Soapbox features allow our individual editors and contributors to express their opinions on trending topics and random topics they’ve been thinking about. Today, Alana tells us about her favorite RPG of 2023, which everyone seems to have completely forgotten…
Eight travelers. Eight stories. The paths of these eight adventurers cross, their lives very different from each other, but very quickly, their destinies intertwine as they travel the same path. No, I’m not talking about Octopath Traveler, I’m talking about Octopath Traveler II.
2023 has been a pretty incredible year for RPGs – Sea of Stars has charmed many JRPG fans; Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a dream remake; and speaking of remakes, who saw Super Mario RPG make a comeback? And it’s only on Switch. Yet everyone seems to have forgotten about Octopath Traveler II.
The game launched in February 2023, and while it received a pretty warm critical reception, including from us, it seems to have faded in many people’s eyes. The Game Awards completely forgot about it, both for best RPG (which, admittedly, it was never going to win) And (more criminally) Best score and music – an award absolutely deserved to compete, and probably even win.
I haven’t forgotten, though, because Octopath Traveler II stole my heart earlier this year, and it hasn’t let go.
The principle is the same as the original: you choose to start with one of the eight characters, and all eight share the same duties as the original byte. Once you select your character, they remain stuck in your party as leader until you complete their story, but you are free to explore and recruit the remaining seven characters, each with their own story in several chapters to go through. There are four optional jobs, the ability to equip a second job, and many other recurring features from the first game.
… Octopath Traveler II stole my heart earlier this year, and it hasn’t let go.
I could wax lyrical about the mechanical improvements – the inventor’s secret work is an early game boon; the day and night system helps with leveling; and can I speed up the fights now? Hooray! But Octopath Traveler II’s biggest improvements come from its writing. I love the Chaucerian setup of the original and this sequel, the idea of eight travelers from different backgrounds coming together and sharing their experiences. together (even if they are not all displayed on the screen at the same time). And these stories aren’t about saving the world: they’re about people and their experiences. But Octopath II does the “story” much better.
I started out as Throné, the thief – mysterious, cold and, by the end of the first chapter, emotionally broken and desperate for freedom. As a member of the Blacksnakes, Throné is driven to assassinate one of his companions in order to prove who can take leadership of the guild. This is a quite striking contrast with Therion, the thief in the story of Octopath 1, who starts his adventure with a heist.
Throné’s starting chapter perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the game for me. Yes, Octopath Traveler II East darker overall, but it’s more that each story deals with the personal, the human. While each story may be dramatic, each story feels much more relatable. None of us were forced to murder a friend, I’m sure, but we can all relate to the story of Throné, who feels trapped and helpless and wants to seek the truth. We all want to feel like we have a place in the world, and that’s what Throné is trying to do: make a life for himself and seek his freedom.
Hikari, the warrior, was kicked out of his home after his father was murdered by his half-brother Mugen. Hikari is not a typical warrior archetype: he is kind, gentle, and empathetic, but also troubled by a curse placed on his family. Again, these are not things that we directly real life experience, but family conflict and responsibility are the things we have to deal with – these are just these issues put under a huge magnifying glass and elaborated through stunning HD-2D sprites and over-the-top narratives.
We all want to feel like we have a place in the world, and that’s what Throné is trying to do.
The way Octopath Traveler II plays with our preconceptions about professions and characters is one of my favorite things. When we think of a trader, we probably just think of someone who sells things for profit – i.e. not which is Partitio. This sunny salesman had to watch his hometown fall into poverty as the landowner raised taxes on silver, the ore the town was known for mining in abundance. Its chapter 1 essentially ends with him taking a swing at a landlord, returning the city to the people of Oresrush and embarking on a journey to put money in the hands of those who need it, to end to poverty.
It’s a rather rosy, idealistic JRPG way of presenting the problem and solution, but it’s so serious – it warms my heart to see Partitio call someone “tit” and work tirelessly just to help people and make them happy. The same goes for Agnea, the dancer, who just wants to be a star and “bring smiles” to people. She played pretty straight for her archetype – Primrose (from Octopath 1) was definitely an inversion of this work, so Agnea being the complete opposite seems fitting. She is joy incarnate, infinitely contagious and adorable. Even when Agnea struggles, she is able to get back up because, like Paritio, she wants to help people. She is the beating heart of Octopath Traveler II and conveys the message of hope that the game overall aims for.
It warms my heart to see Partitio calling someone a “tit” and working tirelessly just to help people
I could honestly talk about every character (I feel sorry for Ochette, Castti, Osvald, and Temenos) because they all go through great character arcs and every story is different, even when they play it by the book. It probably helps that not all characters have four chapters – some have five, while others have multiple parts of a single chapter that can be done in any order. This makes the whole game much freer.
Granted, there’s still a disconnect between the eight stories because the characters don’t appear in each other’s stories, but there’s more of “Travel Banter,” where the characters at least speak and react to the events that occur throughout the game. And Crossing Paths goes some way to changing that jarring dissociation I (and pretty much everyone else) had with the first game.
Each “pair” of characters has its own little mini-story that appears several times throughout the game, usually after you’ve progressed sufficiently through each corresponding character’s narrative. These range from short cutscenes to mini-trips through dungeons, and they’re all really good. Hikari and Agnea’s Crossed Path is about song, dance, death and the celebration of life. It touches on aspects of both characters and cultures, and it’s really beautiful. Elsewhere, Partitio teams up with Osvald, a vengeful and shrewd scholar, who ends up helping a struggling researcher fund a project.
These connecting ribbons really help tie a knot around the narrative of Octopath Traveler II. Each character works toward a goal, and almost all of those goals are about helping people, bringing them hope, and giving each other hope. This all comes to a head after completing all eight stories and four Crossed Paths. There are many more breadcrumbs leading to the climax of Octopath Traveler II across all eight stores – some more than others, but they’re all there. I’m not going to go in What This happens exactly, of course, but the image of the eight figures sitting around the campfire as the world moves on is a pretty perfect distillation of Why I love Octopath Traveler II.
These are eight characters who have experienced a lot, alone and together. They laughed, they cried, they grew – separately and together. And from now on, the fate of the world rests on these eight “ordinary, extraordinary” people.
I wasn’t looking for a “save the world” plot from Octopath Traveler II, because I think its strengths lie in telling smaller, personal narratives – I don’t always want to have the responsibility of saving the world , after all. But here I was struck by the fact that the reason we have these kinds of stories in JRPGs is because the genre is a great vehicle for telling stories about personal growth, no matter how big that story is. growth or this journey. These little moments allow you to do something incredible, whether you’re a dancer, a salesman, or a member of the royal family.
the eight characters sitting around the campfire (…) is a fairly perfect distillation of Why I love Octopath Traveler II
Octopath Traveler II’s gameplay should sell itself: there’s a three-hour demo on the eShop if you’re not sure if the turn-based “Break” and “Boost” system is for you, and there are great side quests, secrets and a completely breathtaking world to discover. All the small mechanical improvements were more than welcome, but the Asano team listened to my few complaints and brought me a rich world with wonderful characters that feel like people and friends.
In my eyes, even with the few flaws it still has, this makes Octopath Traveler II one of the best turn-based RPGs I’ve ever played. And look, if you don’t want to play it, at least listen to the music.
Did you play…
Gn tech
