Octopath Traveler 2 Review
“Two Octopath. Two Traveler.” Written by: Kyle Davis (@KDavisSRL)
I loved the original Octopath Traveler. It was my game of the year pick back in 2018, and is easily one of my favorite modern JRPGs. I put over 200 Hours into that game! The cast was loveable and quirky. The music and visuals were both phenomenal. The game felt like a love letter to classic JRPGs that I grew up with like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger.
The first game was incredible, but it always felt like a one and done kind of game, left to linger in Square Enix’s vault of cool things that are never to be used again (besides for mobile games). Never would I have thought that five years later I’d get to talk about its sequel.
So, does this new entry have a bad case of sequelitis, or does it have its own legs to stand on? Let’s embark on this adventure and find out!
Image Credit: Square Enix
Octopath is unique with its story structure. It doesn’t follow one overarching story, rather it follows the eight individual stories of your eight party members. At the start of the game you’ll pick your main character, play the first chapter of their story, then you’re free to explore the world; gathering the remaining seven characters in whatever order you want.
Each character also has their own class which determines what weapons and skills they will be able to use both in battle, and in the overworld. Your cast this time around consists of:
The Warrior: Hikari. A young prince and samurai looking to bring peace to his nation.
The Dancer: Agnea. A tavern dancer who wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a star.
The Merchant: Partito. A traveling merchant who wants to use his earnings to help out the common man.
The Scholar: Osvald. Sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and daughter, he breaks out of jail and sets off for revenge on the man who wronged him.
The Thief: Throne. A member of the Blacksnakes Thief Guild, she sets out to murder the people who control her life and free herself from her life of crime.
The Cleric: Temenos. An Inquisitor from the church, he sets out to investigate conspiracies being plotted against his faith.
The Hunter: Ochette. A young beastling whose home gets attacked by humans. She sets out to find three sacred beasts who can help her save her village.
The Apothecary: Castti. After being rescued at sea, Castti wakes up without any memories, save for her knowledge as an apothecary. She sets out to remember what she’s lost.
I’ve always personally liked Octopath’s decision to use these eight short stories to let us know what these characters are about, rather than forcing one large, interconnected narrative between all eight of them. Yes, it does mean that some will be better than others. And there can be a massive tone shift if you go from a story about murder to a story about dancing, but I don’t see that as a bad thing.
If all eight of the stories had the same tone, then none of them would stand out from the other. Not every story needs to be big and dramatic. As long as the stories being told are interesting, and I care about the character’s struggles, then that’s all that matters to me.
Image Credit: Square Enix
The gameplay of Octopath is split into two different modes. First is your overworld exploration. Each of your eight travelers has their own pair of actions that you can perform on the townsfolk, depending on whether it’s day or night. These actions range from obtaining items from NPCs, getting information off of them, or guiding them along to use in battles.
The bulk of your gameplay will take place in battles. Octopath is a turn-based game where you can see the turn order on the top of the screen. This is used to help you plan out how you want to play the current turn. If you’ve played games like Final Fantasy 10 or Pokemon Legends Arceus, then this should be familiar to you.
In battle, your goal is to break enemy shields by exploiting their weaknesses. To help in that, you have access to the Boost System. Each of your characters can stock up to five Boost Points, using up to three of them per turn. The more Boost points you use, the more the effects of your moves will change. These range from increasing the number of standard attacks they can do, to making status effects last longer.
The last aspect of the core gameplay is team building. Not only do you have to consider which characters to bring based on their default jobs, but also for what sub-jobs you want them to have.
If you’ve played other Job Class games like Final Fantasy 5, or Xenoblade 3, then you should understand how this works pretty quickly. For those unfamiliar, you can essentially have your characters fill two roles. Their primary job that can’t be changed, and their sub-job, which can be changed to any of the seven other jobs based on the other party members.
This kind of system can lead to a lot of customization and personalization between players, and there’s a lot of fun builds that you can make with this system. You can make a Red Mage by mixing Scholar and Cleric. You can have the ultimate support with Thief and Dancer. There are a lot of possibilities for what you can do with your teams, and I think that it’s one of the best aspects of this game.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Having spent a lot of time with the first game, Octopath 2 feels like it took the skeleton of its predecessor, and improved on all of it. First off, this game looks gorgeous. The HD-2D Engine has come a long way since 2018, and has constantly been improved with games like Triangle Strategy and the Live-a-Live Remake. I’m playing the Switch version for this review, and it looks great, and runs smoothly.
In terms of audio, the music is also just as great as it was in the first. Yasunori Nishiki is back as the composer, and he’s doing more great work. There’s also fantastic talent in the voice acting department. I recommend looking at who is voicing the 8 Travelers, as you’ve more than likely heard them in something before.
When it comes to the actual gameplay, there’s been a lot of nice quality of life additions that just make the experience smoother than the first game. For starters, it feels like your party gains more EXP and JP from battles, meaning that you’re able to unlock more abilities. Enemies also feel less spongy than they were in Octopath 1, meaning that regular battles don’t take forever. There’s also a speed up option for combat, so if you ever feel like it’s time to grind, it won’t take an eternity.
The party members also have their own unique skills in battle. These are similar to Limit Breaks in the Final Fantasy games. I like this because it gives each character another level of depth to their play style, and gives you another reason to want to use them, rather than just focusing on what their base class is.
This time around, your sub-jobs are given to you by obtaining licenses. You can get up to three of them, allowing the job to be used by multiple characters at once. So if you’ve ever wanted a hyper offense team of four Warriors, or an unkillable team of four Clerics, you’re more than able to do that.
One of the biggest complaints people had with Octopath 1 was that there weren't any real interactions between the party members. It felt like the party was just a formality for making the RPG format work, but all of the stories would happen the same way, regardless of whether the seven other party members were there or not.
Octopath 2 has fixed this problem. Kind of. Besides travel banter in the character's individual stories, there is no input from the other party members. But, this game has introduced Cross Stories, where two of your party members will share a story together. Also, while you’re in battle, your teammates will complement each other, as well as worry about them when their HP gets low. These little details make the party feel more like an actual team, like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and not just eight people forced to work on a group project together.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Summary
Octopath Traveler 2 is what I like to consider a “slow burn” game. It’s the kind of game where you can turn it on for a couple of hours, accomplish a few goals, then turn it off for the day. All of the character’s stories are very digestible. The gameplay is easy to get a handle on, and overall, the game just feels like it’s easier to get into than the first game was.
This game is an absolute must play for any fan of the genre. For those new to RPGs, or anyone who wants to get into the genre, I think that this is a great place to start!