Octopath Traveler Review

  Octopath Traveler is one I have been following closely and that is reflected in how many blog posts and mentions it has received by yours truly.  I was afraid I was overhyping the game, made by Square Enix and Acquire, just by the attention I was giving it.  The fear was I might have been building it up past the game it would turn into.  It's a fortunate case that all my worries were unfounded.

Solid RPG Throwback

  Games are increasingly pushing the boundaries of our curregraphicshic technology.  Smooth character, clean assets, and realistic landscapes are there to amaze the gamers.  Unfortunately, some of these games are pretty but they aren't always good.  Then comes Octopath Traveler, which is a recreation of the classic RPG, pixels and all.  Rather than dazzling with graphics, they greet you with a well-made RPG experience.

  At the start, you will pick between one of 8 heros that will be your main character through the game.  You will play through their story and every time you find one of the fellow heroes in their towns you will have a chance to play through theirs.  Their location is all marked on a map so they aren't that hard to find. I started out as the sexy and seductive dancer Primrose who flaunts her 4-pixel midriff no matter the weather. The vixen.

  The stories are your pretty generic hero stories and the writing can go from good to pretty meh with some storylines  One thing I found a little disappointing is there wasn't too much character interaction besides from little conversations they will have from time to time.  This out of anything would have been a nice plus.

  Combat is your classic turn-based RPG where everyone gets to take a turn to damage.  You will try to unleash the right moves against the right enemies to break their defenses, which in this title leaves them vulnerable for a turn.  This can become your saving grace in tough times and allows you to also to easily destroy smaller enemies.  Every class is pretty unique in combat and brings their own perks to the battlefield.  Later on, you will able to get 'jobs', which will allow for a hero to have to classes, making for some really interesting combat combinations.  The game uses random encounters so patience will be needed, especially in some of the later dungeons.

Lots of Gameplay and Gameplay Potential

  This game took me just under 70 hours to complete all the stories with several of the later optional dungeons sprinkled in.  There is a lot to do.  I'll be honest, near the end of the game I was getting a little tired of the story so the last few ones I sped through the dialogue just catching the jist of what was happening.  I was just more interested in the combat and going out and optimizing my party.

[Late Game Spoiler]

The game definitely takes a turn after the stories have ended and bosses are no longer possible with all parties. A lot of them take getting the right players with the right skills in order to exploit weaknesses. People have claimed they have been able to take on bosses like the Warbringer without the perfect party but I found this incredibly difficult with the Olberic nuke technique alone. The combos that Warbringer starts to pull out are just too insane and its a DPS race, which I haven't yet won because fuck these bosses right in their fucking faces.

Game Basics

  The graphics in this game is an interesting subject.  While everything is pixel art and 2-D, it plays in a 3-D manner and it has some amazing looking landscapes.  The effect they used in different areas makes this game look so vibrant with pixel art alone.  In combat, you will get different animations for the moves.  The animation is pretty good and some are pretty flashy with none being too over the top or long as would have suffered through in older RPGs.

  The soundtrack is pretty good as well but most of it is reused throughout stories so some tracks will get a little old as you fight your way through random encounters in different dungeons.  The sound assets are all fitting.

  In the end I found Octopath traveler to be a pretty great experience.  It was an RPG that I have been wanting for a while and it met expectations, which games can hardly do anymore.  The one possible issue is that this game is for JRPG fans in that casual gamers might not like the grindy mentality.  Especially late-game where you need to build some levels to fight some particularly difficult boss fights.  If this doesn't bother you then its a great game.  Fans of the RPG genre and those that kinda like them should give this game a shot if you own a Switch.

TL;DR:

  Octopath Travlers was a great RPG, with some of the best pixel art, built in the classic style that met all expectations I was hoping for.  Its a good pick up if you are an RPG fan at all and if not, might be worth trying.