One of the biggest complaints fans and critics had with the first Octopath Traveler was that all eight characters felt like complete strangers, with no tie-ins in any of their individual stories. With the release of Octopath Traveler 2, it’s natural to hope that there’d be some improvement on that front. So, if you’re wondering whether party members actually interact with each other in Octopath Traveler 2, here’s what you need to know.
Character and Story Interactions in Octopath Traveler 2
Yes, characters and party members do indeed interact with each other in Octopath Traveler 2 to a small extent. However, it must be said that if you were hoping for all the individual story paths to properly come together and form a big, overarching narrative, you’ll be disappointed. Here’s how the character interactions actually work:
- Travel Banter
- Shared Paths
The Travel Banter feature was present in the first game, and they’re back in Octopath Traveler 2 as well. Starting from Chapter 2 onwards, whenever you’re in the middle of progressing through an individual character’s story, every now and then you’ll notice a prompt in the upper right corner asking you to hit the + button. This will trigger a small vignette featuring a short conversation between the character whose story you’re progressing through and another character you currently have in your party.
Various characters will comment on each other’s motivations and personality traits, and these are a small, but fun way of seeing how they react to each other. However, your party members do not actually appear during story cutscenes for another character’s story. They’ll magically disappear during cutscenes, then reappear again during combat encounters, just like in the first game.
Shared Paths
New to Octopath Traveler 2 is the Shared Paths feature. These are mostly standalone chapters which will start popping up once you’ve recruited every character in the game and started progressing through Chapter 2s.
They’ll pop up on the map with sprite icons showing you which characters you need in your party to start the Shared Path. Head to the tavern to include the characters in your party, then choose the Hear a Tale option to start the chapter.
These are much more fleshed out than the Travel Banter segments, and are basically short stories or adventures that the two characters in question can embark on. They don’t usually feature combat, and they don’t have any bearing on the individual story arcs.
That’s all you need to know about whether party members interact with each other in Octopath Traveler 2. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game.
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