We've chosen our third JRPG for 2024, and it's a doozy: Octopath Traveler II.
The original Octopath Traveler pioneered gorgeous HD-2D graphics in a world that promised a grand adventure, a lot of exploration, and a crunch battle system with turn-based battles and a mix of job classes. By all accounts, Octopath II is a JRPG master-class, taking everything that the original did well and improving on it tremendously. I can't tell you how excited I am to play this game and to discuss it with all of you!
Here's what HowLongToBeat.com says about Octopath Traveler II:
For those who love "Things to Know Before Playing" articles (I do), here are a few of those:
Polygon: Who should you start with in Octopath 2?
Kotaku: 8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Octopath Traveler II
Polygon: 16 things to know before starting Octopath Traveler 2
For those who are curious about Octopath Traveler 2, and would like to try before you buy: there is a very generous demo available on all platforms. The "prologue demo" will let you play for three hours, and I believe that's three hours from the start, not three hours in total -- in other words, you can start it over to try out multiple characters. During the past month, as I was thinking about this game, I tried Castti, Hikari, and Osvald. It was really nice not only to decide if I'd enjoy the game, but to decide who I'd like to spend time with as my protagonist.
There is also an interesting question that we should all collectively answer before we get going. What counts as finishing? I don't think any of us should feel bound to finish all 8 stories and then fight the optional superboss(es) that surely unlock after that. Instead, I propose that each of us finishes whenever we complete the storyline of our original protagonist -- whoever that may be.
Starting in an hour or so. This should be my main game squeeze for the next couple of months.
I have my Switch copy on standby and ready for the quarter! I'm getting close to catching up with the real-world calendar in Persona 5 Royal, so once I have some clearance I'll start chipping away!
I revisited Rich Lovejoy's "Octopath Traveller 2 Starter Kit" article from last year, because his descriptions steered me towards Castii when I tried the demo last year, and Castti's intro story is what hooked me hard onto the idea of playing OT2, to the point of playing Bravely Second as a budgetary Team Asano fix. However, I don't know if I want to start again from the beginning as Castti, or if I instead want to try starting with Temenos. (EDIT: Or Throne, Throne sounds sick as hell.)
How 'bout y'all? Any thoughts on who you're making your main?
I sampled Castti, Hikari, and Osvald through the demo, and I think I'll make Osvald my main. I am really digging the darker, Count of Monte Cristo-esque revenge story
Whee, another GamePass game!
Sure, I'm in. No gamepass, so I grabbed a Switch copy off of ebay. It'll be here soon enough.
Even though Octopath 1 is in my backlog, I have a GamePass subscription and it sounds like this one surpasses the original in basically every way, sooo... FIIIINE. 
Count me in.
Yikes.... tempting
Picked Hikari as my main. Liking the story so far. Also recruited Osvald and Agnea. So far so good. 5 more travelers to get to.
Any reason to NOT play this on Switch?
...besides it being on game pass, which I don't have.
I was looking for something to play on Cloud streaming so this works out.
I'm in. I was able to get a few hours in yesterday. Started as Osvald and just got Throné before I stopped. I had to ask my wife, who has already beaten this, how to get new characters. I guess it should have been obvious but I don't think the game tells you.
I'm about 90 minutes into Osvald's story, after having played around with it over the past couple of days, and I'm going to stick with him. I've still got some time on the demo, and ordered the full game, which will be arriving tomorrow.
I fired it up briefly last night with Ochette as my main (I was torn between her and Osvald). Only had about a half hour to spend with it, and a good chunk of that was honestly flipping between the character bios trying to pick who I thought I'd be most happy with as a main character. 
I watched some trailers and read some suggestions of a starting character. I found this to be a good introduction to the different characters:
https://www.reddit.com/r/octopathtra...
It seems like Ochette is a good pick in general, but the Throne story was the most interesting of the ones I saw. It looks like your main pick is locked to the party until you finish their story, so it's not a permanent thing. And you can see all the story stuff regardless of who you start with, so it's not a high stakes decision. That might have been true with the first game too, but I skipped it since the lack of interaction between characters bugged me after playing the Persona and Trails games.
Count me in too. I played through all 8 prologues in Octo 1 (plus a few hours/quests/whatever after that point), but dropped off. I've now installed Octo 2 on PC Game Pass and am ready to go in completely blind.
So, as Osvald, I've escaped prison, and I love how quickly that happened. When I chose Osvald the game game me a warning that I had to play through Chapters 1 and 2, but they were only about 75 - 90 minutes all together.
I got Temenos, so I've got a party of two staff-wielding casters. And I'm in the middle of Temenos first chapter. It was great to find him basically right away, and I enjoy the map that shows where each of the PCs are. It give a very obvious first thing to do.
