Octopath Traveler II (PC) - Part 1

Developer:

Square Enix and Acquire

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Release Date:

2023

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Systems:

Windows, PS4, PS5, Switch

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing something that's relatively new for a change. In fact it came out only a couple of weeks ago. It's retro JRPG sequel Octopath Traveler II!

I typically like to write about the first game in a series before covering the sequels, but I've jumped straight to game #2 this time and there are two very good reasons for that. The first reason is, I've already played Octopath 1 and I couldn't get into it to be honest. I tried a few of the characters, hoping to find one that caught my interest, but I found myself skipping their cutscenes just to get on with it and once you start doing that in a story-driven RPG you might as well quit.

The second reason is that this was a surprise gift from an absurdly generous friend! I intend to be entirely honest about what I think about it, but if I say anything negative you should yell at me for being rude and ungrateful.

I usually play games for about an hour, but that wouldn't even get me out of the game's demo, so I decided to give it about 30 hours instead. If you're wondering why this article's so late, that's your answer. I've split it into two parts, with part 1 covering one character's first chapter, and part 2 jumping around some other stuff I thought was worth talking about. So you'll see some stuff from later on but I shouldn't end up really spoiling anything that isn't in the demo.

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I've been spotting a pattern with Square Enix's logos lately, and I'm not all that keen on it. It makes the games look like they're all part of a budget game series or something. They deserve their own distinctive logos! Well okay maybe Various Daylife doesn't...

Look at that beautiful pixel art! These are all the playable characters I get to choose from. The camera zooms down to the map and the characters fly off to their starting locations, but for a moment I was able to capture a shot of them all at once.

There are eight heroes, each with their own journey, which makes sense. If they'd added more they would've had to have called it Decapath Traveler or something. They're all brand new characters, in a brand new setting, but they've got the same classes as the heroes from the first game.

So my choices are:

• Apothecary Castti
• Warrior Hikari
• Hunter Ochette
• Merchant Partitio
• Dancer Agnea
• Thief Throné
• Scholar Osvald
• Cleric Temenos

They could've at least given the classes new names. Pharmacist Castti, Samurai Hikari, Travelling Salesman Partitio etc.

I'm leaning towards choosing Cleric Temenos, because Baldur's Gate has taught me that they they're well-armoured healers who carry a big mace.

The screenshot makes him look more like a babysitter in a robe, but it also shows that he has a talent for enfeebling all enemies, and that's the kind of edge I'll need. Though it'll only work at night, which is interesting. It's been a while since I've played a JRPG with a day/night system.

 

Oh damn, the game has a fast-forward option in cutscenes! It's already a contender for being my favourite JRPG ever and I haven't even done anything yet. I think this is a new feature for the sequel. Both games let you skip cutscenes altogether, but with fast-forward you have a fighting chance to read the text as it goes flying by.

Okay my first objective is to 'Confront the Wicked God', so the game's kind of jumping straight to the end here. Unfortunately it seems like my whole party is already dead so it's up to me, Aelfric the Flamebringer, to slay this final boss and save the day. Wait, aren't I Temenos the Cleric? Never mind, this guy seems way more hardcore.

As soon as the game gave me control I walked up the stairs… and right into the second cutscene. I'm already getting the impression it's the kind of game that gives you a little bit of gameplay occasionally as a treat, but not so much that you'd take it for granted.

Alright, now I'm in a battle and this seems to be basically the same turn-based battle system as the first game. Which is pretty close to being the same battle system that's in every Japanese RPG on the SNES. But I'll describe how it works anyway, just to make sure we're all on the same page.

That purple thing is the bad god and right now it's waiting for me to decide what move I want to make from that menu on the right. I can just 'attack' with my stick, or 'defend' to reduce the damage of their next attack. Or I could start spending a bit of SP on a skill, like 'Aelfric's Blessings', which raises all my attributes for 9 turns, or 'Aelfric's Wrath', which deals light-based damage 3 times. I think I should probably start by casting that attribute one.

