8 travelers, 8 stories, 8 paths.
What They Say:
Eight travelers. Eight adventures. Eight roles to play in a new world brought to life by Square Enix. And now, you can enjoy all of them in the new demo. Step into the shoes and live the stories of each of the eight travelers and freely explore the world of Orsterra. Then, carry your choices and adventure into the main game with save data transfer.
Use each character’s special abilities in and out of battle. Break through enemy defenses by discovering and targeting weaknesses. Store Boost Points with each turn and then spend them at strategic times to strengthen abilities, chain attacks, or provide aid. Choose the path you wish to walk and discover what lies beyond the horizon.
The Review:
Octopath Traveler is the latest exclusive JRPG from Square Enix for a Nintendo platform. It takes inspiration from a lot of beloved JRPG’s in Square Enix’s storied history. It takes gameplay cues from the developer’s previous work, Bravely Default, art inspirations from Final Fantasy VI on SNES, and story organization from the never localized Live A Live. But at the same time, it carves out its own niche as something wholly unique.
There’s nothing quite like Octopath Traveler. It is so different from anything I’ve ever played before. As the name states, the story follows not one, not two, but eight completely separate storylines that you can follow in any order you want. Each story is led by a different protagonist, leading to eight very different main characters who each have their own class and skills.
The absolute freedom that Octopath Traveler provides is uncanny. If you wanted, you could pick your first character and stick to their story alone all the way to the credits without ever meeting or recruiting any of the other seven. I certainly don’t recommend it, but it’s a possibility that you can do.
On the other end of the spectrum, you could complete all of the first chapters for the eight main characters in Octopath Traveler before moving onto the second chapters and so forth, which is what I did. This type of freedom is unique to the JRPG but also its greatest weakness.
Beyond minor details like the occasional optional party banter, there is little to no interaction and crossover between the eight main characters in Octopath Traveler. Cyrus the Scholar is focused solely on finding a long-lost book of importance, but even though his second chapter takes place in the same town as Tressa the up and coming Merchant, neither storyline has any crossover at all.
Worse still, being that there are eight storylines, there are a few throwaway stories that pale in comparison to the rest. The thief Therion’s journey to collect three magical stones has no chance of coming close to matching the strength of other stories like Olberic the Warrior and Primrose the Dancer’s respective revenge tales.
Regardless, though, that uneven storytelling never really took away from what Octopath Traveler does best; revitalizing old school JRPG’s. The so-called “HD-2D” graphics of the game are absolutely stunning at every turn. It is in the veins of older Square Enix games while still pushing the envelope forward with beautifully hand-drawn pop-up book-like scenery that is unlike anything else.
As usual, the soundtrack here is superb. Each track from the cheerful tavern-style music to the creepy haunted mansion-like music enriches the environment and stories. Of course, the most impressive aspect is the gameplay. Combat takes place in your typical turn-based fashion with some twists.
Similar to Bravely Default, each turn your characters receive one boost point which you can save or use up. The boost allows your character to attack up to four times or deal one single attack that is way more powerful than usual. That alone provides some strategy for players but it becomes even deeper and more satisfying when coupled with weaknesses.
Each enemy has one or more weaknesses that are shown below them. The weaknesses start out as little question marks and are revealed as you experiment with attacks. Use the right attack and the weakness is revealed for good. It is in an easy spot to notice so you never have to dig through menus or write down complex formulas.
Finally, the last major component is each enemy has a shield that requires you hitting them with weaknesses a certain number of times to break. While broken, the enemy can’t attack for up to two turns and is far more vulnerable to damage. Altogether, this creates some of the deepest tactically-focused turn-based combat I’ve ever seen.
Do I go ahead and use my one boost point to try and take out the boss’ minions? Or, do I wait until I have all four and unleash the most devastating attack possible and break them in the process? It’s a risk and reward system that works so well while still being simple enough that newcomers to JRPG’s could easily master it.
The strategy is deepened even further when you bring up each character’s job class. The eight main characters in Octopath Traveler are divided into eight classic roles like thief, warrior, cleric, and so forth. All of them are also able to equip a secondary job of someone else’s that allows them to use their abilities. For instance, the cleric Ophilia can equip Cyrus’ Scholar job and suddenly become a healing and black magic hybrid.
What the character doesn’t get from the secondary job is each person’s unique non-combat ability. Each of the eight party members in Octopath Traveler is able to use an ability outside of combat to help them out. Olberic, for instance, can challenge random people to a duel for extra experience while Primrose can seduce them with her dance moves to have them join the party.
Unfortunately, some of these abilities do overlap and are basically the same thing but it does lead to some awesome uses like Primrose summoning a temporary fifth party member that isn’t otherwise possible. Oddly enough, exploring the various regions in Octopath Traveler is pretty linear. Each separated section is pretty straightforward and easy to get through, with only a few extra chests easily hidden.
This isn’t so bad, though, as it helps make dungeons not feel as bothersome as other games. The pacing in dungeons is perfectly done so that it works for a handheld. You never spend too much time in a single dungeon exploring so you aren’t able to get bored like in some other JRPG’s.
However, the one noteworthy problem with Octopath Traveler is grinding. You will need to do a lot of grinding in order to complete each chapter and, unfortunately, characters not currently in your party don’t receive experience. This means grinding a total of two different parties up if you plan on completing the stories all at once. This can be extremely frustrating but if you can get over the hump of grinding, you’ll be able to enjoy what is one of the most revolutionary JRPG’s of all-time.
In Summary:
Octopath Traveler is one of the most revolutionary JRPG’s of all-time. It takes inspiration from classic games of yesteryear and perfects it. The graphics are SNES-like but better, the combat is deep but simple, and the stories are lengthy but also non-linear. The way the game is organized is freeing for the player and it gives us hope that this isn’t the last time we’ll see this style.
Grade: A-
Released By: Nintendo of America
Developer: Square Enix
MSRP: $59.99
Release Date: July 13th, 2018
Platform: Nintendo Switch
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
