Octopath Traveller II – One to watch in 2023
Octopath Traveller II is the follow up to Square Enix’s very successful Octopath Traveller from 2018. This time it tells the story of 8 new characters and today I’m going to check out the new cast and the stories we can expect in the upcoming sequel due for release on 23rd February 2023.
Octopath Traveller II was featured in the latest Nintendo Direct, and that was followed with the announcement of the free demo. Square love to do this, plus your progress carries over into the main game if you want to pick that up. The demo features all the main charcters and you can play a good chunk of the game to get used to all the game mechanics and battle system, plus the fantastic storytelling.
Octopath Traveller II, much like the first game, is a character driven story game. It lives and dies on the quality of it’s characters. I’ve spent time with a couple of the characters and I am happy to report the storytelling is just as good as the first game. We have eight main characters, each with their own individual stories plus the bombastic turn-based combat.
Let’s dive into the characters and see who we’ll be dealing with.
Agnea
Agnea is the dancer of the group, with the tagline “A journey for stardom”. She’s a young woman from a lower class than the original Ocotopath. This time Square have gone more of the traditional route for the dancer class. In the original the dancer had their heart set on revenge, Agnea story is more about becoming a famous dancer, known throughout the land.
Castti
Castti is the healer of the group, kind of a nurse that tends to warriors from battle. Similar to Alfyn from the previous game, although Castti wanders a little less. Healers are going to be super valuable for your party, so if you got on well with Alfyn, or you have played healers in the past, then check out Castti’s story.
Hikari
Hikari is the warrior class, this time designed around Samurai rather than the western knight, Olberic, of the first Octopath Traveller game. Hikari in Japanese means “light”, and this could be indicative of the character’s story arc later in the game. Hikari also has a horse companion, which is helpful for getting around.
Ochette
Ochette is the hunter class of Octopath Traveller 2. Brought up on an island overseen by a Lion, we start out with Ochette where she has to select her animal companion. It’s a coming of age story where this hunter turns provider for the village, feeding the many with her hunted prey. Humans are encroaching on their island and they are threatened Ochette’s people and way of life. This is the storyline I played in the demo, and it managed to get its talons into me early, making me want to come back to find out the conclusion of the story.
Osvald
Osvald is our Scholar class, and similar to Cyrus from the original game, he’s one of the older members of the party. Osvald has a revenge tale to enbark upon, which is a nice difference from the usual scholar tale. Previously the revenge story went to the dancer, Primrose, and she had one of the best narratives in the game, so I’m looking forward to getting into this one.
Trone
Trone is the thief character, and his story is all about freedom. This is similar to Therion’s tale, but Trone is more of a street thief, rather than a high end burgular, or professional. Trone is much more scrappy.
Temenos
Temenos is the cleric, and has huge ties to the church. Temenos’ journey is all about truth. Similar to Cyrus’ joruney from the original Octopath. This is about uncogverign corruption, and discovering dark magic, making Temenos’ story potentially one of the best.
Partitio
This is our merchant character. In the first game Teresa was our merchant and this was a story about a young woman trying to make it on her own, while trying to find adventure. This seems a little more sinister, Partitio seems like he could be more of a villian character. This is a charismatic character, and could be one of the most unique stories we’ve seen in Octopath history.
Those are our characters. Octopath Traveller 2 is certainly shaping up to be a great game. If you’re interested in this, and you want to check it out then you can download the free demo on the Nintendo eShop today.