Octopath Traveller II - Review
This game has been sitting on my wishlist for a good while now. Just a few days ago I rolled credits on it after having spent 70-80 hours on it and figured it was a good opportunity to write about the experience.
I came to this game after having played a couple JRPGs and Chronotrigger-inspired games like "Sea of Stars" (see here) and "Chained Echoes". I enjoyed both for different reasons but I never finished Chronotrigger itself. I'm not overly picky when it comes to story but I do recognize and appreciate when it's well-written. In fact, a captivating story is a major part of what I want in a game. That said, I also like a good presentation. The graphics don't need to be photorealistic but good graphics go a long way towards selling me on a game. At the end of the day, it's a whole package. Gameplay, story, character development, graphics, mechanics, voice acting and so much more. There's a lot that goes into a game and creating one cohesive, well-made product out of it all is incredibly challenging. So let's see what we have here.
Overview
What we have here is a turn-based JRPG with 2.5D pixel art. This means that you have an in-between of top-down and side view that creates a semblance of three-dimensional feeling. Apart from that the mechanics and all are fairly straightforward. What does set this game apart (at least for me) is whole premise. In contrast to all other games I've played so far, you don't create or adopt one character and follow their story. Instead, you are given a selection of eight characters, each of which has a unique story and play style. You have to choose one of these and begin to experience their story.
As you progress in the world, you eventually meet all the others and get to play their stories as well so you don't have to worry about missing anything. However, I did feel more attachment to my original choice. You also have to finish your original character's story before you can remove them from your party but this is not much of a restriction.
Progression and character build
As stated above, each character has a unique story and play style. As in the prequel (which I didn't play), every character has a primary job. These jobs corresponds to classic RPG classes like warrior, thief, cleric, scholar and so on. Accordingly the skills you start with are what you'd expect from your primary job. As you explore the world, you can unlock secondary jobs so you can add a secondary job to each character which is equivalent to multiclassing. For this you can either choose from one of the jobs you are already familiar with from the primary jobs, or one of the secret jobs that can be found in the world.
You might think that this would mean that no character is truly unique as you could combine jobs as you prefer so the differences betweens characters cease to matter. However, each character has a unique latent and passive skill as well as two unique EX skills. The latter are unlocked as you progress in the story of each character. All of this means that there are a lot of different combinations and ways you can build your characters. You have eight characters at your disposal, four of which you can have in your party at any given time.
Personally, I like tinkering with builds and researching and trying all kinds of different ways to create completely overpowered skill combinations so you can annihilate your enemies. The same is true here. Did I mention that, in addition to all of the above, there are also items you can equip that you can also tweak towards a specific build? If you enjoy the RPG element of leveling up, obtaining new items and skills, getting stronger and discovering character builds, this will scratch that itch.
There's a downside to this, though. Even before you reach the end game you will have access to a multitude of abilities. Did I mention that each job also gives access to passive abilities? And that you can mix and match to build even more specialized characters? At some point you realize that most of the combat skills are just never used. Some skills sound nice but they actually aren't but most of the time it's just that some combinations simply work extremely well and there's not much point in straying from that. Also, some skills are plain useless. Partitio doesn't need a single-target fire damage skill, sorry.
Maybe this is true for many RPGs but it feels a bit sad to have so many abilities you can use and then just ignoring them because they're not worth using.
For example, Ochette is an extremely strong character, especially after finishing her story, which unlocks her final skill. After that point I almost never used her character skills at all and only called monsters, just because that skill is so much better than almost anything else she can do (if you have captured decent monsters, that is). I think a little bit of incentive to vary builds and skill use would have been good.
Visuals
The presentation of the game is stunning, no doubt about it. It hooked me right from the beginning. True, it's pixel art but there's a lot you can do with that. An upside of this is that it runs well on my Steam Deck and the battery lasts for hours on end, which is always a plus. There's not much more to say, honestly. I'm not exactly a coinnosseur when it comes to graphics but I appreciate when something looks good. This does.
Gameplay
Like I mentioned above this is a turn-based RPG. You command a party of characters and direct them through the world. There is no overworld like in many other RPGs, you simply walk all the way. The many villages and cities are connected by roads and streets which are inhabited by wild animals and monsters. You experience this via random encounters. I really don't like these much, it's 2025, I think we can do better than this by now but it's not a dealbreaker for me.