The battle waged on turn after turn, with epic spell effects and huge damage numbers, until…

...Aelfric forgot his next line.

Fortunately Boy reminds Temenos what it is, and he's able to finish reading the story to the children. So he's not a mute protagonist then.

Temenos' friend Mindt (on the left) suggests that he could try actually memorising the story, seeing as reading it out is apparently his job. Though she calls him an 'Inquisitor', which must have a very different meaning in this world, as if I met this guy in real life I would not expect the Spanish Inquisition from him. He's about as threatening as a comfy chair. The voice acting seems pretty good though, and the game's giving me a lot of it.

Just then the pontiff arrives!

Hey he's the guy from that painting over on the right. Technically the term 'pontiff' can refer to any bishop, not just the pope, but he might be the pope!

The pontiff and Temenos go outside for a chat.

 

Okay I've had my issues with the tilt-shift blur effect in the first game, due to how they make everything look like a photograph of a tiny model, but this shot looks great.

The cutscene continued with the pontiff telling Temenos to meet him at the cathedral this evening, and then the game let me loose to explore the picturesque little village of Flamechurch. First thing I've learned: there's no way to rotate the camera to get a better look at the place. 

That's what I'm saying man! If I had to describe Temenos with one word it'd be 'likeable' or maybe 'inept' seeing how he screwed up telling the story earlier, not 'terrifying'. He's also gotten a lot quieter now that he's escaped that cutscene, as the voice acting has disappeared.

The NPCs I'm allowed to talk to are marked by a speech bubble with three dots above their head. The other half of the villagers are just ignoring me.

I don't need to speak to anyone for directions though. I already know exactly where I should be going as the game has a radar with a objective marker on it!

This feature is definitely not to every player's tastes, but it is optional. Personally I'm very happy about the fact that if the game ever tells me to go visit the village elder, or to return home to the house I've lived in my entire life, I don't have to find my way there through trial and error. Where was this feature when I needed it in Dragon Warrior VII?

The save point's also marked on it, but not the shops. I think I can find them okay myself though.

I found a shop along the way and decided to see if I could pop inside. I was a bit surprised when he actually walked in, as Octopath Traveler did all its transactions at the door. At least for the shops I found. Getting to walk around the interior of a shop adds an additional second or two to my journey, but the extra immersion makes it worth it. Also you can't really tell here, but I like the way the outside world zooms in to make the interiors bigger when you walk in.

Oh damn, it seems like I've got 2500 coin to spend. I didn't expect Temenos to be carrying around so much cash. I'm actually feeling a little bad about blowing his life savings on a pointy hat. The blue numbers show that it's a definite upgrade though, to physical defence, elemental defence and elemental attack! This is a dangerous hat.

I only got to walk a little further before I got dragged into another cutscene. It seems that cutscenes are abundant in this land.

Anyway it appears that not everyone here is keen on the church, as a bunch of insurgents believe that they use the Sacred Flame to deceive everyone, and they're ready for a bit of a purge. Or at least they were, until they realised a Sanctum Knight was in town and ran off. Only their leader remained and he's decided to start the purge with Temenos!

Here's the same scene with all the post-processing and shadows turned off, if you were curious how that'd look. It's a lot more PlayStation, though there's still some blurring in the background. I prefer it with everything on, but it's nice to have a break from the blotchy shadows cast by the clouds for a moment. They move so fast!

I'm starting to think I might have gotten Temenos all wrong, as the guy isn't even slightly bothered about being grabbed by an insurgent. In fact he decides to give him a demonstration of the Sacred Flame the heretic can believe in, by setting him on fire with magic! Only a little bit though, just enough to knock him out.

Then once the situation is resolved he starts patronising the poor knight, calling him a 'wayward lamb'!

His name's Crick by the way, and he'll be tagging along with me for a bit as he needs to get to the cathedral as well, and I need to learn how to use Temenos' Guide ability.

