Octopath Traveler

 Switch
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1400 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,136 out of 1400
  2. Mixed: 133 out of 1400
  3. Negative: 131 out of 1400
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Rtheom
    Jul 15, 2018
    6
    Unfortunately, the biggest flaw with this game is the fact that you're not playing 1 overaching story with 8 contributing paths, but 8 parallel paths that really don't have much to do with each other and literally no interaction between the characters. You're not playing with a party of adventurers so much as a group of strangers silently hanging out together. In a game that gets half ofUnfortunately, the biggest flaw with this game is the fact that you're not playing 1 overaching story with 8 contributing paths, but 8 parallel paths that really don't have much to do with each other and literally no interaction between the characters. You're not playing with a party of adventurers so much as a group of strangers silently hanging out together. In a game that gets half of its merit from story alone, this is a bit of a failure. The characters by themselves are fairly interesting with decent stories to them, but that just makes the lack of connection all the more frustrating.

    However, If you're looking for old school JRPG, that's what you're getting. But beware, there have been A LOT of "quality of life" upgrades RPGs have gained over the years that this game deliberately leaves out, to be more like the older games. Fights are very repetitive, menus are needlessly complex, the story is slow, and you're going to have to grind A LOT. If you're looking for all of that, which is what us older folks knew growing up, you'll be pleased. If you're a youngin' whipper snapper, this probably isn't the game for you. As an adult that grew up on these games with relatively little free time now, I'm torn. I want to like this, but I don't want to devote my life to it and the failing of the story to unite these individually interesting characters really ruins the momentum I had to play it. Buy at your own risk.    … Expand
  2. Malooga
    Jul 16, 2018
    7
    Octopath Traveler is a competent and charming title with only ONE real fault, but it's the average execution of many JRPG tropes that overall lend it less of a "masterpiece" entry from Square.

    Despite the run-of-the mill story and combat mechanics there are some stand-out features that make this worth the price tag in my opinion, just be aware of a few things before purchase: 1. The    Octopath Traveler is a competent and charming title with only ONE real fault, but it's the average execution of many JRPG tropes that overall lend it less of a "masterpiece" entry from Square.

    Despite the run-of-the mill story and combat mechanics there are some stand-out features that make this worth the price tag in my opinion, just be aware of a few things before purchase:

    1. The English voice acting while not poor in audio quality, is TERRIBLE in terms of portraying what the character would sound like. Solemn moments are punctuated with upbeat inflections, and therefore upbeat moments lose distinction. I tried SEVERAL characters, each cringe-worthy. Then I switched to Japanese dub - problem (mostly) solved. That is unless reading is a chore for you, in which case I would have to seriously wait on this game. It was that bad it many cases.

    2. Combat while deep, does not ever really challenge the player to plunge the depths of the mechanics at hand. Personally I think a 3-player party restriction would have solved this a bit, as there isn't anything inherently wrong with the combat itself, it's quite enjoyable. Still, any real difficulty curve would have to come from skipping potential party members, or forgetting to restock items before battle. Not much else is there in terms of difficulty curves, especially since most of the "weakness" puzzle is solved from simply attacking until you solve it.

    Those are the two major gripes, aside from a generally lackluster story for roughly half of the available characters that falls squarely into the "generic" classification. Still, seeing as how Square helped pioneer that genre in the West, its a somewhat fitting homage that while not vastly different, is very much the best of what we remember from youth.

    There are some outlandish rave reviews that I think come from behind some tight nostalgia goggles, so go in expecting average and you will be pleasantly surprised.

    7/10    … Expand
  3. Kehar001
    Jul 14, 2018
    5
    Game looks great - manages to be nostalgic without miring itself in the past, and there's a lot of depth to the environment layered in these 16-bit stylized graphics. I'm finding the handling of light and shadow particularly impressive. Soundtrack is very well crafted. And the combat is really solid, if not particularly innovative. The influence of the Bravely series is easy to see withGame looks great - manages to be nostalgic without miring itself in the past, and there's a lot of depth to the environment layered in these 16-bit stylized graphics. I'm finding the handling of light and shadow particularly impressive. Soundtrack is very well crafted. And the combat is really solid, if not particularly innovative. The influence of the Bravely series is easy to see with the ability to stack attacks each round, and we've seen other games that exploit enemy weaknesses to stagger them (P5, etc.). So nothing game changing here, but we've maybe never seen these combat elements integrated in quite this way before and there's a lot of polish to the system they've built.

    The individualized stories are just okay. Nothing horrible, and some are better than others, but by-and-large expect a lot of tired tropes and cliches. A little too heavy-handed with the faux-Shakespearean language, and whatever they were trying to accomplish with H'aanit justeth didn'teth worketh.

