Here's 20 lovely minutes of beautiful Octopath Traveller 2

I'm not sure I'll ever get jaded about the glowing 2.5D graphical style of Octopath Traveler, and there's no better argument for that than the 20 minutes of Octopath Traveler 2 gameplay that Square Enix showed off at Tokyo Game Show during yesterday's livestream. The JRPG sequel is primed to release on February 24th, 2023 via Steam for PC, as well as on PlayStations 4 and 5, and the Switch.

Octopath Traveler 2's world is a far cry from the first's medieval setting. The JRPG is set in a new world, one in the grips of an industrial revolution, where steamship ply the seas. The 20 minute look at the world, and a few locations in it, shows off a few towns and highlights the soundtrack, visuals, and day-night cycle.

Also shown are some new skills for the characters, like the swordsman Hikari, who can duel people you meet in the world to learn their skills. Path skills in Octopath Traveler are ways that main characters can interact with the NPCs you meet.

Some of the eight new travelers, the main characters, are shown off in the example party. There's a jazzy-looking new dancer with a dress like she's from the American Old West. There's a guy who's dressed a bit like Sherlock Holmes, but with a top hat and bow and arrow. There's the swordsman Hikari, with an Asian-style Magua tabard on. Finally, an assassin-looking woman with a curved shotel-style sword and a classy slit dress rounds out the group

We quite liked the first Octopath Traveller, which sold over 3 million copies as of this month.  Reviewer Chris Schilling said that the "likeable JRPG tips its hat to its publisher's rich genre history while acknowledging technical advancements since Square’s 16-bit golden age" in the Octopath Traveler review.

By our reckoning, the original Octopath Traveler is one of the best JRPGs on PC.

You can find Octopath Traveler 2 on Steam, where it'll release for $60 on February 24th, 2023. There's no word yet on if it'll come to Game Pass, as the previous game did.