Octopath Traveler was an interesting game for me, I initially started playing this game near the beginning of 2023, but dropped it just because I had other games I wanted to prioritise. I didn’t dislike the game, in fact I loved it.

Octopath Traveler, as in Eight-Path Traveler, covers the stories of eight different characters on each of their own journeys with different motivations and goals. My starting traveler was Therion, The Thief, and that was a great choice imo, I love thieves in games. You meet a variety of NPCs throughout each characters story, and many villains. It is truly a bummer that this game didn’t have the stories intertwine at all, as that could’ve been a huge selling point for the game.

The game has it all, a beautiful art style, great music, good combat, good exploration (thought I hate the encounter rates without an ability that reduces them). I didn’t mention stories because that’s what I want to cover mainly in this review.

I will say that a majority of the stories aren’t that great (in my opinion), without any spoilers, I’ll just say that the only stories that really captivated me were from the Dancer, Thief, and Apothecary. The others just didn’t click for me. Now I will say this may be because I stopped playing the game for a bit after completing each characters Chapter 1s, and some of their Chapter 2s, but that definitely wasn’t the main reason. Some of them personally just seemed really really boring that I didn’t really care about what happened. Also, the language used in one of the protagonists stories was a HUGE turn off, especially coming from me who hates that type of language. Like I stated before, they should’ve made the stories interconnect at different points, it would’ve been much more interesting that way, truly a missed opportunity.

In terms of the world, I enjoyed how each sub area had three different cities/towns. You had the sunlands (deserts), frostlands (snowy plains), flatlands (plains), highlands (mountains), riverlands (river banks), cliftlands (cliffs), woodlands (forests), and the coastlands (by the sea). I enjoyed exploring each of the different little towns and their own unique styles. One has a grand theatre and prioritises theatrics, whilst another is very reminiscent of Salem. All in all, the world of Orsterra was full of life and I enjoyed exploring the world.

Now, in regards to gameplay, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The boosting system is probably one of my favourite systems (except when enemies either disable your boost gauge or steal your BP, that’s not fun). I guess I just love doing big unga bunga damage. Bewildering Grace is simultaneously the best and worst skill, and it probably killed me more times than it actually helping me. I initially had no idea how to use the Apothecary class, but once I found out how good it was, I could never be stopped. The one thing about gameplay I dislike is the fact you have to grind, you might’ve not needed to grind (might be a skill issue on my part then), but the grinding just probably killed the momentum of the game for me, especially trying to reach the minimum level for each story chapter. I liked how each character came with a different path action, like Steal, Purchase, Allure, Guide, Challenge, Provoke, Scrutinize, and Inquire. Stealing was a god send, and found it funny how you could (if you really wanted to torture yourself), attempt to steal a high level item that has a 3% successful steal rate, and if you fail, to just reset the game and resume your save, and repeat. Another dislike about the gameplay is that each dungeon had a purple chest, and only Therion was able to open it (I had Therion on my team all the time so it didn’t really affect me at all, but I can understand how annoying it is). Also, the side quests being riddles from hell did not incentivise me to complete them. I also tried doing the true final boss, but after finishing the boss rush and dying like instantly from the final boss and having to do it all over again, I called it a day.

In my opinion, the game is solely carried by the world, the art style, and the music. Everything is either tedious or boring.

Overall, the game is solid, and I enjoyed my time with it. It was tempting to play OT2 before this game with the many quality of life changes, but I decided against it so I could have a better experience with both games. The game might not be your cup of tea, and that’s okay, don’t try to force yourself to like something like this, it can turn people off. Great game, with some questionable decisions, but they do not affect my overall enjoyment with the game.

Despite being far from perfect and having a lot of room for improvement, Octopath Traveler is a fascinating game. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, as this game is mainly aimed at fans of more classic JRPGs, with all that implies, such as turn-based battles and random encounters. Still, it's not a game worth playing just for that nostalgic factor alone, but it's pretty good on its own merits, and being honest, I think I've found what is one of my favorite games.

Let's start by talking about the main appeal of the game, and that is the fact that we have 8 protagonists, each with their own path and journey to go on. The game gives you a choice of which story you want to start with first, and after finishing a short prologue with that character, you can explore the map to meet the other travelers and recruit them to your party. The character you choose first will become the party leader for the rest of the game, this serves as a balancing measure, as the fact that you always have that specific character in your party means that you somehow always have a strong character that can deal with tough enemies such as those above your level.