Turns out that that characters each have something called a 'Path Action', and Temenos is able to persuade an NPC to follow him as backup. Crick's got two points of strength and a sword skill called Sacred Slash, so I guess he'll be making himself useful when I get into a fight.

Now I'm free to go explore the world! Or this little bit of path leading up to the cathedral anyway.

Though I did also explore someone's house along the way and collected 400 quid out of a chest right in front of him. He didn't complain. In fact he seemed more concerned about convincing Inquisitor Temenos that he hadn't done anything wrong. So that's a bit of a concern maybe. About Temenos' job, not the guy I mean. What does Temenos actually do?

Okay here I am in a battle again, and this battle music is bloody amazing, I mean holy crap.

Temenos is significantly less powerful than the god I was playing as in the pre-prologue, but he's got some tricks he didn't have. Like he can 'Summon' his buddy Crick to come help for a few turns by doing Sacred Slashes and defending him with his shield.

I decided to give this a try right away and the game gave me a tutorial image to explain how it works. It was very helpful, got to the point and didn't give overwhelm me with information to remember. Good tutorial screen in my opinion. Much briefer and easier to read than this text I'm inflicting upon you.

I also got another tutorial image explaining what those symbols underneath the enemy mean, and this seems kind of important to know. All the question mark blocks are showing me what kind of attacks the enemy's weak to, or at least they will when I get around to hitting it with something that works. Like Crick came over and smacked him with a sword, which turned out to be one of his weaknesses. So one of the blocks was revealed to be a 'sword' icon.

Hitting him with an attack he's weak to knocked his Shield Point number down by one.

Then I followed it up with a staff attack by Temenos which shattered the shield entirely! Now he's got stars around his head, meaning that he's knocked out for a turn. This is good as it means he's not hitting me! Plus I also get a flashy effect. The game doesn't have all that many pixel animations, but it sure likes to show off its spell effects.

Here's something else I learned from the tutorial, just to prove I was paying attention. Every turn the characters get another Boost Point (BP), which I can hold onto until I need them. 

 

Then, when the time is right, I can hit the 'Boost' button up to three times to supercharge my next attack. Like I did here! Now I can hit this guy with a stick four times instead of just once, while he's all broken with his defences down.

So the trick is to find their weaknesses, hit them with the right weapons until they're stunned, and then unleash everything I have at them at the moment they're at their most vulnerable. I don't play nearly enough modern RPGs to know how original this system is, but it'll give me something to think about in fights at least.

Hey the game gave me an EXP bonus for Breaking my enemy and then Overkilling them with overwhelming force! Though I would've gotten the LevelUp either way, as the fight's just designed like that. Turns out that there are no choices to make on level up: no way to increase attributes, no selection of skills to pick from. Numbers go up all by themselves.

I also got 3 JP, which is information I'm going to file away until later because I don't know what that means. I didn't obtain any items though! I was hoping to get some more interesting fruits to go along with the Inspiriting Plum I just found in a chest.

Man, one fight and I'm right into another cutscene! They're not even talking about anything important, Temenos is just teasing Crick some more. He did kind of stand in the back row the whole time though, even after I summoned him into the fight to join in.

I'm glad all these cutscenes still have voice acting, as the actors are adding a lot of personality to these tiny sprite people. Temenos is kind of mischievous and Crick's just so earnest. You might be wondering how I'm even hearing the voice acting if I'm fast-forwarding through every cutscene. Well, I stopped doing that when I started to get into the story.

Anyway Crick decides to join the party properly instead of just being a summon, so now he's on the team! Which is good as the cathedral we're heading to is on the other side of a scary dark cave.

They both get little boats out when they reach water! Though they can only do it at docks, so I need to find one first.

This dungeon is just a tiny road with paths branching off to grab a chest. The encounter rate is pretty low, roughly one enemy per chest perhaps. Definitely bearable. Especially because whenever I get into a fight I get to hear the battle music again.

