Octopath Traveler

Octopath Traveler is an awesome game. You don't need to play the first game if you are interested in playing the sequel game. I played and finished Octopath Traveler II (on the switch) before starting the first game and I kinda regretted it because I should've probably waited a bit longer before jumping straight into it. The first game is fantastic, but the sequel is just so much more polished in every single aspect (visuals, story and gameplay). If you are interested in the series then I recommend playing Octopath Traveler 1 first, if you want a more polished experience then I highly recommend playing the sequel.

This game is VERY, VERY GOOD.
Here's the deal. When making a game clearly drawing from older games, you can take it one of two ways.
1: Make a game that's as faithful to the original style as possible, up to and including being able to run on original hardware. This is admirable from an artistic perspective - it is a terrible decision, in my opinion, for making as great a game as possible.
2: You can do what Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler and Resident Evil 4 Remake and a lot of other amazing games do: capture the FEEL of the old thing, what it FELT like to play it for the first time back then, by combining what was back then with what we can do now.
Octopath Traveler is an excellent JRPG, and honestly? The only real problem with the game is that the sequel is an ENORMOUS improvemennt. There's a lot of minor gripes and things here and there with this game that are just wholesale solved in the sequel, and the sequel has no new flaws of its own.
Still, I highly recommend Octopath Traveler to anyone who has a love of JRPGs or wants to know what it felt like to play Final Fantasy on the Super Nintendo on Christmas in the 1990s.

I know I'm late to the party, I bought this game in 2019, due the life I've only had the chance to play it now. I have to say, I'm genuinely enjoying it, it's been a long time since I've enjoyed a game like this.

I'm at a stage in my life where I start games, get some of the way through, then forget about them and not play them anymore. This game has me though, I'll be finishing this one.

Maybe it's the pixels/2D/3D vibe, or maybe I'm just old, but I feel like I'm playing again as an early teen and I'm getting a funny nostalgia buzz from it even though I've never played it before.

It's a nice simple, old school style, pleasant, easy on the head game. If you're into that kind of thing, I recommend.

I think the sequel, which is also on Steam at astonishingly a similar price, is a better game that does not require knowledge of this game, but if you play this game first you may appreciate the QOL improvements in the second. I would comment that I enjoyed the cast of characters in this game a bit better than the sequel, they're all lovable individuals.
For the game itself, it's a solid RPG game with a fun combat system and an interesting story. I enjoy the graphic style as well immensely. I think the story did not have proper time to really blossom into something particularly evocative, but it was certainly still something that can be appreciated. I recommend going an all female roster because they're cooler than the guys, let's be real.

Octopath Traveler was a really fun game to play that has 8 mini adventures/heros to explore with clever lore that links them together in the end game content. The gameplay of the battles is where I feel the best part of the game lays, with clever builds needed and rotations of heros. Other reviews I've noticed have mentioned they get lost or forget about the hero stories with there being 8 in the game but I never came across this myself. The only issue I feel with the story is the repetitiveness of the stories, as in "oh this is the person this time to be evil and back stab you".
For the achievement hunters, the game has a few missable items which I was lucky to have collected on my first play through, which meant not having to do a whole second proper play through which would have pushed my total time of 100% over the 200 hours mark. I really hate speed runs but it was fun to learn and play the game in a different aspect. The game has no check list option for some of the achievements which meant I had to print off lists to keep track where clearing up the game after the main story.
Overall I give this game a 7/10. The lack of story depth and repetitiveness of chapters with all the heros made the game feel abit grindy in places, but the battles itself are really fun and enjoyable to play with good end game content to explore :)

Octopath traveler is definitely not a thoroughly fun experience, some parts of combat feel so slow some stories are unbelievably basic. The game has a looot of problems but it's still a pretty fun game with the awesome music and graphics. Some stories are pretty fun and the combat mechanics are one of the best ones i've ever seen with actual challenging bosses, even though the game is not for everyone i'd say it's worth giving a shot if you enjoy turn based rpgs.

This game was an amazing throwback for all of those who were playing JRPGs in the 90s and early 2000s. You might not be a fan of Pixel HD graphics, but I personally love the style. The soundtrack os an absolute killer in this game as well.
As for the core gameplay, I love it. It's no excessively complex, but allows an amazing degree of freedom and experimentation. When I was investigating on character tier lists and final boss strategies, the opinions were all over the place, meaning there is no just one good, optimised approach and many startegies, with the right amount of synergy, are viable.
Basically, this is a turn based JRPG in which characters level up their stats and job levels. Each character has a unique either overworld or battle ability (one guy can make concotions out of items, this hunter girl can capture and summon wildlife, etc...). Characters can also be equipped with a secondary job, and leveling up the jobs unlock new combat abilities ans passive. Experimentation is king here, which is something I love out of an RPG.
There are several types of damage (both physical/weapon type and elemental) that enemies are weak to. They have armor points that can be depleted when hitting them with attacks they are weak to and get staggered when their armor have been broken, at which point they will miss a turn and receive extra damage. So building a party that can deal as many types of damage as needed is crucial.
And here's the point in which OT's unique narrative and chapter structure makes an appeareance. There are a total of 8 playable characters with 4 story chapters each, for a total of 32 characters. You can start with the character of your choice and will start chapter 1 of that character. Upon finishing it, you are free to explore and add more members to your party in the order that you wish. A total of 4 characters can be thrown into a party at the same time, so trying to get 4 as soon as possible is recommended, but you are free to do otherwise.
The variety here is a strong point as you can try each character and choose the composition that you like the most either base on party synergy or which characters you like most (or a mix of both).
But the implementation of this structure might be OT's biggest flaw - instead of interthreading stories, each of the 8 separate stories are absolutely disconnected from each other and characters struggles are never intertwined. There is some minor interaction between characters that you can activate as travel banter, which is nice, but mostly flavor text. In my opinion, this is a big missed opportunity. Also, the level of writing in some chapters is really weak. Obviously, it all comes down to personal taste, but the stroy of the aristochrat which is trying to avenge her family of the fallen knight in search of the comrade that betrayed him felt much better than other sections.
Nevertheless, they share a same universe and you would eventually find there a common threat which is present in each story. This is the final boss of the game, but good luck finfing it without any guide, as it's locked behind very cryptic sidequests. Having said that, that encounter is intense and fun as it is frustrating, but I enjoyed it a lot. Not for the faint of heart, though.
Having said that, and if you can overlook the disjointed narrative of this game, it's an spectacular hommage to classic 2D JRPGs with a killer soundtrack, very robust core gameplay and tons of weapons, abilites and party compositions to try on a plethora of main story and optional bosses and dungeons, so if this sounds like it's the kind of game that you would enjoy, don't hesitate and give it a chance (I would maybe wait for a sale though)
Very solid 8.5 with upside to me, good for over 60hrs of playtime