As such, each of the characters represents a typical RPG class, such as the mage, the cleric, the thief, the knight, etc. But what Octopath Traveler does to distinguish its characters from each other is by giving them exclusive abilities, each character is unique and has their own gimmick both in and out of battles, for example, H'aanit has the predefined hunter class, which gives her the ability to unlock useful support and attack abilities, but she also has the exclusive ability to challenge villagers to fight against them in towns and additionally the ability to capture monsters in battle, which serves to summon monsters and use their special moves. This is further expanded with the class system that makes the characters even more versatile by allowing them to access the classes of the other travelers, so the fact that everyone has their own unique ability is something I like, but still the game is permissive enough to not make a specific character indispensable in battles thanks to the class system itself, so any combination of characters in your party can be completely viable.

First of all, the gameplay of this game is excellent, it builds on the foundations of classic turn-based combat gameplay, but expands and modernizes it by adding unique risk-reward elements that add a lot of depth to the combat, it's simply amazing. The game is driven by the boost system, which serves to make the attack or ability you perform in one turn have the effectiveness of 2 or more turns depending on how many points you use, it's quite similar to the tension system of DQVIII and DQIX (just to make a quick comparison), only much more flexible and taken to another level. Also, another system that the game implements is to "break" your enemies, which is achieved by attacking them in their weak point until their shield indicator is "0", when this is achieved, you can take 2 turns away from the enemy, besides making him more vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. These two systems together make Octopath Traveler's combat system extremely fun and engaging, as well as satisfying, as it rewards the player's ingenuity and is very versatile which allows you to experiment with all kinds of strategies, as you can approach battles either by playing the traditional way, focusing on applying buffs to your party and applying debuffs to your enemies, or on the other hand, focusing on exploiting the weaknesses of your enemies, or even with a combination of both approaches. One of my favorite classes was the merchant, because it has the ability to donate boost points to other characters during combat and makes strategizing even more fun, because if you play well, most normal battles are over in 1 or 2 turns.

The game gives you a LOT of tools to get through combat, ranging from items you can steal/buy from villagers or find in the myriad of chests scattered around the maps, and there are even support abilities that can help you narrow down the range of random battles quite a bit. On that note, I like how Octopath Traveler really cares about making your experience as smooth as possible, as there are even save points scattered around at key points, such as before entering caves/dungeons and before any boss fights. I really like how incredibly well balanced this game is. Still, I can see less experienced players in the genre thinking that this game is very difficult and requires a lot of grinding. But even so, I was sometimes able to be in many fights where the recommended level was above my own, and I always tried to make it so because I liked the increase in difficulty that comes with it.

Even with all the good things, this game does not save itself from having some defects to highlight, for example, in each chapter the characters can have conversations with each other, similar to the party chat of DQ7, the detail here is that to get these dialogues you must take certain members in your party at specific times that the game never tells you, I had to guide me with this post to know which characters to take, and even so it is a drag that to change the members of your party you always have to go to a tavern. I think it's a big mistake that the interactions between the party are guarded in this way.

Speaking of the structure of the game, it is somewhat monotonous, as it consists of arriving at a town, starting the story of a character, watching cutscenes, defeating the dungeon and its boss and continuing in the same way with the other chapters, even so, I do not see this as something bad, as the game is not linear and allows you to approach the stories and explore the map in any order, although I think it is something that could be improved by making more variations to this structure.

The world of Octopath Traveler is large, as there is quite a lot of optional content such as dungeons and side quests, but still, I feel that in this section sometimes the game focuses more on offering quantity over quality, for example, on the map there are a lot of caves that are totally optional, You would think that completing them would reward you with a very useful weapon or something like that, but the truth is that most of the time the items you can get from these places are not that useful, being more useful the same items you can get by stealing/buying from NPCs.

At the end of the last chapters the game has post-game content with a good length, which gives closure to the stories of some of the secondary characters, besides having some secret bosses of high difficulty and 4 secret advanced jobs that will be necessary for the super-boss, which speaking of the super-boss, this one is very difficult, which I did not like, because although it is not essential, it is advisable to face it because it unveils a lot of relevant background to the history of each of the protagonists. The side quests are pretty generic most of the time, so it's surprising to learn that there's a side quest that unlocks the game's super boss and the hardest battle. I didn't entirely like this, as there is a lot of story-relevant information that is unveiled in this side mission, plus the battle song is great. I think it would have been better to have made this the final chapter of all the stories and made the boss a bit easier.