Each of the travellers in your party has their own story which is divided into chapters. The number of chapters varies but there are up to five of them for each. Since the recommended character level for each chapter rises as you progress, this naturally leads to a progression where you don't play one character's story in one go but rather in a more random fashion. This makes for a great deal of variety. Add to that the side quests and exploration to be done and you end up with a lot of stuff you can spend your time with.
In addition to all the combat-related character skills, each of the travellers has two so-called path actions, one at night and one during the day. You can switch between night and day instantly at the press of a button which will have two effects mostly: on one hand, for the most part NPCs are usually in different spots when you change the time of day or are only present during one. On the other hand, your path actions changes so this will affect what you can actually do. These path actions are interactions with NPCs that can be used to obtain information or items from them, temporarily recruit them to your party or knock them out. There are several variants for each of these actions and the combination of characters you have in your party determines what you can do at a given time.
I like this approach, especially since you are introduced to each of these actions and abilities during the introductory chapter(s) of each character so it all comes step by step. However, when you have all travellers assembled, there are eight potential path actions you can take and if you want to finish all the side quests in the game (of which there are quite a few), you basically need to run all over the world and interact with every NPC up to eight times during night and day. In practice it's less because some path actions accomplish the same thing, just in a different manner but still, it's a bit repetetive after a while.
Still, I like how you can use the path actions to your advantage, for example to recruit a strong NPC that mows down your enemies in droves or steal strong items that will greatly increase your damage or resilience.
World
I may be in the minority with this but I don't really like open worlds that much. Consequently, I like that this game isn't one. Not really, at least. The world is not small by any means but it also isn't boundless. You can only move along given paths that connect the various locations and are occasionally deterred from exploring a certain place by the level requirements. Interestingly, the world still doesn't feel restricted. There is a lot to do and explore, secret locations to discover, unique monsters to vanquish, legendary items to obtain, strange places to explore. There is also variety in the landscapes you encounter during your travels. There are deserts, snowy mountains, jungles, islands, cities, abandoned villages, castles and more to be seen and the visuals are always great, I think.
Sound
Two things greatly enhance any game and can give them a tremendous atmosphere boost: soundtrack and voice acting. This game has both and I think they're both superb. I read that the first game's soundtrack was better but I wouldn't know about that. I feel that the music fits the locations and story events quite well and ranges from upbeat fiddle music, over emotional ballads to intense battle themes. It fits the bill.
The other thing that hooke me right from the start is the amazing voice acting. Especially the characters in the story of my starting character are awesome but I might be biased.
I also like how the travellers interact with each other during battles with fitting voice-overs. If one of the characters performs an attack, the next one might comment something like "Great stuff, Temenos!". Or if one of your party members suffers a lot of damage, another may cry out in worry "Partitio!". It's a detail, really, but I think it greatly adds to the atmosphere of the game.
That is why I was even more confused and bummed out by the banter. Every now and then, when you enter a specific location, finish a specific chapter in someone's story or just have a specific combination of characters in your party, you will get the opportunity to listen to banter between party members. These are often musings, idle talk, serious discussions, random thoughts shared, all kinds of stuff. However, there's never any voice acting for them. This is extremely weird to me. For th most part, voice acting in this game is restricted to the travellers and story characters. This is fine, it doesn't bother me. In fact, it helps me focus on the relevant things more easily. However, I feel that not voice acting the banter hugely detracts from the atmosphere, I really don't understand this choice.
Story
The story of this game is, for the most part, the sum of the stories of each traveller. Additionally, there are several occasions for cross-character story lines which is a really nice touch. As you progress through the stories of your travellers, you begin to notice a pattern, a recurring theme. And after you finish the class stories, everything culminates in a final conclusion where everyone participates. I will first break down each character's story (without too many spoilers) and give a overall conclusion below.
Throné
This was my starting character and the story instantly captured me. It tells a story of a thief who is sick of this life and wants their freedom. It begins right in the middle of a botched job which gives an air of urgency and immediate drama. Throné's voice acting is terrific, as is that of various others in her story line (especially Father!). Throné is a total badass and I liked every single one of her chapters. Also, I really didn't see the ending coming, which cannot be said about all the stories in this game. I still think Throné is a good first choice and she was my main damage dealer for almost all of the game.
