I’ve had a tough go of it in Octopath Traveler II’s first few hours. As somebody who loves RPG events most once they really feel like actual models of buddies and located household, Octopath’s anthology-like storytelling wasn’t doing it for me. Its eight playable characters felt like islands I needed to stroll to and from, moderately than a gaggle I might watch bond. Now that I’ve collected extra of those heroes and fashioned a celebration, I’m reflecting on the sport’s early hours and all my conflicting emotions. I’ve come round on its construction and the way it permits every member of its social gathering a definite origin, however am nonetheless trying to find a collective which means that ties all of the characters collectively.
I began Octopath Traveler II—now obtainable on Change, PlayStation, and Home windows—as Partitio, a service provider who helps construct up a neighborhood within the city of Orerush, the place miners have turned a plot of land right into a affluent house. As time passes, nonetheless, it turns into sufferer to a scheme by a landowner to build up all of the wealth from what the folks have constructed. The story goes from Partitio wholeheartedly advocating for the perks of capitalism to changing into so disillusioned that he leaves his city to battle in opposition to poverty. We like to see a person wake the fuck up and find out about how he has beforehand benefitted from a system that may solely actually assist the fats cats on prime.
Every character will get their very own origin story, and it acts as an introduction to their place on the earth, why they select to go away their houses, and what talents make them stand out from the seven different heroes. Partitio has been my anchor as a result of I began the sport as him, however every character’s first chapter feels prefer it may very well be the start of a distinct sport totally.
Whereas I began this sport in what felt like a western embroiled in anticapitalist commentary, Ochette’s opening delves into fantastical parts like forming magical connections with speaking animals and exploring race relations between people and her fellow beastlings. Castti, in the meantime, is an amnesiac apothecary, and her first chapter seems like a medical drama as she tries to avoid wasting a city from a mysterious sickness. Whereas none of those characters begin their journeys collectively, and their interpersonal relationships really feel like an afterthought within the early hours, there’s one thing compelling to me about how this separation lets Octopath Traveler II delve into totally different sorts of themes and fiction genres.
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Every character having their very own unique mechanics makes the distinct nature of every of those intro additional obvious, resembling Partitio with the ability to rent NPCs that will help you in battle, or Castti with the ability to inquire with the locals for info. This retains these early chapters recent from a gameplay perspective, and has you enthusiastic about every in methods you wouldn’t have thought concerning the others. With each new origin story, Octopath Traveler II fully subverted what I believed the sport was about, finally giving me eight characters to really feel personally invested in. With every intro I performed, I discovered a brand new heart, regardless that I began my story as a service provider who discovered being poor is dangerous.
My important level of friction for at the very least these first few hours was that the anthological construction meant that, regardless of journeying collectively, the solid of Octopath Traveler II didn’t truly appear to learn about or care about one another. Every social gathering member has their very own disparate tales that I’ve been chipping away at, however these tales don’t contain the remainder of the solid. It makes some sense, since you don’t have to recruit these characters whenever you meet them in your quests, and it’s simply not affordable to put in writing round individuals who could or will not be current. However greater than in different media, I’m going to RPGs seeking camaraderie and banter, and lacking that has made it tougher to really feel invested within the sport’s second to second, as I hardly really feel like these eight vacationers know one another at the same time as I’m attending to know them myself.
Fortunately, Octopath Traveler II has some semblance of relationship constructing due to the “crossed paths” function, which is new to the sequel. These are transient, playable mini tales that function totally different pairings of social gathering members, which, to their credit score, are fairly nice to this point. They’re not fairly the epic team-building workouts—alongside the strains of Mass Impact 3’s Citadel DLC—that I’d favor, however the pairings really feel purposeful in how their writing contrasts the characters’ colliding worldviews, constructing upon their charming and charming important tales. Pairing the charming and bubbly Partitio with the broody Osvald results in a number of pleasant banter and a compelling facet story; I simply want this dynamic was evident all through the entire sport.
I’m nonetheless making my means by way of Octopath Traveler II and regardless of specializing in eight characters, it might probably generally really feel somewhat lonely. The solitude provides the sport alternatives to essentially paint totally different photos of its world and solid, however I do want there have been extra moments when all these vacationers felt like a unit. In a means, the sport feels analogous to one thing like The Canterbury Tales, with a caravan of individuals from totally different walks of life regaling one another with their tales. I simply hope that as I delve additional into these tales, I’ll discover extra alternatives for these characters to attach in methods past simply combining assaults on the battlefield.
