unnecessary that I can’t help but wonder how such a speaking pattern evolved in S’warkii. Did one guy just start doing it one day and everyone caught on? Did they just never move on from a time where it was commonplace? Either way, I think it helps exemplify who H’aanit is a character, someone who doesn’t quite fit in with the world around her.

She’s a respected village member in S’warkii of course, but I always got the impression that she didn’t have a close connection with anyone there other than Z’aanta. Immediately the story takes away the only person she had a real connection with in the world and it makes it so interesting to watch her try to fit in with all of the other characters in the world because you can tell she feels a bit out of her depth, yet soldiers on anyway.

Even things like the travel banter with the other travelers shows us that she doesn’t understand a great deal about the world outside her village, constantly asking questions to understand why many of the other travelers do what they do in their stories. Even when she starts to understand, she can’t help but draw parallels to hunting, because that’s all she really knows, it’s the only context she has with which to understand the world and I can’t help but find a character like that extremely endearing.

The changes in her at the end of heE story are subtle, but when you think about them, they’ll make a huge impact on her life. In her early chapters, it often feels like she’s feigning confidence in unfamiliar situations and towns and there’s always that small sense of nervous energy to her, but by the final chapter that’s gone; it’s not fake confidence anymore, it’s the real deal. H’aanit was forced to experience the world without the one person she could rely on to teach her and it’s made her an infinitely better-rounded person. Saying she “becomes the master” is a bit of a stretch, but I definitely get the feeling that she’s got a new outlook on both the world and herself by the time her story comes to an end. It’s so subtle and yet so powerful.

Looking at the gameplay side of things, H’aanit is an absolute powerhouse if you build her correctly. Combining her abilities with that of the Warrior job makes for an extremely powerful physical attacker that can buff the rest of the party in the process; not to mention Leghold Trap is one of the most vital skills in the whole game. In the late game, giving her the Warmaster skill makes her pretty much unstoppable, easily being able to deal out over 50K damage per hit with WinnehIlds Battle Cry. I don’t know where I’d be without her on my team.

H’aanit is a character that I feel like very few people like as much as I do and I can see why, but my personal experiences with the character have made me connect with her so much that I can’t help but draw myself towards her whenever I can.

Oh and also, she has a Snow Leopard that’s one of the most beautiful animals I’ve ever seen, so shove it.

So that’s it! Those are my rankings of every traveler in Octopath Traveler. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article, let me know what travelers you like best either in the comments below on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to come back next weekend, where we’ll be going back to the world of Doctor Who!

10 Best Tracks from Octopath Traveler

WARNING: This list will contain major SPOILERS for several traveler’s stories and post-game content.

Yes, I know I’m one week late to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Octopath Traveler’s release, but there was a WWE Pay-Per-View on, so I had to cover that instead. Regardless, I’m making it up to you with not just one, but two articles all about Octopath Traveler this weekend, one today and one on Sunday.

The first of these is the part of a game that always sticks with me the longest. Moreso than the story, the characters or even the gameplay, what sticks with me for the longest time after I’m finished with a game is the music. With each passing year, my Spotify playlist is becoming more and more filled with game OST’s and Octopath Traveler’s soundtrack is most definitely my overall favourite.

The soundtrack has just about everything you could want, there are touching slow tracks, exhilaratingly fast tracks and just about everything in between and as of right now, it’s the only game soundtrack that I own a physical CD of, I love it that much.

Naturally, picking 10 tracks was always going to be a tricky task that led to me leaving some great tracks off of the list like H’annit, the Hunter; A Settlement in the Red Bluffs and Battle II, which are all honourable mentions. Also, I know it’s obvious, but this is the internet so I still need to stress that these are my opinions. Music is one of the most subjective things out there in the world and naturally, this list will revolve around my tastes (loud and fast over soft and slow, generally) so don’t feel insulted if I left off a track you really like.

Anyway, let’s get on with it, shall we?

10 – Tressa, the Merchant

Listen Here

The traveler’s themes were an absolute stroke of genius by the composer of this soundtrack, Yasunori Nishiki. The idea of having an instrument to represent each of the travelers is such a great idea and I think they nailed which instrument should be used for each traveler.

In Tressa’s case, we have the harmonica, which seemed odd to me at first, but I realised how well it fits a travelling merchant. A harmonica is the kind of instrument you can fit in your pocket and, as far as instruments go, it’s one of the easier ones to get a base level understanding off, which is exactly the kind of oddity a travelling merchant might pick up in their journeys. On top of that, it strikes in me feelings of youth an innocent and since Tressa is the youngest of the travelers, it’s perfect.

The melody encapsulates who Tressa is so well, there’s the chimes and violin in the background that hint at her inquisitive and slightly cheeky nature, with the harmonica there going through highs and lows to convey her desire to break free of the small little town she’s in and see the world. Even when the harmonica sinks into those lower notes, there’s still this cheerful tone to it, Tressa would love to get out of her little town but she’s still happy living there and is determined to make the most of every day and get the best deal possible.

This track invokes those feelings of optimism in me and brings out that cheerful and cheeky side that so often gets dragged down in life.

9 – They Who Govern Reason

Listen Here

I’ll level with you, a lot of this list is going to be battle themes.

