![]() ![]() All in the name of becoming a “star.” She charms her way into getting enough money to leave on a journey, either through dancing or, albeit rather, innocent coercion. You spend your time watching her dance for patrons, reminiscing about her mother, and using her “talents” (The game dubs them that) to fleece townspeople of their money and belongings. Agnea’s opening chapter is weakly written. I’ll be rating each party member’s opening chapter on how engaging it was and which character you may wish to choose as your protagonist in your opening decision.Ī small-town dancer who wants to follow in the footsteps of her celebrity mother. The Octopath series has a unique charm in exploring the finer details and feelings in an otherwise melodramatic setting you’ve probably seen before. It creates very likable and personal insights into a character’s mindset during textbook storylines which coalesce into one overarching story. Octopath Traveler 2 follows the trend of its predecessor. All of them boast very strong but differing perceptions of their character, so for this game, I was delighted to find many of the same and some who stick to stereotypes. Some of my favorites are Final Fantasy 9’s Zidane being a happy-go-lucky thief who silently deals with crippling depression, Persona 4’s Tohru Adachi and his simple yet complex motivations, or Edelgard’s unflinching radicalism in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This isn’t a game where the player will just hold down the A button to keep selecting “attack,” and as you experiment with the BP timing system and level up your party you’ll find that new approaches to combat keep appearing, pushing you to pull unused characters back into play to level them up in tandem with the rest of the crew.Whenever I play a JRPG, the most important factor is how a character reacts to the world around it. ![]() Considering that you have eight characters that can be swapped into a party of four, all of whom can learn new skills and make use of bonus-laden items and weaponry, there’s a dizzying amount of potential and opportunities to optimize techniques. Utilizing an enemy weakness mechanic that is somewhat similar to the Shin Megami Tensei series - where individual beasts all bear specific weaknesses, and are rendered dazed if you exploit them to the fullest - it’s simple on the surface, but randomized combinations of enemies can make for daunting encounters that are satisfying to effectively solve. The combat system in Octopath Traveler is a big selling point, and is perfectly tuned to careful decision-making. Just like the old Final Fantasy games, you’ll be spending plenty of time sussing out the best way to fight enemy mobs and level up, all in preparation for the many boss encounters. Overall, though, this aspect doesn’t affect enjoyment of the game in the least, with the focus being on discovering new areas and armaments, and on completely losing yourself in the meaty turn-based combat. It’s one of several details that distinguish Octopath Traveler from modern Western RPGs like Dragon’s Age, games which couldn’t possibly get away with a comparable lack of emergent narration. Essentially, this means that the order in which you build your party does not greatly affect the story on the whole. Sadly, these dynamic portions of the script are usually the only such interactions while a character is pursuing their specific story concerns, they remain isolated in their own cut-scenes. It all feels like a road trip, and even includes special occasions to listen in on “travel banter,” which finds your discovered team members in conversation with each other about present events. ![]() You are given free reign as to which of those narratives you care most to pursue at any given moment, and can guide your growing crew to and fro, fast-traveling to cities or getting distracted by treasure-filled caves and dungeons. There are also subtle cues and references to the most memorable themes in Final Fantasy, though these are subtle enough so as not to be distracting.Įach of the eight characters has a rambling narrative spanning multiple areas and cities throughout the continent. That’s not tto say that it’s a superior score, or anywhere as iconic as Uematsu’s, but it’s effective, varied in emotional tone, and aligns motifs to the game’s story. ![]() Accompanying this impressively idiosyncratic visual design is the symphonic soundtrack by composer Yasunori Nishiki, and it’s highly reminiscent of Nobuo Uematsu’s work on Final Fantasy. ![]()
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