Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Alana is talking about her favourite RPG of 2023, one that everyone seems to have completely forgotten about…
Eight travellers. Eight stories. These eight adventurers’ paths cross, their lives very different from one another, but soon enough, their fates become intertwined as they walk the same road. No, I’m not talking about Octopath Traveler – I’m talking about Octopath Traveler II.
2023 has been a pretty amazing year for RPGs – Sea of Stars has charmed many a JRPG fan; Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a dream remake; and speaking of remakes, who saw Super Mario RPG making a comeback? And that’s on Switch alone. Yet, everyone seems to have forgotten about Octopath Traveler II.
The game launched back in February 2023, and though it did get a pretty warm critical reception, including from us, it seems to have come and gone in many people’s eyes. The Game Awards completely forgot about it for both Best RPG (which, admittedly, it was never going to win) and (more criminally) Best Score and Music – an award it absolutely deserved to be up for, 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 premise is the same as the original – you choose to start as one of eight characters, and all eight share the same jobs as the original octet. Once you select your character, they’re stuck in your party as the lead until you complete their story, but you’re free to explore and recruit the remaining seven characters, each of whom has their own multi-chapter story to work through. There are four optional jobs, the ability to equip a second job, and plenty of other returning 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 secret job is a godsend in the early game; the day-and-night system helps with leveling; and I can speed up battles now? Hooray! But Octopath Traveler II’s biggest improvements come with its writing. I love the Chaucerian-esque set-up of the original and this sequel, the idea that eight travelers of different walks of life come together and share their experiences together (even if they’re, uh, not all on-screen at the same time). And these stories aren’t about saving the world – they’re about the people and their experiences. But Octopath II does “story” so much better.
I started 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 tricked into murdering one of her companions as a means of proving who can take over the leadership of the guild. It’s a pretty stark contrast to Therion, the thief of Octopath 1’s story, who kicks off his adventure with a heist.
Throné’s starting chapter sets up the tone for the rest of the game perfectly for me. Yes, Octopath Traveler II is darker on the whole, but it’s more that each story deals with the personal, the human. Despite how dramatic each tale can be, every story feels much more relatable. None of us have been forced to murder a friend, I’m sure, but we can all relate to Throné’s story of feeling trapped and helpless, and wanting to seek out 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 herself and seek her freedom.
Hikari, the warrior, has been driven out of his home after the murder of his father at the hands of his half-brother, Mugen. Hikari is not your typical warrior archetype – he’s kind, gentle, and empathetic, but also troubled by a curse placed on his family. Again, these aren’t things we directly experience in real life, but family conflict and responsibility are things we have to deal with – this is just those problems put under a huge magnifying glass and elaborated through beautiful HD-2D spritework 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 that Octopath Traveler II plays with our preconceptions of jobs and characters is one of my favorite things about it. When we think of a merchant, we probably just think of someone who sells stuff to make a profit – that is not who Partitio is. This sunny salesman had to watch his hometown fall into poverty as the landowner increased taxes on silver, the ore the town was known for mining in abundance. His chapter 1 essentially ends with him punching a landlord, giving the town back to the people of Oresrush, and embarking on a journey to put money in the hands of those who need it, to end poverty.
It’s a pretty rosy, JRPG idealist way of presenting the problem and the solution, but it’s so earnest — it warms my heart to watch Partitio call someone “chickadee” and work tirelessly just to help people and make them happy. If the same for Agnea, the dancer, who just wants to be a star and “bring smiles” to people. She’s played pretty straight for her archetype – Primrose (of Octopath 1) was definitely an inversion of that job, so Agnea being the complete opposite feels appropriate. She’s joy incarnate, endlessly infectious, and lovable. Even when Agnea struggles, she’s able to pull herself back up because, like Paritio, she wants to help people. She’s the beating heart of Octopath Traveler II, and encompasses the message of hope that the game is aiming for overall.
it warms my heart to watch Partitio call someone “chickadee” and work tirelessly just to help people
I could honestly talk about every single character (I’m sorry to Ochette, Castti, Osvald, and Temenos) because all of them go through great character arcs and every story feels different, even when they’re playing it by the book. It probably helps that not every single character has four chapters – some have five, while others have multiple parts to a single chapter that can be done in any order. It makes the whole game feel a lot more free.
Admittedly, there’s still a disconnect between all eight stories because characters don’t appear in each other’s narratives, but there’s more ‘Travel Banter’, where the characters do at least talk about and react to events that are happening throughout the game. And the Crossed Paths go some way to amend that jarring dissociation I (and basically everyone else) had with the first game.
Each ‘pair’ of characters has their own little mini-story that pops up a few times throughout the game, usually after you’ve progressed each corresponding character’s narrative enough. These range from short cutscenes to mini jaunts through dungeons, and they’re all really good. Hikari and Agnea’s Crossed Path looks at song, dance, death, and celebrating life. It touches on aspects of both characters and cultures, and it’s really beautiful. Elsewhere Partitio is paired up with the vengeful, astute scholar Osvald, who ends up helping a struggling researcher fund a project.
These connective ribbons really help to put a bow around Octopath Traveler II’s narrative. Every character is working towards a goal, and almost all of those goals look at helping people, bringing hope to people, and giving hope to themselves. That all comes to a head after you beat all eight stories and all four Crossed Paths. There are way more breadcrumbs leading up to the culmination of Octopath Traveler II throughout all eight stores – some more than others, but they’re all there. I’m not going to go into what happens exactly, of course, but the image of the eight characters sitting around the campfire as the world goes to pot is a pretty perfect distillation of why I love Octopath Traveler II.
These are eight characters that have experienced a lot, both alone and together. They’ve laughed, cried, grown – separately and together. And now 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 the responsibility of saving the world, after all. But here it hit me that the reason we have these kinds of stories in JRPGs is that the genre is a great vehicle for telling stories about personal growth, no matter how big or small that growth or journey is. Those smaller moments all build up to you being able to do something incredible, whether you’re a dancer, a salesperson, or a member of the royal family.
the eight characters sitting around the campfire […] is a pretty 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 whether the turn-based ‘Break’ and ‘Boost’ system is for you, and there are some lovely sidequests, secrets, and a completely stunning world to discover. All of the little mechanical improvements were more than welcome, but Team Asano listened to the few complaints I did have and brought me a rich world with wonderful characters that feel like people and friends.
In my eyes, even with the few faults it still has, that makes Octopath Traveler II one of the finest turn-based RPGs I’ve ever played. And look, if you’re not going to play it, at least listen to the music.