Octopath Traveler II Review
Octopath Traveler II is a Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG), strategy, action adventure game developed by both Square Enix and Acquire and published by Square Enix. Initially released on February 24, 2023, Octopath Traveler was released on Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, and both PlayStation 4 and 5.
Square Enix and Acquire showed us with Octopath Traveler II that it is possible to tell an excellent story that grips the player without having realistic graphics. Each of the eight characters has their own story to tell, involving redemption, identity, revenge, mystery, betrayal, and greed. There are many twists and turns throughout each person’s story which will make you keep playing. In this adventure game the player starts by choosing one of the eight characters: Osvalds is a scholar out for revenge after being framed for the murder of his family, Castti is an amnesiac apothecary out to discover her true identity, Throne is a career thief out to slay the abusive masters who control her, Ochette is a beast hunter out to prevent an oncoming calamity, Partitio is a merchant out to save his impoverished hometown, Agnea is a dancer out to become rich and famous, Temenos is a cleric out to solve a series of mysterious murders, and Hikari is a samurai out to help the nation that exiled him. While journeying around different areas of the world like the desert, jungle, tundra, mountains, forests, oceans, and villages, the roads will lead you to different adventures. The characters’ stories are intertwined and together the stories unfold.
Octopath Traveler II is a turn-based RPG that uses classic mechanics like physical attacks, magic spells, special movies, and item usage as well as implementing unique features. During battles, all foes have shield points which are displayed as a number on a blue shield. The shield point indicates how many times they need to be hit by an attack that they are weak to in order to cause a shield break. When the enemy’s shield is broken, they lose their next turn and take more damage to attacks. Enemies are weak to different physical attacks like swords, knives, bows, spears, staffs, and an axe as well as elemental attacks. These include fire, ice, lightning, wind, dark, and light attacks.
Octopath Traveler features skill points (SP) which are used for special moves. Special move include skills like Arrow of Fortune for characters in the Merchant Role and Elemental attacks for characters in the scholar role. In addition to SP the characters have Battle Points (BP). Each Character can have up to five Battle Points at a time during battles. Battle Points are used during each character’s turn in order to amplify their move. Up to four BP can be used to charge up the attack. If a physical attack is used the character will attack multiple times and if a special move is chosen, a more powerful attack or spell will be used.
Each character in Octopath Traveler has a Latent Power. This ability has been seen in different JRPG’s but named something different. In the Final Fantasy franchise this is called Overdrive and in Fire Emblem they are called Ultimate Attacks. Similar to these games, the power gauge fills up when the character deals attacks or when damage is inflicted upon them. Characters Latent abilities can include attacks on enemies, healing your allies, or boosting one’s stats. Fore example Throne’s Latent power grants her the ability to make two moves during one turn and Osvald’s unleashes a powerful elemental attack to enemies. The Latent Power can also be booted with BP in order to create a powerful move.
Octopath Traveler uses a graphical style dubbed as “HD-2D”. This style recreates the 2D pixel-based graphics style of the 1-bit games and portrays it in a high-definition, 3D diorama style. This allows the designer to draw beautiful backdrops for each part of the world in Solistia. These backdrops are amazing murals that depict many different themes like war, prisons, oceans, mountains, and many others.
In addition to the game’s visuals this game has an epic soundtrack. Places like forests and caves have an eerie music to them while villages have an upbeat tune playing. The most impressive pieces of music occur when encountering boss battles. Each boss has their own theme that continues to build during the encounter. This battle music will get you more engaged but also makes you cautious.
Octopath Traveler is a great game for those who enjoy games that will take them a long time to play through. There are many long boss battles that can be very difficult. There were many times where I found myself grinding to level up in order to prevent a boss from killing my whole team with one attack. At times I felt as if I was working rather than playing this game. One other problem I encountered playing this game was when it came to leveling up my party. There were many times where I was playing with 4 or 5 specific characters. This caused me to have Partitio at a very high level and Ochette at a low level. I found myself grinding to level these characters up in order to complete a mission.
Overall Octopath Traveler II offers a great in-depth story with characters that the player can relate to as well as simple gameplay mechanics that make the game easy to grasp. There are some annoying flaws that this game has but overall, it will take you on an emotional rollercoaster.
