Each character’s story is their own isolated tale, giving each party member their own motivations to set out for adventure.Īfter finishing the opening chapter, players are free to wander wherever it is that they please. Once that decision is made, the player is whisked away to that character’s corner of the world. Upon starting the game, gamers get to read a short biography of each of the eight heroes, learn a piece of their back-story and get a taste for how their skills will benefit the party. Instead of giving the player a clear protagonist to lead your party, the developers allow the player to choose with whom to begin their adventure with, and that initial character remains in the party until their story is complete. Octopath Traveler does a good job of bringing this ragtag group of eight together. If you’re going to be embarking on a 100-hour journey, it certainly helps if those tagging along for the ride make for pleasurable companions. The cast can make or break a Role-Playing experience. It’s all so very comforting, and will leave a remarkable impression.Īside from the graphics, the star, or rather stars, of the game is your party of eight distinctive characters. The caring little details truly make a colossal impact: the way embers float in the air after a fire attack, how the trees sway in wind, how the dust kicks up when traveling down a dirt road. It has the ability to make you feel like stepping back in time to your childhood, yet be completely foreign at the same time. The blocky characters look ripped straight out of a Super NES game, and transplanted in a mesmerizing 3D world, where polygons instead of pixels craft the scenic landscapes, and the elements come to life: the water looks real enough to drink, each snowflake glistens with the magic of authenticity, and when a fireball meets its target, the flames never cease to amaze.Īgain, this 2D-meets-3D aspect has been done before (just look at Paper Mario), but Octopath Traveler still captures something special in its art style. Let’s get the most noticeable feature of the game out of the way first: the graphics here are nothing short of breathtaking. But it’s rare to see this coming from a gaming studio of this pedigree, one that had a hand in directly crafting those classics that we long to return to, and yet Square Enix has done it time-and-time again. Nostalgia for this time in gaming history is also nothing unique: indie titles have embraced this for years, churning out stellar games such as Shovel Knight, Undertale, Bloodstained, and dozens more. (Side note: view our review for both Bravely Default and it’s Switch sequel Bravely Default II.) The lead producers, Masashi Takahashi and Tomoya Asano, are also the minds behind the Nintendo 3DS titles Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer, two games that took a similar approach in celebrating the games of yesteryear with modern polish. The team behind Octopath Traveler isn’t in uncharted territory here. It doesn’t leave behind its roots like so many RPGs of today, but it takes that foundation and builds upon it. It’s taking that classic formula for an RPG and adding enough modern dash to produce a brand new dish. But at its core, the game is much, much more than simple tribute. Its graphics immediately bring to mind the beautiful pixel art of the mid-nineties, and the combat too harkens back to a time when random encounters could be swift and brutal, simple upon first glance yet complex once you really dig into it. Octopath Traveler is undoubtedly an homage to the turn-based classics of the 16-bit era. As such, there was no reason to rename it, and the title stuck. The game was originally announced in January 2017 as “ Project Octopath Traveler.” While the name was obviously a working title, it perfectly encapsulated the adventure to be had, where the player embarks on a journey with eight distinct characters. With that being said, now’s the perfect time to delve into Octopath Traveler, and report to you why this is among the best RPGs of the last decade. In March of this year, the title debuted on Xbox One, and we will likely see the jump to more platforms in the near future. Just under a year later, the game saw the move to Windows, and about a year after that to Google Stadia. When Octopath Traveler released in July of 2018, it was immediately considered one of the Switch’s best third party exclusives.
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