I was so excited for Octopath Traveler when it came out. JRPGs are my favorite genre of games. I absolutely fell in love with the art style and thought the premise of 8 different stories was a cool concept. Unfortunately Octopath Traveler under delivered in every aspect for me outside of art. That is why I waited so long to really give Octopath Traveler 2 a try even though I bought it the week it came out. I’m very happy to report that Octopath Travler 2 succeeds in every aspect that failed in the original.

Let’s start with the story and characters. In the original I only like 3 of the 8 cast the other 5 I didn’t even care about. They felt soulless and I didn’t care about anything going on with them. In Octopath 2 I struggled on who to keep in my party as I loved all 8 characters very much. Each one had motives, struggles, and real emotions that made me care about them. But what really made this game so much better was the story. In the original the stories were so disconnected with chapter after chapter being a boring slog fest. Characters didn’t have any relevance at all unless the chapter was about them. No inner party connections and at times you wondered if they even knew each other were there together. It felt like there was no purpose, no over arching story. Now I’m not going to lie to you and say this is a great story and that the party was as connected as some of the greats in the genre. But I will say it was a Grand Canyon size difference from the original. The story’s were entertaining with no throw away chapters. As the stories unfolded you could see there was something connecting these stories that was drawing closer to being realized. The party grows together, have real conversations, and care about each other. These small things made a world of difference in the quality of the games.

The battle system is very similar to the original but with minor changes that make all the difference. For one the battles felt faster and more snappy. My second biggest problem with the original outside of story is it blatantly didn’t respect the players time. If you wanted to beat the original plan on running in circles for hours to grind out EXP from random encounters. With Octopath 2 you can change at will whether you are playing at day or night. When it is night you fight tougher enemies leading to more EXP thus killing the need for grinding as well as making you use more strategy than just hit X to kill the enemy but gain no EXP. My final major upgrade is the boss fights. In the original literally EVERY SINGLE BOSS FIGHT was a DPS race with each side one a timer. It wasn’t fun or satisfying. Octopath 2 is much more strategy based finding weak points and exploiting them to gain an advantage. Again simple things can make worlds of difference.

The art style is one thing that didn’t change and thank God for that. The game is a beautiful masterpiece with wonderful set pieces and great character designs. I love thier take on 2.5D and wish many more games made use of it. The music is equally sublime and many tracks stand out as greats in the medium.

All in all if you were turned off from Octopath 2 because of the extremely average Octopath Traveler please don’t be. Give this game a chance if you are a JRPG fan, it is worthy of your time.

My 2024 ranked. (It’s been a supberbyear in gaming for me so far)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/

I am a huge RPG fan and a moderately big JRPG fan and I really really really wanted to like this game. It's a shame because it's so beautiful and the gameplay is really fun (while it does go stale fairly quickly for me).

The biggest issue is that I just can't stand the writing of the game. It's SUCH a slog to have to slowly read the childish dialogue lines that it was unbearable for me to finish. Maybe I needed to give it more time for all stories to eventually intertwine or something, but after 45 hours I am not sure how much better the game can get.

Please someone recommend me a similar, aesthetically pleasing RPG like this one but with better writing.

this is my favorite game ever. the travelers are more interesting as a whole than the previous game, and the ways all of their stories tie into the climactic final chapter feels more intentional and interesting. the music, like its predecessor, is simply incredible and one of my favorite video game osts of all time.
the combat, the original octopath's #1 strength, is pretty much unchanged. if it ain't broke don't fix it, and it was far from broken. the new latent power system adds an extra wrinkle in battle strategies without being overpowered or game-breaking, however there are some ways that you can trivialize battles (such as hired help).
the game is still not perfect of course. like the last game, the travelers don't interact with each other in the individual traveler stories outside of isolated travel banters that comment on events that were just watched. the crossed path stories are certainly nice, and there is an actual cutscene that depicts all eight of them interacting (plus a proper conclusion to their whole adventure!), but the other seven travelers' absence when playing through one storyline can get pretty distracting. so, if that aspect disappointed you in the original, the sequel might not be able to win you over. i also wish the difficulty was customizable. mainly because the game can get dummy easy once you figure out how to break it, which can be a bit of a shame, so i guess i would like a way in-game to make certain fights more difficult or encourage different strategies.
i could go on and on about about the good and the bad of this game, but that's all the important stuff. please play it if you love rpgs!! it's an amazing beautiful time!!!