Rich's article was great and I didn't realize, before I read it, that break can neutralize an enemy for 2 turns, if you attack early enough in the turn order.
One thing I am wondering is if all side quests are marked as side quests (or whatever they're called). I came across a couple in & around the first town where Osvald makes landfall, but also found a few other NPCs who didn't have side quests but have very interesting backgrounds, and look like they're connected to larger stories. That got me thinking that maybe I should be carrying around a notebook, like Osvald!
I finished Temenos' first chapter, and am right at the 3 hour mark, so it's a good thing the game has arrived and is waiting for me at home!
I started as the Thief. How is she so sexy even as pixel art?
I am debating between Agnea and Castti as my start, although Osvald and Throne also sound interesting. Not sure I want either as my main though.
I'm now up to a party of 5: Osvald, Temenos, Throne, Ochette, and Castti. I've played through all their first chapters except for Throne's, which I've still got in the tank. And I triggered the start of Temenos's second chapter when I showed up at Canalbrine, though I haven't done anything with it. I thought the choice to defer the beginning of the second chapter was an interesting one -- I guess if I had decided to start it later, I would have just been able to explore Canalbrine without the story beats.
A few thoughts:
- Love the fast travel between towns. I ended up deciding that I wanted to at least get a foothold -- and one fast travel point -- on the west continent, which is why I have Castti already. On the way to her, I basically did no side quests, just found towns and characters.
- I've now done a couple of side quests: the one to bring a midwife to the expecting father, and the one to retrieve a stolen bag. These side quests appear very much to be "intro to mechanics" side quests, and it wouldn't surprise me if they get placed near whichever starting character you select. In fact, I think I saw some article or guide make a comment to that effect. Throneone-shotted the purse snatcher, which I did not expect at all.
- Osvald, Temenos, Throne, and Ochette make a great combo for exploring at night!
- It's interesting that I have to go to a tavern to switch in the people who aren't in the active party. I can't even manage them in the menu! That feels like a little bit too much friction, but I bet it won't end up bothering me very much.
- I'm also really enjoying everything about the map. It's got just the right balance of giving information while preserving a sense of mystique and exploration in the world. And did I notice that some of the early game zones have scaled up in difficulty as I advanced the story? I kind of like that, because this is clearly a world that's designed to have the player revisit areas, and for different parts of the game remain relevant throughout the story.
I decided to go with Agnea and completed her first chapter. I was worried at first but the story and characters were quite charming and heart-warming.
I also went out to the first area and ran into a side quest to retrieve a stolen bag from a thief, so you must be right about them just being tutorial quests they transplant to your starting location.
I'm only playing on the demo currently, so I think I have gone as far as I can currently? I can't go and recruit new characters or visit other towns, right? I plan to pick it up sometime, but it will be a week or so before I can do so unless a sale pops up on PS5.
I'm also up and running with Ochette, and got through her Ch.1. She's out there capturing every monster and turning them into food. It's also interesting that while she's very positive, the speciesism on her island (beastmen vs humans) is obviously going to blow up at some point. But she and her companion are very charming.
The graphics looked a bit washed out to me in the forest with the different light sources, but that may change as the setting changes. The writing and voice acting are good enough, and the music seems legitimately great. so far.
I decided to go with Agnea and completed her first chapter. I was worried at first but the story and characters were quite charming and heart-warming.
I also went out to the first area and ran into a side quest to retrieve a stolen bag from a thief, so you must be right about them just being tutorial quests they transplant to your starting location.
I'm only playing on the demo currently, so I think I have gone as far as I can currently? I can't go and recruit new characters or visit other towns, right? I plan to pick it up sometime, but it will be a week or so before I can do so unless a sale pops up on PS5.
You can! I got to the Brightlands and played Temenos’s whole first chapter in the demo. I think when I hit the 3 hour mark, I had just finished that chapter and gotten back to a party of 2.
Well, I’ve run into the first thing I actively dislike. I’ve found two shrines, now: one for the Scholar (Osvald) and one for the Charitable (Castti). And I’ve recruited Castti, but I need to have her in my party when I visit the shrine. So now I’ve got to hoof it all the way to town and walk back.
Not the end of the world by any stretch, but I do wish the game would let me change my party from the menu & didn’t require going to a tavern.
I also went with Agnea and just completed her first chapter. Needed a lot of consumables for that boss so maybe the games trends a bit more on the difficult side? I wish they had save-anywhere but the save points do seem relatively plentiful so far.
May just be me but I haven’t found the game to be on the more difficult side overall. I do think the Chapter 1 boss fights have been challenging, especially where the character lacked healing or had a small SP pool. With more characters and a good spread of damage types, things will be easier.
Also, I am pretty sure that every protagonist gets their own initial supply of money and healing items, and whatever you carry out of each chapter 1 will be added to the general pot. So you’ll be fine on items after you find a few more people.
