JRPGs do bloody hate God. There’s that old joke of a JRPG’s first quest being to collect chicken eggs, and its final quest tasking you with slaughtering a deity. Five years ago in 2018, Octopath Traveler embodied that distaste for deities, albeit with decidedly less egg collecting to get through first.
Octopath Traveller 2Developer: Square Enix, AcquirePublisher: Square EnixPlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out 24th February on PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch
Now, Octopath Traveler 2 is still dutifully continuing the mission. Square Enix’s 2D-HD JRPG pits eight heroes against the world, each on a quest to right a personal wrong, before uniting together in one big overarching quest to save the world from those evil Gods once more. It’s all very standard JRPG stuff between the two games, but there’s several aspects that differentiate Octopath Traveler 2 from its predecessor, for better and worse.
The good news is that Octopath Traveler 2 has a new layer to combat, one which seems inconsequential at first but pays off in a huge way. This is ‘Latent Power,’ a metre for every character which builds up whenever they take or deal damage in combat. When the gauge is full, activate your Latent Power ability to perform an ability that changes between Octopath Traveler 2’s eight heroes. One hero’s Latent Power might see them able to act twice in one turn, and another’s the option to focus hit-all spells down to targeting one enemy.
It’s amazing how much of a difference this means for Octopath Traveler 2’s battles. The original’s combat felt like a bit of a slog at times, a brutal war of attrition where enemies could score numerous turns against your troupe without giving you the chance to answer. With Latent Powers, Octopath Traveler 2 gives you more freedom on your turns to hit home against enemies, or better prepare for an ensuing barrage.