The advanced job bosses were definitely my favourite battles in the whole game, they struck that perfect level of challenge where, even when I was over-levelled, I had to go in with a strategy and change it on the fly when things went wrong, not to mention the rewards were so great that I wanted to get them as soon as possible, so I was usually under-levelled instead.

This music fits the idea of these battles so well, the track can almost be split into two halves, the first half with the violins seems almost jovial, with how the melody bounces along, which makes sense in a way. These beings aren’t threatening to destroy the world, or even trying to kill you, they’re just testing you to see if you’re worthy of wielding the power they’re going to bestow upon you.

Then all of a sudden the track flips and becomes a lot more threatening and sinister as the drums and deep trumpets come in to remind you that, though they may not be out to get you, these beings your fighting are still Gods of some description, they’re not going to go down easy even in a situation like this.

This track manages to cut a great balance between bringing both the fun and the intensity of the battles that it plays in and it’s able to switch between the two so seamlessly to boot.

8 – Olberic, the Warrior

Listen Here

Olberic is an inherently tragic character, not quite as tragic as Primrose admittedly, but he’s still a man with a past that troubles him, with failures he feels he’s responsible for.

This track is able to capture that sense of tragedy that lies in Olberic’s character, the whole thing has an innate sadness to the whole track mostly thanks to the violins that start off the track, they create this very downtrodden picture in my mind of that deserted battlefield where Olberic met his downfall. Then the trumpets start playing alongside the violin the image changes.

The violins swell into much higher notes as those trumpets kick in and I can just see Olberic staring out over that long-dead battlefield that he used to call home. Those trumpets then become the main focus of the melody, representing Olberic as he stands tall, living to fight another day. Olberic is someone who takes a lot of pride in wielding his blade and I get that attitude when I listen to the trumpets in this song. They’re mighty and strong, but flawed and there’s this underlying sadness to them that hits me every time I hear this track.

7 – Battle III

Listen Here

The random encounter themes in Octopath are all brilliant, but this is the one that stands out the most to me. Each one of the “Battle” tracks does such a good job of building and adding to the previous ones. The melodies aren’t the same of course, but the intensity and scale of the tracks slowly increase as you get into higher and higher levelled areas, culminating in this adrenaline fuelled piece of music.

First of all, the opening is my favourite opening to any track on the album, the quick lead in with the drums, the little taste of the main melody on the violins before everything stops so the trumpets can do their bit and then we’re right into the battle. The pace in this track is a mile a minute, which is exactly what it should be, because when you get to these high-level areas you start coming across some crazy enemies and you should have your strongest attacks to unleash by this point, meaning this is exactly what these battles feel like.

Not only that, but the track also does a good job of mimicking the ebb and flow of a battle through its melody. By the very nature of the turn-based combat, these fights have a lot of back and forth to them and I can feel that in the way the violins behave here. They’ll burst forth with energy for a few seconds before taking a quick breather and coming back in just as strong. I didn’t flee from many encounters while playing Octopath, and this music is one of the biggest reasons why.

6 – Cyrus, the Scholar

Listen Here

Cyrus is an incredibly grandiose and joyous character. He’s bold and grand in everything he does, but he also takes a great deal of fun out of all of his work that’s exactly the emotions this tracks conveys to me.

I can imagine Cyrus standing there at the head of his class while this music plays, excitedly spouting all of the knowledge he’s gained over the years to these young people that sit before him because that’s what he loves to do. There’s an elegance to the track that completely fits with how I imagine Cyrus carries himself when teaching, how I imagine he reads and writes for days on end, buried in his studies so deeply that he barely even notices the passage of time.

The passion, the wisdom, the charm. Everything that makes Cyrus who he is is there in this track, elegantly gliding about the stage as the violins swell into those high notes, mimicking Cyrus’ many passionate (and slightly over the top) speeches he makes throughout the game of the value of knowledge and his desire to pass all his knowledge on to others.

Personally, I don’t think any of the other traveler themes capture the essence of who the character is quite as well as Cyrus’ track does here. Whenever this track hits my ears, I instantly think Cyrus and it makes the picture of him in my mind very clear.

5 – Daughter of the Dark God

Listen Here

It was always going to be an opera singer, wasn’t it?

The final boss of Octopath Traveler always felt like a huge deal to me, after 50+ hours of bringing these travelers through to the conclusions of their journey’s, we’re faced with what all of the loose ends were drawing to, fighting the long-sealed away God of darkness Galdera.

As Lyblac steps into the darkness to unleash Galdera, I got that sense that everything had been building up this and what better music to back up this fight for the ages. That almost heavenly voice of the opera singer feels like it’s the soul of Galdera finally breaking free and being able to show the world it’s true power. I don’t know what the lyrics are, but I know there are words like “death” and “annihilation” scattered in there, it gives that sense of foreboding that this is Galdera’s time to shine, not yours, you’re just standing in their way.

Then, once the opera singer has finished the track moves into an epic crescendo, that is exactly what imagined the final boss battle of this game to sound like. The way those violins hit those high notes is that force of the travelers and their will to stop Galdera from wreaking havoc upon the world, only for the singer to come back in and the two fight each other for dominance in the track, mimicking the battle for the fate of the world you’re currently engaged in.

This is by far the toughest battle in the whole game and this music does a great job of capturing the menace of what stands before you, but keeping that sense of hope there throughout the fight.

