Nautilus
Banned
When the first game was revealed back in 2017, I was mesmerized by its art style. But it was when the game finally released that I fell in love with it. Not only did it confirm for me that HD-2D was the future for pixel-based art styles, but its gameplay, overall story, and game structure felt fresh to me. It had some glaring problems, ironically in the story and overall structure, as well as in a few other parts, but the game was a breath of fresh air. So, everything I wanted from a sequel was an iteration on what the first game did, and that’s what we got.
And honestly, they nailed what they set out to do: Octopath Traveler 2 improves on almost every single aspect of the first game.
Let’s get this out of the way first: The second game plays it safe. Most of the classes in the second game are identical to the first game. They changed the abilities each class has, made them more interesting, and allowed for more builds and combinations, but it's the same classes archetypes as the first game. That’s not bad by itself, but for someone who has played through the first game, it does take away a bit of the “mystique” on what a class can do and the joy of discovering and unlocking new skills, since even if most skills are new or tweaked, you already know the overall gist of what that class can and should do. Having said that, they did add a few new mechanisms that meshed well with what was already there: The new Latent Power adds a new layer of strategy on how you build a certain traveler’s ability, given that the Power is unique to that character and can’t be changed, so there are only some classes with abilities that go well with the type of power that certain Traveler has. It also changes the moment-to-moment gameplay since it adds an additional option on how to tackle battles that wasn’t there in the first game, which is welcome. Also, each character has additional abilities that are exclusive to that traveler, that have to be unlocked through the game, that further gives each traveler a certain identity and incentivizes affinities for certain builds, much like with the Latent Power. The end product is a much more refined and fun job system than the first Octopath Traveler, as those “limits” imposed make finding and making builds more interesting. Having said that, I do wish that there were more classes to unlock, as while the ones that are there are fun and pretty deep, it's not late until you know every ability that the starting classes have, and the game could have a better cadence of finding new classes and always rethinking your strategy and builds by having more classes that threw new stuff into the mix. What really feels fresh in the combat are the bosses having more mechanics and attacks unique to a certain boss, most of them having a unique quirk to them. That completely eliminates that feeling that you are fighting the same boss again just with higher HP and damage output, as the first game often had. But what really threw me off guard in the most fabulous of ways was the surprise they added during the final boss. That final fight was simply epic, and the moment they revealed the twist of that fight, it got me absolutely pumped. Team Asano knows how to make a Final Boss epic.
But the biggest improvement the sequel saw was in its structure. The first was like an onion: The world map was a circular continent, in which you started in the first layer, and as you moved to its upper layers, the game got increasingly higher. Not that it was a problem per se, but it was too formulaic. The next chapter of a given character was always in the area next to the previous chapter, and while the game was too hard for you to make all of a single character’s story before moving on to the next, thus forcing you to explore the world, it really never felt as if the travelers were... traveling. And almost all chapters could be boiled down to a very repetitive formula: Starts with a story exposition, then it's a dungeon ending on a boss, and finally the chapter closes with more story. That completely changes with Octopath Traveler 2: Now the world map doesn’t feel like a pizza with a hole in its middle, the characters are spread out in the two continents the game takes place on, and the characters actually travel through the world as they go through their story. It really feels like a journey. But much more than that, the structure of each chapter is infinitely more varied. Sure, there are still the Story - Dungeon and Boss - Story chapters, but now those are hardly the only type. There is one chapter that is basically a Boss rush, there are other chapters that focus almost exclusively on a given traveler's path action. There are others that are a smaller variation of the standard structure, that make you explore a dungeon and fight enemies, but that doesn’t end in a boss fight and has a bigger focus on telling the story. And my favorite: Partitio going out into the world and finding “business deals” that you have to solve on your own. Even outside of the regular chapters, Octopath Traveler 2 now has dungeons with unique mechanics in them, that force you to play either a certain way or just solve a (simple) puzzle. The amount of these dungeons and events in the game that stray away from the norm is still disappointingly small, but they give the game the much-needed excitement that the first game lacked in terms of being awed by finding something unexpected when exploring.