And of course, the graphic style is excellent and somewhat novel. If you like the pixel art that the SNES/PS1 games had, you'll love the art style of Octopath Traveler. It's a weird mix of pixel art and realistic high-fidelity effects, but it's quite well done and together they add a lot to the immersion by giving more depth and detail to the environments in this way. In my opinion, it revives and gives another chance to the pixel art style in current games, as it looks quite familiar, but at the same time modern enough for current standards. It's like seeing an evolution of the art style that games like Dragon Quest VII or Xenogears had on PS1, as it combines pixel art textures with 3D structures, this game in particular achieves the look of a diorama that looks pretty good.

Another thing to highlight about this game is its soundtrack, one might think that it would be in a 16-bit style like pixel art or synthesized, but no, each piece is made with real instruments, and this time the composer Yasunori Nishiki delights us with a soundtrack of extremely high quality. Without a doubt my favorite themes have to be the boss battles, both the first and the second are fantastic, so much so that I simply couldn't help but get goosebumps every time there was a boss battle. But there are other themes that also fascinate me because of how atmospheric they are, like the ones that sound when you explore the forests or the icy areas. Without a doubt there are a lot of quality songs, which show that the composer really made an effort not only to create melodies that are pleasant to listen to, but that also portray the personality of the game, because for example, the theme of each character encapsulates the personality of each one that is almost as if their themes had been composed for them and no one else, in the case of Ophilia, her theme captures that tenderness and kindness that the character has, while Therion's theme conveys very well her loneliness and affliction.

Finally, speaking of the 8 stories that the game has in store, each one is good, some have a somewhat slow pace, but each one ends up being a good story with interesting themes and characters. The bad thing, is that each story is disconnected with all the others, that is to say, when you are inside the chapter of one of the main characters, the other 7 will not have any kind of participation and in general, no story is related to the others. Somehow, by the end I felt a lot of attachment with each character and each of the stories resonated with me. If I had to mention my favorite stories, they would be Alfyn, Therion, Ophilia and Olberic, although I really like the others as well.

Conclusion
This game is important. In a time where even Dragon Quest wants to leave aside the traditional JRPG structure, it is comforting to see a game that stands up to the rest and reclaims styles from the past that are not necessarily "outdated" as many believe, but are simply another style of game that many of us still enjoy and want to continue to see. Octopath Traveler presents classic systems, but modernized with original mechanics and better balanced, with a unique pixel art visual style when nowadays almost any company wants to leave that style in oblivion.

I think what the development team did for classic JRPGs and pixel art games is to be admired, because thanks to Octopath Traveler games like Triangle Strategy, Live A Live Remake or Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake can exist. This game not only serves as a tribute to the classic era of the genre, but is original enough to be considered its own thing.

Olberic punched the lights out of every villager before rescuing the little kid, if that's not a bonafide hero who is?

Please stop complaining about the depths of field it's to make it less easy to find chests and secret paths!!

I got one rounded by mobs around my own level before I could do anything because they "caught the party by surprise". Much to think about.

Yasunori Nishiki deserves the sloppiest of kisses for composing this soundtrack, genuinely one of my favourites in a long time

The charm of chibi and this games HD-2D art style is something that'll never leave my body, despite the grinding nature and traversal of this game I still think it keeps itself at bay without hurting its core too much with how atmospheric it ends up being, specific ones like ‘An Ill Omen’ and thermions theme are fucking fantastic. id even go as far to describe its soundtrack as whimsical in a sense.

I feel as though the lack of intertwinement of the cast is the biggest missed potential of this game as a whole, its split into eight individual stories to branch out the combat and the travel banter is there attempt at closing the gap but it still feels missed.

The maturity and overall tone of Primrose’s story moved me the most out the bunch, its take on you having to fight Primrose’s version of her final obstacle and then the real obstacle is a very welcomed detail. Aside from that Therion and Olbersic’s stories were favourites and even characters who weren’t on screen all that much like Leon added alot to not just Tressa’s story but everything as a whole.

All in all it’s a welcomed experience, one that I pumped 150 hours into but something id say was worth my time. I’ve been told my main gripes with this story get improved upon in 2 so im genuinely excited to continue sometime later this year

“Where’s the nearest tavern!”

it's entirely possible the final 30 hours of this game are peak, but i'm absolutely not willing to go from the 10 hour mark to the 20 hour mark

going in blind through 8 prologues only to be met with an actual level gap of 10 levels to the next quest at level 15 is insane - i did my best to stick with it but after going at it and realizing it would be several hours just for half of the party unless i did some serious wikicheesing ive decided there's about 15 atelier games more worth my time for the same output

it's a shame because the fundamentals - combat, visuals, sound, world design and character writing - all seem excellent, but it's like they released this with a force field around it to keep anyone but people who calculate game ratings by ($/hour of playtime) away from it

at least it made an engine for old square jrpgs to be remastered in

Gameplay's solid, exploiting enemy weaknesses is a very satisfying addition to regular turn-based combat that fleshes it out well, and the characters and classes each bring something fun and unique to the table that made me want to experiment and swap around party comps frequently. Graphics are also beautiful.