4 – Decisive Battle II

Listen Here

Decisive Battle II is a track that wastes no time in getting you pumped up for the boss battle ahead. While Decisive Battle I focuses more on being menacing, edition II of the track tries to intimidate you through sheer power and speed.

The track immediately hits you with sharp violin notes backed up by trumpets and cymbals, which is such a great intro for some of the boss battles in the game, it gets you straight in the mood for action while also being a shock to the system and somewhat intimidating. Then the orchestra kicks into full gear and we get another battle theme that is able to capture the ebb and flow of a battle, the main melody pushes back and forth between high and low notes so smoothly you can feel when the tide in the battle turns thanks to the movements.

Ever now and then the trumpets will kick back in, signalling those big power moves you can bust out in Octopath that do a crazy amount of damage. There’s also a slight elegance to the melody in between the grand moments with the trumpets, that I think really helps me picture what these battles would actually look like in real-time were this a film instead.

Decisive Battle II is a track that’s not afraid to go very big, very fast in order to capture the epic scale of some of the boss battles you face in Octopath, while still keeping a level of nuance in there that makes this soundtrack so great to listen to.

3 – Determination

Listen Here

This track is most definitely the one that gets the strongest level of emotion out of me.

That’s partly thanks to how it generally plays during the most emotionally charged scenes of the stories, specifically when low characters are picking themselves up at long last. The melody is so simple and yet I find it incredibly powerful, the way the oboe slowly rises it’s notes until it transitions into the violins that carry on the melody as drums, and trumpets start to come in and back it up.

When it comes in at moments like when Primrose is standing on that stage, confronting Simeon I can’t help but well up as she makes her stand, not letting this horrible man put her down again and again. Drawing comparisons to movies, I can absolutely see this playing in the background as the protagonist makes their rousing speech to huge cheers from the audience.

I talk so much about how much I connected with the characters and stories in Octopath, but I don’t think I could’ve connected anywhere near as much without tracks like this.

2 – Main Theme

Listen Here

This is the kind of track that I probably wouldn’t care that much for under any other circumstances, but the amount of emotion and connection that I now have thanks to this song makes it so wonderful to hear.

It starts off so peaceful and slow with the lone flute and the violins softly in the background and the whole thing slowly but surely builds up, looping the main melody three times throughout the track, but each time adding more and more to the orchestra, making everything feel so much grander, it almost mimics the pattern on the character’s journey. They start out on their own, setting off from their quiet home town, before slowly going out there and exploring the vast world, meeting so many new people and facing tougher challenges along the way.

Not only that, but I think this is the track that best encapsulates what the Octopath Traveler soundtrack is like, because as the track progresses and more and more instruments get added it really does seem to have a bit of everything. I remember listening to this music reach a climax as the credits rolled on my first playthrough of the game and it genuinely brought a tear to my eye.

This is the track that most resembles Octopath Traveler in my mind and listening to it brings back all these wonderful memories of the times I’ve had Orsterra.

1 – Battle at Journey’s End

Listen Here

When Battle at Journey’s End begins to play emotions are always at the highest, this is the final battle, everything this traveler has suffered through in their journey has led up to this battle here where it’s all on the line (especially if you forgot to save beforehand), so these battles really needed a piece of music that captured that level of emotion so here we are.

Battle at Journey’s End is a closest a track from a video game comes to flawless if you ask me. The quick grand hits from the orchestra to start off the track gets us straight into the heat of things and then the violins that carry the melody instil the flow of the battle into the music while the bass guitar and drums in the background keep everything feeling extremely intense.

Then when the next section of the track hits, I always tear up because the raw power of the emotion behind this section is so strong that I can’t help but cry. The melody of the flute and trumpets as they reach their high notes click so well with me and when that melody repeats for a third time, with the lone flute hitting as high notes as are humanly possible as the drums and bass guitar in the background serve to emphasise it, I feel all of the emotions I’ve built up over the course of the journey pour out of me.

The track does an amazing job of capturing that sense of the final step in a journey, it’s always the toughest step of all, but it’s also the best one. This track manages to make the final battle feel epic, high stakes and threatening while keeping the emotions of everything that’s happened up until that point running high, truely investing me, in the journey’s end.

So that’s it! Those are my favourite tracks from the Octopath Traveler soundtrack. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article and let me know what some of your favourite tracks are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo.

Make sure you come back this time on Sunday when I’ll be continuing the celebration by ranking all 8 travelers!

WWE Extreme Rules 2019: Every Match Ranked

Extreme Rules has been and gone and I can honestly say that I had a good time watching it. This show had a whole bunch of matches that were good fun to watch and nothing fell below my expectations, many even surpassed them. Even the worst matches of the show were still ok and I think this has done a really good job of putting things in place for Summerslam.

Let’s waste no further time rambling and get right to it, here’s every match of Extreme Rules 2019 ranked.

12 – Kevin Owens def. Dolph Ziggler

I was very confused and slightly annoyed when WWE randomly added two matches to the show out of the blue about 3-4 hours before the show was set to start, but in hindsight, this was a good way to keep things rolling with Kevin Owens.

Since the match itself was only 15 seconds long I can’t rank it any higher than last, but I think this and the promo Owens cut afterwards was a great way to push this new character angle he’s going for. If Owens is going to be the man to finally shut Shane up, then this Stone Cold esque anti-hero character is definitely the way to go about it, since it fits in with Owens promo style and in-ring abilities perfectly.

