Octopath Traveler 2 will serve as a spiritual, rather than a direct, sequel to the 2018 Square Enix role-playing game Octopath Traveler. It will feature new characters to meet, a new land to explore, and new stories to discover. However, many elements will be returning from the first game. These include the eight core classes, the battle system focused around attacking foes' elemental weaknesses, the unique "HD-2D" art style. One gameplay element that will likely be returning in Octopath Traveler 2 are dungeons that the characters will encounter and explore as they travel. Ideally, the sequel will improve dungeon design, as the original Octopath's dungeons were considered to be fairly brief and repetitive and not leave a major impact on players compared to the rest of the game.
Like its predecessor, Octopath Traveler 2 will focus on the journeys of eight party members, each with a different reason for traveling. The eight new characters who will appear in Octopath Traveler 2 are Hikari the Warrior, Throne the Thief, Agnea the Dancer, Partitio the Merchant, Osvald the Scholar, Temenos the Cleric, Castti the Apothecary, and Ochette the Hunter. Similar to the first game, each character will have a unique story featuring multiple chapters. Dungeons will likely be encountered both during character stories and in the form of optional dungeons dotting the landscape of Solistia. They should feature major changes to set them apart from Octopath Traveler's dungeons.
Take Inspiration From Champions of the Continents' Hunts
Hunts are a new type of dungeon added in Champions of the Continent, the mobile game spin-off recently released in the West. Unlike the dungeons in Octopath Traveler, hunts are short, fairly simply designed dungeons with the major gimmick being multiple boss fights in a row. Each hunt contains between five and ten boss-level monsters within a specific level range. Players can choose how many of the monsters they wish to defeat before concluding the hunt, and will gain experience and rewards depending on how many opponents they conquer. However, players cannot save during the hunt, and have only a limited number of healing magic uses until they either defeat all bosses or surrender.
Most of the dungeons in the original Octopath Traveler contained only a single boss-level monster, typically located at the very end of the dungeon. Including hunt-inspired dungeons would provide a fun late-game challenge for players who want to experiment with highly leveled parties and different combinations of jobs, in particular optional side jobs. Rewards for these hunt-like dungeons could include rare weapons like the previous game's Battle-Tested weapons, accessories, and level-boosting items that cannot be acquired anywhere else in the game. Alternately, multiple hunt dungeons could be included with various difficulties, allowing beginner players to gain levels easily and advanced ones to take on tricky challenges.
Include More Urban and Building-Based Dungeons
The original Octopath Traveler took place on the continent of Orsterra, which featured a primarily medieval-inspired fantasy aesthetic. As a result, many of the game's dungeons were found in naturally occurring locations such as caves, dark forests, and remote stretches of desert. While the dungeons did all feature designs related to the region of the world they were found in, the endlessly repeating cave and woodland settings were considered by many fans to be repetitive and boring. Octopath Traveler 2 will take place in a new land called Solistia, which seems to be much more modern than Orsterra. This could provide the potential for unique urban dungeons instead of more caves.
The few "building-based" dungeons found in the original Octopath Traveler stood out from the norm and were generally well-liked by fans. Examples included when Therion the Thief had to sneak into the mansion of the noble Ravus family to steal their treasure and when Primrose the Dancer traversed an auditorium packed with frenzied fans and fame-hungry actors to confront her nemesis Simeon. These dungeons were liked for their bright colors, maze-like designs with many rooms and doors, and hidden chests and documents scattered around. Solistia's larger cities and industrial aesthetic could pair well with dungeons set in factories, the mansions of the wealthy, bars, train stations, and more.
Combine Dungeons With Job Shrines
Octopath Traveler's job shrines unlocked the ability for characters to equip secondary jobs, allowing players to create unique combinations such as a physical powerhouse Warrior/Hunter or a healing expert Cleric/Apothecary. The game also featured four secret job shrines, where players had to battle four gods in order to unlock the Starseer, Runelord Sorcerer, and Warmaster. These four boss battles were praised for being unique fights against extremely tough opponents who required a lot of thinking and planning to beat. Octopath Traveler 2 could combine its secret job shrines with dungeons, requiring players to journey through dangerous labyrinths and solve puzzles in order to unlock new and powerful jobs.
So far, only a brief trailer for Octopath Traveler 2 has been shown off during the recent Nintendo Direct event. Unfortunately, not much regarding the game's dungeons was shown off during this trailer. However, with the game currently scheduled for release in 2023, it is possible that developer Square Enix will release further trailers with information about not just new dungeons, but new stories, characters, Path Actions, battle skills, and more.
Octopath Traveler 2 will release on February 24, 2023 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.