Octopath Traveler 2 A Game of Eight Great Stories, But Something is Missing

The most impactful parts of Octopath Traveler 2 revolve around meaningful interactions between characters. Agnea, the dancer, wants to offer people joy by putting on shows in remembrance of her mother. Castti, the amnesiac pharmacist, learns about her lost past through her prior patients. Hikari, the exiled prince, tracks down and reconnects with his comrades.

There’s more to the eight protagonists and their travels than just those touching moments of friendship, which beg the obvious question: why aren’t any of them friends?

Throughout the course of several days, four of the eight will be in close proximity to one another. They form a tight line as they sprint through the magnificent, painstakingly crafted 2.5D landscape. It is essential to take into account their relative strengths and weaknesses and coordinate the use of their powers during turn-based fights. If you get to a major scene in the story, though, all the characters save the one who is in it will vanish.

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Travel banter, in which two characters suddenly stand in a foggy nowhere world overlaid on their prior place and uncomfortably converse as if they just met, is a symptom of this issue that isn’t fixed by the occasional prompt to notice it.

Nor do the brief, undeveloped episodes where the characters’ journeys coincide. These don’t develop or exhibit any credible ties, thus they’re even more disorienting than just having everyone vanish.

Although I haven’t played the original Octopath Traveler, it seems like there was a similar split between the two halves of the game and I can’t help but wonder if it felt at odds with the tale being told in the larger context of the game. All eight stories expertly incorporate supporting characters, whose interactions with the main characters provide the game’s driving force.

I’m about 15 hours into Octopath Traveler 2 and am pleased to report that it fixed the first game’s biggest problem: no longer does every chapter follow the same exact formula. So far the game is very similar to its predecessor but some subtle improvements make it much stronger

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 17, 2023

As opposed to the mindless chatter of the road, their brief appearances serve a useful purpose in developing the protagonists’ backstories and characters. The sprites are particularly noteworthy for the amount of nuance they manage to squeeze into their diminutive bodies, be it in the form of mannerisms, gestures, or even behaviors like smoking.

In spite of the amazing supporting cast, the core character remains emotionally distant from one another. At Agnea’s great dance, for instance, the absence of her traveling companions is especially jarring because of the reappearance of characters from an earlier chapter to cheer her on. On the other hand, the tension is weakened when three other protagonists unexpectedly appear with the pharmacist Castti after she has been threatened and told to go to a questionable building alone.

Nonetheless, despite this strange disconnection, Octopath Traveler 2 is still an engaging experience. You explore a vast globe, meeting and befriending new individuals as you go, and joining them on their quests to help out with everything from major issues to minor ones for the locals.

This track from Octopath Traveler II goes so hard it should be illegal https://t.co/mwdYPmyv9V

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 15, 2023

The eight stories range from competent (Parttitio the merchant’s mission to spread friendly capitalism is the least consistent) to cheesy but enjoyable (Ochette the beastling hunter doesn’t undergo much development, but she’s cute and fun) to ingeniously moving (the boss fight in Osvald the scholar’s route makes incredible use of mechanical storytelling). Together, they form a universe rich in historical, magical, sociological, and theological richness, all centered on a central theme about distinguishing healthy ambition from destructive greed.

The world is also beautiful to look at, and the fact that it can be difficult to get around due to its twisting roads, lack of a global map, and lack of accurate radar are less of an issue and more of an opportunity to linger over the sun-dappled trees, moonlit snow, and excellent soundtrack.

It’s also irrelevant that you’ll need to grind regardless of how long your journeys take or how many foes you encounter. Extra experience gained from going back through the main chapters is still useful because the recommended levels increase dramatically in the middle and late games.

Chapters move quickly, but the game’s interstitial grinding becomes tedious as the game progresses because you no longer gain access to new and exciting powers. The vast majority of them take an hour or two to complete, and include talking to a slew of minor people, maybe making use of the main characters’ unique abilities, and then taking on a massive boss.

Here's Polygon's Octopath Traveller II review from @jaymcastello: 'Beautifully realized, but there’s a hole at its center.' https://t.co/QO27rlN93v

— Matthew Reynolds (@Crazyreyn) February 17, 2023

You have to figure out how to win these fights before you even get into them, and that’s because things like your team’s make-up, its gear, and its skillset are all vital. While Osvald’s mage powers can inflict various forms of elemental damage, he won’t do much actual physical damage by beating someone over the head with his staff. But, if Hikari is armed with a powerful enough sword and maybe a bonus from Castti, he can deal devastating damage with a single swing.

Maintaining this equilibrium is very pleasurable when it succeeds in a fight, but losing sight of it towards the end of a protracted conflict can have disastrous consequences. Towards the conclusion of the game, when difficulty spikes grow more frequent and bouts become progressively longer, this becomes an especially pressing issue. (It didn’t help that a few of the user interface problems obscured crucial information that explained how to use key powers and goods.)

Despite a few minor issues, most of the time the boss battles at the end of each chapter are a fitting climax, especially since the bosses’ powers correspond to their personalities. Contrast this with an enemy general who has been trained in swordplay and is likely to just attack the party very hard and very often, as opposed to a humorously villainous medic who might focus on debuffing and poisoning the group.

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As much as I appreciate the planning that went into each battle, I keep thinking about how far the main characters are from one another. The emotional impact of a conflict between two childhood friends is amplified when one protagonist uses a comparable assault and tactic as his or her adversary.

Yet, the distance between the group prevents the emotional moments from resonating, as the conversation between the key characters grinds to a standstill.

Everyone who has spent any length of time in fandom communities is aware of the maxim that a little goes a long way when it comes to explaining complicated character dynamics. Everything can spark creativity: a pat on the back, a compliment, a joke.

Here's my review for #OctopathTraveler2! It still has lingering issues from its predecessor, namely its annoying difficulty spikes and grindy pacing. But the gameplay, presentation, and everything else are greathttps://t.co/C7NN6AfRkG

— George Yang (@Yinyangfooey) February 17, 2023

Octopath Traveler 2 provided plenty of opportunities for my thoughts to wander and handle much of the heavy lifting (during exploration and fighting), but this would not have been possible without a solid starting point.  But I can’t shake the notion that the writing was lacking in creative juice, to begin with.

Although Octopath Traveler 2 is otherwise beautifully portrayed, it is fundamentally lacking without this.

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