When we say that a game is more of the same, we usually do so with contempt: it means that it is more or less the same as something that came before, perhaps with small differences that do not revolutionize its form. Many times we have advised against buying a title because it was too similar to its predecessor, but more of the same is not always bad, and in the case of Octopath Traveler 2, sequel to the controversial JRPG released in 2018, exactly the opposite. It's true: if you liked Octopath Traveler, you have to play the second chapter. And if you didn't appreciate some aspects, it turns out that this time things could be different.
In our Octopath Traveler 2 Review We will explain why, and many times you will find comparisons with the first because, well, it is more of the same, which sometimes is also a second chance.
New travelers, new stories.
To explain Octopath Traveler 2 to a series veteran Purchase It would be enough to make a sterile list of features and add some notes, like what you do after a software update: "resolved a problem with", "improved this", "increased that", "decreased that". Taking into account that not everyone has played the first Octopath Traveler, we will start from the beginning, and explain that it is a deliberately old-fashioned JRPG, characterized by a peculiar pixel art that mixes 2D and 3D in Unreal Engine 4, random combat. in turns like in the old Final Fantasy e eight stories that intersect only marginally and only at the end. This is how it seems like we are describing the first Octopath Traveler, when in reality we are talking about its sequel: more of the same, really.
Octopath Traveler 2 is virtually identical to its predecessor in every way. And this also applies to the questionable choice of telling eight stories centered on as many protagonists who ideally travel together, but who in reality almost never are. Except in the aforementioned epilogue, which this time is not shielded behind a masochistic secondary mission, and in the Cross Roads, longer and more complex side quests that involve two travelers each and are closer to our traditional idea of a Japanese role-playing game.
The greater interaction between the eight travelers promised by Acquire does not revolutionize anyone strange narrative which we also criticized the first time, but which in Octopath Traveler 2 weighs much less for the simple fact that the eight stories are better written on average: even the weakest of the group, that of the aspiring diva Agnea, ends up having This is because. The new travelers may seem like a reshuffle of the eight that preceded them, and in a sense they are, but their stories are compelling, also thanks to the excellent Spanish adaptation, and they oscillate between various genres, but always with a significantly more adult narrative index, even with respect to the tones already achieved by the first Octopath Traveler. Lovers of classic literature, but also modern literature, will surely recognize the works and characters that inspired the new stories, from Sherlock Holmes to the Count of Monte Cristo.
Having observed with a hint of resignation that the travelers' stories remain largely autonomous, we also observe a overall improvement in the pace of the narrative, which tends to be less fragmented by the strangely open structure of exploration: this time you also choose a main protagonist and, once his opening chapter is completed, you recruit the other travelers in any order you prefer. .
This part of the game It has not undergone any changes, neither for better nor for worse. The player is free to recruit travelers in the order they prefer, but then this freedom loses value before the brute force of the enemies that separate the locations and, therefore, the chapters of the stories. The recommended level of the different chapters suggests - and not so subtly - the order in which they should be played, but as you follow it you realize that the narrative, despite lacking cohesion, has a very precise rhythm. Some details stand out better, especially those that contribute to reinforcing the idea that the eight stories take place in the same world, Solistia, that being brand new allows you to get closer to the adventure even without having played the first Octopath.
In any case, this time what slows down the narrative is not its particular structure, but the actual gameplay. Acquire has mastered the mechanics of Travel actions, the special abilities that travelers can use to interact with NPCs, and which have now been doubled: each traveler has one for the day and one for the night. The day/night cycle does not significantly influence the gameplay: it simply redistributes the non-player characters in the scenarios, and is sometimes closely linked to the resolution of a puzzle or secondary mission.
