Greetings, fellow travelers!
Alex here!
Today, we'll be venturing to the continent of Osterra and picking up new faces along
the way, as we review Octopath Traveler, hours later!
Octopath Traveler asks you to choose one of the eight playable characters to start with
on your journey.
You'll be traveling the continent, gathering the other characters along the way, and learning
the purpose of their story, as the game eventually leads you to explore further parts of the
continent, uncovering new towns, locales, and biomes.
The most striking aspect of Octopath Traveler is its unique blend of 3D terrain and 2D sprites,
blending the best aspects of 16-bit sprite work with the technology afforded by modern
game engines.
This "HD-2D" look - as its producers and developers coin it - allows for Octopath Traveler
to look like a digital pop-up book, where things near and far appear blurrier, and various
NPCs and characters look like figurines found on top of a board game.
This tilt-shift effect not only gives Octopath Traveler a unique identity, but is also used
to obscure areas that are farther off, much like the visual limitations we had while playing
older 16-bit games in the genre.
In other words, it's a modern RPG, with roots dug deeply in both the past and present.
Given the producers' past experience with the Bravely series, Octopath Traveler's
progression system continues to tweak the Final Fantasy job system even further.
You no longer have to level up each individual job to earn skills.
Rather, you accumulate a pool of Job Points on each character, and you're freely able
to spend these points on any job, provided you've unlocked them.
Jobs, and the entire job system by proxy, are unlocked by visiting each jobs' respective
shrines found around the starting towns.
Each character in the game has a unique job that they cannot change, but they can equip
a secondary job which allows access to the weapons and any unlocked skills they've
learned.
By spending Job Points to earn new skills, you eventually unlock that job's passive
abilities, which can be mixed and matched with other unlocked passives, regardless of
the secondary job you have equipped, and up to four passive abilities can be equipped
at any given time.
These slight tweaks in the job system provide an unparalleled level of accessibility than
ever before.
Best of all, this doesn't make the progression system feel too much of a grind, as you feel
like you're always able to unlock something that you're going to use for your characters.
The progression system isn't the only thing its producers brought from the Bravely series.
Each round provides a Boost Point for your entire party to use at your leisure.
These Boost Points can be used to add an extra hit to your attack, power up the potency of
your skills, or even extend buff duration.
The difference, however, is that Boost Points aren't spent when doing your first action.
This means that you will never lose a turn due to negative Boost Points like in the Bravely
series.
The twist to this is that each enemy is now protected by a shield with a number on it.
This shield can be removed by attacking the enemy with the correct attack or skill that
it's weak to, lowering the indicated number until the shield is Broken.
When this happens, you're able to hit the enemy with a ton more damage that you did
before.
Thankfully, your enemy's weak points will be shown forever once you figure it out.
This mix of figuring out enemy weak points, blended with the Boost Point system and the
new Shield Break system, creates a battle flow that is quite unique in the genre, and
put to rest my fears that these systems would feel more tedious than fun.
In fact, I will say that Octopath Traveler has one of my favorite job and battle systems
to date!
One of the points of contention that some people have about the game is that the encounter
rate is too high, but I felt that it's appropriate given the sizes of the dungeons in the game.
Most dungeons are only one floor, with a boss at the end.
Sure, these floors may vary in size, but I've never felt that a dungeon was "too big"
or that any overstayed its welcome.
It's true that most of the dungeons feel samey with regards to their presentation,
but you're often in and out of them so fast that it's a fair compromise.
Awaiting at the end are boss characters represented by beautiful and huge sprite work that makes
you want to see what the next ones look like.
Not only do they look great, but later bosses fully take advantage of the tweaks on the
battle system, making you think twice about rushing into battle just because you think
you can power through them.
Octopath Traveler is an anthology, with stories told in the viewpoint of each character.
Each individual story is broken down by Chapters and these stories feel like they could very
well stand alone as their own game.
Stories of redemption, revenge, and enlightenment, are just some of the themes that these stories
touch upon.
Along with their own stories, each character comes with an exclusive job action which lets
them do various things to NPCs, such as steal items, employ them as extra party members,
or even hear about discounts and hidden wares in stores.
From time to time, travel banter can occur between several characters, where they provide
commentary and discussion on current events.
These short bits help piece together the puzzle of why these people agreed to help one another.
I just wished that when you're on your way to gather the characters that their decisions
to join you wasn't just handled by one or two sentences and never revisited.
That said, it's a small complaint compared to the depth of each characters' story.
Because of the nature of the storytelling, you'll definitely find that some of the
characters' stories are to your liking and some too predictable.
Also, the producers' choice to not truly tie the stories of all the characters neatly
in the end is a highly risky and divisive choice, one that will make you ask the question
whether the entire experience will be worth pursuing or not.
Personally, I reveled in the stories of each of the characters and found that I didn't
need something at the end to cap off what has already been an incredibly well told set
of stories.
Ultimately, this is a game about different people trying to achieve different goals,
and their relationships are often at an arms' length rather than an arms' reach.
Much has been said about how Octopath Traveler looks, but it should be noted that its soundtrack
has some of the best compositions this year so far.
Soaring at its highest highs and dark in its lowest lows, Yasunori Nishiki's soundtrack
also reflects its lineage from the past and where the genre currently is today.
The variety in music is astounding and highly appropriate for every scene and location.
From the icy, snow-capped sounds of The Frostlands…
("The Frostlands" plays in the background)
to the jovial, Italian port stylings of Rippletide...
("Grandport, City of Commerce" plays in the background)
it's easy to find yourself humming and singing a tune here and there, and it's even easier
to associate each area with said song because of its addicting loops and notes.
Simply put: it's an already masterful soundtrack that is enhanced even more by the eye candy
of the game's visuals.
With regards to the English voice acting, I found that the actors really tried to embody
and imbue a lot of personality onto their characters' sprites, and for the most part
I feel that they've succeeded.
My personal favorite voiced character is Tressa, and hearing her cheery voice represents everything
that is right about Octopath Traveler's voice acting.
Tressa: "Leave it to me, pa!"
Given its commercial success on the Nintendo Switch, Octopath Traveler probably won't
be the last game we'll see from this collaboration.
The producers and developers have much to learn and glean from criticisms of this game,
and I have no doubt that they'll be offering up a fantastic follow-up in the future.
But for now Octopath Traveler is, in my opinion, THE definitive Nintendo Switch JRPG and makes
this platform a must have for fans of the genre.
Its stellar progression system, its crafty battle tweaks, and the stories told in this
anthology are perfect for gaming on-the-go or for sitting infront of your couch, and
its design and gameplay are so elegant that it complements the platform its on really
well.
Tressa: "I don't know what lies beyond the horizon…"
Tressa: "But there's only one way to find out!"
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