Graphics and Animation

The graphics are simply gorgeous. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how good the HD-2D art style looks. Octopath Traveler 2 combines beautiful pixel art with modern camerawork and ’tilt shift’ style blurs, to give a tonne of depth and a grand sense of scale to the 2D world.

The camera is very cinematic, with wide sweeping establishing shots and beautiful focus pulls; often punching in on the action or pulling back to reveal a scene as it unfolds. 

All the lighting effects are excellent, adding ambience and emotion to the world. The sun’s rays dance across the water of a seaside fishing village. Streetlights and windows illuminate a city that never sleeps. The glow of braziers bathe a cathedral courtyard in flickering light. 

The lighting is brilliantly designed and really shines (pun intended) thanks to the game’s Day/Night cycle, which can dramatically change the atmosphere of any location.

Character animations are detailed and varied, especially during combat. It seems every unique move has its own animation, some of them are pretty intricate too, like Hikaris’ ‘Tenretsuzan’ attack.

Enemy designs are diverse and interesting, often specific to the type of biome you’re currently in. I especially liked how the bosses are all HUGE next to your spritely characters, even when battling a human boss, they’re gloriously oversized and detailed. 

The game’s attention to detail is also masterful. Just walking through woodlands I would notice little squirrels eating nuts, flowers swaying in the breeze with butterflies fluttering around them, leaves floating around in the air after being picked up by the wind while overhead clouds cast shadows along the ground. 

All beautifully animated in pixel art and enhanced with particle effects – and that’s just within one small area, painstaking detail like this is everywhere throughout the game, helping the world truly feel alive.

I love the way Ochette the Hunter runs with her arms thrown backward like a ninja from Naruto, or how in the town of Clockbank, there are office workers beavering away at their desks during the day, but are fast asleep at those same desks during the night.

If I haven’t made it clear by this point, I really, REALLY love the design of this game!
The art style, lighting, animations and attention to detail all add such quality and polish that elevate it from simply beautiful, to something truly special. 

Soundtrack and Voice Acting

Another standout is the game’s soundtrack. The title screen alone takes you on a journey.

I must’ve sat there for a good half hour repeatedly watching the opening cinematic and absorbing the main theme.

It starts off so energetic and exciting, teasing the epic adventure that awaits. As we begin to see each of our eight heroes the music twists and turns, changing and evolving for each character on screen, all the while building to a crescendo ending that left me in awe.

BUT if that wasn’t enough, you can actually switch from day to night during the opening cinematic!

Not only does it change the visuals in subtle ways but the music transforms into an ethereal, melodic version of the main theme. A truly magical opening I wasn’t expecting.

The game maintains that level of quality for the rest of the soundtrack.
From the Godfather-esque melodies inside a thieves den, to the cheerful fiddle of a country village, and the brassy notes of an old west mining town. No two locations feel, or sound, the same.

The main battle theme is an absolute banger, it never fails to get me pumped for a fight. Each main character has their own embellishment to the battle theme as do the bosses, which somehow step up the intensity even more. 

One of the most impressive soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time, brushing shoulders with Final Fantasy royalty.

The modern addition of voice acting really elevates the game above more traditional turn-based RPGs.

It adds essential emotion to each character, allowing the player to form bonds with them quickly. Which is important when you have so many heroes, all vying for your attention.

Bosses and important NPCs also get the benefit of being voiced, with everyone else communicating via text bubbles, which is a fine compromise. You don’t have to talk to everyone and read what they have to say, but it can only add to the world building.

Unfortunately, all eight heroes seem to have American accents, and mostly the same type at that, only Partitio sounds noticeably different with his pleasant southern drawl. The performances and delivery are all very good but an assortment of accents would’ve helped differentiate each character.

Gameplay

Octopath Traveler 2 has the bones of a classic JRPG with random battles, a job system and side quests, but it takes those bones and builds upon them in a way that really refreshes the experience. 

The new day and night system is the most significant addition to the game, which brings depth and variation to multiple aspects of gameplay.
A single button press will transform the world between day and night, changing the lighting, music, mood and various visual elements.

In the wild, stronger, more aggressive enemies come out after dark providing more of a challenge but also more experience points, loot and money as a reward.

Certain buffs and debuffs also depend on the time of day. Throné has a talent that only activates at night called Blessing of Darkness, which buffs your party at the start of combat.

In cities and towns, NPCs will often move around when you change the time of day, with some characters only found at certain times. Kids, for example, are usually only outside during daylight hours while thieves won’t show themselves until nightfall.

The ability to cycle between day and night, gives each location more depth and creates extra opportunity for exploration.
On the character select screen, swapping the time also swaps the key art for each character which is a really lovely detail.

Path actions are a way of interacting with NPCs in various ways; stealing, bribing, provoking etc. Each character has two unique actions, one for the day and one for the night. The outcomes of path actions can be grouped into four different outcomes; obtain items, obtain information, gain a follower or knock someone out.