I found a Stimulating Ring so now I get to show off the beautiful menu screen. Characters have three armour slots and two accessory slots, along with a whole bunch of attributes to boost with new gear. That tutorial screen on enemy weaknesses mentioned I'd be able to switch weapons, so I expect those weapon categories aren't going to stay ghosted out forever. Not all of them anyway.

I also found a tough nut which permanently increases my Phys. Def. stat from 104 to 111! I'm catching up to to Crick's 124 and that dude's armoured like RoboCop.

Alright I've reached the cathedral to meet with the pontiff… and it's locked.

Temenos suggests to Crick that he could use his mighty Godsblade to maybe smash the doors in, but he's a Sanctum Knight so he's not really into breaking and entering into holy buildings. Also he wants Temenos to stop calling him 'Wayward Lamb' already. Their relationship has kind of deteriorated to be honest, with the guy starting to doubt if Temenos even is an inquisitor. Temenos is fine with that, he's all about doubt. Lots of dramatic arm waving here by the way, accompanied by a 'swish' sound effect. Swish, swish, swish.

This place looks similar to the cleric place at the start at the of Octopath Traveler, which might actually be the same building now that I think about it.

Octopath Traveler (Switch)

Oh, okay not the same building. Same speech bubble though!

I think the sequel has dialled down the bloom and blurring a bit. In the original game only objects in the middle third of the screen are typically in focus. Plus it seems like the sequel might have slightly more complicated geometry for its structures. Whatever's going on here, I prefer the look of the second game.

Alright Temenos has had a bit of thought and come up with a plan B to get into the cathedral: the building was under repairs recently so it's likely someone here was involved and knows about another way to get inside.

Fortunately the radar just tells me who I need to talk to. Well it's narrowed down the candidates at least. Though there's also a handy merchant here so I'll stop and buy a new charm rod first.

It's night time now so my Path Action has changed. During the day I was able to chat to Crick and get him to follow me, but at night that same button changes to 'Coerce'. In other words, I can go full inquisitor and get the truth out of people! I do have to complete a minigame first though. The minigame is violence.

I gotta go into the suspiciously damp metaphorical interrogation dimension and hit them with a weapon they're vulnerable to enough times to shatter their shield so that they spill their secrets. Though if they beat me that would be bad, so I'm going to try to avoid that.

Turns out this guy is weak to my Holy Light spell, so this didn't take long. Now I know all of Young Man's secrets...

Man, Octopath was doing so well at pretending to be a real JRPG but now it's just given itself away as a fraud. "Age: 30"? Surely he should be called 'Elderly Man'.

I didn't glean any useful information here and I don't think I was healed after the fight, so I should be more careful about who I interrogate in future. It's interesting though, having the ability to learn about who all the NPCs are (the ones with speech bubbles anyway). They're not just anonymous little sprites, they have their own stories.

There's no music right now, which is usual. It's making me want to get into a fight to get it back, in a good way. I'm not beating up a cleric for information though even if my green marker's pointing at her. Crick's already disappointed enough with me.

I love how Crick was practically in awe of Temenos at first, and the more he hangs around him the more appalled he is. He's just getting more and more worked up, while Temenos gives no fucks and is completely chill about everything. It's a fun relationship.

It wasn't long before I ran into Vados the Architect, who was a much more likely candidate to have worked on the cathedral. Turns out he does know of another way inside, through a secret subterranean passage in a building nearby. Fortunately I don't have to guess at the building because the game just tells me!

Oh cheer the fuck up Crick, we're making progress!

The game autosaves, but it suggested that I use a save point monument before heading into the dungeon. So I did that and then went down into the Cellars (danger level 5).

CELLARS (DANGER LEVEL 5)

I love his little lamp that Temenos carries when he's somewhere dark. It's night time now so the enemies are tougher, but he has that Moonlight Judgment ability that automatically enfeebles them, so the Cellars haven't been that bad. I got a bit beat up but he also has a healing skill and I get my HP and SP refilled on level up.