Osvald
This is the scholar. He is a rather dour character with a very stereotypic revenge story. Someone killed his family and framed him so he got thrown into prison. He then wants to escape and take revenge. The introductory chapters were well-executed, I'll, admit that much, but the premise is still not terribly interesting, I think. The underlying theme is the study of magic and the discovery of the "One True Magic". The main antagonist of this storyline framed Osvald to advance further in this study but they're honestly a bit disappointing. He's simply a cardboard cut-out bad guy without much of a character, apart from being evil. What's more, Osvald is kind of an idiot and I don't really understand the conclusion of the story, I mean he's reunited with his daughter, whom he believed dead, and then just... leaves? That's pretty strange.
Ochette
Ochette is a hunter who has to defend her island which is threatened by some terrible danger. She then sets out to gather three legendary beasts to help her in this task. Pretty straightforward and without any real surprises. The main antagonist of her story, the Dark Hunter, never actually makes an appearance (apart from the final chapter of the game where it is revealed that she sacrificed her life) and the whole stereotypical conflict between beastlings and humans is solved by fighting side by side at the end. I really expected there to be more backstabbing because it was kinda hinted at but no dice. It's not bad but not great either. However, Ochette is probably the strongest or rather most useful characters in the game because of her monster capturing mechanic so I had her in my party most of the time.
Partitio
This one is a merchant and really a Goodie Two Shoes at heart. His biggest goal is to make the world a better place by making everyone more prosperous. The big theme of this storyline is new inventions (the steam engine) and how they should be used to make the world a better place but bad people will just keep them to themselves to get richer and richer. At the end of the day, Partitio fights for his ideals and perseveres until the very end, so much so that he changes the hearts of all the bad guys he encounters along the way so the evil capitalists and egomaniacs end up being good guys working together with him. It's a nice touch, but I couldn't help but feel that this is just a tad too removed from reality to take seriously. I do like Partitio as a character, though, I'd be friends with him.
Temenos
This one is interesting. Temenos is a cleric who starts his storyline by giving a sermon but messing it up. He's somewhat aloof and sometimes seems unapprochable but has a very keen mind. Surprisingly, he seems to be somewhat of an agnostic, as one of his recurring lines is "Doubt is what I do". His story revolves around a murder/conspiracy mystery and I think it's entertaining, although the foreshadowing as to who is the culprit is pretty obvious. Also, the whole thing is a bit filled with tropes but I still really enjoyed it. A very nice touch that is unique to Temenos is the Sherlock-Holmes-like investigation of crime scenes and Temenos' habit of deep thought during which he is oblivious to anything else.
Castti
Castti herself is a fairly one-dimensional character. Her only goal in life is to "extend a hand to those in need" and she does everything to achieve this goal in her role as a wandering apothecary. What makes her story interesting is how it is presented. At the very beginning you are shown a memory snippet of a person apparently rescuing her but apart from that she has lost all of her memories, including her name. What's more, the people she encounters at first are quite hostile towards her because of things they heard or seemingly know about Castti or the people she was associated with but Castti herself knows nothing about this.
This makes for an engaging story during which she recovers your memory bit by bit by retracing previous steps with a final reveal that I did not see coming at all and which really blew me away. I also thought the final boss was interesting but he just wasn't fleshed out enough. You don't learn much about his motivations or backstory and can only guess at why he's doing what he's doing which is a shame. I think there would have been potential for much more by including a few flashbacks or diary notes you can find or anything of the sort to explain the reasoning behind this person's actions. Still, this was one of my favorites.
Hikari
Hikari is the warrior of the lot and he's a pretty stereotypical one at that. An honorable, compassionate and mostly down-to-earth guy who, however, has sort of an evil alter ego who is very bloodthirsty and tries to incite violence and bloodshed whenever possible. If you think that this sounds like a generic anime backstory, you'd be right, I think. Hikari is a prince who is driven from his homeland by treachery and deceit. He has to gather allies to defeat the evil usurper and bring an end to the neverending war and peace and quiet to his subjects. Yeah, it's really not terribly original. I still liked it, the delivery was well-done; in my opinion.
Agnea
Last and definitely least comes Agnea. She's a dancer who leaves her home village in order to become a famous dancer. Agnea is an always happy and upbeat person who wants to bring smiles to every corner of the realm by... dancing for them? Look, I'm not averse to corny lines and stories, not at all, but this was just too much for me. Everywhere Agnea goes, she just dances a bit and suddenly all problems and worries vanish, people have hope again, realize their dreams, bad guys occasionally need a beating but come around in the end, it's just... way too far removed from any sort of reality.