The absolute baseline on a good turn based JRPG, which is just what it needed to be. This game doesn't try to redefine the genre or anything grand like that - its just more octopath. Keeping the same basic gameplay loop, but adding more depth to choosing which characters to have in your party adds a lot more strategy and thought into battles that the first one needed. Each character's story does vary in quality, with some great and others eh, however what I find the most enjoyable is the fact that the game seems to care more for the fact that the traverlers are in a party and aren't adventuring solo, unlike how the first game handled it. One complaint I do have is the end game grind, which just isn't fun - with no real solution given by the game to alleviate the boredom.

Octopath Traveler II is an overall improvement of the first game in every single possible way. The OST, the artstyle, the battle-system, the gameplay, the characters, the UI, it's all great. I will always hold this game close to my heart because of how much of an enjoyable experience it was. I was reluctant to replay Octopath Traveler I before this game, but I'm honestly glad I did because now I can see the great parts of both games, but also some potential flaws.

The story for this game is great. Unlike OT1 where I only actively liked three of the stories, there really wasn't a story I disliked, despite how cliche some of them are. Standouts for me are definitely Partitio, Castii, and Temenos. I also enjoyed the addition of side stories between two of the characters but they really didn't do much for me and just felt like an addition to have the bare-minimum of interconnectedness between the stories. I did enjoy the overarching plot of the story, but I refused to fight the final boss because of my experience with the final boss of OT1, and decided to just watch it on YouTube. Great stories and was a big improvement from OT1.

Gameplay wise, this game is great. You got the addition of Day and Night Path Actions, with different quests being present during the night, and others present during the day. Also have Latent Power, which probably makes Castii broken as an Apothecary. I also enjoy the little additions they put into some of the classes, like how Hikari can learn different skills from dueling different NPCs, and how Agnea can have different bonuses depending on the NPC that she has Allured. I'll also include exploration in the gameplay section because that's another big thing for me. I love that there's a Western and Eastern continent, and the different towns, like OT1, just make the game that much more enjoyable for me. There's also definitely more lore that I haven't gotten into, which seems pretty great for the people who like lore. I also enjoy the little addition of being able to ride a boat in the water on certain maps, it just makes exploration that much better. Also, I can't forget the big overworld map, and how you can essentially buy a ship, and you're able to explore many previously unexplorable islands. Some things I will take away from the gameplay is the encounter rate, I despise random encounters, especially the encounter rate without having the reduced counter rate skill equipped. Also, I dislike grinding, but thanks to getting two lucky Bewildering Grace procs, I didn't have that much of an issue with it. However, that's a minor incovenience, as the game as a whole is great, and clearly outclasses its predecessor in terms of gameplay.

Music & the artstyle slaps so hard in this game. They really gave me the nostalgia factor for OT1 even though I had just completed that game, and the different tracks are great. The artstyle is gorgeous and I just loved seeing each little sub-section in this artstyle, I was just amazed by nearly everything in this game.

Overall, Octopath Traveler II is a great game that improves all of the problems that Octopath Traveler I had (with a few exceptions of course). If you're thinking of giving this game a chance, then please do, it's a great experience.

To say that this game is better than the original is the understatement of the century. As someone who doesn't even like the original this game is nothing short of fantastic. Improvements in literally every single facet of the entire gameplay loop has turned this series from a seemingly shallow pixel art nostalgia trip to one of the modern day greats.
The gameplay is expertly segmented and paced this time around, and nowhere is this seen more than the world map itself. It is just so fun to explore. There are alternating paths filled with chests containing extremely worthwhile treasure and items on almost every screen of the map, as well as optional dungeons everywhere ALSO containing really unique and powerful gear that, so that they always feel worth it and exciting to explore.
New additions to the combat makes it infinitely more rewarding and fun to play, such as more unique skills, and individual character latent powers, which are abilities that are unique to each specific traveler. It is so fun seeing how they synergize with not just the travelers main class, but also all of the other subclasses they can equip.
The boss fights are also incredible, especially the later ones. They are all so interesting and have exciting gimmicks that really makes them all stand out so much.
Every part of the gameplay loop is just so much fun. Be it exploring for powerful gear and optional bosses, customizing your party with the deep and layerd class system, doing one of the MANY rich, deep, and puzzling sidequests that utilize different characters path actions, or fighting incredibly designed bosses, this game is just such a blast when it comes to not just the minute to minute gameplay, but just as an overall package. I'm so thankful that the new update content inspired me to revisit this game

the greatest turn based job system game of all time, no hyperbole, brings an unbelievable amount of polish, love to the franchise that put pixels back on the map.

