my advice? don't listen to reviews that try to tell you that all you're getting here is more of what was already given to you in the first game.
fundamentally, yeah, I'll admit that not too much has changed. game still stars eight protagonists identified by the same eight classes and it still has the same break-and-boost system. but this isn't a simple case of the devs not fixing what isn't broken. octopath 2 is easily the gold standard for everything a sequel ought to achieve. a great deal of refinement was put into every category here, to the point where I would consider this game and its predecessor different entities entirely.
I'll go ahead and run through all of these said categories, but the one that definitely needs to be talked about first is the story structure, which, if you've never played the first game or haven't read pre-release reviews for this one, remains the source of some contention
octopath features eight characters on separate journies who travel together under the banner of your usual JRPG party. you travel around the game's world to where the story chapters of your chosen travelers take place. it's a really cool system that lets you have complete freedom over where you go and which order these tales are told, and this, much like many facets of the short story structure, has gotten only better in the sequel.
having multi-part chapters that present actual choice beyond “go here because its the only thing you’re leveled up enough for l lol” is such a nice change. even better, these chapters no longer follow the unchanging formula of dialogue into dungeon into boss fight that definitely damaged the first game’s pacing. some chapters flip the order around. some don’t even have any sort of encounter and instead provided largely unbroken story bits for twenty minutes straight. it’s great! but it also reminds me that, for a game I would argue is masterclass when it comes to hyping you up for decisive battles, the first game could be so fucking boring sometimes.
look, I'm a big fan of the original octopath -- it's one of my favorite games on switch! -- but I'm also of the opinion that it was way overhyped on release. there are a scare few things to complain about in that game, but fact that the characters in it do not interact at all beyond non-voiced, non-canon travel banters has got to be easily the most disappointing thing about it. even in the endgame, where the eight stories finally come together, its not the characters who disclose the truth through communication with one another. no. it's eight walls of text and one big lore dump right before a superboss which, after beating, offers no epilogue or anything really to have made playing the game beyond those eight storylines worth it.
it sucks pretty bad, especially since these eight tales vary in overall quality, so I can't blame the fair few people out there who are skeptical about octopath 2 maintaining this structure, but let me just say this: this game makes the strongest case for short stories in video games that I have seen in a long time, and unlike the first game, it did not need to banish interesting character interaction from the game entirely in order to reach this state
a little goes a long way here. to start, octopath 2 has a ton of battle voicelines of acknowledgement, gratitude, and praise shared between the travelers. I found that a fair amount of these lines also reference the dynamics between these characters. i.e. temenos, the cleric, likes to say “bravo!” to the others a lot as a catchphrase, and throne, the thief, is to only one to say this exact word back to him in return because they’re besties who make fun of each other‘s mannerisms. I noticed how specific the compliments of partitio, the merchant, was whenever he witnessed an ally break through the defenses of the enemy. it would have been easy for the devs to record the same "thanks, (insert other character name here)!" line with only a few slight alterations, but the fact that the octo 2 crew actually reference each other's personalities is a baby step I can admire greatly.
it's an odd thing to praise, but I also think that the travel banters in general are a lot better here than they were in the first game. it helps that you can access all of these potential discussions immediately upon completing a chapter like its a Tales Of game, whereas before these banters could only occur between those currently in party. better in more than just frequency, I felt that these brief interactions also simply felt like actual l examples of empathy rather than just some one-off bit where the non-starring character somehow flexes their defining trait into the current context -- don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of those, but the point is that there's now room for more profound stuff here too.
for example, one of the banters that occurred during a story segment for castti, the amnesiac apothecary, straight up foreshadowed a later major reveal, I didn't realize this until much later, and when I did, it kinda blew my mind.
though the big advertised solution for the complaint of little character interaction is the new 'crossed paths' chapters, which star two characters as a duo investigating something else on the sidelines. and this mechanic turned out to be... okay, I guess? the crossed paths chapters themselves were pretty great -- I think they're pretty fantastic, honestly -- but I have to admit that they're not spread out evenly enough for them to not feel short lived. you unlock the first of these duo chapters very early in the game, and the second part very late, leaving an awkward gap in the midsection of my playthrough. I guess it could've easily been my bad for rushing through all of them but that's square's fault for creating so much value in the art of backtracking through areas previously explored.
all of this aside, the true reward that proves the solidarity between these characters is in the endgame + epilogue, which I won't spoil anything about, but man... that build-up into title drop had me emotional.