The story has also seen significant improvements. Each individual story is much better written and presented thanks to the bigger "screen time" each character had, as everyone got more cutscenes and chapters to flesh out their stories better. Not only that, but the overarching plot was much better interwoven into the game this time, compared to what seemed like an afterthought in the first game, in large part thanks to the Crossed Paths chapters, the travel banter which was more prominent, and the fantastic final chapter that concludes the game. Having said that, I have to admit that the Crossed Paths portions were disappointing. They were significantly shorter than a normal chapter in any given character's story and only had two main characters interact with each other at one given time. I know the game is already long as it is, and giving more time and exposure to these Crossed Paths, while maintaining the same pacing, would probably undercut time that would be allocated to the individual stories. But as it stands, the Crossed Paths portions just felt undercooked and underutilized. I would really appreciate it if all the characters, or even four of them at one time, would interact a bit more in the middle of their journeys to better hammer home the feeling that, while each is traveling for their own motives, they are still traveling together. A fun way to do that, but without making more chapters, could have been that all the currently equipped travelers would appear in each character's story cutscenes, and in certain moments in these stories, if a certain main character was in the party that had a particular ability that would be useful to resolve a particular situation, would speak up and give suggestions, potentially opening a side path (which would still end up in the same spot of the “regular route”) that would reward the player in some way, such as extra experience, money, equipment, or just a funny scene. This way, 99% of the individual stories would still be driven by the main character of that particular story, but it would better hammer home the narrative of eight travelers working together, and also give a bit of unpredictability to each chapter.
I wish that Octopath Traveler 2 took a bit more chances and played less safe, but it's a fantastic sequel to an already fantastic game. Even if it doesn't greatly change, the turn-based gameplay feels even better than the first game thanks to the additions made to it. It is actually a real joy to explore the world this time, not simply due to the breathtaking new vistas in HD-2D, and the second game added genuine surprises to the world map that the first game sorely lacked. Even though the two games are not connected in any way plot-wise, outside of a few lore tidbits, I still recommend playing through the first game. However, if you simply want to jump into the one that offers the best experience, just go straight to the second game. Highly recommended to RPG fans in general.
Score - 9.0/10
And honestly, they nailed what they set out to do: Octopath Traveler 2 improves on almost every single aspect of the first game.
Let’s get this out of the way first: The second game plays it safe. Most of the classes in the second game are identical to the first game. They changed the abilities each class has, made them more interesting, and allowed for more builds and combinations, but it's the same classes archetypes as the first game. That’s not bad by itself, but for someone who has played through the first game, it does take away a bit of the “mystique” on what a class can do and the joy of discovering and unlocking new skills, since even if most skills are new or tweaked, you already know the overall gist of what that class can and should do. Having said that, they did add a few new mechanisms that meshed well with what was already there: The new Latent Power adds a new layer of strategy on how you build a certain traveler’s ability, given that the Power is unique to that character and can’t be changed, so there are only some classes with abilities that go well with the type of power that certain Traveler has. It also changes the moment-to-moment gameplay since it adds an additional option on how to tackle battles that wasn’t there in the first game, which is welcome. Also, each character has additional abilities that are exclusive to that traveler, that have to be unlocked through the game, that further gives each traveler a certain identity and incentivizes affinities for certain builds, much like with the Latent Power. The end product is a much more refined and fun job system than the first Octopath Traveler, as those “limits” imposed make finding and making builds more interesting. Having said that, I do wish that there were more classes to unlock, as while the ones that are there are fun and pretty deep, it's not late until you know every ability that the starting classes have, and the game could have a better cadence of finding new classes and always rethinking your strategy and builds by having more classes that threw new stuff into the mix. What really feels fresh in the combat are the bosses having more mechanics and attacks unique to a certain boss, most of them having a unique quirk to them. That completely eliminates that feeling that you are fighting the same boss again just with higher HP and damage output, as the first game often had. But what really threw me off guard in the most fabulous of ways was the surprise they added during the final boss. That final fight was simply epic, and the moment they revealed the twist of that fight, it got me absolutely pumped. Team Asano knows how to make a Final Boss epic.