Where Octopath 1's spark came from the innovative blend of HD assets and lighting with pixel art, as well as the Path Action system (think Paper Mario Partners) with the time tested FFV/Bravely job system, Octopath 2 strives to address criticisms of the original (such as generic stories, limited party member interactions, and slow combat) whilst turning what works up to 11 (absurd soundtrack and unbelievably tightly balanced combat whose enemy shield system has positive parallels that can be drawn to the 2024 hit Sea of Stars).

one of the criticisms for the first game that got a lot of coverage was the speed of combat, and the amount of little changes under the hood to address this have I think really been under-appreciated.

The most transcendental experience I've ever had in a video game was fighting the then final post game boss (more free content has since been added) wherein I was moving through menus and reacting, changing my gameplan turn by turn as new twists were thrown my way, in a manner that felt more analogous to the flow state of a platformer like Pizza Tower than it did to a traditional turn based game like Pokemon. If I were ever to make a game, trying to find a way to recreate, to capture this experience unlike any I have ever had before would be my guiding light.


Chapter 1-2 SPOILERS below, thoughts on each of the 8 playable characters:

In addition to being an utterly devastating and emotional story, Castti, the amnesiac apothecary, is the only time I can think of a healer coded character having a job related arc not precipitated on healing someone.

In her attempt to retrace her steps to recover her memories she is reunited with Lady Rosa, who is deathly ill and is fighting above all else to make it a couple more months so her only child can age into eligibility for inheriting her estate.

I've played a lot of jrpg's with white mage characters that have banished undead or cured diseases or healed the wounded or cursed, but never before had I seen specifically hospice as the through line to a healer's arc.

Temenos, the church inquisitor who presented as almost agnostic in the reveal trailer for Octopath 2, was one of the first things that clued me into the fact that the developers appeared to have taken criticism over some of the genericness to certain characters in the original to heart. His caution, which plays out over the course of chapters akin to a detective novel, ends up being far more than a marketing gimmick as you learn the what's and the why's behind his tempered demenor.

Agnea the down to earth rural folk dancer trying to make it big in the city, whose adopted surbuban accent slips in moments of distress or surprise, helps ground the cast in a genre full of chosen ones and kings and queens.

Ochette, the anthropomorphic hunter from a tribe of her peers just now navigating how to deal with encroaching humans, and her pokemon like quest to awaken the 3 legendary beasts to defend her homeland from a looming prophecy is well executed, and her initial impressions on mankind are well written and run the gamut from comedic to insightful and optimistic.

Osvald, towering hulk and vicious mugger, framed for the murder of his family by a rival scholar, strikes a strong contrast with the average inhabitant of the wizarding world.

Hikari, fighter and also blue mage (mechanically) tells the tale of Samurai Jack in Shonen form as he travels the world learning new martial arts and forging relationships with which he hopes to one day restore peace to his homeland. I have some reservations on the execution itself but am a big fan of the concept and the numerous ways the community has given him depth and grounding in fan media.

Throne (JP: Sorone) Auguis, Homophone: Sorrow Anguish, is abducted into the world of thuggery, thievery, and ultimately assassination at a young age where the only way out is cutting her way up through the power structure. What she actually finds at the top is one of the most disturbing vistas in any pixel art game, and ultimately an extreme subversion of my expectations.

Where some (okay, just me) may have referred to Tressa, the Merchant from Octopath 1 as the Ash Ketchum of Capitalism, Partitio's story starts with seizing the means of production in his hometown and swearing vengeance on that darn mr Roque 'feller before setting off on a globetrotting quest to amass a sufficient fortune to buy out and shred the patent on the steam engine.

Un buen RPG con buena musica, gran sistema de combate y una buena colección de historias pero que se me ha hecho terriblemente largo y pesado.

El hecho de que tengas que alternar si o si entre las diferentes historias de cada personaje, que no puedas continuar una que te esta gustando o que el ritmo de estas sea tan desigual realmente ha provocado que en vez de continuar el juego porque estaba metido en su propuesta ha hecho que haya tenido que forzarme a acabarlo.

No ayuda tampoco que no se sienta un grupo de aventureros viajando juntos hasta el final. Aun con las pequeñas escenas entre distintos personajes, nunca llega a alcanzar lo que se supone que intenta describir como una gran aventura conjunta.

Es evidente que es un gran juego pero a la vez me ha dejado bastante frio.