I'm starting to think I might want to stock up on healing items though. Fortunately I've run into a mid-dungeon peddler and I can buy health grapes in bulk! There's also a chest back there for me to open if I can figure out how to get to it. There's no way to spin the camera around, so the path is hidden behind a wall.

SOON, IN THE CATHEDRAL

Well, I kind of saw this coming to be honest. Not the giant wolf, but the pontiff being dead before we got here. Turns out that there is something that'll make Temenos drop his jokiness after all. Fortunately Crick has his back and the two of them are going to sort this creature out.

Oh hang on, the cutscene's over and it's me that has to fight it? Well now I'm worried for them.

Bloody hell this creature's taking a lot of hits. Temenos isn't the toughest of the eight heroes however, so he's taking a beating. Now the felvarg's charging some kind of special move and I have a feeling that 77 HP isn't going to be enough to survive it.

Fortunately the turn order at the top says he's not going to hit right away, so I have a chance to have Temenos use a healing item and then Crick can use his 'Cover' command, which has him jump in the way of the next attack. It's not my favourite move as it's going to hurt him a lot more than it does the enemy, but the dude's wearing a ton of armour, he can take it.

Well it turned out that Crick couldn't take it, but I've got some Phoenix Downs Olives of Life so he's back into the fight and I get a pretty light show to watch. 

The fight just kept going and going and going until the point where I started trying some of the items I'd picked up just to see if they did any more damage. Fortunately my Light Soulstone hit him for 400, finishing the fight! Interesting that the Olive of Life and the Light Soulstone were the two items I picked up from the cathedral just before the fight.

My reward for victory was level ups for everyone (and some healing grapes). So both my dudes are level 6 now. But there's more to the pontiff's death than just a random monster attack, and Temenos decides to stick around and reconstruct the crime scene in his head, Disco Elysium-style.

Hang on, he can interrogate NPCs, people around him are worried that he thinks they've done something wrong, he's able to zone out and piece together a crime scene in his head… Temenos is a detective! That's what his job is!

The player also has a part to play in piecing together what happened, but all that means is that I go to each sparkly thing and press the button on it to get the next bit of cutscene. Temenos soon figured out that the monster-proof glass had been broken from the inside, and incense lit to draw a creature inside. Wow, I wonder if all buildings in JRPGs have monster-proof glass. Anyway, this seems a lot like a murder and the pontiff left a clue for Temenos to find, so he lifts it from the crime scene just as the cops arrive. 

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

Temenos doesn't seem to like Deputy Cubaryi and the feeling's mutual. Unfortunately Crick's been sent off on a new assignment so the two almost-friends have to part ways. Well that's a shame, now I don't know if they'll ever get to team up again.

Man, this is a pretty scene though. The original Octopath pushed the depth of field a bit hard, but this lets me see all the way over to the pontiff's funeral in the background, before the focus drops off entirely at the cathedral. There's a lot of NPCs around as well.

Temenos is on his own now, but he has a note from the pontiff as a clue, and an idea of where to go next: he saw the pontiff chatting to someone earlier. So now it's time to go travelling to find them. It is his duty as inquisitor to shine the Sacred Flame's light upon the truth, come what may.

Temenos the Cleric: Chapter 1

-End-

Now I can go exploring the land of Solistia, maybe pick up some of the other seven heroes, like Osvald the Scholar in the north, and Throné the Thief in the south. I'm curious to see how that works, if I get to play their first chapter as well.

This is where Temenos' story ends in the three hour demo and I've been playing for just over an hour. There was one prologue fight, two short dungeons with as many chests as there were random encounters, a boss enemy, and the rest of it was all talking. Lots and lots and lots of talking.

Fortunately I have the full game so I can carry on with my adventure, explore the world, and complete Temenos' second chapter! But you'll have to check out the second half of this article if you want to read about that.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO

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Thanks for reading! Sorry this took so long, but it takes a while to play something for a while, especially when it's an RPG. No point guessing what the next game will be, as it's just more of this, and you don't have to wait for it as the next post is up right now.