Edit: Temenos’ Chapter 2 boss fight was a good challenge too, so maybe the boss fights are on the harder side. (It’s the only Ch. 2 I’ve done so far, other than Osvald’s, which doesn’t really count.) But there, I felt like I had a good tool kit across my 4 party members.
Same here on the "not-too-difficult" camp, but my point of view may well be skewed by the first game - I only completed it earlier this year - and already being familiar with much of its mechanics. It feel very much like a toned down version of the first game in difficulty, and a step up in story and settings.
The two first chapters that were the least challenging, IMO, were Castti's and Ochette's. (I haven't yet played Agnea's or Partitio's.) I found Castti less challenging because she can heal her HP and SP in a single turn using her mixing skills, which draw from a separate pool of items. And I happened to luck into recruiting a companion for Ochette that could fully heal HP and SP.
Aside from that, while exploring the world, I've really only found encounters to be overwhelmingly difficult if I happen to walk into an area that's too high level for me, or if I bring too many people who are under-leveled while exploring -- as I did with Castti and Hikari, yesterday. I've had enemies who have hit hard, and I've needed to revive a few times, but as long as I've been appropriately leveled, random encounters haven't been too bad.
I have noticed that as I've leveled up and gone into higher level areas, there's an extra factor making random encounters tougher. Characters fully heal when leveling up, and that just happens less frequently as characters gain more experience, so SP is tougher to manage and I can't just spam all of my attacks as much.
One SP trick I learned, which I'll throw in the spoilers (it's a mechanical thing, which is easy to figure out, so it's only really a "spoiler" if you want to figure it out for yourself):
The Apothecary class has a passive skill that restores 30% HP and 30% SP after winning a fight, which is great for exploring the world. So obviously Castti has access to it, and other characters can gain it once you visit the Apothecary's Guild. It's in Conning Creek, which is on the southern end of the Harborlands.
Completed Partitio's chapter 1 last night and ran out the remaining time on the demo. I found Partitio's boss fight much more challenging than Agnea's, but that's probably because Partitio's going it solo and I didn't recruit anyone to help me, because unlike Agnea, all of Partitio's abilities cost money. In my mind, he's just a worse Agnea, since they do the exact same thing, but Agnea is free. The only catch is Agnea is level limited and Partitio is money limited, so if you are frugal early, you could potentially get a late game weapon early assuming a random NPC has one.
Thoughts on Partitio's story:
I was under the impression that Papp (Partitio's father) was supposed to be a talented merchant. But then he is completely blindsided by some fine print in a contract? That seems very sloppy. We later learn from Giff that the fine print was added to the contract later and is not part of the original. Okay, fine. But what merchant does not have a personal copy of such an important contract under lock and key? I guess because Mister Roque is the mysterious landowner, we are to assume he had access to Papp's copy of the contract as well? But even if Papp trusted his partner that much, it seems like they should have had some kind of joint system where neither could access the contract without the other. These are supposed to be business savvy merchants, yet fall to such obvious tricks.
I am glad Partitio finally gets the town to stand up for themselves, but they really should not have waited 8 years and the town basically being destitute. This is a fantasy world, when the landowner starts drawing more than he's putting in, put your foot down and make him come at you with a military, not some thugs.
I noted previously that I started with Ochette, quite enjoyed her as my introduction to the game. Headed east from there as Osvald and Temenos were high on my list of potential starting choices. Since Throne was closest, I met up with her first and found her opening chapter more engaging than I expected. I don't tend to gel with thief/rogue character types in games as much (despite some of my favorite fictional characters landing firmly in that archetype, go figure), so she was actually one of the characters I found least compelling when trying to figure out who I wanted to start with. Turns out I'm already invested in her character story now after just her first chapter!
I met up with Temenos next and am working through his opening chapter. I'm enjoying his atypical skeptical/questioning nature as a cleric/inquisitor.
It does feel a little almost-tedious to need to run around the whole world and play through these "mini chapters" with each character in order to get a proper grounding in the gameworld, story, and all their motivations and backgrounds. Something about it just feels too mechanical. I prefer an approach like Dragon Quest IV took, where you simply divide all the characters' introductions into discrete chapters to play through sequentially, then at the end you'll organically pick them all up with the main character (or your selected main character, though that may be a bit too cumbersome to try to figure out how to program & plan for) in the course of the early portion of the "main" story.
I know I don't need to play it the way I'm going about it, at least not by the game's design. But I do need to play it this way or else the un-acquired party members and their opening chapters being unplayed will scratch at the back of my brain insistently and with ever-increasing irritation. I just need to get through all the chapter 1's and then hopefully I'll be able to better tackle the remainder of the game more organically.
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