Octopath Traveler

I picked up Octopath Traveler expecting “another JRPG,” and it ended up being one of those games I kept thinking about even when I wasn’t playing.

The HD-2D art style is gorgeous. Like, I stopped multiple times just to look at towns at night, the lighting, the water, all that. The music is also insanely good — it makes even random exploring feel important.

Gameplay-wise, the combat is the main reason I stayed. The whole Break/Boost system feels really satisfying, and it stays fun because you’re constantly planning turns instead of just spamming attacks. Each character having a “job vibe” and different tools keeps fights from getting stale (most of the time).

Story is… mixed, but in a way I still enjoyed. I like the idea of 8 separate stories, and some of them are genuinely great. But it can also feel a bit disconnected, and the “party” doesn’t always feel like a real group since everyone is basically doing their own thing. Also, the amount of random dialogue can be a lot if you’re not in the mood to read.

A couple negatives:

The grind can show up depending on how you play.

Some chapters feel slower/less interesting than others.

The world sometimes feels like a bunch of story bubbles instead of one connected adventure.

Still, if you like turn-based combat, pretty visuals, and a chill RPG you can play in chunks, it’s absolutely worth it.

TL;DR: Beautiful game, amazing music, satisfying combat, stories vary a lot but the overall vibe is great.

I thought this game was stupid when it first came out. Many years later and I find myself very much enjoying it on Steam Deck. Safe to say, this game is an awesome intro to JRPGs. Sometimes games just don't find you at the right time. Glad I gave it a second chance.

I played a demo of this game years ago on another system, and I thought it was generic. Years later, I bought it on a Steam sale(because I love Square Enix), and shoveled it into the backlog. Today, I am playing it, and I can't believe I thought it was generic. When I play this, I get the same sense of adventure that I did when I used to role-play Dungeons & Dragons. There is something about it that sparks my imagination. I am glad that I gave it another try. And, what is fun to think about... when I am finished with this game there is a second one already available with a third one on the way. Sometimes, things just happen like that... Sort of like how my whole life I never listened to Motorhead or KISS until a year and a half ago. Now, I have all of these albums to discover.

this game is great. After you have purchased it, now before you go ahead and drop 10+ hours into the game just to realize the game doesn't save your progress, I would suggest doing the following:

1. when you start the game and are doing the first chapter of your character's questline, try to find the first save point of the game (it would look like a book on a stand with the "!" icon) and save your progress.

2. Log out of the game or return to the title screen, then check if your "Continue" option is grey out or not. If it is NOT grey out and you can click on the option, then don't worry about the rest and you can go ahead and enjoy the game. BUT, if it IS GREY OUT, do the following (well, at least this method works for me, but feel free to check other methods through discussion forums).

3. Quit the game (close the game completely), go to windows bar and search "Virus and Threat protection". Scroll down till you see "Virus and Threat Protection Settings", click on Manage Settings. Scroll down to "Control Folder Access" header, then click on Manage Controlled folder access option. Then look for the "Allow an app through something something" then click on that option, click yes when a window pops up. Then scoll up and/or down to find an option called "Add an allowed app", then click recently blocked apps, then find the keyword OCTOPATH TRAVERLER in those folder paths, then click on that. THIS STEP ALLOWS YOUR SECURITY TO NOT BLOCK OCTOPATH FROM SAVING GAME FILES ON YOUR FOLDER (why is this an issue? Idk, but the devs just ignore without fixing it or some shi, idk).

4. After you have done the step 3, go back to STEAM then UNINSTALL the game, then REINSTALL it. Now you should be able to freely access the "continue" option, but of course your 'testing save file' above is gone, so you would need to play again up until whenever you saved the game to test. IT SHOULD WORK AFTER ALL OF THE STEPS ABOVE, BUT IF YOU STILL SEE THE "CONTINUE" OPTION GREY OUT, THEN CHECK OTHER METHODS FROM DISCUSSION FORUMS.

