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Octopath Traveler 2 review: the flawed JRPG returns for more of the sameThe path well travelled
The path well travelled
You know that famous saying about those who forget the past are forever doomed to make the same mistakes? That’sOctopath Traveler 2in a nutshell, a JRPG that follows so precisely in the footsteps of its predecessor that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was suddenly 2019 again and that the last few pandemic years were nothing but a terrible existential nightmare. But alas, here we are in 2023 with anotherOctopath Travelergame that is, bar a couple of very light tweaks and additions, exactly the same game as what came before it, for better and for worse.
Let’s start with what’s different. The big one is that Octopath Treveler 2 is set on a completely different continent with eight fresh traveller stories to pursue, meaning you can come to this without any prior knowledge of the first game and still have a great time. There’s some evolutionary work at play here in how its battle system operates and the way its character stories have been given a bit more connective tissue this time round (more on that in a sec), but the basic nuts and bolts are fundamentally the same.
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II | Launch Date Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II | Launch Date Announcement Trailer
As before, you get to pick one of its eight heroes to serve as your main (and permanently locked) protagonist in order to kick things off, and once you’ve completed their opening chapter you’re then free to travel in any direction you want to pick up the rest of the crew, and pursue their own four-chapter story arcs in whatever order you like. And also like the first game, Octopath Traveler 2 doesn’t properly end until you’ve finished all eight character stories and unlocked and completed the secret ‘Final’ chapter that ties it all together.
Battles continue to be the best bit of Octopath Traveler 2, and working out an enemy’s weakpoints is a captivating puzzle in its own right.
Square Enix’s HD-2D visuals and extreme bokeh effects are a real feast for the eyes.
The introduction of new ‘Crossed Path’ stories (see right) goes some way to making your party feel more connected than they did before, but individual story moments (see left) still feel lonely in the extreme.
But when you consider Octopath Traveler 2’s other big problem, this marginally wider set of actions does at least make them feel like more rounded individuals than their predecessors – and yep, that big problem is exactly the same one I had with the first game. For despite having eight-strong party at your disposal, their individual stories still don’t mesh very well to create a convincing whole. Sure, your active party members will faithfully trundle about behind your main protagonist, but during cutscenes and important moments of exposition, it’s only ever the central character whose plot you’re following that’s ever onscreen - the rest of your party effectively don’t exist in those moments, only showing up to help biff the big bad before buggering off again.
It’s understandable, given the freeform structure of the whole thing, as you simply can’t guarantee other characters will even be there or in your current party at any given moment. Admittedly, more effort has been made to rectify this here, with standalone ‘Crossed Paths’ stories unlocking at certain points to show, heaven forbid, two characters going on an adventure together. Sadly, these are little more than glorified skits (or Travel Banter moments, in Octopath’s parlance) most of the time, adding little to the wider story or their own individual plotlines. Once they’re over, it’s back to pretending everyone else doesn’t exist anymore.
Agnea dreams of becoming a world famous dancer - a fine life goal, to be sure, but mate, I’ve got a whole other island to save from an impending apocalypse and several other revenge stories to be hurrying on with, let’s get our priorities straight here, yeah?
Your mileage on some of those main story arcs will vary as well. Ochette, the beastling hunter I chose as my starter hero, is a great place to start: her storyline is classic ‘the end of the world is nigh’ fare that sees her travelling the world to call home three legendary guardian creatures to protect her island home against a once-in-400-years event called The Night Of The Scarlet Moon. Given the seeming urgency of this task, however, I just can’t imagine her palling around with dancer Agnea, who at one point spends an entire in-game week entertaining the locals in a rundown city pub as she works to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become the world’s greatest dancer.
‘Travel Banter’ skits also help flesh out your adventurers like they did in the first game - it’s just a shame there’s not more of this interaction built into their individual storylines.
The daft thing is, I don’t think this would be so much of a problem if Octopath Traveler 2 had a more straightforward story – one that ended properly when you completed all eight character arcs. But with the threat of that final chapter looming over you – which, in the previous Octopath game involved a mad boss gauntlet and final big bad fight that required all eight characters to be levelled up significantly higher than what I managed in the natural course of playing the game (I got four to Lv.65-ish, but the rest were stuck at Lv.50-odd) – it’s a shame this sequel still kinda hates you in all the same ways it did before. Admission time: I haven’t yet got to said final chapter, but it does exist (and due to embargo restrictions I wouldn’t be able to tell you about it even if I had). But given everything I’ve just talked about in this review, I can’t help but feel a terrible sense of dread towards it. If this 80-odd hour adventure ends with me throwing up my hands again and saying, ‘Mate, I’m out, you can have this world and everyone in it,’ I’ll… well, you know what I said about failing to learn from past mistakes. At this rate, I’ve probably only got myself to blame.
Despite everything, the battles do end up carrying this game much further they rightly should.
And yet.
Despite knowing this moment is almost certainly in my future, and despite the slightly incredulous realisation that I’ll have spent another 80 hours playing almost exactly the same game I did four years ago, I’ve still had a good time with Octopath Traveler 2. There’s something innately enthralling about it, and while, deep down, there’s still lots of things I dislike about it, cor, those battles are just the absolute business. It remains one of the most captivating combat systems in the entire JRPG genre, and it really does feel good to be back in its gorgeous HD-2D world again, reheated story leftovers and all (and I swear I’m not just saying that because we get another stonking Nishiki score to admire in the process, honest). It probably doesn’t need to exist, given how little it moves the dial forward, but I’m glad it does nevertheless – and hey, if you missed the boat the first time round, you may as well just start right here. One day, I’ll finally make good on my promise to give up this ludicrous, stubborn behemoth of a series, but for now at least, this is one mistake I’ll happily go another round on, grievances be damned.