so that's that. characters actually interact in this one. is as much as some people wanted? maybe not, and its still a fair complaint for those still unsatisfied, but I have to say that immediate assumption I kept seeing that giving everybody the role of protagonist somehow undermines overall story of octopath 2 really annoyed me.
even more so when one pre-release reviewer tried to tell that hikari, a dethroned prince desperate to take his kingdom back from the clutches of his enemy, having the option to stop and spare some time to help agnea, a dancer who has want for stardom and nothing else, was bad storytelling. bro you're playing a fucking RPG. by your will as the player, hikari would just as easily prioritize eight fishing sidequests over arriving on the scene of his burning homeland.
having different stories that contrast in stakes and tone is a good thing so long as they all have proper pacing that each leads to a satisfying climax, which they all do in this game. this is how you make the player feel different things, which is how you build investment. the eight tales of octopath 2 is such a brilliant step-up from those of its predecessor, and it finally feels like square is taking full advantage of the framework they've built here. I, personally, couldn't be happier with the end result achieved here, and am extremely eager to see what they cook up in the future.
the rest of this review will no doubt be much shorter in comparison because everything I have talked about thus far is the subjective half of the game. the rest of it, from gameplay to world to music to literally everything is objective perfection that I have no doubt every other review on this website has already detailed a thousand times over.
let's start with the gameplay. HOT DAMN DO I STILL LOVE THE BREAK AND BOOST SYSTEM. I love being able to pick a damage class disguised as a healer and watch as my character goes through various dragon ball-level powerups before screaming "WITH THESE HANDS" as she decimates some random guy in town who was literally just minding his own business before strolled in and ruined his life.
but for real though, I don't know how anyone can be upset that we're using the same eight classes with the same general arsenal as the first game when there are so many changes present that equalize potential and do away with the dominant playstyles of the first game.
want to make your scholar a catboy? sure! feeling horny enough to class your warrior into a support-class dancer? why the fuck not! who cares about the job point economy when you got like four different skills in the game specifically made to do away with tedious grinding and all your stats are dictated by the gear you equip rather than the characters you put them on. being punished in RPGs for using your level-up points to explore possibilities is stupid. but that's beside the point.
gameplay is awesome. each class has the unique progression of unlocked 'EX skills' that I'm continuously finding out about new build possibilities, even now. my only regret is accidentally becoming too over leveled and defeating each character's final boss too quickly for them to show off all their unique gimmicks.
but the world of octopath is simply too easy to get lost in. having a day/night cycle that affects the location of townspeople as well as how you interact with them adds a surprising amount of depth, especially when I argue that NPCs that one of the best things about this series. the sheer amount of backstory, environmental storytelling, learnable skills, potential high quality gear hiding in plain sight, and overall depth hidden within each and every random bozo you come across is simply unparalleled by any other RPG. I love how most sidequests have multiple solutions, like that one guy in New Delsta who wanted a charm made somewhere else in the continent so that he might have something to calm his nerves through placebo alone. instead of doing that, I sought out the true source of his anxiety: a female stalker, and confronted her with my hunter after capturing an array of monsters which were just barely enough to beat an NPC that was stronger than most of my party, exposing the woman's deeds to the man, to which they got together in the end and I was rewarded for my outside-the-box thinking.
not only are the cities populated and teeming with unique life, the areas in between are beautiful as well. I'm not just talking about the usual coat of bloom filters; the lighting in this game is far more deliberate. moving clouds create overcast, colours are constantly reflecting off the vibrant environment, and the previously mentioned day/night cycle that can be altered with the press of a button also occurs naturally overtime, with a few secrets hiding in the periods between dawn and dusk (go to gravell and stakeout the area beyond the left exit as temenos, wait until morning).
traveling through the different areas of the eight regions in this game was a real treat. from the rooftops of a factory town in the brightlands, to boating through the overflown ruins in toto'haha, every little nook and cranny, even the optional dungeons, had at least a few assets I never saw reused anywhere else, which is an impressive feat for a game as long as this one.
and the soundtrack. oh man, the soundtrack.
I kneel to nishiki. the man's a legend. there's nothing quite like hearing the leimotif of your chosen character play right before a boss fight and then seamlessly transition to the most amazing orchestral pieces to grace our current age. go listen to the entire soundtrack on soundcloud. you won't be disappointed.
