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 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.

8.5/10 - if you like the combat, there is lots and lots of it.

Took me about 120-130 hours of playtime to finish each traveler's storylines. I'm in general a slow player so consider that.
The stories are classic anime-style stories about either betrayal, revenge or ambition, these stories don't reinvent the wheel but they are quite fun in my humble opinion with a couple of plot twists here and there.
For me it was a real feel-good game, it did have some dark things too but the quintessence is mostly optimistic and i found myself often deciding to play this game when i wasn't in the best place mentally and just escaping into this cool world, the game was never stressing me i could play at my pace and therefore it definitely has found a place in my gamer heart. Loved the characters, i was into all of the stories eventually and now I'm excited to play the sequel.

If you are not sure if you wanna play Octopath Traveler 1 or 2 first, definitely start with the first because i have already played the first chapter of the sequel and there are already so many improvements and quality of life changes that going back after two will definitely feel disappointing in some ways.

- What do you do in this game ? -

The game tells the independent stories of eight travelers who set out on a journey, each for their own reasons. You start with a single character (out of the selection of the mentioned eight) and you can theoretically ignore all other character and grind your way to the level of the next chapter of this character's story until you have finished all chapters but that would definitely be hard mode and probably not much fun.
The intended way to play the game is to travel the world to the starting areas of the other characters and pick them up to join your group, you will play the intro chapter for each character, no matter which is your first one, via a flashback, you will then make a group of up to four travelers at a time and fight the monsters of the world.
In cities you can mix and match your party to have the right weapons and elemental types for the given challenge you are facing.


- How does Combat work ? -

Enemies have armor stacks, the stronger the enemy the more armor stacks they have. They also have weaknesses to certain types of weapons and to magical elements. You use your weapons for free and your spells cost mana aka sp, there are also some few abilities that are free but they are usually utility focused and not damaging.
Every time you hit an enemy with a weapon or spell they are weak to you remove one stack of armor.
Now there is also a mechanic called Boosting, after each turn each character gets one point of boost. You can save up to five points of boost. Then you can use those boost points on attacks (with your weapons) or on abilities, attacks will be repeated once for each point spent so they can remove several armor stacks at once and abilities will become stronger much stronger but only hit once and therefore still only remove one stack of armor.
Once all armor is removed the enemy will be broken, taking more damage and being unable to act for the rest of the turn plus the turn thereafter, so that's when you will deal the big damage.
Buffs and debuffs can also be boosted to add two turns of duration for each spent boost point.

An enjoyable game overall, but has some rough edges that were mostly fixed in the sequel. It's not for everyone though. The music is good. I liked the gameplay mechanics, but wasn't a fan of how they implemented the 8 heroes into it. You can only have a party of four, so you'll find yourself, changing the party to continue with the game; a bit chaotic. Some side quests are very vague and hard to follow or finish. You basically have to remember every NPC in the game. But those are optional. A speed up option would've been great, especially in combat. The interactions between the 8 protagonists between each other is kind of awkward. A good buy if the game is on sale, otherwise not worth the money.

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.

Worthy of being considered among the JRPG classics of old. This game features an innovative variant on the job system, where each character has an innate job, and they can choose a second job, meaning that each possible pairing of jobs can only be accomplished by two of the 8 characters. Additionally, combat features a fantastic mechanic of having to break shields by focusing on enemy vulnerabilities, and the Boost mechanic works great. Combat is, for the most part, a lot of fun in this game. The graphics are nice although the shallow depth of field is at times distracting. The character sprites in particular are the best 2D character sprites I've ever seen, stylistically similar to FF6 but with less rigid postures. The music is well above average with a few tracks that are transcendent in quality (Chapter 3 boss fights especially). Each character has a great personality that really makes you want to find out what happens to them. All of this suggests a game that should be 10/10. Now, let's talk about the two main things that keep it from getting there.
First, while each character has a great story, other characters are not involved in them at all. You have a party of up to 4 characters but they all mysteriously vanish when a character-specific scene is taking place. Which is a bummer because you never see those other characters chime in, you never see them jump to defend whichever character the story is focused on. It occasionally breaks believability a few times, such as when Primrose falls unconscious and nobody else is there to do anything about it despite that they were all just there for the fight that took place. I'm not really sure why the other characters aren't involved. I get that the game can't know which characters will be present, but other games have handled that without a problem. Final Fantasy 6, for example, lets you shuffle up your party however you want, but when you progress the story, generally all of the characters have something to contribute. Trails in the Sky is another example. So, deduct a point for that.
With that said, I was ready to give the point back if the final quest of the game, which requires having all 8 characters, accomplished bringing this together. Unfortunately, the 8 characters have no dialogue between them at all in the last quest. And to make matters worse, the last quest is just awful. You have 8 sub-bosses to deal with (not hard, just consumes a lot of time) and no save points at all. Then you get a notification that you have to build to parties, but after selecting your parties, there is no opportunity to assign jobs or equipment, so you likely have 4 characters who are unequipped and without a secondary job going into the final battle. While there are ways to equip them and give them jobs prior to this, the player has no way of knowing they won't be able to do that after moving forwards with creating the two parties. And then, let's talk about the final boss. It's just miserable. You eventually reach a point where you're spending most turns reviving dead characters and/or healing and/or restoring SP. You don't die, you just spend perpetuity getting nowhere. I went through this for a couple hours before I realized I wasn't having any fun anymore. So I decided to call it quits there. And by the way, if you do happen to die there, you have to go through all 8 sub-bosses again just to get to the final boss again. It's just incredibly tedious and I don't have time for it. Videogames need to respect the value of human time.
So, final score is 8/10. Strongly recommended, you'll get 100 hours of time completing each character's story and the myriad subquests scattered throughout the game. It's mostly gorgeous to look at and listen to and there is a lot in the story that has strong emotional weight (Primrose's is especially good). The combat system is fun and you can get hella powerful by late game. Just don't bother with the last quest, it's not an enjoyable experience at all.