Octopath Traveler 2 Review – Go Your Own Way

Octopath Traveler was a pleasing shock when it debuted a couple of years again. Its then-new HD-2D engine was a delight to behold, and the gameplay drew inspiration from a few of Square Enix’s most storied franchises: a deep Final Fantasy-style class and customization system blended with the non-linear exploration and story of the SaGa collection with a splash of fight that took cues from Bravely Default. These are nice inspirations to attract from, however it resulted in a sport that, whereas glorious, appeared to be struggling for a definite id. Perhaps the builders acknowledged this as well–with Octopath Traveler II, Square Enix appears to be attempting so as to add new gameplay parts that give the franchise a persona of its personal. And, for probably the most half, it has succeeded admirably.

The core of Octopath Traveler II is a conventional, flip-based mostly JRPG with most of the normal gameplay parts: cities and dungeons to discover, aims to finish, and so on. Where most JRPGs current a linear technique of development, nevertheless, Octopath Traveler takes a really totally different strategy: You start the sport by deciding on a “main” character from eight candidates. This character has their very own distinctive background, story arc, and objectives, and can function a relentless presence all through your playtime. After an introductory story chapter, you’re then free to discover the world to your liking. Eventually, you will meet the opposite seven characters, permitting you to carry them into your celebration and comply with their storylines as properly, all culminating in a finale that ties the person story threads collectively.

The deal with particular person character arcs slightly than an enormous, excessive-stakes menace for a lot of the sport’s runtime is refreshing, permitting Octopath Traveler II to inform quite a lot of intriguing tales that change wildly in each tone and focus. Some of them are comparatively weaker, however others command and maintain your consideration and maintain you looking forward to extra. Agnea’s star-struck seek for fame is notably bland, as an illustration, whereas Temenos’ investigation right into a homicide plot by a non secular cult and Throne’s quest to kill the adoptive mother and father who raised her are glorious stand-outs. My private favourite questline is the story of Osvald, who I selected as my beginning character–a story of a scholar who plans a Count-of-Monte-Christo-style jail escape and revenge after being framed for the homicide of his family by a scheming colleague.

As quickly as you end the primary a part of a personality’s story, you are allowed to proceed on to the next chapters, as there are not any exhausting obstacles to progressing the way you select. That does not imply you’ll be able to stroll wherever on this planet with out a care, nevertheless: Some areas characteristic considerably extra harmful foes than others, and attempting to stumble by them with a low-stage celebration is kind of an excessive risk–albeit one the sport does not forestall you from trying if you happen to really feel assured in your survival expertise. In truth, going into dangerous locations can yield some main rewards, however there’s nothing notably punishing about enjoying it secure, both. Octopath Traveler’s lack of hand-holding in comparison with many different JRPGs could also be off-placing at first–it does not provide a lot steerage apart from very primary tutorials–but the liberty it grants you to discover and try challenges on the consolation stage you select is considered one of its strongest factors.

One of probably the most attention-grabbing aspects to exploration are the Path Actions distinctive to every character. Path Actions can be found when interacting with the vast majority of NPCs, permitting you to interact with them in quite a lot of methods: buying objects, studying talents, gaining further info wanted to finish principal and subquests, and even recruiting them as helpers in fight. New to Octopath Traveler II is a day/evening cycle (which, fortunately, you’ll be able to management at will) that adjustments which NPCs seem and what Path Actions can be found to you. For instance, service provider Partitio should buy objects from NPCs throughout daytime at discounted costs, whereas at evening he can rent characters as assistants in fight. There is overlap within the capabilities of characters’ Path Actions, however judging which is most helpful in a given scenario provides a enjoyable layer of technique not sometimes current in JRPG city exploration.

Then we come to fight, which is probably the most satisfying and interesting factor of Octopath Traveler II. The flip-based mostly encounters construct upon the inspiration set by the unique, emphasizing the necessity to strategically break down enemy defenses by the usage of particular expertise and weapons. There’s additionally a “boost” system that means that you can considerably enhance the efficacy of characters’ actions by consuming the Boost Points that construct up slowly throughout every flip of fight. The distinctive nature of every character extends to their efficiency in fight: Every celebration member has a number of particular person expertise and quirks that considerably have an effect on their particular actions and the movement of fight as a complete Samurai warrior Hikari brings fight expertise discovered from NPCs into the fray, whereas apothecary Castti can combine objects collectively to create useful or dangerous concoctions. Perhaps probably the most enjoyable of those expertise is that of Ochette, a beast-girl who can seize enemies and prepare dinner them into health- and standing-restoring meat–or maintain them to make use of their expertise in fight.

You do not must be content material with simply the default expertise of your characters, both. Like the unique sport, you’ll be able to assign characters a sub-job, which is able to enable them to study energetic and passive expertise particular to every class, in addition to equip a greater diversity of weaponry. Playing round and discovering notably efficient mixtures of substances, celebration composition, and skillsets is kind of fulfilling and rewarding, with every new talent unlock including one thing new to your total repertoire–and hidden job courses and EX expertise discovered over the course of the sport add much more surprises and choices. A brand new factor of Octopath Traveler II’s battle strategizing is Latent Powers, character-particular Limit-Break-style talents that may dramatically have an effect on fight when used on the proper time. Every celebration member’s Latent Ability is totally different: Osvald can rework multi-goal assaults into intensely highly effective single-goal strikes, Throne can take an additional flip, Hikari and Ochette get entry to new assault expertise, and Temenos can break by defenses with any assault. Using these expertise in tandem with a fastidiously crafted setup can create delightfully devious outcomes. For instance, you’ll be able to have others buff Osvald’s magic assaults, assault to place the enemy right into a damaged state, after which use Osvald’s Latent Ability and several other boosts to create a massively damaging single-goal spell strike that melts away enemy HP like butter. Finding efficient instruments and setups can will let you get by fight conditions that, sometimes, you could be horrendously underneath-leveled for, which yields immense satisfaction when all goes in line with plan. Which, typically, it does not, however that is danger for you.

Octopath Traveler II is not with out some quibbles and frustrations, although. Every character that joins you begins out at a low stage, requiring a time funding earlier than they stand up to parity with the remainder of the celebration. Dungeon and discipline exploration could be very primary, with little in the way in which of puzzles or gimmicks to boost typical path-following–with just a few facet roads resulting in treasure chests taking you off the crushed path. Sometimes you are overwhelmed with alternative paralysis as to what to do subsequent within the varied tales, whereas at different instances you are feeling like all your potential subsequent strikes are excessive-stage adventures that will put you in method over your head. The danger/reward system for sure Path Actions is completely nonsensical: I will not get my fame on the town tarnished for mugging or choosing fights with folks, however I’ll if I fail to entice an NPC to affix my celebration? These aren’t enormous flaws by any stretch, however they’re issues that I hope will likely be ironed out and spruced up in potential future installments.

Octopath Traveler II is a perfect sequel. It builds upon the foundations of the unique by bettering on what labored, establishing widespread pillars of design and gameplay–combat mechanics, Path Actions, freeform progress–that will hopefully carry forth by future video games. It additionally iterates upon ideas and concepts borrowed from different JRPGs–the day/evening cycle and Latent Abilities–that improve the general expertise. Octopath Traveler II is a delight from begin to end, and has left me wanting ahead to seeing the place this collection will take itself sooner or later.