Octopath Traveler started as an early Switch game. It was originally shown off in one of the earliest B-reel trailers for Switch and it instantly made an impression. It is the first game to feature Square Enix's patented "HD-2D" artstyle. This basically takes 2D pixelated sprites and renders them in 3D worlds with realistic lighting bump-mapping and such. To sell it the texel sizes on textures are picked to roughly match the size of the pixels on the sprite giving it a look of suped-up SNES or early 32-bit game. This has also featured in other games like Live-a-Live and Triangle Strategy. The gameplay itself was a mix of several RPGs, most notably Final Fantasy but the structure of having 8 protagonists is reminiscent of Seiken Densetsu 3 (later localized as Trials of Mana) or Live-a-Live.
Octopath Travel 2 follows very closely behind it's predecessor. The gameplay is basically identical, which is not a bad thing, but with an extra element called "Latent Abilities" which are special abilities each protagonist has that are charged by performing certain actions. In fact all 8 protagonists follow the same job archetypes as the first game with mostly similar skills. Casti the Apothecary, Throné the Thief, Ochette the Hunter, Agnea the Dancer, Hikari the Warrior, Oswald the Scholar, Temenos the Cleric, and Partitio the Merchant. The content is new, the bones of the game are exactly the same. What I did appreciate is that they at least tried to patch over the most disappointing parts of the first game. In that game the stories were 100% segmented, there was no interaction between any of the party members, they just showed up in the battles. Octopath 2 does not completely fix this. Each chapter still only features the protagonist it's for but they added some extra dialog between party members at certain points. It's not particularly interesting as it neither features real scenes or voice lines, just two sprites facing each other on a backdrop, but it's at least something more. Better are the paired chapters which feature 2 protagonists. These contain actual interaction and let some dynamics form. The problem is theirs only 8 total, 2 per each set pairing (Partitio + Oswald, Hikari + Agnea, Casti + Ochette, Throné + Temenos) so it doesn't quite feel like enough. They are also only at the very beginning and end of the game, so you'll probably forget what the first part was about with a 60 hour gap.
There's 2 parts to the gameplay, battles and everything outside them. In typical RPG faire you visit towns and talk to people. Octopath's main gimmick is that each character has a "path action" which is something they can perform on a townsperson. In Octopath 2 each character gets 2, one for the day time and one for night. The overall effects are still in the same 4 effect categories as the first, you get items, you recruit an ally, you get information which might lower prices in the shop or more often get you a hidden item, or knock-out the character which can allow you to get into new places. I think it was a bit disappointing to not get new effects but since you can change day to night on a whim it allows you to cover more ground without swapping characters in. You also use these to solve quests which might have you bringing a character to a location, or getting a special item held by an NPC. To be honest, this usually feels like busywork as each new town you'll basically inquire and steal from everyone because there's no reason not to. Hiring townsfolk can uncover some extremely powerful allies provided you have the level/gold to get them. Dueling also has a special function which allows Hikari to learn new skills. Finding the best skills can completely break him at the end game, able to KO bosses in a single hit.
The main attraction is the battle system. Similar to a Shin Megami Tensei each enemy has weapon weaknesses you uncover by hitting them. Each enemy has shield points which are decreased by exploiting their weakness. If you lower them to 0 the enemy breaks, it's defense lowers and it can't attack for a full turn. The basic rhyme then is to break the enemy and then follow up with your strongest attacks and repeat. The bosses all have unique plays on this system, doing things like rotating weaknesses, charging deadly power attacks that require breaking them, summoning other enemies that "lock" a weakness etc. This is where the game shines as you need to make strategies for dealing with the bosses attacks and weaknesses. These fights also feature exquisite sprite art that pays homage to the massive boss sprites of SNES RPGs, this time they also feature some (but not too much!) animation. The beauty of the game really comes through. Unlike the first Octopath which had uniform level gates between chapters that causes a huge amount of grinding, Octopath 2 has an assortment of level gates so you can gradually level up without large gaps to grind which is a much appreciated change. Be prepared at the end game to learn some broken strategies though as levels won't save you.
Also returning is Yasunori Nishiki as composer. The result is absolutely wonderful as it was before. The orchestral arrangements are beautiful ranging from peaceful town themes to epic boss fights. This is easily one of the better soundtracks in the last few years.
After finishing the main chapters the game offers one final one featuring the whole cast. This is a great finisher to the game and it really makes you wish the whole thing was like this. All of the characters get to interact a bit, the objectives open up a bit and you get the big reveal. It really feels more interesting even though some of your abilities get locked. I had a little trouble with the final boss and had to jump to a previous save to access a few quest items and abilities I missed. You are clearly warned before you start but I wish they handled this a little better.
Octopath II is clearly an upgrade over its predecessor in most ways, exactly what I wanted from it. The gameplay remains excellent but it's still too structurally ridged and just doesn't flow like it could. Hopefully a third game figures out how to make story scenarios work without exponential explosion of branching in a way that still feels rather natural.
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