5. IF you have done everything you can, possibly can, and after a few more testings by saving files and logging out and into the game, AND IT IS STILL GREY OUT FOR THE "CONTINUE" OPTION, then just go ahead and ask for the refund. <3 THE GAME ITSELF IS GREAT, SO GOOD, FANTASTIC EVEN, BUT BECAUSE OF THIS BUG OR SOMETHING IT MAY STOP YOU FROM ENJOYING THE GAME, SO DON'T BOTHER,

A diamond in the rough. Octopath Traveler screams classic SquareSoft/Enix JRPG homage. And it is in many ways. The presentation and art direction are just eye-candy, the soundtrack (from Yasunori Nishiki) and the combat leans to a more simplistic side but it's still engaging and challenging without relying on cheap tricks. It escapes being merely nostalgia bait to something that stands on its own. It isn't for everyone though, and can only be recommended for people who truly enjoy turn-based RPGs or have prior experience with JRPGs in general.
PROS:
*Insanely eye-catching and visually beautiful visuals and effects that blend in perfectly with the retro pixel 2D style.
*Path Action system brings a new layer of interactivity with NPCs rather than them being just textboxes.
*Non-linear structure from the very start adds a great replayability factor.
*Boost and Break system from Bravely Default is marvelously implemented into the combat.
*Boss fights are fun and challenging and have amazing buildups to them.
*Masterclass soundtrack from Yasunori Nishiki is pure eargasm.
*While I have a CON regarding the final boss, all 8 characters being involved in his fight and the soundtrack is absolutely one of the best parts of the game.
THINGS TO NOTE:
*The game does not have a cinematic presentation like other RPGs such as Final Fantasy, or more recently, Baldur's Gate 3 and Expedition 33. If this is a defining factor to you and the story weighs quite a bit, this game is not recommended for you.
*The stories are simple. Simple does not equal bad, but there are people who find simple stories rather boring, so be on the lookout for that. I don't think they're badly written, they're sufficiently engaging for me, though nothing super impressive, but they did their job.
*The game's overarching narrative only kicks in towards the end, once you start finishing each character's stories. It only converges properly in the final area/chapter.
*While there are markers, this game doesn't keep telling exactly where to go, you're completely on your own and where to go next.
*This game is long. I'd say on normal progression with some side quests being complete and good exploration, it may take you around 60 hours to complete.
*This is a slow-paced game. It does not progresses in a lightning quick fashion and you are expected to properly do a bit of grinding and have all the 8 characters properly leveled and equipped. This more traditionally RPG-esque approach will be seen by some as a chore.
*This game has something that some people dread: Random Encounters. Personally, I think they are well-implemented in this game and purposeful (and easy to avoid/mitigate), but some people heavily loathe them.
CONS:
*Extremely obtuse side quest system that not only gives you zero directions, it gives you no proper description or implication on what to do to complete it.
*The initial impression on recruiting new party members is rather poor, though the Travel Banters add a great layer of dynamic and chemistry to them. The problem is that these banters are hard to trigger and easily missable (you absolutely need a guide to know how and when to trigger them).
*Visually, some dungeons might feel a bit deja vu and could've had more proper visual distinction and better map design
*The final boss' difficulty and design is on another level of unfair, there's no other word for it. He is insane and is constantly compared to bosses like SMT3's final boss on hard and it's not difficult to see why. If you don't do some extensive grinding, you're cooked, and everytime you try him, you have to always go through an endgame 8-boss gauntlet.
In the end, I loved this game, it's one of my current favorite JRPG franchises (the second game being better in every way) and I can't wait to play 0. Though be advised that this game isn't for everyone, I can only recommend to more enthusiastic RPG/JRPG fans and people who don't factor cinematic presentation and stuff like it as requirements for their engagement (if BG3 and E33 are the only RPGs you've ever played, stay clear off Octopath for now). Comparison is the thief of joy, I know, but in order to try to recommend to people who will like it, it's hard to even consider recommending this game to people who have preferences to stuff like Skyrim or The Witcher 3 or soulsbornes. This game is completely different and plays nothing like them (hence why it's only more targeted to JRPG enthusiasts). People who prioritize story and constant character dynamic over actual, deep gameplay should also approach Octopath Traveler more carefully.