Was it just put there to fill some time before the world title matches? Probably, but as filler goes, it was very entertaining.

11 – Bayley(c) def. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

This match was fine.

I generally say this about one match every month, but this was a match that didn’t really capture my attention all that much but didn’t have any major flaws or nitpicks for me to talk about, it was fine.

I’m not entirely sure where the Alexa/Nikki storyline is going to go from here, Alexa seemed a bit miffed after Nikki lost the match for her, but she still hugged her and stuff in what looked genuine friendship as opposed to Alexa just leading her on. I feel like this story might struggle a bit without the title involved but at the same time there isn’t any more I think they can do with the Alexa, Nikki, Bayley combo in title matches and I’d much rather see Bayley move onto other things.

Perhaps Nikki gets a solo title shot on Smackdown and Alexa screws it up, either deliberately or accidentally? The only problem there is, I’m not sure how you could justify Nikki getting a one on one title shot after she took the pin in this match. I’ll be happy as long as the Summerslam match isn’t just more of the same if I’m being honest.

10 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

Well, this match was better than I was expecting it to be.

I feel like if the overall show was of a worse quality I would’ve been in a worse mood and slaughtered this match, but we’ll never know since I was in a good mood when this one got underway. It was pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Last Man Standing matches in WWE, there was a lot of aimless fighting, taking occasional breaks to do big spots before ending on a huge spot.

It could’ve been really slow and plodding, but the fact that the match was constantly on the mood helped to artificially accelerate the pace of the match and make it feel a lot more interesting to watch. There were plenty of good looking spots scattered throughout and it wasn’t just one man on top the whole time, which Last Man Standing matches often can be. As for the final spot, the fall itself was a little underwhelming considering the impact made absolutely no sound whatsoever, but goddamn, I popped when Strowman burst through the wall in the final moments; yes it was cheesy and yes it was obvious, but I got a kick out of it.

I do think that the Philadelphia crowd need a higher bar for chanting “Holy Shit” though, considering they chanted it when Lashley got thrown at a soft felt wall.

9 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

To answer my question from the predictions, this was a one-and-done for Joe.

Considering the number of matches on the show, I was surprised that almost every match got the time I felt it needed…except this one, which clearly got cut short for time. At 9 minutes 45 seconds, this was the second shortest match on the main show, the first being the 15 second Owens/Ziggler match, and this was the WWE title match.

For what it was, I didn’t have any complaints about this match, I thought these two worked well together and the match had a nice flow to it, unfortunately, the finish felt really sudden and very jarring because of how short the match ended up being. It’s clear that Joe isn’t getting a rematch after this, which is a shame, but I’ll see what the plan for Summerslam is first before poo-pooing it.

This was definitely the biggest disappointment on the night, but the match was still alright even if it didn’t get the time it needed.

8 – Drew Gulak(c) def. Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

Honestly, I would’ve been fine cutting another 5 minutes from the WWE title match if it meant this got to be on the main card.

Once again I felt (as I often do with the cruiserweight title matches on the pre-show) that this match could’ve been a lot better than it ended up being if it was in a better spot and got some more time because these guys always make the most of the time they get. Both of these guys put on a really solid performance here, with a number of good spots, like when Tony was going for some form of standing stomp and Drew launched himself up off the floor to grab Nese into a roll-up.

This should definitely be the end of the road for Nese in the Cruiserweight title scene, he’s been great to watch, but there are plenty of guys like Oney Lorcan and Humberto Carrillo who need the chance to put on a great match with Gulak.

7 – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Balor(c)
(Intercontinental Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

O…K?

So, not only was a major title match added to the pre-show about 3 hours before it was set to take place, but the title also changed hands in that match? This seems like a really odd decision and one that was most certainly made last-minute. I can’t necessarily say I’m against it though.

Unfortunately, Balor has been getting no TV time with the IC title this past couple of months, so perhaps this was a quick move to shake things up and get the title back in a featured role again. If that’s the case, then I think this was a great move, however, if nothing changes, then this title change seems rather pointless. That said, I’m never going to complain too much about Shinsuke Nakamura winning a championship.

The match itself was pretty good for what it was too. I was left a bit underwhelmed by Balor & Nakamura’s match in NXT, but it seems both men were working a little harder last night because I thought this was a really enjoyable affair. Maybe the constraint of the time worked to their benefit and forced them to work a faster pace, because the flow to this match was really nice and nothing over-stayed it’s welcome, not to mention the finish was genuinely surprising.

Let’s just hope this actually gets a follow-up.

6 – Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) def. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)

I’m including Brock’s cash in with this too. I would’ve put it in the header, but it was already 5 lines long.

Well, this match did surpass my expectations, but to be fair, my expectations were quite low, to begin with. My main worry was that this was going to be a standard weapons match, with a lot of slow setting up of spots that end up not being worth it and while that was the case for one spot, the majority of the match didn’t sacrifice flow and pacing for the sake of a quick shock.

I found that generally weapons were used very effectively throughout this match, as a way to put an exclamation point on the wrestling sequence that preceded it, rather than being the main focus on the match. Watching Becky & Rollins wail on Corbin & Lacey with kendo sticks was a great sight and even the tables spot was fun to watch since it was the only big spot of the match.