I want to go on, I really want to, but the truth is that if everything I've described thus far sounds good to you, there's no reason not to pick this game up. don't play the first octopath, it's an overpriced waste of your time compared to this. the feeling of that game might have decayed overtime for me but I already know for a fact that octopath 2 is my game of the year and will forever be one of the best rpgs I've ever played
fundamentally, yeah, I'll admit that not too much has changed. game still stars eight protagonists identified by the same eight classes and it still has the same break-and-boost system. but this isn't a simple case of the devs not fixing what isn't broken. octopath 2 is easily the gold standard for everything a sequel ought to achieve. a great deal of refinement was put into every category here, to the point where I would consider this game and its predecessor different entities entirely.
I'll go ahead and run through all of these said categories, but the one that definitely needs to be talked about first is the story structure, which, if you've never played the first game or haven't read pre-release reviews for this one, remains the source of some contention
octopath features eight characters on separate journies who travel together under the banner of your usual JRPG party. you travel around the game's world to where the story chapters of your chosen travelers take place. it's a really cool system that lets you have complete freedom over where you go and which order these tales are told, and this, much like many facets of the short story structure, has gotten only better in the sequel.
having multi-part chapters that present actual choice beyond “go here because its the only thing you’re leveled up enough for l lol” is such a nice change. even better, these chapters no longer follow the unchanging formula of dialogue into dungeon into boss fight that definitely damaged the first game’s pacing. some chapters flip the order around. some don’t even have any sort of encounter and instead provided largely unbroken story bits for twenty minutes straight. it’s great! but it also reminds me that, for a game I would argue is masterclass when it comes to hyping you up for decisive battles, the first game could be so fucking boring sometimes.
look, I'm a big fan of the original octopath -- it's one of my favorite games on switch! -- but I'm also of the opinion that it was way overhyped on release. there are a scare few things to complain about in that game, but fact that the characters in it do not interact at all beyond non-voiced, non-canon travel banters has got to be easily the most disappointing thing about it. even in the endgame, where the eight stories finally come together, its not the characters who disclose the truth through communication with one another. no. it's eight walls of text and one big lore dump right before a superboss which, after beating, offers no epilogue or anything really to have made playing the game beyond those eight storylines worth it.
it sucks pretty bad, especially since these eight tales vary in overall quality, so I can't blame the fair few people out there who are skeptical about octopath 2 maintaining this structure, but let me just say this: this game makes the strongest case for short stories in video games that I have seen in a long time, and unlike the first game, it did not need to banish interesting character interaction from the game entirely in order to reach this state
a little goes a long way here. to start, octopath 2 has a ton of battle voicelines of acknowledgement, gratitude, and praise shared between the travelers. I found that a fair amount of these lines also reference the dynamics between these characters. i.e. temenos, the cleric, likes to say “bravo!” to the others a lot as a catchphrase, and throne, the thief, is to only one to say this exact word back to him in return because they’re besties who make fun of each other‘s mannerisms. I noticed how specific the compliments of partitio, the merchant, was whenever he witnessed an ally break through the defenses of the enemy. it would have been easy for the devs to record the same "thanks, (insert other character name here)!" line with only a few slight alterations, but the fact that the octo 2 crew actually reference each other's personalities is a baby step I can admire greatly.
it's an odd thing to praise, but I also think that the travel banters in general are a lot better here than they were in the first game. it helps that you can access all of these potential discussions immediately upon completing a chapter like its a Tales Of game, whereas before these banters could only occur between those currently in party. better in more than just frequency, I felt that these brief interactions also simply felt like actual l examples of empathy rather than just some one-off bit where the non-starring character somehow flexes their defining trait into the current context -- don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of those, but the point is that there's now room for more profound stuff here too.
for example, one of the banters that occurred during a story segment for castti, the amnesiac apothecary, straight up foreshadowed a later major reveal, I didn't realize this until much later, and when I did, it kinda blew my mind.
though the big advertised solution for the complaint of little character interaction is the new 'crossed paths' chapters, which star two characters as a duo investigating something else on the sidelines. and this mechanic turned out to be... okay, I guess? the crossed paths chapters themselves were pretty great -- I think they're pretty fantastic, honestly -- but I have to admit that they're not spread out evenly enough for them to not feel short lived. you unlock the first of these duo chapters very early in the game, and the second part very late, leaving an awkward gap in the midsection of my playthrough. I guess it could've easily been my bad for rushing through all of them but that's square's fault for creating so much value in the art of backtracking through areas previously explored.
all of this aside, the true reward that proves the solidarity between these characters is in the endgame + epilogue, which I won't spoil anything about, but man... that build-up into title drop had me emotional.
