In Octopath Traveler 2, adventure usually springs from tragedy. Though Square Enix's Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) lets you select from a cast of eight characters to start your journey with, with different backgrounds and classes, have something in keeping: life can be bloody miserable when you are the protagonist of a JRPG. Take Osvalt, the smoothness I began with. Imprisoned for any crime he didn’t commit – killing his wife and child inside a house fire – the scholar now plots his escape from a high-security prison to track down his family's real killer.
After a chapter spent pulling off his prison break, Osvalt washes up on the shores of the icy fishing village. It's miles from the next stop in his main quest, which means that when Octopath's world opens up, his fiery quest for vengeance turns into a smouldering ramble. When you hit the open road, Octopath Traveler's world is really a wonder: an attractive lighting system makes every frame screenshot-worthy, while opportunities for everyday heroisms – fixing a church window, fetching a midwife – breathe life into your journey as you pursue distant main story quests.
For fans of the first Octopath Traveler, the 2010 sequel doesn't only bring new lands to explore: gleam day-night cycle to the series that you could toggle between at the press of the mouse. During the day, the wilderness is gorgeous, safer, and boasts a richer soundtrack. Exploring during the night casts everything in a different light – the gloom closes in, more monsters are out for your blood, and the area's score gets stripped back. You will find advantages to exploring a place in both lights, least of all to savor each side of Square Enix's phenomenal soundtrack. A little way into Osvald's escapades, I ran across a derelict group of stalls that turned into a thriving black market when the sun set. If appealing to your sense of adventure wasn't enough, each character includes a Path ability that changes with the time – by day Osvalt can scrutinise people for juicy knowledge, by night he, er, mugs them.
While galavanting around Solistia, I temporarily put Osvalt's story on hold to connect with the remainder of Octopath‘s cast, who loiter within their home settlements waiting for you to find them. Along with some wandering, Osvalt found enough travellers to place a celebration together: indentured thief Throné, cleric-turned-detective Temenos, and cowboy merchant Partitio. All parties member has their very own main mission to pursue across Solistia's split continents, which means Octopath's early hours are spent drinking within the world's gorgeous vistas and travelling between settlements, growing your merry troupe of misfits and solving their woes.
With half of Octopath's main cast in tow, I'd the makings of the well-rounded party and the game's combat began to take shape. Octopath's turn-based battles are simple to grasp if you have ever played a JRPG before: spent a few turns prodding your opponent with a number of attacks to locate their weaknesses, then hammer them with said weakness until they're reduced to numbers within an experience bar.
Like its predecessor, Octopath does play with this formula just a little – foes have a number of shields in place that need to be broken with effective attacks to stun them. Your characters don't get these shields, but they do get a Boost Point each turn – a powerful resource that may be spent making additional attacks or amping up just one powerful ability. There is a little bit of strategy involved here – would you save your Boost Points as much as land a supercharged fireball on an enemy when their defences or down, or use them to hack through someone's shields in a single turn?
At time of writing, I’ve put nine hours into Octopath Traveler, also it barely seems like I've scratched its surface. Although the first Octopath eventually lost me many hours in, its sequel feels far more promising and lively than its predecessor. If you're looking for a tight and focused tale, look elsewhere: Octopath Traveler 2 will not make any apologies because of its grand, rambling adventure, and thus far it doesn't have reason to.
Octopath Traveler 2 launches on February 24 for PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
