I'm still not really sure what possessed me to go all-in on Octopath Traveler II. Team Asano's 2018 outing felt like a miss to me; among a slew of complaints about OT1's mechanics feeling half-baked and Team Asano's now-signature HD2D look not quite finding its footing, its very loosely connected plot and minimal character interactivity felt like a waste of a wonderful setting and good characters and left me lukewarm on the possibility of more Octopath. As it'd turn out, it's always darkest...

Flash forward a bit: Team Asano's much-praised LIVE A LIVE remake (I've had some choice words to say about it here on backloggd) went WAY over on me while raising questions. "If this existed before, why did Octopath feel like a step back?" The blueprint was right there! LAL didn't even play around with the pretense of needing the characters to all be in the same region -- without spoiling much, characters' connectivity felt thematic and driven by a late-game plot event -- and the way things came together legitimately felt like a surprise. My faith restored, even if only in part, I figured the team could learn from both longstanding criticisms of OT while looking toward a game like LIVE A LIVE to draw some inspiration. With that in mind, I decided to give Octopath Traveler II a tentative go.

I came out of it feeling vindicated for taking a leap; Octopath Traveler II is everything its predecessor couldn't be. Although it doesn't change much of its series core DNA -- you're still playing through 8 different narratives, combat is largely untouched save for a couple new bells and whistles, the music still absolutely rocks -- II massively improves on many of the weak points presented by the original. Characters' stories now sprinkle some breadcrumbs hinting at an overarching narrative, the cast now acknowledges each other more frequently (even in battle!), and perhaps most importantly, a few joint chapters and skits throughout the game give some of the main cast an opportunity to bond and lean on each other's strengths to solve problems and uncover truths of their world in a way that doesn't feel cobbled together and inelegant. They really did it.

Of course, I do have my squabbles. Exploration feels very dioramic; although the world is "open", for lack of a better term, nearly every field and dungeon lays its cards out on the table with a minimap/radar highlighting points of interest for players to simply sprint over to without a second thought. It does work for some highly "Point-A-to-Point-B" gaming -- I lovingly referred to it more than once as a "blue collar RPG" -- but it's the sort of inorganic lean that really does turn the moments between into box-ticking with some turn-based combat sprinkled in. Personal actions are very similar in that regard, making every town a checklist of NPCs to harass for info, hidden treasures, skills, and so forth. The world of Solistia is teeming with a ton of essentially non-essential lore revealed by using these actions, though; every town feels like Value Town. This focus on details permeates through other portions of the game, too, with some incredibly well-planned moments even revolving around integrating character abilities directly into plot progression.

Character stories are largely better in II (Agnea's and Partitio's were personal favorites), though it was a bit strange that the scenario team still hasn't quite nailed how to put the cast in situations that at least consider the presence of party members, be it through a couple extra lines of optional dialogue or even a slight deviation in how a chapter plays out. Still, it's a monumental step above OT, even moreso emphasized by a jaw-dropping final chapter that felt like it was crafted specifically to address everything I thought the first game missed out on.

Octopath II sticks its landing cleaner than I thought it would. Really, I think the only place it DOESN'T far outstrip its predecessor is its music...but even that isn't because of a dip in quality, I just thought OT1's soundtrack was that good. By the time credits rolled, I had been moved and entertained in ways that OT hadn't compelled me to be, making this one a huge bright spot in my recent gaming landscape and a worthy GOTY candidate. Go into this one with confidence if you love and appreciate modern craftsmanship and classic RPGs.

Reviewed on May 29, 2023


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