Octopath Traveler II – Review on INDIAN

Storytelling is something that is almost taken for granted in every game these days. Some make their narrative vague, others see it as the basic skeleton of the entire title, and still others just put the story in there just for the sake of it. Octopath Traveler 2 but his storytelling style is unique enough to offend the player. This name hides not only beautiful stories, lessons and experiences, but also huge challenges that will definitely not give you anything for free. The path is dangerous and insidious, each step must be thought through and it is imperative to be aware of one’s abilities, otherwise the next meeting with wild creatures may turn into a quick death.

Octopath Traveler 2 will take you to a world where eight different stories are waiting for you, intertwined with a huge number of fights and twists. In a word, a classic turn-based Japanese RPG, not much different from the first part. But what makes it different is what players have called for before. The developers listened and the second part brings interesting pleasure.

At the very beginning, you will be greeted with a screen where you can choose which character to start with. It’s up to you to decide who you choose and what fighting style you prefer. It is important to understand what each character does and become familiar with each type of attack. If you choose warrior Hikariyou’ll be limited primarily to hand-to-hand combat, which is useless against magic. Scientist Oswald on the other hand, he specializes in magic and spells, but his weakness is melee attacks. If you think the road leads through medicineSo Casti she will very quickly let you know that you need a lot of materials for the fight so that she can unleash powerful attacks, but one well-aimed swing of the ax can also solve a lot.

Over time, individual characters acquire more and more new attacks and expand their arsenal of techniques and abilities, so it is not necessary to specialize strictly in one fighting style. Strategy and combination are key. In my case, I chose the hunter as the first character. Ochette and no, it’s not because he has a tail and ears, but because he can catch monsters and then use them in battle as his allies, or turn them into pets. Special abilities also allow you to acquire attacks that have an elemental essence, strong attack, or a special effect such as poison.

As you progress through the various stories, which are not very original at first, you will come across a lot of enemies who will simply rush at you. You will then be transported into battle and the classic turn-based battle beginswhere your task is to come up with a strategy and combination of attacks to defeat your enemy before he defeats you. It’s quite interesting to see how your pixelated characters move in a 3D environment, and the attacks themselves affect the perspective of the fight. When you manage to charge your attacks to the maximum level, you will see various special visual effects.

What is superfluous here compared to the first part is hidden power, which recharges during combat. In the case of Ochette, there are three powerful attacks to choose from, which the game gradually introduces you to. Each character has vastly different traits, from different special attacks to shield penetration, attack focus, or no material consumption. Once you’ve completed the first chapter of each character, there’s nothing stopping you from going on an adventure. And that there really is something to discover.

During the fights themselves, your eyes will definitely not suffer. Conversely, each attack has its own animation. Swinging a sword, sending lightning, healing or even blowing up with a catapult, all this looks very beautiful and you can tell by the appearance what kind of attack it is. And that’s exactly what’s important to win. At the very least, it allows you to guess which battle pattern your enemies are fighting in and prepare for the next attack. This is something that has paid off for me personally on several occasions.

The maximum number of characters for your main adventurer party is four lucky ones. Some of them can also call for help from their companions, so if you’re smart, you can fight against one monster with up to eight people. Why not. But it won’t do you any good if you don’t know what traits your enemies are strong against. And this is the alpha and omega of the entire combat system. One character, at least not at the beginning of the game, is not capable of wielding 12 different attacks. That’s why you need to think and choose the right companions for your group. This is something the game does very well and will make you stop and think about who you really need in the fights.

They are also a huge help. Jobwhich you unlock around the world and subsequently allow you to, for example, turn your hunter into a healer. But what is absolutely necessary is the constant need to change equipment.. If a character doesn’t have the right weapon, even if they’re level 20, they’ll be completely useless with basic equipment. Fortunately, there are many different merchants in each city, and it will not be difficult to get new equipment.

However, acquiring this weapon is absolutely necessary in order to match the power of the enemy. The battles themselves are divided into levels and they do not give you anything for free. If your characters are only level ten, and you boldly pursue bandits marked as dangerous 35, then expect no mercy. You can max out exit button and pray that your tail-tugging will do you good and save your bare skin. Especially if you forget to save the entire procedure, as automatic saving doesn’t work here.

The world you’re about to traverse is vast, but above all beautiful. Although the characters are created in 2D style with pixel art, everything else is already modeled in classic 3D, with the developers using graphical visual in the form of 16-bit graphics. Everything is so pixel art styled, but the combination of lights, reflections, realistic water, snow, lightning, and effects gives it all that magical vibe that is completely unique to each environment. Nothing is added, and refocusing or moving the depth of the image gives the player a great visual experience that they really like, without unnecessary stuttering and various bugs.

As you progress through the world, your first character will meet other adventurers that you did not choose at the beginning. You won’t miss their story because the moment you meet them, you can go back in time and listen to them. You can then decide whether to bring them to the party or leave them at the pub and hear their story later. You will customize your path through villages and roads through the so-called Path action. These are special actions that are different for each character. It can be a brutal interrogation, a robbery of a villager, or you can put him to sleep. Both with the help of drugs and weapons.

Traveling to different locations, it is worth searching every corner, bridge and river.. Apart from various chests, you can find caves and special places like shrines where you can find interesting items. Among other things, you can also find things that will be useful for completing side quests.

Compared to the previous part, there are also general adventures here, which you can find not only on the map, but also in the story overview. To experience them, you must have both characters at a certain level and reach the place where the adventure begins. It’s more or less the same as the main and side stories, but there’s that interaction between the band members that wasn’t there before. By the way, travel jokes didn’t disappear here either. In addition, various NPC characters have prepared for you both absolutely banal tasks and missions during which you travel almost the entire map. Too bad the reward system isn’t very attractive and in most cases you won’t want to complete these missions.

What can be a little annoying for some is the constant raids of monsters. There is no sign that you tripped over a porcupine, found an overgrown moth, or angered giggling hyenas. You just want to go get the chest, and before you get to it, some monster lies in wait for you, you kill it, and in the meantime you forget why you went there. On the other hand, this raid is a key one for you, because here you need to gain experience. If you want to have weaker opponents against you, just switch from night to day and do not run. Monsters are weaker during the day, and gain strength at night. But so are your characters. Their path action and some abilities depend on the time of day.

In terms of sound, there is nothing to complain about. There is nice music that fits perfectly into the JRPG genre, nicely complements the atmosphere of the environment, enhances the fights and changes nicely depending on the situation or part of the plot. A small surprise is the almost complete English and Japanese dubbing, which not only gives the characters a pleasant energy, but also a pleasure to listen to all together.

Octopath Traveler 2 is an imitator of the first part, but at the same time it is made even better than its predecessor. The developers worked a lot more on the graphics, tweaked the music glitches, added what the community asked and suggested, and came up with eight more stories. They may lack originality, but they have their own charm. This is not a revolution, but in his genre he does everything perfectly. So, if you’re looking for a typical, well-crafted JRPG, then we can safely put this part in this category. Just be prepared that you will need the entire game to complete the stories. approximately 70 hours and more than 100 to complete it completely.