For a while it was actually fine but the moment that broke her storyline for me was when she encounters a person who is obviously suffering from depression (although this is not addressed openly), gives her an extremely bland pick-me-up line and suddenly everything is fine again, the person has hope, joy and energy again and can go on with her life. Sorry, but that's just not how it works. Sadly, I speak from experience.
Another interesting point here (which I read online somewhere) is that the main antagonist of the story is actually a much more interesting character. A famous dancer coming from humble beginnings whose fame went to her head and made her want to erase her past out of shame. Much more of a character arc than Agnea got, I think. And for the icing on top, the final battle was one of the hardest boss fights in the game for me which annoyed me even more. I really don't appreciate it when the game introduces boss fight mechanics that you simply can't defend against. One of your party members is removed and fights against you for a while (until you inflict a certain amount of damage, I think) and there is nothing you can do about it. Ugh.
Oh yes and Agnea's story does not tie into the overarching theme of the game or the other's story at all. Go figure.
Story wrap-up
As you can see, it's a bit of a mixed bag but that's also one of the enticing aspects of this game. You get eight different stories and they're all very different. You get to choose which one to play when (you have to finish all of them eventually, though) and if you happen to not like one of the travellers, you don't have to spend too much time with them. Just bring someone else along. In fact, I ignored Agnea as much as I could and didn't bother leveling her up to the recommended level for her later story missions. Not a big deal.
The final chapter of the story is... decent, I think. It starts with a big event and reveals a few connections and a hidden plot, hints of which you discovered throughout the game during various story missions. I like this architecture and I was actually hoping for something like this. It did feel a bit short, though. It doesn't take long to get through but it also feels a little bit rushed. There are a reveals, some of which are really significant and I wish the game had employed a bit more drama to drive it home. Also, one of the NPCs you got to know during several story missions turns out to be someone else than you thought, they reveal their name and I literally thought "Who? Am I supposed to know who that is?". The person says her name in a way that I felt it should be familiar but it just wasn't. Maybe it's just me but that was a bit weird.
One criticism I'll have to level at the game at some point (so why not here?) is that while the thing with the eight travellers is a cool concept, it doesn't always make sense. You encounter all of the characters somewhere and they simply say something like "You look like you're on a journey, I also want to go on a journey, let's journey together!". For some of the travellers that makes sense, for others (like Osvald) not so much, I think. Also, especially after completing their story, staying with the others also doesn't necessarily make sense (looking at you Hikari). This did raise my eyebrows sometimes but I'll not complain too much about it since it's how the game works. I just wish the writing had been able to have it make a bit more sense.
So what's the verdict? Like I said, it's a mixed bag but there are enough great moments, well-delivered story beats, lines of dialog and reveals that I did overall enjoy the story. I particularly like that there are separate stories for separate characters that intertwine and culminate into a great finale. Sure, some of it could have been done better but the whole approach is unique, I think and this deserves recognition. Also, I enjoyed it, plain and simple.
Conclusion
So would I recommend this game? Yes, I would. Of course, if you don't like RPGs at all, this is not for you but that should go without saying. There's a lot to like about this game, presentation, both visuals and audio, gameplay, combat system, character development, story, the world and exploration... I mean just spending hours hunting down strong monsters and bosses for Ochette to capture was great fun, especially when then calling them in battle and just annihilating your enemies.
I can also only repeat how much I like the whole concept of the game: eight travellers joining on a journey and each experiencing their story with no one as the only protagonist.
At the end of the day, the most important thing by far is whether and how much I enjoyed a game when it comes to rating it. Of course there are reasons why but sometimes I can't really put my finger on a single one or even at all. And I did enjoy my time with this a lot. I put dozens of hours into it with gaming time actually being fairly limited for me right now and I still finished it in a short amount of time (for me), that already says a lot.
P.S. If you can get your hands on a Chubby Cait, do it! I captured one almost by accident and my goodness, that thing is completely broken. There's nothing quite like summoning Cait six times in a single turn and buffing your party into oblivion so nothing can touch you anymore (it also revives any fallen party members because of course it does). Also the theme that plays when you encounter one is probably my favorite in the whole game.