TLDR: buy on deep discount and go in with low expectations. If you're not hooked by the core gameplay loop after playing one or two chapters, the rest isn't going to do it for you.
I picked up this game on sale wanting a fairly chill, old school RPG experience on the Steam Deck (on which it runs brilliantly).
The premise of the game is that you can experience 8 different character paths, so I started with the dancer, Primrose (who has one of, if not the best, story in the game). Right out of the gate, the story grabbed me - tragedy, loss, mature themes, questions about purpose and identity.
Combat felt dynamic and satisfying - your goal is to experiment by attacking each enemy with different types of attacks to determine their weakness, then "breaking" their shields to stun them. The job system was compelling and addictive. The music is top tier. Visually it's an absolute treat. The presentation of the game is second to none. It makes an incredible first impression, and it's both gorgeous and cosy.
But the deeper you get into the game, the worse the initial impression feels in retrospect. I'd heard about the repetitiveness of the chapters. It became immediately apparent when I recruited the next few characters that the quality of the writing and the story varies wildly between stories.
EVERY chapter had exactly the same pacing - you wander into town, spend 10-15 minutes watching cutscenes that could have been a conversation, enter a dungeon, and fight a boss. Whether you're a thief trying to recover an artifact or a merchant trying to find something worth selling, everything that happens is a forced excuse to send you into a dungeon to fight a boss. You do this four times per character - a total of 32 times in the game, all with the exact same pacing. This wouldn't be as grating if the stories were compelling, but with some exceptions, most of them feel like anime filler episodes that only exist to ensure every character has the same number of dungeons.
There are some exceptions. Primrose has the most cohesive story - a revenge arc where you're hunting down a member of the gang that killed your father and reconnecting with people from your past. Olberic is chasing down a former friend who betrayed him. Cyrus is on the hunt for someone that stole a dangerous tome. These stories make sense. But then you've got Ophilia, who spends an entire chapter helping children resolve a spat, where nothing of narrative significance happens. Alwyn has three entire chapters of filler before coming to a fourth chapter that's actually memorable. Tressa's entire story boils down to "teenage girl wanders aimlessly looking for treasure", with a conclusion that wants to be meaningful but isn't because the last three chapters were entirely banal. It suffers from the common JRPG trope of over-explaining the plot until all nuance is lost - except the individual plots are so simple they don't need explaining, and the hidden end-game plot feels SO DISCONNECTED to some characters' stories that in a few instances it boils down to "my character has a diary once owned by this other character", and in the case of others, isn't even connected at all.
By the end - I just wanted it to be over. I beat the final boss, got the achievements that were reasonable (because the achievement to discover every creature's weakness is simply insane and requires either playing with a guide from the start, or a ton of post game running around).
Would I have had more fun if I'd just played the best two or three stories instead of finishing all eight? Probably. But for the price of admission - that's a pretty thin JRPG.
Play it because it's gorgeous, fun for a bit, and well-crafted. But when you get bored, stop. It doesn't get better, and it isn't worth your time to find out.

I spent 107 hours with the game, completing most of the content and reaching the true ending (and to say that it wasn't easy is to say nothing, you have to do a LOT to reach true ending). The reason I was hooked was the satisfying gameplay loop. I enjoyed the combat and music; it's simply a joy to play, despite the fact that the theoretically core gameplay is weak. Most of the story (Alfyn, Primrose, Othilia, Tressa, Haanit) is a boring snoozefest, and the dialogue in this game is terrible, looking like it was written by a 5-year-old.

So, most of the stories sucks, but the game was redeemed by other elements.