Plataform: Switch
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Year: 2018
Players: 1
Square Enix have been displaying a lot of talent in recent entries. Clearly It’s not enough for them to own two of the most important RPG series, so they are producing successful experiments as well, like Octopath Traveler. This game belongs to the turn-based combat genre, and it’s a mix between retro style and modern mechanics. I mean, most the presentation layer looks like a 16-bit Super Famicom game, so the characters are depicted by sprites, and the enemies too. Only some special effects escape to this rule.
They were very creative with the continent design, because there exist a variety of landscapes, including desert areas, woods, snowy terrain, coasts, mountains, etc.
Nevertheless, this entry considers all the progress made in the history of turn-based RPGs, so the combat system feels modern and enough for today’s standards. Each and every main character can use some unique skills, there’s a lot of different equipment and items to use, and challenging boss stages that require different tactical approaches. It’s natural to go for some grinding to leveling-up, there’s a lot of quests and side-quests which reward us with gold or items, and our team consists of a max of 4 characters. Main story quests require to travel to some dungenon, where we will find a variety of enemies and treasure chests as well. Once the boss stage from this dungeon is defeated, a Chapter is finished.
Octopath’s positive attributes don’t stop here: the idea of having 8 main protagonists, each of them with his/her own story and quests brings a unique experience so the game itself is non-linear. These 8 characters are independent and their stories don’t merge, so we can start the game anywhere we like and continue this way until the very end. The only constraint is that a character’s chapters are structured and linear. Excluding this, there’s no order, allowing to start, continue and finish the game in any order. One can prefer to clear female characters stories, and then continue with male characters. The oppostite is also valid. In my case, I chose to clear first all chapters from northern characters, and then I continued with the southern protagonists. In general, all plots are good, and each character has his/her own problems and quests, and they will find a lot of unpredictable situations until they find what they want. The only feature I disliked are some plot-devices.
Conclussions
Positive features
Presentation
Gameplay and replay value
Music
Story and characters
Grinding is fun
Negative features
Plot devices
Implementation of the ‘final quest’
Score: 10.0
Consoles Universe 