I also liked the storytelling of the finish, with Corbin hitting the End of Days to Becky Lynch, sending Seth Rollins into a frenzy and there’s no clearer way to say Corbin’s done with the title scene than being beaten down with chairs, kendo sticks and three Curb Stomps before being pinned. I also liked the nice touch of Lacey seeing Rollins going mental and just decided to get out of there, it’s believable for her character.

Now, Brock Lesnar.

I’m personally ok with this because I’m pretty confident that this title reign is only going to be a month long. Ever since Lesnar won Money in the Bank, I was pretty certain this is where we were headed and even since Wrestlemania I thought we were going to have to get a full-length match between Rollins & Lesnar at some point. So as long as Lesnar drops the title back to Seth at Summerslam, I don’t see any harm in him holding the title for the next month.

5 – The Revival(c) def. The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Oh hey, I remember tag team wrestling.

This match wasn’t on the level of a Takeover tag team match by any means, but damn it’s refreshing to see a good tag team match involving these guys, especially in the Raw tag scene.

As we had all hoped, these two teams worked fantastically together, things didn’t get quite as chaotic as I would’ve liked, but this match was filled with the classic of tag team wrestling. They got a really nice balance between, slow wearing down of opponents with The Revival working their mat-based offence and The Uso’s flying about the place, popping the crowd and dolling out all of the Superkicks in the world.

I was surprised with The Revival winning, but given that this match actually got the time and respect it deserved, I’m cautiously optimistic about where this is going, perhaps some sort of stipulation variant on this match would be good for Summerslam, or even better, turn the Viking Raiders face and have them get involved in the title scene. I don’t wanna go crazy with optimism after one ray of hope, but a turn around could be very close by for the Raw tag division.

4 – Roman Reigns & The Undertaker def. Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

Oh hey, I remember The Undertaker.

That horrible match against Goldberg at Super Showdown must’ve really flicked a switch in Undertaker’s mind because he was on fire tonight. I think most of us expected Roman to carry the majority of the match, with Taker only coming in for the big spots and greatest hits, but Taker ended up putting in the most work out of anyone in this match and it was great to watch.

The moments between Drew and Undertaker gave me the tinglies, especially that fantastic shot where Drew appeared behind Taker as he did the throat slit gesture and Shane McMahon somehow didn’t outshine everyone. Having Elias show up was a nice little bit of continuity and the whole thing made good use of the No Holds Barred stipulation, without blowing any of the big spots for later in the night.

The finishing sequence was great fun too, Taker sitting up will always get a pop out of me, and the sheer terror in Shane’s face as Taker grabbed his leg was priceless. I also loved Roman intercepting Drew just as he was about to Claymore Taker, the cameras didn’t catch him getting in the ring, so it was a genuine surprise that looked really good. Also, Shane McMahon didn’t get a win over The Undertaker, which is always a plus.

3 – AJ Styles def. Ricochet(c)
(United States Championship)

It’s amazing what happens when you let good wrestlers do good wrestling.

These two were always going to put on a great match and that’s exactly what we got. Styles as a heel is really good at slowing the pace of a match so he can work a more heelish style without grinding the match to a halt like wrestlers like Corbin & Mcintyre often do. Things slowed down a bit in the middle, but it didn’t last very long, since just as I was starting to get a bit bored by it, Ricochet started to make his comeback and from then on the action didn’t stop.

I probably wouldn’t have picked AJ to win if I were in charge, but I don’t necessarily think it was a bad decision. For one thing, Ricochet only lost because of the interference from Gallows & Anderson and as such it feels like this was the end of act 2 in this 3 act play, with the conclusion hopefully being Ricochet getting the title back at Summerslam. Even if this isn’t the case, I’m not gonna be too sad seeing AJ as US champion, hopefully, he can do some of the great stuff he did as WWE champ last year on a smaller scale.

2 – The New Day def. Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) & Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Wow, they really nailed the tag team action last night didn’t they?

This match was everything I was expecting it to be, starts out simple but slowly breaks down and becomes a whole lot of fun chaos. All three teams got to look really good here, for Heavy Machinery it was a great continuation of how good they looked at Stomping Grounds, even if there was never a spot where it actually looked like they might win. Bryan & Rowan did a good job of all the stuff they usually do, especially in the case of Daniel Bryan, who spent the most time in the ring in the match.

The flow to the match was there too, with it not obviously being “the time this team gets to have offence” it all sort of moved through each of the teams so seamlessly that you can’t segment the match like you can for a lot of others like this one. I loved the finish too, I really thought Daniel Bryan was going to win when he started tieing Big E in knots, but the moved wonderfully from that into Big E catching Daniel Bryan after his usual flip out of the corner. It made for a nice surprise and I’m always a fan of New Day as tag champs.

1 – Aleister Black def. Cesaro

Oh yeah, Aleister Black and Cesaro are awesome wrestlers, it’s been easy to forget that in recent times.

This match is exactly what I’d hoped it would be, 10 solid minutes of great wrestlers doing great wrestling. The whole structure of the match worked perfectly to serve Aleister Black looking good, with a big flurry of offence towards the start, until Cesaro was able to withstand it and take the fight to Black for an extended period of time before Black forced momentum to swing back in his favour.

As much as this was a showcase for Black, Cesaro also got a chance to look great as his offence looked as hard-hitting and fun to watch as always and he could easily keep pace when Black starting putting his foot on the accelerator. Once again I adored the finish, highlighting Black’s superior striking ability and that Black Mass was something else, I genuinely let out an involuntary “OH!” when it hit because it was so brutal looking, not to mention Cesaro sold it to perfection.

