Faisal Ghaffar 
The art style, battle system and artistic and spiritual connections of the original Octobpath Traveler had helped the game stand out. Therefore, it is great to see that the Octopath Traveler 2 has everything that made the original so special. But, the surprising part is that you see mostly the original, as not a lot of advancement seems to have occurred in half a decade. Other than the specific stories you come across in Octopath Traveler 2, you will find that it is precisely the same as predecessor.
This means that the Octopath Traveler 2 is excellent in many ways, but it is a tad less magical because of a lack of novelty.
The characters in Octopath Traveler 2
The stories of the two games are not connected, so even if you have not played the original, you can start with the Octopath Traveler 2. The term ‘Octopath’ is used in the game to refer to its eight characters, all of whom take different paths that take them through the world. You have the option of starting with any one of the eight characters and you will be stuck with them if you play through the first chapter of their story, which is about an hour long.
Once you have done so, you can wander through the beautiful tilt-shift world, but the difficulty level will have some of the areas locked out. For instance, if you are at level five and enter an area that is Danger Level 16, then you are likely to be instantly murdered in your first encounter. There are new towns to explore that come with new characters. You have the option of adding a character to your party, or play through their first chapter.
The skills
All characters also come with special abilities, each one different for day and night and you can toggle between them at will. These skills include ambushing people and putting them to sleep, recruiting townspeople for participating in battles, learning special combat moves by fighting townspeople and capturing monsters that can be used during encounters.
The day/night cycle is quite important in towns, but also comes in handy in the overworld. This is because enemies at night are more difficult and this means more experience. You have to use connecting paths for traveling between towns. Other than towns, you can also visit temples and these give characters a new ‘EX’ ability. These abilities can be immensely useful, so it is a good idea to track down the temples.
The battle system of Octopath Travelet 2
The turn-based battle system introduced in the original game can also be found in the Octopath Traveler 2. There are ‘weak points’ that every enemy has and you have to use the right weapon to hit them, or elemental attack. Once you discover an enemy’s weak point, you will be able to see it in every subsequent encounter.
But, this can also become frustrating as you have to waste numerous attacks in order to find their weak points. The weaknesses are also completely random and this does makes things interesting.
The Verdict
If you were a fan of the original Octopath Traveler, you will be smitten with the Octopath Traveler 2 as well because it has all the right ingredients.