Hikari’s Challenge path action makes him one of the best early game characters.
Challenging and defeating NPCs allows Hikari to learn abilities from them.
The variety of weapon and elemental attacks he can learn make him a must have on your team.

You can also fail your path action attempts, too many failures and the town will view you in a negative light, blocking off any further path action. You’ll need to pay a rather hefty fee at the tavern to get back in the good graces of the townsfolk. 
Being the kleptomaniac that I am, I ended up paying quite a few fines during my playthrough!

Each member of your octet has a primary job, with specific abilities, weapons and armour they can use.

As your characters level up they gain job points which can be spent on new skills. You can pretty much pick any skill you want from the list, instead of working your way down a more traditional skill tree.

Additionally, each member of your squad can be assigned a secondary job, granting access to skills and weapon types they couldn’t otherwise use.

You still have full access to your primary jobs perks and abilities, which offers more freedom to explore secondary job combinations. 

The break, boost and latent power battle systems add depth and strategy to fights.
In addition to hit points, enemies have shield points, which can be reduced by attacking the enemies weaknesses. Reduce their shield points to zero and the enemy is ‘broken’ which stuns them for a short time and greatly lowers their defenses.

With each turn in battle your heroes will earn boost points, which can be used to increase the power of your attacks and abilities.

When a character takes damage or breaks an enemy, a gauge fills up, when it’s full you can unleash a character’s latent power. These are unique to each character and have different effects such as acting twice in a single turn or instantly replenishing boost points.

These systems work in tandem to provide a more compelling, tactical approach than just pelting enemies with attacks. 
Will you try to dispatch weaker enemies quickly with your most powerful skills? Or save them for when the enemy is broken to maximize your damage?

The fast travel system is a godsend for this type of game. No more countless hours backtracking across maps while being dogged by random battles!
Eventually you’ll have the option of acquiring your own ship which opens up otherwise inaccessible areas, where you can find rare loot as well as pit yourself against unique sea monsters and bosses. 

Regrettably though, your first choice of character is locked to your party as your ‘main character’ until you finish their entire story-line, meaning they quickly outstrip the level of the rest of the group.

It also makes rotating between teams more of a hassle.
Instead of two teams of four, you have three spots for seven characters, which doesn’t sit well with my OCD.
Also, only being able to switch party members at a tavern can be frustrating. I’m not sure why it isn’t an option at every save point.

Inventory management is pretty minimal, there are categories but no ‘sort by‘ filters or ‘favourites‘ for easy access.
And sprinting increases the random encounter rate for battles, which is annoying if you just want to explore an area quickly, without being hounded by enemies every 30 seconds.

Storyline

The story of Octopath Traveler 2 is the trickiest part of the game to review, I am currently 45 hours in, but the story has yet to come together into a cohesive narrative. 

There are eight individual tales that range from ‘good’ to ‘really damn compelling’, but it still feels very segmented at the moment. Though I am expecting for it to all come together in the end, so I will need to revisit this section of the review after rolling credits. 

I began my journey as Osvald the Scholar, a man wrongfully locked away for murdering his family. Osvald’s is a tale of revenge and after witnessing the injustice he suffers, I’m totally here for it. 

There are a lot of very adult themes throughout the game; slavery, torture, murder and genocide to name a few. I wasn’t really expecting the game to be so dark, but it really goes places!

The next character to join my party was Throné, a member of thieves guild ‘The Blacksnakes‘ (how cool is that name). While the leader of the guild, Father, is grooming Thronè to lead in his place, she is still essentially a slave to the organisation, collar and all.

Third stop was Temenos the Cleric, a character I initially dismissed, as playing as a ‘healer’ sounded a little boring… He quickly became my favourite character. As an Inquisitor for the church, he has an amazing way of examining crime scenes that is very ‘Sherlock Holmes mind palace‘. He is on a mission to uncover the dark secrets of the church after the pontiff is assassinated.

Partitio the Merchant’s fight against capitalism and Hikari the Warrior’s quest to reclaim his rightful throne are also compelling story-lines.
Ochette the Hunter, Castti the Apothecary and Agnea the Dancer have stories that, while interesting, weren’t at the same level as the other characters in the Octo-troupe.

While exploring the world of Solistia, ‘Crossed Paths‘ side quests become available which provide some interaction between party members, but they’re quite brief and surface level.

There is also occasionally ‘Travel Banter‘ between characters, which are simple text bubble conversations, that don’t add a whole lot in my opinion.

Conclusion and Score

Octopath Traveler 2 is a brilliant game. I’ve enjoyed almost every minute of my time with the game so far – but it’s not without its issues.

The story is segmented for the majority of the game and I never really felt like the various team members are actually bonding.

The quality of life improvements are a much needed refresh for the genre and while it’s not the first game to attempt such an overhaul, in my opinion it’s easily the best.

Quest Daily scores Octopath Traveler 2:

9/10

Quest Daily was supplied a copy of Octopath Traveler 2 by Bandai Namco for the purpose of this review.