I don’t know what Black’s going to be doing next, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if it was another match with Cesaro, preferably longer than ten minutes so the match can ascend from “really good” to “freaking amazing”. Either way, I’m optimistic about Aleister Black’s future.

And there you have it! Those are my opinions on Extreme Rules 2019! Thank you very much for taking the time to read, if you want to let me know what you thought you are welcome in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to join me later in the week when I shall celebrating Octopath Traveler’s 1st Birthday!

WWE Extreme Rules 2019: Predictions & Analysis

The promised land of Summerslam is just beyond the horizon, I can almost feel it’s warm glow, but first, we’ve got to make a stop off at Extreme Rules, a card that I’m not really sure what to make of. There are plenty of matches that have the promise to be great, but there is also a lot of the treading water that we saw from Stomping Grounds.

Ultimately I’m not going to make a call on how I think this show will be remembered because it really could go either way. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were talking about the worst PPV of the year come Monday, but it also would be surprising if we’re all pleasantly surprised like we were for Stomping Grounds.

What I can call, however, are the results of the matches, so let’s do that instead.

The Revival(c) vs The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

I can’t believe myself.

I should be so excited about this match, it’s my favourite tag team against the best tag team and I just don’t care. The Raw tag team division has been non-existent for so long now that I can’t bear to have any optimism towards it anymore, it does have the upside of keeping the Cruiserweights off of the pre-show, but it means that I’m not even vaguely invested in some of the best talent in WWE right now.

I hope this match will be good and it has all the potential to, but I don’t think it’s going to be given the time to breathe that it really needs to be a great match. Not to mention The Revival have been treated as such a joke when it comes to the main roster that this could very well end up being a squash match.

Either way, The Usos need to win this one, because that is the only chance the Raw tag division has of being pulled out of this rutt it’s been in for all of 2019, if The Revival retain, as much as I love them, it’ll be another month of the titles barely being on TV and probably not on Summerslam at all, at least they have a chance of doing some good around The Uso’s waists.

Drew Gulak(c) vs Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Please, just let them be on the main show for once.

I feel like I say this every month (because I do), but it really is true that these guys are putting on matches twice as good as almost everyone who makes the main card and they deserve the spotlight. I don’t understand how you can expect 205 Live’s ratings to improve when you refuse to put them in front of audiences when they’re actually watching.

Regardless, Gulak has been great so far as Cruiserweight Champion. The Cruiserweight title is one of those titles that always seems to do way better around the waist of a heel than a face and Drew is probably the best character on the whole show right now. Conversely, Tony Nese is someone who always does much better chasing the title than holding it, so this is a much better position for him to be in going into this match.

As such, a one on one match between these two should be something great to watch, no matter when it goes on because these guys are at the peak of their performances as characters. There must be a winner though and I feel confident in saying that winner will be Drew Gulak, I can’t see how it would be to anyone’s benefit to hotshot the title back onto Nese right now, especially with people like Akira Tozowa and Oney Lorcan nipping at Drew’s heels for the coming months.

Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) vs The New Day vs Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

In this week’s episode of Daniel Bryan vs The World…

As much as Big E & Xavier Woods have been doing great as the backup to WWE Champion Kofi Kingston so far this year, I think that giving them something of their own to do again was a great move, since there was the risk of both men fading too far into the background in the wake of Kofi’s title win. Heavy Machinery also made a big impact with their match at Stomping Grounds, even if the crowd turned on them in favour of their hometown boy, so keeping them in the scene like this is another good move, otherwise, all of their momentum would’ve been squandered.

I have high hopes that this match will be great, New Day are at their best when big tag team matches like this descend into chaos and they can do all of their crazy spots, meanwhile you’ve got big guys like Otis and Rowan there for the high impact stuff to really shock the crowd and then there’s Daniel Bryan, who I’ve sung the praises of enough in these articles for you to know he’ll make this match rock.

I’m actually struggling to pick a winner as well because I’m honestly not sure. Heavy Machinery winning the tag titles seems like the next logical step for their accent in the tag team scene, while I can also see all three members of The New Day holding titles all at the same time. I’m going to stick to my guns for now though and say Daniel Bryan & Rowan will retain, hopefully leading to them vs New Day 2 on 2 at Summerslam in a fantastic match.

Aleister Black vs Cesaro

Finally.

I’ve talked about how great I think Aleister Black is many times before, so as you can imagine I’m very excited to see him in a singles match on a PPV at last, even if it probably won’t be very long.

Cesaro is the absolutely perfect opponent for Black, their in-ring styles matchup so perfectly that I think these two could put on one of the greatest matches we’ve ever seen if the show was called Takeover. As it stands it’s not and I imagine this match will be quite short as a result. Cesaro isn’t very high on the pecking order at the moment, so I think it’s important to give Black a reasonably quick win over him here, then they can go on and have a 15-minute classic at Summerslam instead.

Regardless of the length of the match, Aleister Black most certainly winning this one, then we can finally get on with making this dude a world champion.

Ricochet(c) vs AJ Styles
(United States Championship)

AJ Styles is a heel now because if there’s one thing Raw needed more of, it was heels at the top of the card.

That said, I do prefer heel AJ Styles to any other AJ Styles and the character really needed a shakeup after his far too long title reign last year made us all bored of him, it just might not be the best for the product overall.

