Sq. Enix’s 2018 hit Octopath Traveler bought over 3 million copies worldwide, however by no means made it to PlayStation. Now, the sequence heads to PS5 and PS4 for the primary time with Octopath Traveler II. Nonetheless with the putting HD-2D graphics of the primary recreation, the sequel takes what its predecessor did and builds on it, creating a novel gaming expertise which is able to depart you wanting extra. It’s a totally standalone recreation as nicely, so there is no have to energy by the primary title.
Like the primary recreation, Octopath Traveler II offers a selection of eight protagonists: Osvald, Castti, Throné, Ochette, Partitio, Agnea, Temenos, or Hikari (OCTOPATH, get it?). Selecting a protagonist ties you in to having that character in your social gathering completely, however you will unlock the remainder of the characters and their tales on the journey by the brand new world of Solistia, so there’s no likelihood of lacking something and having to begin a brand new playthrough.
Gathering social gathering members as you journey on will mean you can play the primary chapter of every character’s story. This could both be executed by enjoying right away if you’ve encountered the character, or by visiting the inn in any city and selecting ‘Hear a Story’ from the menu. There are advantages and downsides to every means; enjoying instantly typically feels prefer it inhibits progress and interrupts the movement of motion, but it surely does imply that you simply acquire EXP, gadgets, and cash for that chapter which then carry over. Skipping the chapter implies that character joins the social gathering (or the bench if you have already got 4 social gathering members) at degree 1.
Launched for this sequel, Octopath now has a day and evening cycle. This may be triggered with a press of R2, or naturally by ready it out. Characters have completely different abilities at evening and at day, and NPCs will transfer round or seem relying on the time.
Every character has their very own class, whether or not that’s Temenos the cleric, or Osvald the scholar, and every thing in between. Every of those lessons comes with their very own fight type, and a Path Motion for every character. It is a particular motion that can be utilized outdoors of fight; for instance, Temenos the dutiful cleric is ready to information townspeople by day, which means they’ll comply with him wherever he goes till advised in any other case, however by evening he can coerce info out of them by battling them, and inflicting them to achieve their Break.
Every of the characters has a narrative which feels so deep it might be a recreation by itself. Totally developed and nuanced, the plot of every drives a need to search out out extra, to maintain going, to discover extra and to push additional. There’s a relentless feeling of ‘just a bit bit extra’, which is testomony to how a lot enjoyable Octopath Traveler II is, and the way a lot we needed to sink time and power into progressing with every character. Sometimes all through your travels, the choice will come as much as ‘Hear Journey Banter’, and somewhat scene will play out with social gathering members. It is a actually enjoyable aspect that provides to characterisation.
Outdoors of important chapters there may also be’“Crossed Paths’ tales. These are brief missions which contain two travellers, and might be highlighted on the map. Each travellers should be within the social gathering to set off the story, or they are often added later, and the story may be began from the inn. Just like the Journey Banter aspect, these plot threads are actually good enjoyable, and provides an ideal alternative to see pairs of characters interacting and dealing in direction of a standard aim. While the members might be within the social gathering for one another’s chapters, they don’t work together with the primary character previous showing to assist in fight — so this provides a welcome sense of comradery.
The characters themselves are extremely nicely written and the voice performing for every is high tier, bringing layers to the dialogue. The hazard with such a big solid is that sure sides of the solid’s personalities typically find yourself getting reused, and so they can typically be a duplicate and paste of each other. Octopath Traveler II manages to current eight characters who’re wealthy with persona, every having their very own quirks and their very own motivations. Their storylines are all fully completely different, too, which makes issues much more various. Don’t wish to proceed this path of revenge? Have a break and deal with changing into a world-class dancer as an alternative. There’s a lot selection right here, and it typically looks like we’re spoilt for selection.
It’s not simply the characters which can be various; all of the locations in Solistia have a special vibe to them. From a wild west-esque city to an icy tundra, the environments are all various with completely different aesthetics and distinctive soundtracks to them. Traversing Solistia throws various enemies on the social gathering, which have particular weaknesses and require completely different techniques to greatest in turn-based fight. In the meantime, hopping from place to position is easy — there’s quick journey on the world map to go to locations you’ve been earlier than — and cargo screens between areas are just about non-existent, so every thing feels seamless.
Constructing on its already aesthetically interesting predecessor, Octopath Traveler II is beautiful by way of visuals. Mixing retro pixel artwork and 3DCG, coined HD-2D, this sequel is much more detailed. All the things simply appears so crisp and extra expressive than earlier than, which actually heightens the sensation of this being a lower above the property’s preliminary outing.
Nevertheless, it does really feel like Octopath Traveler II stumbles barely with its story development. Opening up the world map exhibits the place to go for every chapter, and what the really useful degree is to finish that chapter. Helpful, however attending to that degree can actually really feel like a grind at occasions, placing a dent within the story’s in any other case immaculate pacing. At first, we have been finishing chapters left, proper, and centre, however the additional alongside we obtained — and the upper degree we have been required to be — the extra of a slog it felt to get there.
That is additionally echoed considerably within the repetitive nature of a number of the battles, particularly boss battles. A few of the bosses have gargantuan well being swimming pools, and it truly is a case of discovering a method that works in opposition to them, rinse and repeat. It’s going to really feel such as you’re on autopilot throughout a few of these encounters, and with no seen HP bar – enemy names are white for top HP, yellow for mid-range HP, and purple for low HP – we have been left questioning if the top would ever be in sight.
We don’t imply this to sound like a gripe in regards to the fight, although – the mechanics themselves are actually pleasant. Enemies have icons beneath them which you must unearth, signalling what their weaknesses are. They’ll have a quantity in a protect, which exhibits what number of assaults they need to tackle their weak spots earlier than they attain Break Level. As soon as the enemies are ‘damaged’, their flip is forfeited for the present spherical in the event that they haven’t already acted, and the identical is true of the subsequent flip. Damaged enemies additionally take elevated injury.
Every character has a special Latent Energy, which, as soon as the gauge is stuffed, are unleashed by urgent triangle. Utilizing these Latent Powers can actually flip the tides of battle, enjoying into an particularly partaking tactical aspect of fight. The underside line right here is that fights can really feel extremely slick and nuanced briefly bursts, however the longer the battles go on, the extra it could really feel like an train in button pushing.