Do You Need to Play Octopath Traveler Before Octopath II?

If you’re dying for a modern-day rendition of classic JRPG mechanics, you can’t go wrong with the Octopath series. With the two mainline games in the series now available for all modern platforms, newcomers should know if they need to play Octopath Traveler before playing Octopath Traveler II.

Do You Need to Play Octopath Traveler Before Octopath II?

Released exclusively on the Switch in 2018, Octopath Traveler became a hit and still serves as one of the best JRPGs on the console. In it, you play as eight different characters who set off on their own separate journies, all of which eventually eventually merge into a single narrative. The game’s 2023 sequel, Octopath Traveler II, kept the general premise intact and was released for Sony’s systems as well as the Switch. But if you’re a newcomer to the franchise thanks to the original game releasing on Sony systems and the sequel coming to Xbox systems and Game Pass, you’ll be happy to know that you can hop into whichever game you want without having played the other one.

Much like the Final Fantasy series, the Octopath series is an anthology series where each game has an original cast and is set in a new world. For example, the first game is set in the continent of Orsterra, a more medieval-focused world, while the second game takes place in the continent of Solistia, which is more technologically advanced. Other than name-dropping a few characters and a secret boss in Octopath Traveler II with connections to the first game, you can play the sequel without feeling like you’re missing out on anything.

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As far as which game you should start with, I would personally steer with giving Octopath Traveler II a start first over its predecessor. Yes, they’re basically the same game from a structural, aesthetic, and gameplay perspective, but Octopath II has a few more quality-of-life updates, like giving multiple characters the same secondary jobs, more party interactions, and an overall better story. That isn’t to say that Octopath Traveler is a bad game, but Octopath II just feels like a more polished experience. Whichever game you decide to start with, you can’t go wrong with either one, as you’ll have dozens upon dozens of hours of JRPG goodness to play through.  

And that’s whether you have to play Octopath Traveler before Octopath II.

Octopath Traveler II is available now.