That aside, I don’t think anyone would argue with me when I say that this match will be great. Even if it does have a non-finish (which seems likely), I have faith that these two will put on a fantastic match leading up until that point. Styles is great at making the slower, more technical pace of a heel very entertaining to watch and I think it’ll contrast fantastically with Ricochet trying to burst out and flip until he can’t flip no more.

As I mentioned though, I don’t think this match is going to have a clean finish because there’s a lot of conflicting factors coming into this one. You’ve got the brand new United States Champion Ricochet, who can’t lose his title in his second defence, then you’ve got a freshly heel-turned Styles who would have all this newfound momentum taken out from under him if he loses; and they’ve already used up the “surprise roll-up” face win on Raw, so we won’t be seeing it again. It’s a tough one to pick and I think I’m going to regret this pick the closer it gets to the show, but I think Ricochet is going to come away with the win, probably by disqualification when The Club gets involved or something.

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

This match could very well end with one of these guys dying.

Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t care about this match in the slightest, Strowman’s great, but Lashley isn’t a very good fit of an opponent for him, we’ve seen many times that guys equal to Strowman’s size aren’t great opponents for him. However, the combination of the stage explosion on Raw and the addition of the Last Man Standing stipulation have drawn me in.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this match will be just as slow as any other match between these two guys, but if they keep the attitude of the stage explosion spot going, then the sheer spectacle of what these two do in this match could completely overshadow the boring in-between bits. That said, if this just ends up being a standard Last Man Standing match, then it’s gonna be boring as piss.

I don’t know who the winner will be either, because ultimately, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like either of these guys is going to be fighting for the Universal title at Summerslam, so there’s not a lot to gain for the winner. I’m going to go with Braun Strowman because WWE doesn’t seem to care very much about how many losses they feed Bobby Lashley and Strowman desperately needs something important to do.

Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting.

All of the stuff with Nikki and Alexa over the past few months has been great to watch, it’s made Alexa seem like a master manipulator, pulling Nikki in like this, but it doesn’t do it at Nikki’s expense because when she’s challenged by other people, she stands up for herself. I don’t get the impression that Nikki’s going along with Alexa just because she’s too thick to see the forest through the trees, but because in her experiences, Alexa is the only person to actually show Nikki any decency.

That said, the turn is coming like a freight train, but I’m not sure who’s turning on who. It makes the most sense for Nikki to cost Alexa the match here and Alexa will lose her shit about it, but I personally think a slow burn would be a bit more interesting. A scenario where Alexa loses the match but blames Nikki anyway would be a lot more interesting, or even Nikki pinning Bayley to win the title and Alexa takes all the credit.

This match is very much going to be focused on the story between Nikki and Alexa and while it could benefit the match, I feel more like it’ll be to its detriment, I’m not sure though. Speaking of not sure, I’ve got to pick a winner and I’m going to go with Bayley. As much as I think Alexa & Nikki winning the title would be interesting, Bayley needs to hold onto that title at least another month because her title reign is in danger of going down the same route as her previous one, which is not a good thing. Bring Sasha Banks out to beat the piss out of Bayley after the match, that’ll fix things.

The Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

Alright, hands up, who saw this one coming? If you just put your hand up, you’re a liar.

After Super Show Down, I didn’t think we were going to see The Undertaker again for quite a while, so I was very surprised indeed when he showed up on Raw to take out Shane McMahon and Drew Mcintyre, the only problem is, we still haven’t’ really been told why. He’s proclaimed some vague bollocks about wanting Shane’s soul and how Shane’s ego has cost him his soul or something like that, but why wait until now? And why team up with Roman Reigns? There’s no much about this that doesn’t make sense.

Originally I thought this was going to lead to some sort of Roman vs Taker rematch for Summerslam, but if every news site and dirt sheet under the sun is to be believed, we’re actually moving towards Taker vs Drew instead, which I’m very much in favour of.

I’m really not sure how good this match will be, Undertaker will definitely benefit from having to carry most of the match and I imagine a lot of it will be Shane and Drew wearing Roman down before he can make the hot tag to Taker and I don’t think that’s going to be particularly entertaining. With any luck, around the halfway point, this thing will devolve into chaos, since that tends to be when tag team matches are at their most entertaining, especially in a weapons match. That said, none of these guys are good at working fast paced matches, and a slow, plodding weapons match will be just awful.

I’m not sure who to pick as the winner though. On the one hand, how could they justify a Drew vs Taker match with Roman and Taker win here, but also I refuse to allow Shane McMahon to have a win over The fucking Undertaker. I’m gonna go with The Undertaker & Roman Reigns but I’m not all that confident about it and Shane needs to be the one to take the pin.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

Well, now I’m conflicted…

I’m really struggling with who I want to win this match. On the one hand, I’ve loved Kofi’s reign as WWE Champion and it’s been really refreshing to have a face champion that doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him every single week, but on the other hand, Samoa Joe. I’ve wanted Joe to be WWE Champion for ages and this seems like the best opportunity we’re ever going to get, but I’m not sure I can see it happening.

Joe’s been great since starting this feud, as he always is when he’s chasing a title. That power hungry, destroyer character is always the best for Samoa Joe and for some reason chasing a major title always brings that out of him. I’m sure this match will be great too, we all know Joe can work with smaller guys fantastically, his match with Ricochet at Stomping Grounds proved that (if you weren’t already convinced). I also think this will benefit from not being a weapons match since I think both of these two guys work better with a technical style.