I understand why people find the party traveling together despite their stories being so disconnected questionable, but personally that doesn't bother me all that much. The overall quality of the stories is admittedly kind of a mixed bag. Some stories like Alfyn, Olberic and Cyrus's were quite good and featured a lot of fun scenarios and characters, but there were also a fair few lackluster stories like Tressa, H'aanit and especially Primrose.

I think if you like the general gameplay loop, the graphics and are at least intrigued by some of these characters' stories, you'll get a lot of hours out of this, but there's also nothing wrong with skipping this game and playing its superior sequel. If you play this game after 2 I think you'll find some difficulty readjusting to the many features that weren't in 1, but you may still have a good time.

"The characters only have a few conversations with each other!" pop quiz, in no fewer than 200 words describe the fleshed out and engaging relationships between Garrus and Liara or Astarion and Wyll

"It's so grindy!" unironically skill issue, sorry the combat system expects you to learn it instead of brute forcing the entire game with Big Number

"The stories and characters are boring!" you are not worthy to be a worm in the dirt upon which Primrose Azelhart walks

Okay, so I've been militant about this game as like... 5-10% a joke for years. In seriousness, I can acknowledge it's a flawed gem, especially now that it has a sequel that absolutely transcends it.

But I love the anthology-style story, as uneven as the characters are some of them (see above) are great, the artstyle and especially the music should be the stuff of legends, and the Octopath combat system is simply my favorite for a pure RPG, all time. It has a ton of depth but it's also so punchy and bombastic, the sound design alone on the break and boost mechanics is satisfying on an almost indecent level. There's no dopamine rush quite like fighting a group of enemies, systematically wearing down their shields so that they all break on the same turn, and vaporizing them with a fully-boosted AoE spell. It's a system that's tense and challenging and asks a lot of you strategically, and at the same time routinely makes you feel like a wrathful god if you use all the tools at your disposal and meet those demands. Absolutely peak.

The worst thing you can say about Octopath Traveler is that it's not Octopath Traveler II, but that's a devastatingly cruel comparison to make for most games.

Ah, Octopath 1.
I remember being a lot hesitant of trying this game when I first got it, because the reception people had on the story and the characters, and I kinda told myself to agree to those statements. For the most part I thought the criticism of the game were enough to justify the "lack of quality" of this title.

But then I swallow this hesitation and finally tried by myself and...... this game is magical.

It's an amazing recreation of a old formula with a tecnology that not only evolves it from a graphical stand point (many people don't think that this game LITERALLY INVENTED the HD2D), but also from a gameplay stand-point, creating a combat that feels simple and deep at the same time, that alone makes you replay the title over and over again.

Yasunori Nishiki, the main composer, is easily my favorite musician in the industry, able to create some of the best OST I have heard in a videogame.

The writing is.... I like to describe it as a really tasty "Pizza Otto Stagioni": basically a meal prepared in eight sections, each with diverse ingredients, with each section having a different "tone" or vibe. As a whole it may feel too segmented (especially for a JRPG) and I get if people may not like it.
But the way it is all presented, prepared and cooked makes you understand how much care was put into it, despite its shortcomings, and makes you appreciate the title even more.

It's not a title for everyone and I personally prefer of Octopath 2 evolves the formula, but nonetheless, I will still recommend Octopath Traveler to any sort of fans of JRPGs. It's a gem!

The game looks gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous; the music goes from "ok" to phenomenal; the battle system has some cool ideas and is very simple to understand. And the plot of every character is pretty good. Nothing incredible but gets the job done. Even more when you reach the secret final chapter and everything is put together.

With all this said, I still don't know how they managed to make this game sooo slow, repetitive and plain boring as it is.
If you are a die-hard JRPG fan, I'm sure you will love it.
Otherwise, be careful. Don't be fooled by its reputation and amazing graphics: you are about to swallow a 90 hours-long sleeping pill.
You have been warned.

I found it to become quite boring quite quickly. Many people say that it's a bit long, especially towards the end, and that it's weak in terms of story, but I thought that even the beginning was a bit shit :D Unfortunately, I found the writing very mediocre and on the nose. It looks great and the music is excellent, but unfortunately I wasn't particularly interested in the world or the characters. The fact that I have to grind at the beginning and that there are random encounters doesn't make the game any better.