As I climbed the steps towards the ultimate, remaining boss of Octopath Traveler, I knew I used to be completed for. Over the previous 80-odd hours, I’d battled my manner via this beautiful 3D pixel diorama the one manner I knew how: with my three favorite and strongest characters doing a lot of the heavy-lifting. The fourth and remaining character in my occasion was whoever out of the eight-strong solid of do-gooders I occurred to be pursuing the story of at that individual second. Sure, it meant I had a 30-odd stage hole between my finest and worst fighters, however anything would have required an extreme, and I actually do imply extreme, quantity of grinding.
But having endured every of its eight separate character tales, I’d assumed that three Lv.65 warriors and one Lv.50-ish bloke would in all probability be sufficient to lastly put this game to mattress. Then it requested the unimaginable, bringing everybody into the combo in a manner that totally destroyed any likelihood I ever had of rising victorious. And it was at that second that I believed, “Stuff it. You can have this world, evil menace. I am done.”
It wasn’t for need of making an attempt, both. I do know that grinding up the extent ladder is, to an extent, half and parcel of the JRPG’s DNA. But Octopath Traveller suffers from such a debilitating mid-to-late game stoop that, even when I did have the time to place in one other 30-40-odd hours to even stand an opportunity in opposition to that final boss, the foundations that maintain up its core levelling system simply merely don’t run deep sufficient to assist it for that size of time. And I really like Octopath Traveller’s battle system. I actually do. Just not sufficient to do what it’s clearly asking of me.
I really like the element in Octopath’s enemy sprites and the way small and insignificant you are feeling by comparability. It makes whacking them six methods to Sunday really feel all of the extra satisfying.
Even worse, the precise end-game occasions have been completely of my very own making. For Octopath Traveler isn’t like your conventional JRPG, the place you’re continually working towards defeating an evil, all-consuming energy about to take over the world. Oh no. Unless you go searching for it down a selected rabbit gap of sidequests, Octopath Traveler is basically content material to amuse itself with simply the person tales of its eight assorted occasion members – therefore the ‘octo’ bit within the game’s title.
They’re all fairly typical JRPG characters. You’ve acquired: your warrior who’s looking for a motive to wield his sword once more after failing to guard his king; a thief who will get his fingers caught within the cookie jar and should atone for his crimes; a healthful cleric who should endure a pilgrimage and convey hope to the folks; and an apothecary who units off to heal the world whereas trying to find the person who saved his life as a toddler. Then there’s the hunter who goes on a quest to avoid wasting her grasp, the service provider who desires of travelling to far-flung locations and promoting their most unique treasures, and eventually there’s the mage-like scholar who makes use of his Holmesian detective expertise to convey down an evil demise cult. All proper, perhaps that final one isn’t fairly your common JRPG stereotype, however you get the thought.
You can decide whose story you deal with first, too. I went with Olberic the warrior to verify I at all times had a great tank at my disposal, however after I’d accomplished the primary of his 4 story chapters, I used to be then free to wander across the map at my leisure and go and recruit the remainder in any order I appreciated – and for a great 30 hours or so I used to be actually reasonably having fun with what the game needed to provide.
An enormous a part of that’s all the way down to its sensible battle system. Man alive, I adore it a lot. The music alone deserves chef kiss tier ranges of worship, however the way in which you dance between “breaking” an enemy’s defences and “boosting” the quantity or energy of your personal assaults to essentially stick the boot in once they’re down has such a satisfying rhythm to it that every encounter is sort of a dwelling, respiratory puzzle.
You see, each enemy is weak to a unique clutch of weapons and magic assaults, indicated by a string of tiny little query marks beneath their fantastically detailed sprites. Strike at certainly one of them appropriately and the query mark will likely be crammed in, decreasing the quantity on their protect defences by nevertheless many instances you handle to hit them. Break an enemy fully and so they received’t be capable to assault once more for the remainder of the flip, or the one after, presenting you with the right alternative to essentially layer up your enhance assaults and hammer these suckers with a truck ton of harm.
Managing your enhance factors is one other a part of the puzzle, very like it was in Square Enix’s equally glorious Bravely Default collection on the Nintendo 3DS, which Octopath’s producers labored on beforehand. There, you can save up turns to make use of unexpectedly by “defaulting” (i.e: defending) for a bit, or you can “brave” it by dipping right into a form of turn-based overdraft on the expense of not having the ability to assault once more till your BP bar acquired again within the black.
Each character’s weapons are decided by their job, and later you may assign secondary jobs to widen their ability set.
Here, it’s about ensuring you construct up sufficient enhance factors to coincide with whenever you’re about to interrupt your enemy’s defences, which I discovered usually meant really delaying the entire breaking enterprise for a flip so I may max out my golden BP bloops to essentially lay it on thick within the subsequent one. After all, there’s no level breaking an enemy on the very finish of a flip as soon as they’ve already completed their assaults, as you’ll solely get the advantage of their dazed state for a single flip. Break them earlier than they crop up in that flip’s battle order, however, and also you’ll successfully benefit from two free goes to essentially present them who’s boss.