I’m really torn on a winner though, this feels like the first time in Kofi’s reign where I can actually see him losing the title, but I’m not sure they’d pull a title change on a B-Show so close to Summerslam, but at the same time I’m not sure if this is a multi-month feud, this could quite easily be a one and done thing for Joe and if that’s the case then he’s definitely not winning the title. I’m going to play it safe for now and say Kofi Kingston using the logic that if the title is going to change hands, it’ll happen at Summerslam, but I’m not confident in the slightest.

Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) vs Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)

Yes, more Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans title matches, that’ll show those Bucks.

I mean, what can I say about this feud that I haven’t already said a thousand times before over the past few months? Lacey’s getting there, but is still way too green for the spot she’s in, I still don’t like Baron Corbin, and Seth & Becky are definitely going to retain. I’ve honestly not been a fan of this pair being so forced together on TV lately because I really get the impression from them that they’d rather not be doing it. We also get stuff like that interview segment from two weeks ago, where these two people who clearly have some sort of off-screen chemistry (since, you know, they’re in a relationship) were given some of the most forced, fake chemistry type of dialogue I’ve seen on WWE TV in a long time.

The match itself could go either way, like I said about the other No DQ tag match, if it descends into chaos early on and keeps up that pace it’ll be great and these guys have a better chance of pulling that off than the guys in the other tag match. I just don’t have much faith in that actually happening, my hatred for weapons matches is well known and I really think this is going be another slow paced match where about 5 minutes are spent setting a spot up, only for them to immediately move onto the next one. I’m holding onto the small amount of hope that it could be good though…I think.

As for a winner, there’s no question Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch retaining is easily the lock of the night. In a time like this where it’s crucial that WWE remains competitive, putting the titles on Corbin & Lacey would be the equivalent of WCW putting the title on Arquette and Russo in the year 2000, it’d be such a stupid move, and WWE isn’t that stupid.

…right?

Anyway, those are my predictions for Extreme Rules 2019! Thank you very much for reading, let me know what you think is going to happen either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to come back here early next week for my review of the show!

10 – The Lazarus Experiment

9 – Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

8 – The Shakespear Code

7 – 42

6 – Gridlock

5 – The Runaway Bride

4 – Smith and Jones

3 – Human Nature/The Family of Blood

2 – Blink

1 – Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords

8 – Alfyn Greengrass

7 – Primrose Azelhart

6 – Olberic Eisenberg

5 – Therion

4 – Cyrus Albright

3 – Tressa Colzione

2 – Ophilia Clement

1 – H’aanit

10 – Tressa, the Merchant

9 – They Who Govern Reason

8 – Olberic, the Warrior

7 – Battle III

6 – Cyrus, the Scholar

5 – Daughter of the Dark God

4 – Decisive Battle II

3 – Determination

2 – Main Theme

1 – Battle at Journey’s End

12 – Kevin Owens def. Dolph Ziggler

11 – Bayley(c) def. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (Smackdown Women’s Championship) (2 on 1 Handicap)

10 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley (Last Man Standing)

9 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Samoa Joe (WWE Championship)

8 – Drew Gulak(c) def. Tony Nese (Cruiserweight Championship) (Kickoff Show)

7 – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Balor(c) (Intercontinental Championship) (Kickoff Show)

6 – Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) def. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans (Universal Championship) (Raw Women’s Championship) (Extreme Rules)

5 – The Revival(c) def. The Usos (Raw Tag Team Championships)

4 – Roman Reigns & The Undertaker def. Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre (No Holds Barred)

3 – AJ Styles def. Ricochet(c) (United States Championship)

2 – The New Day def. Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) & Heavy Machinery (Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

1 – Aleister Black def. Cesaro

The Revival(c) vs The Usos (Raw Tag Team Championships)

Drew Gulak(c) vs Tony Nese (Cruiserweight Championship)

Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) vs The New Day vs Heavy Machinery (Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Aleister Black vs Cesaro

Ricochet(c) vs AJ Styles (United States Championship)

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley (Last Man Standing)

Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (Smackdown Women’s Championship) (2 on 1 Handicap)

The Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre (No Holds Barred)

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Samoa Joe (WWE Championship)

Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) vs Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans (Universal Championship) (Raw Women’s Championship) (Extreme Rules)

11 – Bayley(c) def. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

10 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

9 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

8 – Drew Gulak(c) def. Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

7 – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Finn Balor(c)
(Intercontinental Championship)
(Kickoff Show)

6 – Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) def. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)

5 – The Revival(c) def. The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

4 – Roman Reigns & The Undertaker def. Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

3 – AJ Styles def. Ricochet(c)
(United States Championship)

2 – The New Day def. Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) & Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

The Revival(c) vs The Usos
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Drew Gulak(c) vs Tony Nese
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Daniel Bryan & Rowan(c) vs The New Day vs Heavy Machinery
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Ricochet(c) vs AJ Styles
(United States Championship)

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley
(Last Man Standing)

Bayley(c) vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(2 on 1 Handicap)

The Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon & Drew Mcintyre
(No Holds Barred)

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Samoa Joe
(WWE Championship)

Seth Rollins(c) & Becky Lynch(c) vs Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
(Universal Championship)
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Extreme Rules)