Octopath Traveler II Overview (PS5)

Sq. Enix’s 2018 hit Octopath Traveler bought over 3 million copies worldwide, however by no means made it to PlayStation. Now, the collection heads to PS5 and PS4 for the primary time with Octopath Traveler II. Nonetheless with the placing HD-2D graphics of the primary recreation, the sequel takes what its predecessor did and builds on it, creating a singular gaming expertise which can go away you wanting extra. It’s a totally standalone recreation as properly, so there is no have to energy by means of the primary title.

Like the primary recreation, Octopath Traveler II provides a alternative of eight protagonists: Osvald, Castti, Throné, Ochette, Partitio, Agnea, Temenos, or Hikari (OCTOPATH, get it?). Choosing a protagonist ties you in to having that character in your social gathering completely, however you may unlock the remainder of the characters and their tales on the journey by means of the brand new world of Solistia, so there’s no likelihood of lacking something and having to start out a brand new playthrough.

Amassing social gathering members as you journey on will help you play the primary chapter of every character’s story. This will both be achieved by taking part in immediately while you’ve encountered the character, or by visiting the inn in any city and selecting ‘Hear a Story’ from the menu. There are advantages and downsides to every manner; taking part in instantly typically feels prefer it inhibits progress and interrupts the movement of motion, but it surely does imply that you simply achieve EXP, objects, and cash for that chapter which then carry over. Skipping the chapter signifies that character joins the social gathering (or the bench if you have already got 4 social gathering members) at degree 1.

Launched for this sequel, Octopath now has a day and evening cycle. This may be triggered with a press of R2, or naturally by ready it out. Characters have completely different expertise at evening and at day, and NPCs will transfer round or seem relying on the time.

Every character has their very own class, whether or not that’s Temenos the cleric, or Osvald the scholar, and every thing in between. Every of those courses comes with their very own fight fashion, and a Path Motion for every character. It is a particular motion that can be utilized outdoors of fight; for instance, Temenos the dutiful cleric is ready to information townspeople by day, that means they’ll comply with him wherever he goes till instructed in any other case, however by evening he can coerce data out of them by battling them, and inflicting them to succeed in their Break.

Every of the characters has a narrative which feels so deep it might be a recreation by itself. Absolutely developed and nuanced, the plot of every drives a need to search out out extra, to maintain going, to discover extra and to push additional. There’s a continuing feeling of ‘just a bit bit extra’, which is testomony to how a lot enjoyable Octopath Traveler II is, and the way a lot we needed to sink time and power into progressing with each character. Sometimes all through your travels, the choice will come as much as ‘Hear Journey Banter’, and somewhat scene will play out with social gathering members. It is a actually enjoyable ingredient that provides to characterisation.

Outdoors of fundamental chapters there can even be’“Crossed Paths’ tales. These are quick missions which contain two travellers, and will likely be highlighted on the map. Each travellers have to be within the social gathering to set off the story, or they are often added later, and the story might be began from the inn. Just like the Journey Banter ingredient, these plot threads are actually good enjoyable, and provides an excellent alternative to see pairs of characters interacting and dealing in the direction of a standard objective. While the members will likely be within the social gathering for one another’s chapters, they don’t work together with the principle character previous showing to help in fight — so this provides a welcome sense of comradery.

The characters themselves are extremely properly written and the voice appearing for every is prime tier, bringing layers to the dialogue. The hazard with such a big forged is that sure sides of the forged’s personalities typically find yourself getting reused, and so they can typically be a replica and paste of each other. Octopath Traveler II manages to current eight characters who’re wealthy with character, every having their very own quirks and their very own motivations. Their storylines are all utterly completely different, too, which makes issues much more different. Don’t need to proceed this path of revenge? Have a break and deal with changing into a world-class dancer as an alternative. There’s a lot selection right here, and it typically looks like we’re spoilt for alternative.

It’s not simply the characters which are different; all of the locations in Solistia have a distinct vibe to them. From a wild west-esque city to an icy tundra, the environments are all different with completely different aesthetics and distinctive soundtracks to them. Traversing Solistia throws different enemies on the social gathering, which have particular weaknesses and require completely different techniques to greatest in turn-based fight. In the meantime, hopping from place to position is easy — there’s quick journey on the world map to go to locations you’ve been earlier than — and cargo screens between areas are nearly non-existent, so every thing feels seamless.

Constructing on its already aesthetically interesting predecessor, Octopath Traveler II is beautiful when it comes to visuals. Mixing retro pixel artwork and 3DCG, coined HD-2D, this sequel is much more detailed. All the pieces simply appears to be like so crisp and extra expressive than earlier than, which actually heightens the sensation of this being a minimize above the property’s preliminary outing.

Nevertheless, it does really feel like Octopath Traveler II stumbles barely with its story development. Opening up the world map exhibits the place to go for every chapter, and what the advisable degree is to finish that chapter. Helpful, however attending to that degree can actually really feel like a grind at occasions, placing a dent within the story’s in any other case immaculate pacing. Firstly, we had been finishing chapters left, proper, and centre, however the additional alongside we obtained — and the upper degree we had been required to be — the extra of a slog it felt to get there.

That is additionally echoed considerably within the repetitive nature of a few of the battles, particularly boss battles. Among the bosses have gargantuan well being swimming pools, and it truly is a case of discovering a method that works towards them, rinse and repeat. It will really feel such as you’re on autopilot throughout a few of these encounters, and with no seen HP bar – enemy names are white for top HP, yellow for mid-range HP, and crimson for low HP – we had been left questioning if the top would ever be in sight.

We don’t imply this to sound like a gripe in regards to the fight, although – the mechanics themselves are actually satisfying. Enemies have icons beneath them which you must unearth, signalling what their weaknesses are. They’ll have a quantity in a protect, which exhibits what number of assaults they should tackle their weak spots earlier than they attain Break Level. As soon as the enemies are ‘damaged’, their flip is forfeited for the present spherical in the event that they haven’t already acted, and the identical is true of the following flip. Damaged enemies additionally take elevated harm.

Every character has a distinct Latent Energy, which, as soon as the gauge is crammed, are unleashed by urgent triangle. Utilizing these Latent Powers can actually flip the tides of battle, taking part in into an particularly partaking tactical ingredient of fight. The underside line right here is that fights can really feel extremely slick and nuanced in brief bursts, however the longer the battles go on, the extra it will probably really feel like an train in button pushing.