Octopath Traveler came out way back in 2018 to high acclaim, though one criticism noted how characters didn’t interact with each other that much.

With the recently announced sequel Octopath Traveler II, it seems the developers at Square Enix and Acquire are also aware of this and have worked towards improving the sequel’s overarching story.

Producer Masashi Takahashi and director Keisuke Miyauchi spoke in an interview with Famitsu (via NinEverything) about this topic and what they did to improve upon it for Octopath Traveler II.

“We received a lot of feedback from players of the first game saying ‘We want to see dialogue between protagonists beyond travel banter’,” Miyauchi said. “Adding dialogue would make people fall in love with the characters more, so we put that into this game.”

“There are eight characters with strong personalities,” Takahashi added. The producer noted they designed it to make it feel as though the characters were traveling together.

“Of course, the eight individual stories of each character are still the main focus, but we’d like it if people could enjoy the cross stories as supplemental tales,” he said.

They also hinted that the way the story is told will be done differently compared to its predecessor, but didn’t want to share too many details until closer to Octopath Traveler II’s release. Recently they did share a trailer showcasing a couple of new characters for the upcoming game though.

Octopath Traveler II is set to launch for Windows PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on February 24th, 2023. The original Octopath Traveler has been available for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Stadia, and Nintendo Switch. In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review on the game here.