Octopath Traveler II

Square Enix's Team Asano and Acquire followed up the 2018 original with a sequel that swaps the continent of Orsterra for Solistia, a land where steam engines and sailing ships share space with swords and sorcery. Octopath Traveler II arrived on February 24, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows. It was the first game in the series to appear on PlayStation hardware, and Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S ports followed in June 2024. A Nintendo Switch 2 edition launched on October 1, 2026, sold as a separate full-price purchase with no upgrade path from the Switch 1 version.

The eight new travelers each carry a distinct job and a path action that changes how you interact with towns. Hikari the Warrior can challenge NPCs to duels, Agnea the Dancer can lure them to follow her, Partitio the Merchant can buy items, and Osvald the Scholar can scrutinize people for hidden details. Throné the Thief steals, Temenos the Cleric guides, Ochette the Hunter captures monsters, and Castti the Apothecary inquires for information. You pick one to start and recruit the rest as you roam.

Combat builds on the Break and Boost system from the first game. Every enemy hides weaknesses to specific weapons and elements; hit one and its shield count drops, and breaking the shield staggers the foe, cancels its turn, and leaves it open to heavy damage. Boost Points accumulate each turn and can be spent to stack attacks or amplify skills. New this time are latent powers, a once-per-battle super move for each character, and a day-night cycle that flips which path actions are available and changes enemy encounters and NPC routines.

The HD-2D look returns with sharper lighting, depth of field, and particle effects than the original. Critics responded warmly, with RPG Fan praising the varied writing and the increased connections between the separate stories. The game shipped as a complete package, and post-launch support has come in the form of platform ports rather than story expansions. [edit]

You begin by choosing one of eight travelers, each locked to a job class: Warrior, Scholar, Merchant, Thief, Hunter, Apothecary, Cleric, and Dancer. The other seven can be recruited in almost any order, and the game lets you swap party members freely outside of battle. Each character also brings a path action, a field ability that opens different solutions in towns. A merchant can buy items from NPCs, a thief can steal them, a scholar can scrutinize townsfolk for hidden information, and a hunter can capture monsters to fight alongside the party. The day-night cycle changes which path actions are available at a given hour, so a thief's stealing might only work after dark while a cleric's guiding works in daylight.

Battles are turn-based and built around two systems. Every enemy has hidden weaknesses to specific weapon types and elements, and striking a weakness reduces its shield count. Break the shield and the enemy is staggered, loses its next turn, and takes increased damage. Boost Points (BP) accumulate each turn and can be spent to stack extra attacks, amplify skills, or strengthen support abilities. New to this entry are latent powers, a once-per-battle super move unique to each traveler, and crossed paths, short side stories that pair two travelers together and give the cast more interaction than the largely separate tales of the first game.

The HD-2D visual style returns, blending 2D sprite characters with 3D environments, depth-of-field blur, bloom, and modern lighting. The Switch 2 edition adds higher resolution and improved performance over the Switch 1 release. [edit]

Eight strangers board a ship in the harbor town of Canalbrine, each chasing a private errand, and the narrative follows their separate journeys across Solistia. Hikari the Warrior is a prince exiled from his homeland and seeking to reclaim it. Agnea the Dancer leaves her village with dreams of stardom. Partitio the Merchant sets out to bring commerce to the downtrodden. Osvald the Scholar escapes from prison to hunt the man who destroyed his family. Throné the Thief plots her way out of a thieves' guild. Temenos the Cleric investigates a murder that points to something larger. Ochette the Hunter searches for a legendary creature, and Castti the Apothecary wakes with no memory of her past.

Their stories range widely in tone, from a scholar's prison break and quest for revenge to a cleric's murder investigation and a merchant's rags-to-riches ambitions. As the game progresses, the individual tales gradually converge on a larger conspiracy that ties the eight travelers together. Reviewers singled out the writing as more varied and better connected than the first game's, with more links between the separate stories and the crossed-path scenes adding banter and shared moments between pairs of characters. [edit]