The reveal of Octopath Traveler II was both surprising and troublesome for me at the same time. Admittedly, I had gotten the first Octopath Traveler game soon after purchasing my first Nintendo Switch. And while I enjoyed the game, I never did beat it. The lack of interconnecting storylines, the backtracking required, the obtuse side quests, and necessary grinding left me unhappy with a game I desperately wanted to love. And while I may have several gripes with the first game that I won’t get into here, I am happy to say that Octopath Traveler II corrected every single one of my complaints and become an incredible experience that I won’t soon forget.
I want to start this review by saying that I am in love with the 2D-HD art style present in the Octopath Traveler series and pioneered by Team Asano at Square Enix. The 2D-HD art seamlessly merges the nostalgia of 2D pixel art with the modern aesthetically pleasing backgrounds and flair of modern 3D graphics and, for me personally, it cannot be topped.
Like the first game, Octopath Traveler II tasks the player with choosing their starting character from, much like the name of the game suggests, eight different characters. There is Castti the Apothecary, Agnea the Dancer, Throné the Thief, Partitio the Merchant, Ochette the Hunter, Hikari the Warrior, Temenos the Cleric, and Osvald the Scholar. While none of these choices available are necessarily bad or make the game more difficult, since you’ll be getting all of these party members eventually, it is important to know that who you choose must remain in your party for the entire game.
I decided to start my personal journey with Osvald the Scholar. Imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit, Osvald’s story is one of betrayal and revenge. He must use his intellect and knowledge of magic to track down the man who set him up, betrayed his trust, and murdered his wife and daughter. As he draws ever closer to getting his revenge and finding the truth, however, the answers he uncovers along the way may be more than he can bear.
While the synopsis of Osvald’s tale hopefully peaked your interest, each and every one of the possible eight protagonists have an interesting story to tell. Whether it is a fight for freedom and acceptance, a journey to find ones place in the world, a mystery to uncover a forgotten past, or overcoming unsurmountable odds to save your homeland from a tyrannical ruler, Octopath Traveler II has something for everyone and will keep the player engaged from start to finish.
The turn-based combat in the game is almost unchanged from the first entry in the series, which is fine since there was nothing wrong with it. Although, there are speed up options in this game to alleviate some of the tedium of fighting lower leveled enemies or when you simply want to blow through an encounter.
Players familiar with JRPGs will also understand the Job System prevalent in this game. They’re of course magic users, defensive walls, glass canons and the like, but the system here shines best when it comes to Secondary Jobs and Secret Jobs. Secondary Jobs, of course, allow a character to have more than one job. This enables a Scholar to also be an Apothecary, have the ability to wield staffs and axes, have access to all 3 elemental magic attacks, and the ability heal the entire party. This makes for immense customization and increases the prospect of replayability. Within the game there are also 4 Secret Jobs to discover - Inventor, Armsmaster, Arcanist, and Conjurer. While I want detail each of these, suffice it to say that Inventor and Armsmaster are likely the best in the game.
Finally, I want to discuss the music of this game. Octopath Traveler II likely has my favorite soundtrack of any video game (maybe tied with Megaman X). It captures every necessary emotion at just the right moment and is able to deliver on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is no track in the entire game that doesn’t pull its weight and no track can conjurer up adventure like the Octopath Traveler II Main Theme. Yasunori Nishiki is an astounding artist and his work here is masterful.
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an incredible game. While JRPGs aren’t for everyone, the stories contained within this game are. I believe if you embark on this adventure you will find yourself enthralled in the journey and long for the next installment in this beautiful franchise.
I want to start this review by saying that I am in love with the 2D-HD art style present in the Octopath Traveler series and pioneered by Team Asano at Square Enix. The 2D-HD art seamlessly merges the nostalgia of 2D pixel art with the modern aesthetically pleasing backgrounds and flair of modern 3D graphics and, for me personally, it cannot be topped.
Like the first game, Octopath Traveler II tasks the player with choosing their starting character from, much like the name of the game suggests, eight different characters. There is Castti the Apothecary, Agnea the Dancer, Throné the Thief, Partitio the Merchant, Ochette the Hunter, Hikari the Warrior, Temenos the Cleric, and Osvald the Scholar. While none of these choices available are necessarily bad or make the game more difficult, since you’ll be getting all of these party members eventually, it is important to know that who you choose must remain in your party for the entire game.
I decided to start my personal journey with Osvald the Scholar. Imprisoned for murders he didn’t commit, Osvald’s story is one of betrayal and revenge. He must use his intellect and knowledge of magic to track down the man who set him up, betrayed his trust, and murdered his wife and daughter. As he draws ever closer to getting his revenge and finding the truth, however, the answers he uncovers along the way may be more than he can bear.
While the synopsis of Osvald’s tale hopefully peaked your interest, each and every one of the possible eight protagonists have an interesting story to tell. Whether it is a fight for freedom and acceptance, a journey to find ones place in the world, a mystery to uncover a forgotten past, or overcoming unsurmountable odds to save your homeland from a tyrannical ruler, Octopath Traveler II has something for everyone and will keep the player engaged from start to finish.
The turn-based combat in the game is almost unchanged from the first entry in the series, which is fine since there was nothing wrong with it. Although, there are speed up options in this game to alleviate some of the tedium of fighting lower leveled enemies or when you simply want to blow through an encounter.
Players familiar with JRPGs will also understand the Job System prevalent in this game. They’re of course magic users, defensive walls, glass canons and the like, but the system here shines best when it comes to Secondary Jobs and Secret Jobs. Secondary Jobs, of course, allow a character to have more than one job. This enables a Scholar to also be an Apothecary, have the ability to wield staffs and axes, have access to all 3 elemental magic attacks, and the ability heal the entire party. This makes for immense customization and increases the prospect of replayability. Within the game there are also 4 Secret Jobs to discover - Inventor, Armsmaster, Arcanist, and Conjurer. While I want detail each of these, suffice it to say that Inventor and Armsmaster are likely the best in the game.
Finally, I want to discuss the music of this game. Octopath Traveler II likely has my favorite soundtrack of any video game (maybe tied with Megaman X). It captures every necessary emotion at just the right moment and is able to deliver on the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There is no track in the entire game that doesn’t pull its weight and no track can conjurer up adventure like the Octopath Traveler II Main Theme. Yasunori Nishiki is an astounding artist and his work here is masterful.
Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an incredible game. While JRPGs aren’t for everyone, the stories contained within this game are. I believe if you embark on this adventure you will find yourself enthralled in the journey and long for the next installment in this beautiful franchise.