Octopath Traveler II - Review

Explore the mysterious and wonders of Solistia.

 

Console: Nintendo Switch

I don't have a concrete list of the best games I've ever played thus far or anything, but whenever I think about my favourite games, Octopath Traveler always floats towards the top. I played that demo in my backyard during a warm spring evening and was hooked from hour one. I spent over half a year exploring every nook and cranny of Osterra with H'aanit and the gang, from the comfort of my own home to my daily train commute, and I loved every second of it. 

Safe to say, when Octopath Traveler II was announced in the September 2022 Nintendo Direct, I was giddy. I didn't just buy the game on day one; I pre-ordered the spiffy Steelbook edition. I played the game a ton when it first came out but with Tears of the Kingdom and Burning Shores releasing only a few weeks later, I ended up dropping it and I've felt bad about it ever since. 

So, at the beginning of the year, I made the New Year's resolution to pick this game up again and play it to completion. As you can read, I finally have.

Without further ado, let's talk about it.

Octopath Traveler II chronicles the wildly different journeys of eight travellers across the continent of Sollistia.

Ochette is a young hunter trying to save her island from certain doom.
Castti is an apothecary looking for her lost memories.
Temenos is a cleric investigating the murder of his pontiff.
Osvald is a scholar who seeks revenge against the man who framed him for the death of his family. Partitio is a young, talented merchant who seeks to end poverty.
Agnea aspires to follow in her mother's footsteps of becoming a famous dancer.
Throne, trapped in the life of a thief and assassin, sets out to kill the leaders of her thieving society so she can be free at last.
Hikari, prince of Ku, travels Sollistia to find allies to overthrow his brother after he killed their father in a coup d'état.

Over the course of their journeys, the eight travellers uncover that there's something nefarious going on behind the scenes that affects them all.

Our 8 travellers. 

The narratives of Octopath Traveler II are, by design, segmented. Each of the 8 travellers has individual stories with their own cast of characters that don't intersect. Like the first, there are some overlapping elements, but by and large, this game is a collection of 8 smaller stories and not one big epic. If that's your cup of tea, it's up to you, but the game makes the most of this approach.

The 8 paths are a nice grab bag of different stories. For example, Agnea's journey is filled with off-beat and quirky characters, quite different from Osvald's hate-filled revenge quest. While these different stories could have clashed with one another because of their different tones, thanks to the consistent tone in the writing, that doesn't happen.

Moreover, the writing is just good in general. Good dialogue, strong emotional moments, and well-realized characters. Even those who I initially didn't feel much of a connection with, like Partitio, I quickly came to love. He's just so charming and likeable! On a related note, the voice acting. Performances could be a bit wooden in 1, but that isn't the case here. The voice acting is a lot more fluid and dare I say believable. I also want to point out one performance in particular. Alejandro Saab does a stellar job of making a distinction between past and present Osvald.

The narratives, side-quests included, are more creative than they were in the predecessor which is another feather in the narrative cap. Temenos's story, while he himself is a cleric, is a detective story first and foremost, and such an approach makes the story more memorable.

The overarching story is also more fleshed out than it was in the original. Octopath I had an 'epilogue' and connective tissue between its 8 stories, but the bulk was relegated to side-quests and was completely missable. Here, they have shared side stories, two characters interacting in their downtime so to speak, to build up to it, and the epilogue itself is marked on the map and fully voice-acted. Well done Team Asano in listening to players' feedback on this front. I just wished that this final epilogue didn't rely so heavily on 'gasp, this character is actually evil'. I personally would've enjoyed it more.

Also on the disappointing side is the pacing. Not every character's story is told over 4 chapters this time around. Some, like Osvald, have 5 chapters. Others, like Castti, have only 4 but with some divided up into smaller chunks. This does make the storytelling more dynamic and gives you, the player, more choice in what to tackle, but it also leads to chapters that are disappointingly short or slow.

Moving on to the gameplay at last, just as with the story, the structure remains the same as it was before. Just with new layers and some quality-of-life improvements.

Exploration hasn't changed much. You walk, and now sail, from town to town, dungeon to dungeon. Finding secret pathways, uncovering treasure chests, slaying monsters, and interacting with people through the travellers' path actions. These make each character unique outside of combat and add more depth to the proceedings. 

Here, they took things a step further by giving each traveller 2 path actions. For example, by day Throné can steal items, while by night, she knocks people out. I'm not a big fan of this change for two reasons. The first is that I feel there's a lot of unnecessary overlap between the path actions. Hire, Allure, Guide, and Befriend all do the exact same thing: an NPC will follow you around and help you in battle. A bit of overlap is good, choice and all, but did there have to be this much overlap?

The 2nd is the unnecessary connection is that the path actins are locked day and night. The day/night cycle affects NPC locations and routes so each city has two different layouts, so to speak. The idea is that you have to come back later or change your party members to progress. However, since you can just switch between day and night whenever you want with the press of a button, what's the point in making this distinction in the 1st place? I don't like this design choice but it is easy to get around and doesn't really affect the side-quests much. 

Those are fun distractions that reward you for your curiosity and kindness, with some having intriguing stories and even voice acting. A standout to me is a very small easy to grasp but cleverly executed hostage situation. I do wish the quest log was a lot better at keeping track of where and what was said exactly. It's easy to forget details in a game as big and long as this.