I cherished the method of determining their weaknesses, too. The query marks at all times seem in the identical order, for instance (swords, then spears, then daggers and so on), and as you step by step begin filling them in it turns into its personal form of sudoku puzzle — particularly when a number of the finish chapter bosses can change all of their vulnerabilities mid-fight. There’s nothing extra pleasing than appropriately guessing that final line of defence that wins you a life-saving break, and it’s one of many few JRPG battle techniques the place I’d felt like I’d really mastered every of its particular person elements.
You can see your total occasion working round on the world map, however throughout chapter cutscenes all of them bugger off and the story treats them like they have been by no means there within the first place, making it tougher to consider this group of strangers are literally associates.
It makes for some genuinely thrilling fight, nevertheless it’s a disgrace that sense of selection doesn’t present itself in the identical manner anyplace else. Each character chapter, for example, begins by arriving at a city. In mentioned city, you’ll discuss to some key NPCs for a bit, getting your newest little bit of exposition dump that units up that chapter’s large boss battle, and then you definately go to the adjoining dungeon space, be it a forest, mansion, sewer or cave (it’s at all times one of many 4) to do some combating. Beat the boss and the chapter ends. Rinse and repeat 4 instances for all eight characters.
This is the sum whole of every little thing you’ll be doing in Octopath Traveler, and a giant motive why its mid-to-late-game stoop feels so torpid. No matter which character you’re following, each chapter feels such as you’re spinning the identical previous wheels many times, and for those who’re not likely that fussed concerning the story in query, it could actually really feel doubly tiresome. I couldn’t care much less about Tressa’s craving to seek out the right service provider ethos, for instance, and Primrose’s quest for revenge in opposition to the boys that killed her father felt like a narrative I’d heard a dozen instances earlier than.
Occasional character skits go some solution to make these eight strangers really feel extra like a staff, however in any other case it is a surprisingly lonely JRPG.
Scholar man Cyrus added a little bit of spice to the story along with his bizarre demise cult plot, even when he himself was so achingly posh that I type of hated him on the identical time, and the holier-than-thou Ophelia and her pilgrimage to rekindle the world’s sacred flame was candy in locations but additionally ended up falling a bit flat for me.
Olberic and Therion had some fairly good yarns, the previous channelling an all too acquainted ‘what the hell am I going to do with my life?’ form of vitality, whereas the latter finally ends up utilizing his thieving expertise for good in an effort to study some helpful life classes. I used to be additionally very onboard with happy-go-lucky Alfyn’s philosophy of simply including a bit of additional kindness to the world, and looking down a legendary beast with H’aanit felt like a type of early first acts from a Final Fantasy game — though you’ll in all probability need to change to the Japanese voiceover for her bits as a result of actually simply take a look at the state of this ye olde dialogue she’s been given:
If you suppose it’s dangerous to learn, simply WAIT till you hear it aloud.
Even if you find yourself liking extra tales than I did, although, there’s a deeper downside with Octopath Traveler than simply mere repetition. Every chapter has a beneficial stage hooked up to it, you see, which is roughly in step with the ferocity of its accompanying monsters. That could be advantageous if a) all of your characters caught in your bench levelled up alongside those in your foremost occasion and b) its plentiful provide of sidequests rewarded you with additional expertise factors to assist make up any shortfall.
But neither of these issues occur in Octopath Traveler. Sidequests solely reward you with cash and stock gadgets (some, admittedly, do contain just a few fights, however the overwhelming majority are all prolonged fetch quests), and the one manner I used to be ever in a position to hit the beneficial stage cap with out resorting to limitless, mind-numbing grinding was by adopting the technique I outlined at the beginning: persist with three mains and rotate the fourth. It would take literal years to try to preserve everybody on the identical stage. You can’t even take away the very first character you selected at the beginning till you’ve completed their total storyline.
It’s so irritating, as a result of there are such a lot of issues I really like about Octopath Traveler despite its many, and actually fairly crippling flaws. The music is simply divine, the battle system is up there with the perfect of the style, and I’m each bemused and astounded by the extent of element Square Enix and fellow builders Acquire have put into all of the backstories of the NPCs. It’s nuts! Half the time they’re extra fascinating than the principle heroes.
Forget the principle heroes – I need to hear extra about this weirdo!
I simply want it was higher structured to ship {that a} conclusion with out collapsing on itself on the final hurdle. Because there are hints of one thing wider at play right here. It simply does a horrible job of pulling all of it collectively, which may depart Octopath Traveler feeling like a giant previous anticlimax. I each adore it and hate it in equal measure, though I have to say the PC model’s beautiful 60fps is totally to die for after chugging via it on the Switch. It makes me all of the extra inclined to offer it a type of sneaky thumbs up, however in the long run I believe even JRPG die hards will discover this a little bit of a slog. It’s positively a unique and fascinating tackle the style, however in the end I concern this will likely be a path much less travelled by these after a stone chilly JRPG traditional.
