Octopath Traveler

Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
I have completed everyone's first Chapter aside from Ophilia, who I'm about to pick up. Still getting to know everyone, but I've been sticking with Olberic, Therion and Cyrus for most of my gameplay so far. I've swapped Tressa out a few times when encountering a new character, but I like her in my party. H'aanit (the last character I picked up) has an interesting mechanic though with her beast taming system. I might bring her in after I complete Ophilia's opening story.
 
Claymore

Claymore

3x3 Eyes
I'm just on Alfyn's second chapter, and once that is complete, everyone's second chapter will have been achieved. Some of the story segments for each character are definitely more compelling than others. The music is still a high point. The battle system however I am not finding it as enjoyable the longer I play with it. I find Bravely Default a heck of a lot more satisfying. It definitely picks up once you grab the
secondary jobs
, but it all still feels quite limited.

And sweet Jesus, the encounter rate in this game is nuts.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
So a sequel has been announced and oh shit, it's releasing for PS4/5 as well?!?


Wonder if the first one will come to PlayStation before then. Never played this game due to being Switch-less but it looks really appealing.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
Reddit: Famitsu interview stuff

Copypaste of the reddit post:

This interview's pretty long so I won't be doing a full translation, but here's the original Japanese link: https://www.famitsu.com/news/202209/14275646.html
Summary of interesting bits:
  • The decision to make OT2 happened shortly after the first game's release, but active development didn't start for a while after that, with composer Nishiki only coming on at the start of 2021.
  • Nishiki wound up making 85 tracks for OT1, and as of the current updates 110 tracks for CotC. He can't give a specific number for OT2, but it's more than CotC.
  • One of the biggest goals the team had was to increase the "travel" feeling the game has. The day/night system was introduced in part because of this desire, and in part because it would be a great way to show off how the game had evolved from the first game.
  • As with the first game, the field command system is very important, but they recognize some players prefer to ignore field commands entirely, so like the first game they're present but not over-emphasized.
  • Nishiki wound up composing totally new songs/arrangements for the night versions of each area, which is part of why the game wound up with so many new tracks. At first they considered just stripping down the instrumentation for the night variations, but decided to go all out and do new arrangements.
  • Nishiki also wanted to use more vocals in OT2's music, not just with lyrics but as an instrument.
  • With regards to the change in setting, the developers feared that setting OT2 in the same middle ages fantasy setting as the first game would result in the characters feeling like rehashes of the first game as well. By moving culture and technology ahead a bit, they felt the travelers would naturally find different reasons to travel compared to the first game as well.
  • Similarly, while the first game was set on a contiguous continent, this time they decided to split the world up across a sea to further distinguish it from the first game's setting.
  • As a rule, they tried to avoid including references to the first game or specific references to Orsterra so that anyone can enjoy OT2, but there are small elements that will remind players of the first game.
  • Like with OT1, they decided to highlight Hikari and Agnea, the warrior and dancer, because "you can fight any NPC" and "you can recruit any NPC" are the sorts of things that make people's ears perk up when hearing about Octopath for the first time.
  • The developers heard the feedback that people felt the protagonists didn't interact enough in OT1, so they introduced the Crossed Paths mechanic in this game to try and enhance the sense that the group is traveling together. The main stories will still be focused on the individual characters, but the Crossed Path stories will supplement that and help the characters feel closer.
  • The "Latent Power" system in battle came about because they wanted to add something to shake up the general pattern of "break the enemy, then boost and do damage". It also serves as a way to give the characters more individuality in gameplay and give players a new avenue to make interesting builds.
  • The main story is tuned to not require really deep use of the game's systems, but like OT1 there will be side dungeons with much more difficult bosses.
  • Like OT1, the characters' stories are divided into chapters, but unlike OT1, it will not follow the same pattern of "4 chapters per story". While they can't go into details yet, they wanted each character's story to feel different this time, like you're playing different RPGs.
  • Unlike the first game, where Nishiki didn't have much say in where his music played (he actually only met the director, Miyauchi, at TGS), this time he reviewed the game's cutscenes personally and decided when each track should play for important scenes.
  • While the first game tried to avoid using electric guitars, drums, and the like outside of battle tracks due to the middle ages setting, this time Nishiki has the freedom to use those instruments and wanted to aim for a more jazzy feel overall.
  • Most of the game's soundtrack was recorded in Japan, but for some parts they recorded in Nashville in the USA. (One of the musicians there was even a big fan of OT1 and was super excited to be playing on the OT2 soundtrack!)
  • Like with the first game, the characters have special themes that continue into the boss themes. You can get a CD with all these variations by ordering the deluxe edition.
  • Since OT1 released, there's been several other HD-2D games, so they wanted to take the learnings from those games and make a kind of "Super HD-2D" this time, and even try and match the "idealized" version of old 16-bit RPGs we all have in our heads.
  • The camera is still locked outside of cutscenes and battles to try and avoid confusing players, but the camera is significantly more dramatic in cutscenes and battles now.
  • The updated pixel art style in the environments meant they had to make the character sprites taller so the proportions didn't look too weird, but then that meant they also had to update the battle animations too... it was a lot of work.
  • Director Miyauchi was in charge of map design for both OT1 and OT2, but he was able to take more time on OT2 and had much more flexibility in designing the maps, and the art/environment team then took his designs and made them into the 3D maps we see now.
  • They put tons of work into the skill animations for the game.
  • Initially they considered giving the game a subtitle, but that made it hard to tell if it was a sequel or a spin-off, so "Octopath Traveler II" it is.
  • For a sign-off message, they say that they really do feel confident that OT2 is a game surpassing OT1, so please look forward to it!
 
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