Taken together, they have an anchoring thematic core about separating personal ambition from damaging greed, while their variety creates a world filled with historical, magical, societal, and religious detail. The eight tales range from passable (Partitio the merchant’s desire to bring friendly capitalism everywhere he goes is probably the most uneven) to cheesy but enjoyable (Ochette the beastling hunter might not have much of a character arc, but she’s cute and fun), to cleverly moving (there’s a boss fight in scholar Osvald’s route that uses mechanical storytelling to incredible effect). Octopath Traveler 2’s poignant moments remain muffled by the gulf between the group - their momentum halted by the silence between the principal actors Conversely, when someone threatens the apothecary Castti and tells her to go to a shady building alone, seeing three other protagonists suddenly appear alongside her undermines the tension. When, for example, characters from an earlier chapter appear to cheer on Agnea at her big dance, the absence of any of her traveling companions feels stark. The sprites are also worth highlighting here, with incredible expressivity packed into the tiny figures: mannerisms, gestures, even actions like smoking all add up quickly.īut while the liveliness of the side cast is fantastic, it only further exacerbates the isolation of the main crew from one another. Unlike the travel banter, their short time on screen is put to good use building histories and personalities for the protagonists. Every one of the eight narratives weaves in side characters so skillfully that their relationships with the respective protagonists feel like the core of the game. The same separation apparently existed in the original Octopath Traveler (which I haven’t played), and I wonder whether it, too, felt so at odds with the story the wider game was telling. In fact, these feel more jarring than having everybody disappear, because they neither develop nor showcase any believable connections. Neither do the occasional, shallow side stories that see characters’ paths cross. The occasional prompt to see “travel banter,” wherein two characters suddenly stand in a foggy nowhere world overlaid on their previous position and awkwardly chat as if they’ve just recently met, does nothing to alleviate this problem. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.Image: Acquire, Square Enix/Square Enix via Polygon I assume this is a result of the many branching story arcs and dozens of characters in Champions, but still, I’m disappointed in the writers nonetheless. It’s worth noting that Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, the mobile game that Square Enix released alongside the announcement for Octopath Traveler 2 last year, does not use this nomenclature. Needless to say, I have questions! At what point in development did this idea arise? Did the writers know they wanted to do this as soon as they settled on a story about eight characters? Has this been done elsewhere, and is merely an homage? Or did someone awaken from a dream with the word “octopath” on their mind, write it in their journal, completely forget its provenance in the morning, but know that they needed to make a game about it, then have yet another dream the next night, in which some genius specter revealed the idea for the enigmatic initialism? They, like me, appreciate brilliance when they see it. I also know people who have never touched a JRPG in their lives, yet know about this master stroke regardless, and spread the word every chance they get. I know people who have put 200 hours into the first game and still didn’t know about this little nugget. They, in an act of boldness and cunning the likes of which we rarely see, decided to spell out “Octopath” with the first letter of each protagonist’s name. Notice anything? Probably not, because you’re not on the level of these games’ writers. Now, do the same for Octopath Traveler 2’s characters: Image: Acquire/Square Enix 24 for Nintendo Switch, I talk about the latter.ĭo me a favor and peruse the names of Octopath Traveler’s playable characters, as pulled from the game’s wiki: Image: Fandom/Square Enix When I talk about the naming conventions of Octopath Traveler and its upcoming sequel, out Feb. There is bad dumb and there is good dumb.
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