However, the Travel Actions also seemed too redundant. Most of them we have already seen in the first Octopath Traveler, but the others are simply variations of the same mechanism: Osvald, for example, can examine the characters to learn their stories during the day, while at night Hikari can do the same. corrupting them with money. Temenos can do it too, but he must first defeat the person on the metaphysical level at night. Osvald can also fight other characters at night: if he wins, he will blackmail them precious objects. And Hikari will also be able to duel them, even during the day, to learn up to five fighting techniques. If, on the other hand, you prefer to steal without fighting, you can rely on the skills of the thief Throné, during the day, or on the pleas of Agnea, during the night.
In summary, these examples should have given you an idea: all travel actions are somewhat similar and, in certain formations, run the risk of overlapping. From one point of view, this makes sense because the player cannot always take all eight travelers with him, but only four, while the others remain at the inn. Therefore, certain formations allow each action to be covered both day and night, but the dynamics remain cumbersome.
The Travel Actions mechanic is now more interesting than in the first Octopath because it is objectively more varied and complex, and because it allows you to solve side missions or get consumables, weapons or armor that would have a high price in stores. In practice, however, you almost feel compelled to examine every character in every scenario with every possible travel action, first during the day and then at night: as easy as it is to switch between them - just press a button, literally - this renewed game dynamics tends to get caught up in a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder that ends up drastically slowing down exploration. Every time you enter a new city or a new setting, you feel the need to review each NPC to discover the possibilities offered by the different interactions, distracting you from the objective.
Despite this criticism, Octopath Traveler 2 remains a title brimming with secrets and opportunities also and precisely because of the new game dynamics. Each scenario hides something, often behind clever games of perspective, and exploration is never an end in itself: there is always a collectible, a bonus, a secret technique, a particularly powerful NPC to recruit and take into battle.
Fighting in Solistia
Il day/night cycle, then, has an even more interesting implication in terms of gameplay. In fact, at night the enemies are more aggressive and powerful, but they also provide many more experience points. This simple functionality, combined with some particular abilities, helps a lot not only to grow walkers at times when it may be necessary, but also to personalize the experience: Players who like to fight every other step can simply move around at night, while those who prefer a more relaxed experience can do so during the day, perhaps by equipping the Savant's Evasive Maneuvers ability.
If you played the first Octopath and the last words made a bell ring in your head, you're not hallucinating: the classes represented by the eight travelers are the same as in the first game. He class system in fact, it's been kept mostly as is, complete with CP to accumulate and spend to unlock new skills in any order you prefer and secondary classes to assign to experiment with a deluge of strategies and combinations. The new features are essentially limited to EX Skills and the four additional classes, totally new, which are unlocked much earlier than before and in a very particular way, and which unfortunately we cannot tell you about in detail.
Ultimately, the team that wins cannot be changed. Almost. Acquire didn't even revolutionize the combat system, which focused on the conditions of Domination and power. The first occurs when the player hits the enemy at its weak point, that is, using the appropriate elemental weapons or spells, and in doing so sets its shields to zero: at which point the enemy loses a turn, during which it takes much more damage. . The Domination mechanic not only serves to conclude battles more quickly, but also interrupts the preparation of devastating attacks - entire boss fights revolve around this gameplay dynamic. Power, on the other hand, is a condition that the traveler enters when he consumes one or more Power points accumulated turn after turn: it is a system similar to that of Bravely Default, and in practice it allows you to attack several times in the same turn or enhance a specific ability.
Learning to exploit domination and power is imperative: we tell you right away that Octopath Traveler 2 is not as challenging (not to say unbalanced) as its predecessor, but it is still a more challenging than average Japanese RPG, with some fighting against particularly brutal bosses. that knowledge of the game, one good strategy in team training and, why not, a few more levels of experience can make a difference.
The fights, however, do not drag on excessively like in the first game of the series: the boss fights seemed much less exhausting and, in general, difficulty curve seemed much better balanced, with a fair distribution of enemies both day and night and a greater variety of weapons, abilities and spells that helps induce the Domination condition more often. We also appreciated the introduction of latent powers: they are real super moves that are learned very quickly and that charge up much more often than you might think.
