Octopath Traveler 2’s RPG battle system is one of the greats

Octopath Traveler 2 is quintessential gaming comfort food. It’s expansive, but simple and streamlined, changing virtually nothing that made the original game work. It’s nostalgic and figurative; it boils big, adult melodramas down into the visual language of the games of our childhood — a few frames of animation here, a few winking pixels there. And it’s luxurious, too, wrapping its retro look in lavish visual effects and accompanying it with an all-timer of an epic, orchestral score by Yasunori Nishiki.

While it can be comforting, Octopath 2.It also shows surprising bite when it matters. The turn-based battle system allows it to return from the first OctopathThe design of traditional Japanese RPGs is refined and strategically thought out by. It has an eye on tradition and doesn’t overwhelm the player with complexity, but through a few simple rules sets up a web of cause and effect that will keep you constantly on your toes, even during the most mundane moments of grind.

The way it works is that every enemy has their own weaknesses. These can include vulnerability to elements of magic or physical damage from weapons. You can also break their defense level by exploiting their weaknesses. You can Break their defense levels once they reach zero. This will stun them and increase the damage against them.

Image Credit: Acquire/Square Enix

Boost Points are awarded to player characters of your group of four with each turn. Maximum five. Up to three of these can be spent at once to multiply the number or power of the character’s attacks and skills. To quickly defeat an enemy or increase the strength of your attacks on them, you can save BP.

It’s basically this: Break and Boost. There’s a simple, immensely satisfying rhythm to this process of banking BP and spending them at the right moment, enhanced by the game’s punchy visual and sound effects. Beyond that, it brings so many of the game’s other design elements into focus. One, Squad composition. When you are putting together your squad of four characters from eight, consider their character level and traditional roles as healer, caster, tank or caster. You also need to ensure you have an array of weapon types and attack options to protect enemy weak points, so you can get the crucial Breaks you want.

The other is the turn order. An oft-neglected element of turn-based combat, characters’ speed determines the order in which they make their moves each turn. You’ll seldom watch the future turn order as closely as in Octopath Traveler 2Consider where you should direct your attacks and how often to Drop in Healing, Bumping, Debuffing. Also, consider when to deploy Boost. Finally, think about when to Use Break to negate strong boss attacks.

Image Credit: Acquire/Square Enix

There’s always something to think about. Even when mindlessly grinding around the overworld map, it’s hard not to latch onto the hooks that Octopath 2.’s battle system offers you and try to optimize your strategy, rather than just spamming basic attacks. Finding a way to comprehensively unpack the defenses of a gaggle of humble monsters is richly satisfying in its own way; it helps that there’s a generous experience reward for defeating enemies untouched. While the boss battles can be long, complex and take place in multiple phases, they present new problems that require a puzzle-solver to solve. For example, some bosses summon minions who defend the boss’s weaknesses, locking them up and making the boss hard or impossible to Break until you can clear the minions out of the way.

Octopath 2. wisely chooses to leave the first game’s near-perfect battle system almost untouched, remixing the skills of the eight returning character classes rather than doing anything dramatic to the superstructure of combat. The game’s headlining day-night cycle, which can be switched at will and which affects characters’ Path skills, has a bigger effect in the overworld than in battle for most characters (although the increased frequency of random battles at nighttime is a boon for grinding). Another big change is the addition of Latent Powers. This special skill, which can be used by any class at no cost and charges over time, was free to all players. While some of these unlock new powerful skills, others tap into the battle system’s ticking clockwork to provide an additional advantage. For example, you can take two actions per round, charge your BP and have the ability to target only one target or apply all skills to them all.

Latent powers are a fun addition, but they don’t do much to disturb the beautiful craftsmanship of Octopath Traveler’s combat design. This system, with the complex shifting relationships among a few layers, keeps your attention constantly. It also shifts tactics frequently to keep you engaged. Octopath Traveler 2 is comfort gaming — but it never lets you get Too comfortable.