so that's that. characters actually interact in this one. is as much as some people wanted? maybe not, and its still a fair complaint for those still unsatisfied, but I have to say that immediate assumption I kept seeing that giving everybody the role of protagonist somehow undermines overall story of octopath 2 really annoyed me.
even more so when one pre-release reviewer tried to tell that hikari, a dethroned prince desperate to take his kingdom back from the clutches of his enemy, having the option to stop and spare some time to help agnea, a dancer who has want for stardom and nothing else, was bad storytelling. bro you're playing a fucking RPG. by your will as the player, hikari would just as easily prioritize eight fishing sidequests over arriving on the scene of his burning homeland.
having different stories that contrast in stakes and tone is a good thing so long as they all have proper pacing that each leads to a satisfying climax, which they all do in this game. this is how you make the player feel different things, which is how you build investment. the eight tales of octopath 2 is such a brilliant step-up from those of its predecessor, and it finally feels like square is taking full advantage of the framework they've built here. I, personally, couldn't be happier with the end result achieved here, and am extremely eager to see what they cook up in the future.
the rest of this review will no doubt be much shorter in comparison because everything I have talked about thus far is the subjective half of the game. the rest of it, from gameplay to world to music to literally everything is objective perfection that I have no doubt every other review on this website has already detailed a thousand times over.
let's start with the gameplay. HOT DAMN DO I STILL LOVE THE BREAK AND BOOST SYSTEM. I love being able to pick a damage class disguised as a healer and watch as my character goes through various dragon ball-level powerups before screaming "WITH THESE HANDS" as she decimates some random guy in town who was literally just minding his own business before strolled in and ruined his life.
but for real though, I don't know how anyone can be upset that we're using the same eight classes with the same general arsenal as the first game when there are so many changes present that equalize potential and do away with the dominant playstyles of the first game.
want to make your scholar a catboy? sure! feeling horny enough to class your warrior into a support-class dancer? why the fuck not! who cares about the job point economy when you got like four different skills in the game specifically made to do away with tedious grinding and all your stats are dictated by the gear you equip rather than the characters you put them on. being punished in RPGs for using your level-up points to explore possibilities is stupid. but that's beside the point.
gameplay is awesome. each class has the unique progression of unlocked 'EX skills' that I'm continuously finding out about new build possibilities, even now. my only regret is accidentally becoming too over leveled and defeating each character's final boss too quickly for them to show off all their unique gimmicks.
but the world of octopath is simply too easy to get lost in. having a day/night cycle that affects the location of townspeople as well as how you interact with them adds a surprising amount of depth, especially when I argue that NPCs that one of the best things about this series. the sheer amount of backstory, environmental storytelling, learnable skills, potential high quality gear hiding in plain sight, and overall depth hidden within each and every random bozo you come across is simply unparalleled by any other RPG. I love how most sidequests have multiple solutions, like that one guy in New Delsta who wanted a charm made somewhere else in the continent so that he might have something to calm his nerves through placebo alone. instead of doing that, I sought out the true source of his anxiety: a female stalker, and confronted her with my hunter after capturing an array of monsters which were just barely enough to beat an NPC that was stronger than most of my party, exposing the woman's deeds to the man, to which they got together in the end and I was rewarded for my outside-the-box thinking.
not only are the cities populated and teeming with unique life, the areas in between are beautiful as well. I'm not just talking about the usual coat of bloom filters; the lighting in this game is far more deliberate. moving clouds create overcast, colours are constantly reflecting off the vibrant environment, and the previously mentioned day/night cycle that can be altered with the press of a button also occurs naturally overtime, with a few secrets hiding in the periods between dawn and dusk (go to gravell and stakeout the area beyond the left exit as temenos, wait until morning).
traveling through the different areas of the eight regions in this game was a real treat. from the rooftops of a factory town in the brightlands, to boating through the overflown ruins in toto'haha, every little nook and cranny, even the optional dungeons, had at least a few assets I never saw reused anywhere else, which is an impressive feat for a game as long as this one.
and the soundtrack. oh man, the soundtrack.
I kneel to nishiki. the man's a legend. there's nothing quite like hearing the leimotif of your chosen character play right before a boss fight and then seamlessly transition to the most amazing orchestral pieces to grace our current age. go listen to the entire soundtrack on soundcloud. you won't be disappointed.
I want to go on, I really want to, but the truth is that if everything I've described thus far sounds good to you, there's no reason not to pick this game up. don't play the first octopath, it's an overpriced waste of your time compared to this. the feeling of that game might have decayed overtime for me but I already know for a fact that octopath 2 is my game of the year and will forever be one of the best rpgs I've ever played