Rather than being a wild card ability to be jealously guarded while waiting for the right moment, Latent Power is designed to be used as much as possible. Not all latent powers We were convinced in the same way: some seemed uncreative, like Throné's, which simply gives you an extra action on the same turn, or Temenos's, which allows you to hit a weak point regardless of the type of attack. done. Others, however, are much more interesting for the simplicity of it: Osvald's ability to concentrate his multi-target spells into a single spell opens the door to devastating combos.
Better in everything?
Overall, in summary, the combat and gameplay customization system has been heavily inspired by the Octopath Traveler Uno experience, but Acquire has smoothed out certain rough edges and heard criticism about the balancing from the first game, smoothing out the difficulty curve and introducing some small mechanics that better articulate turn-based combat. Those who appreciated the brutality of his predecessor, however, can rest assured: between secret dungeons and bosses, Octopath Traveler 2 is still a title capable of making you knock down all the saints on more than one occasion.
More of the same, we said at the beginning, but well done, better done. And this philosophy is further reflected in the way the game is presented on screen. We play Octopath Traveler 2 on Nintendo Switch and calling it sublime seems to us to be an understatement. Take note: yes, the version we tested drops some frames when the battlefield is filled with particles or we quickly go from day to night in a setting that is particularly dense in details and visual effects. But they are slowdowns Almost imperceptible and does not bother much.
If anything, they disturb the other bugs we found after playing the demo on PlayStation 5: on Nintendo's hybrid console, Octopath Traveler 2 runs at 30 marks per secondand lacks dynamic shadows in some environments. It's certainly a shame, but in the end it also depends on how RPGs like this are played: in our opinion, the Acquire title particularly lends itself to portability, and on the Switch OLED screen, with its sharp and bright colors, the Pixel Art It's a real triumph. The Square Enix artists have really outdone themselves, working even better on the lighting and effects: each stage is full of details, and even the small maps that separate the inhabited centers seem drawn in a more linear but not at all banal way, especially if we compare the too many dead ends of the first game.
To beautify the technical sector, which was already excellent in 2018 but which today is truly superlative from the point of view of mere art direction, we thought about some measures that might seem of little importance, but that actually have a very strong impact on the final result.
Simple camera movements and zooms spectacularize the fights and the most important moments of the scenes, as well as the reflections, lighting and shadows cast by the atmospheric conditions: the clouds passing over the fields, the lightning that explodes behind the windows during a storm. , etc., involve the player more in the story they are following, making it seem more solemn as well. The one who puts the burden of a hundred is then banda sonora de Yasunori Nishiki, which is absolutely phenomenal and clearly surpasses the music of the first Octopath Traveler with extraordinary instrumental variety.
There are many small details that, together, demonstrate the passion with which this sequel was made. The first game seemed like a half-hearted experiment, a half-hearted testbed for old-school HD-2D RPGs when they were still a novelty. Octopath Traveler 2, in this sense, more than just more of the same, is what our Yankee friends would define as the real deal: Square Enix has hit the mark.
Conclusions
Tested version Nintendo Switch digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 59,99 € Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (36) 7.4 your voteAcquire has improved the Octopath Traveler formula in every aspect and has finally found the right solution. However, in his eagerness to fix everything that was wrong, he also ended up recreating too many dynamics and solutions from the first game, starting with the loose narrative that will still bother those who prefer more choral stories. , despite being written inarguably better. For this reason, in an ideal world we wouldn't recommend Octopath Traveler 2 to those who have already put in many hours on the first due to too many similarities, but this would mean that they appreciated it and there's no reason why they shouldn't. I love this excellent sequel.
PRO
- The stories of the new travelers are well written and engaging.
- Much more balanced gameplay than the first game.
- The art direction in general is impressive.
AGAINST
- Always divisive approach to narrative.
- The Travel Actions system is excessively confusing
- In some aspects it is almost identical to the previous one.
