Octopath Traveler II

Octopath Traveler II takes the structure of the first game — eight independent heroes, eight separate stories, one shared world — and improves on almost everything the predecessor was criticized for. At the start, the player picks one character, enters the world of Solistia through their eyes, and gradually recruits others: a thief, an apothecary, a dancer, a warrior, a hunter and other archetypes, each with their own chapter-based storyline with its own pace and tone. Some stories are adventurous and light, others surprisingly dark, dealing with revenge, slavery or dying. New are story crossroads, in which pairs of heroes meet in a shared scene, so the party no longer feels like a random group of strangers.

The combat system remains turn-based and rests on two pillars: Break, where you must hit an enemy's weakness with the right weapon or element to knock its shield down to zero, and Boost Points, which let you store up energy and deliver a multi-hit attack in a single turn. A new Latent Power element gives each character a unique ability charged up over the course of battle. Also crucial is the day-night cycle, which can be switched at any time: not only do enemies change, but above all what you can do with a town's inhabitants — during the day you can negotiate with them, at night you can put them to sleep or rob them.

The HD-2D visual style reached its peak in this entry; pixel characters move through spaces filled with water, smoke and soft light, and the game looks just as good on TV as it does handheld. The music is broadly orchestral, with its own theme for each hero, and ranks among the strongest the genre has offered in the last decade. Reception was markedly warmer than for the first game, precisely thanks to the better-connected story. Today it's a comfortable, generous title that can be played chapter by chapter and set aside for weeks at a time. That's precisely its greatest strength on a handheld console: a single chapter takes roughly an hour, and the game always reminds the player where they left off and what to do next.