Octopath Traveler 2 is all the pieces I needed the unique to be and extra. No extra disconnected tales strewn about by a free connection to an absurdly tough non-compulsory boss. No extra hoping that all the pieces goes to come back collectively on the very finish to ship off your 100-hour journey in a blaze of glory. No extra “is that actually it?”
Our eight vacationers argue, chuckle, cry, and reside life collectively on the street, every making their method towards new and previous targets. It’s by way of the completion of those tales that we start to see a sample forming, one thing stirring throughout the shadows. This can be a full circle journey that’ll depart your jaw slacked and your coronary heart in cardiac arrest.
I fell in love with every character, and it was unhappy to say goodbye, however I needed to so I can inform you that Octopath Traveler 2 fulfills all of your wants among the many greatest Nintendo Change video games, greatest PS5 video games, and greatest PC video games. This can be a new period of RPG.
The extra issues change
Octopath Traveler 2 sticks to its authentic turn-based system however provides in just a few twists that present extra alternatives for technique.
My favourite new mechanic is the day-night cycle. This successfully provides a brand new path motion for each character, offering you with versatility in path encounters. Within the authentic, it was a ache to should run again to the tavern to get a special character every time you needed to do one thing particular. However now with overlapping abilities and ranging ranges of success, it is simpler than ever to navigate by way of cities and loot all the information and objects.
The day-night cycle additionally throws in some new fight mechanics for 2 of the companions, Throne and Temenos. At night time, you will obtain Blessing of Darkness for the previous and Moonlight Judgement for the latter, which successfully buffs your characters and debuffs your foes, respectively. Whereas these are helpful in fight, they seem to be a cop out for extra doubtlessly distinctive skills. For instance, Hikari, Castti and Ochette have a singular ability tree of skills they will faucet into. I want we had acquired to see distinctive ability lists for every of the eight characters. Sadly, Agnea and Partitio solely get summons, and Osvald is caught together with his Research Foe ability, which turns into ineffective after you have fought a foe quite a lot of instances.
Secondary jobs had been a giant factor within the authentic, however they had been quite restricted in quantity. In Octopath Traveler 2, there are licenses, which successfully let you use all commonplace secondary jobs thrice. Meaning you can provide the Cleric secondary job to 3 completely different folks in your social gathering. Sure, you’ll be able to have a full social gathering of Clerics (scary). On prime of that, there are 4 distinctive secondary jobs, however they’re restricted to 1 license every and are notably tough to acquire.
I really like the addition of EX abilities, that are distinctive to the characters versus the roles themselves. Every character will get two distinctive abilities, certainly one of which is unlocked by finishing the character’s story and the opposite by attuning with the alter of the god that the character is related to. These are among the strongest abilities within the recreation.
There’s additionally the addition of latent skills, that are form of like Final skills that can be utilized solely after they’ve charged up. For Ochette and Hikari, it offers them entry to a brand new set of offensive abilities. And for Osvald, it reduces his spells to single-target however will increase the ability output, which is nice for combating bosses. This provides yet one more layer of complexity to fight that I really like.
Towards the tip of the sport, we see how artistic the builders can get with placing all eight characters into one combating area. I want that there have been extra alternatives for that all through the sport. It might have made it simpler to degree up all the characters and add one other layer of complexity to battles.
One small however fantastic addition was the inclusion of 2x pace for battles. I’ve had it on for the whole recreation and would in any other case really feel like I used to be trapped in slow-motion if I went again to common pace. I’d even suggest including a 3x pace, too.
There have been another modifications that I wasn’t too keen on. The Thief misplaced their SP Steal ability, and the Scholar was closely nerfed, requiring you spend an extra flip to double up in your spells. You can argue that the Scholar is extra highly effective within the endgame, however in the course of the starting, you’re not going to be doing as a lot harm.
Total, the gameplay modifications added to Octopath Traveler 2 flesh out the foundational help that the unique supplied.
And not using a shadow of a doubt
Octopath Traveler 2 is by far the extra superior recreation with regards to the narrative. Granted, it wasn’t powerful to beat, as the unique didn’t actually give us a lot of an ending. This recreation not solely has an ending, however the characters work together inside some cooperative chapters and have totally voiced conversations. This can be a low bar, however it’s a bar this recreation hit that the unique didn’t.
Octopath Traveler 2 continues to be awkward in some locations with regards to character interactions. For instance, the journey banter nonetheless isn’t voice acted, which is a disgrace. However you’ll be able to entry all the journey banter now by way of your journal, which is a superb enchancment.
The tales are extra targeted on the narrative and use the gameplay mechanics to inform the story as an alternative of the opposite method round. One of many biggest examples of that is throughout Castti’s story. When she inquires about info throughout a narrative beat, the textual content will glitch out and daring an vital phrase. Combining the Inquire mechanic and the narrative is a cool approach to ship info. Mechanics and storytelling go hand-in-hand throughout Hikari’s arc as effectively, as our warrior makes use of the Problem path motion to defeat chapter bosses all on his personal.
Regardless of dumping 92 hours into Octopath Traveler, the narrative chapters aren’t truly that lengthy. There are only a lot of them. I like how quick they’re as a result of you’ll be able to simply take breaks in between with out having to fret about getting knee deep right into a convoluted anime-like plot gap.
The primary character you select is your protagonist, and that selection sticks with you thru the very finish. You get extra of an perception into their character in direction of the tip of the story, so select properly, or at the least who you assume essentially the most attention-grabbing is. I picked Throne, but when I had been to play once more, I’d in all probability choose Temenos — he has actual fundamental character vitality all through the narrative. Mechanically, although, I’d’ve chosen Osvald for his Research Foe ability, and for these 100% fiends, I’d go together with Hikari — my complete construct to battle the key tremendous boss relied on him being as decked out as potential.
My favourite private narrative might be Throne’s. It is simply so twisted and I used to be not anticipating it to go to the locations that it went. In her quest for freedom, she finds herself sure by extra chains than the collar round her neck. It makes me marvel how this recreation even acquired a T for teenagers ranking.
One other small however a lot wanted enchancment is the addition of automated dialogue, so that you don’t have to sit down there clicking on every line of textual content. I used to be capable of sit again and watch cutscenes play out like a film.
Distinction: Over 9,000!
As a fiend for vivid artwork and high-contrast visuals, Octopath Traveler 2 appeals to me greater than most video games that make the most of retro pixel artwork. Each second is detailed and but appears to be like like a fever dream seen by way of a vignette. It’s paying homage to an image guide, in the event you dumped buckets of daring paint on mentioned image guide.
Octopath Traveler 2’s artwork is complemented by soothing and intense soundtracks (pls launch on Spotify) all through that totally immersed me within the industrial fantasy world that the sport presents. Most RPGs that run near 100 hours could be a straight up slog to get by way of, however there wasn’t a single second like that in Octopath, and that’s as a result of I used to be sucked into the world’s presentation.
Backside line
Octopath Traveler 2 is my preferrred RPG. There’s little or no I’d take away from it. I would like Sq. Enix to proceed to construct upon the inspiration of every recreation. I wish to see Octopath Traveler 3 with extra wild and artistic mechanics. I envision a future the place I am enjoying Octopath Traveler 10 in my late 60s — if it continues to comply with a 5-year cycle… if Sq. Enix survives that lengthy… if I survive that lengthy… if Earth survives that lengthy.
Anyway, good recreation.