The combat is what you expect from a turn-based JRPG. It's your party of four against whatever jumps you. From robbers to hideous monsters, you have to use a variety of attacks and skills to beat them all. Each traveller has their own class rooted in the traditional RPG classes. Hikari is the high-damage-dealing warrior, while Osvald is your magic user. All typical JRPG stuff that's as fun as it was all those decades ago. What Octopath added to this formula is the shield and boost systems.

Some though battles lie ahead, even to those who understand the battle system well. 

Each enemy has a number of shields that protect it from attacks. If you hit them with one of their weaknesses, like a lance or a fire spell, they will not only take more damage but they will lose one of their shields. If they lose them all, for an entire turn, they will be unable to do anything and your attacks are super effective. 

You don't have any shields to speak of but you do have boost points. You can use these to empower your special attacks and skills or allow you to hit an enemy up to 4 times in one attack. Will you use it to quickly break down your enemies' shields or save it for one massive attack, healing spell, or special skill? That is where the beauty of this system lies.

What Octopath Traveler II brings in here is some rebalancing, more depth, and quality of life improvements. The rebalancing speaks for itself. That these changes don't make the classes any worse or better is all you need to know. The depth comes in with the new latent powers and the wider flexibility you have with the classes. 

The latent powers are super powerful attacks and skills unique to each traveller. For Osvald, you can intensify your elemental spells and hit one enemy for triple damage while Throné gets to perform two actions in one turn if the corresponding meter is full of course. I don't have any strong feelings towards the Latent Powers. Some were very useful, others were very much not. 

On to the job classes. You can assign a second class to each traveller if you have the appropriate licence and combine their attacks and skills. For example, you can make Castti an apothecary/cleric so she becomes the ultimate healer or an apothecary/dancer to mix both classes' support skills. Dual classing and finding combinations that work for you is the name of the game. Since you can now give multiple characters the same secondary class, you could very much create a party of four Warriors. You just need to do the side-quests to get more licenses from the appropriate guild. 

This is a change from the original. There, you automatically were able to give a traveller a 2nd class after completing Chapter 2. I'm all for more flexibility but I don't like that you now have to find these licenses. It feels very much like padding. 

I did use the wider flexibility to experiment more with the classes than I did in the original. Each combination has worth but not every combination I chose worked with my strategies. I could try out a new combination with an extra license without it affecting another party member. I did this, playing around with the classes a fair amount. And not just that. I spend a fair bit of time messing with party setup, gear, and weapons to find the best combinations to improve my strategies or come up with new ones. In short: I became a lot more invested in the combat. 

As a result, I became better and stronger. That made me more prepared, and willing, to tackle those high-level optional dungeons and super-bosses. I levelled up so much due to these side activities that I was over-levelled for the final 4 bosses. It made them way too easy to beat but I even had fun in these fights. After barely making it out of, say, Partitio's final boss just steamrolling over the final boss in Hikari's story was its own type of cathartic fun.

The quality of life improvements helped a lot here too. The one I want to highlight is that you can now speed up battles so they're done with quicker. Perfect for making grinding sessions a bit more bearable. You can do more in the same amount of time making even shorter play sessions more rewarding since you can accomplish more in them. Combined with my greater understanding and enjoyment of the battle system, I easily eclipsed my playtime of Octopath I with Octopath II. 

I've talked a lot about changes so far, but what certainly has changed is that Octopath Traveller II is once again a 2D-HD game. It's a visual style that Square Enix started with Octopath Traveler, a combination of HD 2D sprites on a panorama-like background that has since been used with Triangle Strategy and Live a Live. With these titles under its belt, the visuals have gotten some upgrades that this game benefits from. 

I can't remember this type of cinematography in the 1st game. Even if I misrember, it's nice the game focuses on vistas like this from time to time. 

There's more detail to be found, from art on buildings to the more complex character models. What stood out the most to me is that when compared to its predecessor, character heads are not as 'squished' and more emotive. Particle effects are more plentiful without impacting the framerate and the game's lighting is more dynamic. The day/night cycle is a testament to that.

Last but in no way least is the music. To me, the music was just as much a standout and part of what made Octopath Traveler such a delight as the graphics. From the character motifs to the epic battle themes, to the quiet and serene overworld pieces. These fully orchestrated pieces are as good here as they ever were. Even if you read this review and think to yourself ´This isn't a title for me´ then I would still recommend you give the music a listen. You might not be blasted with memories of your time with the game but that really only is the cherry on top of this excellent soundtrack.

Conclusion 

Octopath Traveler II is an even better game than the first. That one is still great, but this sequel has more meat on its bones. Each traveller's tale is more creative and a greater effort is put into weaving these 8 tales together. There is more depth and flexibility to the combat and a slew of QOL updates cuts down on the grindy parts of the game. Combined with the polished-up HD-2D graphics and another beautiful soundtrack, you get one excellent classic JRPG. There are some pacing issues and design choices that don't work out all that well but it's nothing major in the grand scheme of things.

It can't beat the first for me, I have too many good memories with that title and that shine of it being something I hadn´t yet experienced, but Octopath Traveller II is without a doubt a game worth your time if you're a fan of the original or just the genre in general.