But the biggest improvement the sequel saw was in its structure. The first was like an onion: The world map was a circular continent, in which you started in the first layer, and as you moved to its upper layers, the game got increasingly higher. Not that it was a problem per se, but it was too formulaic. The next chapter of a given character was always in the area next to the previous chapter, and while the game was too hard for you to make all of a single character’s story before moving on to the next, thus forcing you to explore the world, it really never felt as if the travelers were... traveling. And almost all chapters could be boiled down to a very repetitive formula: Starts with a story exposition, then it's a dungeon ending on a boss, and finally the chapter closes with more story. That completely changes with Octopath Traveler 2: Now the world map doesn’t feel like a pizza with a hole in its middle, the characters are spread out in the two continents the game takes place on, and the characters actually travel through the world as they go through their story. It really feels like a journey. But much more than that, the structure of each chapter is infinitely more varied. Sure, there are still the Story - Dungeon and Boss - Story chapters, but now those are hardly the only type. There is one chapter that is basically a Boss rush, there are other chapters that focus almost exclusively on a given traveler's path action. There are others that are a smaller variation of the standard structure, that make you explore a dungeon and fight enemies, but that doesn’t end in a boss fight and has a bigger focus on telling the story. And my favorite: Partitio going out into the world and finding “business deals” that you have to solve on your own. Even outside of the regular chapters, Octopath Traveler 2 now has dungeons with unique mechanics in them, that force you to play either a certain way or just solve a (simple) puzzle. The amount of these dungeons and events in the game that stray away from the norm is still disappointingly small, but they give the game the much-needed excitement that the first game lacked in terms of being awed by finding something unexpected when exploring.
The story has also seen significant improvements. Each individual story is much better written and presented thanks to the bigger "screen time" each character had, as everyone got more cutscenes and chapters to flesh out their stories better. Not only that, but the overarching plot was much better interwoven into the game this time, compared to what seemed like an afterthought in the first game, in large part thanks to the Crossed Paths chapters, the travel banter which was more prominent, and the fantastic final chapter that concludes the game. Having said that, I have to admit that the Crossed Paths portions were disappointing. They were significantly shorter than a normal chapter in any given character's story and only had two main characters interact with each other at one given time. I know the game is already long as it is, and giving more time and exposure to these Crossed Paths, while maintaining the same pacing, would probably undercut time that would be allocated to the individual stories. But as it stands, the Crossed Paths portions just felt undercooked and underutilized. I would really appreciate it if all the characters, or even four of them at one time, would interact a bit more in the middle of their journeys to better hammer home the feeling that, while each is traveling for their own motives, they are still traveling together. A fun way to do that, but without making more chapters, could have been that all the currently equipped travelers would appear in each character's story cutscenes, and in certain moments in these stories, if a certain main character was in the party that had a particular ability that would be useful to resolve a particular situation, would speak up and give suggestions, potentially opening a side path (which would still end up in the same spot of the “regular route”) that would reward the player in some way, such as extra experience, money, equipment, or just a funny scene. This way, 99% of the individual stories would still be driven by the main character of that particular story, but it would better hammer home the narrative of eight travelers working together, and also give a bit of unpredictability to each chapter.
I wish that Octopath Traveler 2 took a bit more chances and played less safe, but it's a fantastic sequel to an already fantastic game. Even if it doesn't greatly change, the turn-based gameplay feels even better than the first game thanks to the additions made to it. It is actually a real joy to explore the world this time, not simply due to the breathtaking new vistas in HD-2D, and the second game added genuine surprises to the world map that the first game sorely lacked. Even though the two games are not connected in any way plot-wise, outside of a few lore tidbits, I still recommend playing through the first game. However, if you simply want to jump into the one that offers the best experience, just go straight to the second game. Highly recommended to RPG fans in general.
Score - 9.0/10