    The game's biggest fault lies with how completely disjointed the individual characters are. The developers obviously weren't going for a singular overarching plot, and the game rather works as a collection of short stories. But there's next to zero interaction between the party members throughout, which can be especially jarring when you trigger a cut-scene with a party of four only to have three of them suddenly disappear. There are also enough common references to the world and connections between characters that there are very obvious points where certain party members *should* have input for the events unfolding in another's story. A few simple lines of dialogue acknowledging new characters when they join the party, and a few dynamic triggers to include auxiliary characters in cut-scenes when appropriate would do have done wonders in establishing some sort of cohesion among the group without any need to tie all the stories back together to face off against a singular enemy.

    Fans of traditional JRPG's that are willing to overlook a fairly flat story are probably going to enjoy this game quite a bit. But the lack of cohesion among the core group of characters suggests to me a certain lack of vision, or maybe just laziness, that prevents the game from really being "great."    … Expand
  4. DreamCore
    Jul 30, 2018
    7
    To anyone complaining about there being 8 separate storys and not one bigger plot. Well, the game is called OCTOPATH traveller. Meaning 8-paths traveller which is how the game is designed. In order to make a bigger plot that had dialogues etc between character the game would have to be linear and to force you to get certain characters to proceed past certain points etc. The game is designTo anyone complaining about there being 8 separate storys and not one bigger plot. Well, the game is called OCTOPATH traveller. Meaning 8-paths traveller which is how the game is designed. In order to make a bigger plot that had dialogues etc between character the game would have to be linear and to force you to get certain characters to proceed past certain points etc. The game is design in such a way that you can choose which characters you want. You could potentially solo the game with just one character and this is the whole purpose of the design of the game. Again, having the storys branch together would be a completely different game. If you don't like this then well, this game isn't for you. I do agree that the stories are slightly too similar and a bit too shallow but the gameplay and combat is superb and I would definitely recommend this to any JRPG fan.

    Edit:

    Having played 50+ hours I have to adjust my score and review. I reduced the score from 9 to 7. Why? Because this is a deeply flawed game.

    Problems:

    * Lack of voice-overs in most dialogues feels cheep. All the story dialogues should have it but now some have it while some doesn't. It feels completely random and like they had to do this because of time or budget limitations.

    * The Side Stories are utter garbage. Never experienced anything like it. There is no way to know what you're supposed to do and it feels like they intentionally did this in order to force you into buying a guide book.

    * All Main Story chapters are built in the same way (except for one or two exceptions) where you read tons of dialogue followed by a very small dungeon with a boss at the end, followed by even more dialogue. Also every chapter takes place in a city. This pattern gets extremely repetitive after 8 chapters, so imagine this after 32 (8x4) chapters. Also the stories are way to short and half of them are plain boring (Merchant Chapter 4 is about someone stealing your journal and you chase her to the sewers to get it back. I mean really? Maybe a 5 year old would enjoy this...). It feels like the stories are designed for 6-12 year olds while the combat difficulty is balanced towards hardcore JRPG gamers.

    * The world is empty except for some branching paths with chests at the end. The same goes for dungeons which are also way too small.

    *The job system is boring. Each character has a Main Job like Hunter or Warrior. Also every job exists as a Sub Job meaning anyone can be any class which means that the fact that for example Alfyn is an Apothecary doesn't really mean anything since anyone can be an Apothecary. There are 4 Advanced jobs which are different. It would be nicer if there were 8 Advanced Jobs instead of the 8 standard Sub Jobs, meaning that if you wanted an Apothecary in your team, you would have to pick Alfyn. Now it feels like you have 8 characters just for the sake of it when really 4 characters is all you need to have all classes available. Also for some weird nonsensical reason you only get the Advanced Jobs after completing the the Main Story (you could in theory get them before Chapter 4 but the bosses are harder than the Chapter 4 bosses). Why would I need them when I've already completed the game?

    Good:

    * The graphics and art style is awesome.

    * The music is awesome..

    * The combat and especially bosses are very well designed.

    Verdict:

    I would love to see a Final Fantasy like game with this art style and combat but with a proper nice story and more work put into making the world feel less empty.    … Expand
  5. EliteEvil
    Sep 20, 2020
    6
    When I first started this game I loved it, like many of the other 10/10 reviews made in the first 40 hours or so, but hours 60-70 of filler optional dungeons and the infuriating hours long final boss without any saves prompt this review.

    The lack of interconnecting stories and boring dungeons are already well covered as is the great music and graphics. I have some objective criticisms    When I first started this game I loved it, like many of the other 10/10 reviews made in the first 40 hours or so, but hours 60-70 of filler optional dungeons and the infuriating hours long final boss without any saves prompt this review.

    The lack of interconnecting stories and boring dungeons are already well covered as is the great music and graphics. I have some objective criticisms beyond that however. The USP of this game is that you can make a party of any 4 from 8 characters, but that is not true. If you don't take Therion there is a chest in each dungeon you cannot unlock so you cannot experience the full game without him in every dungeon and some towns. Why is the main plot hidden at the end of the game? I know loads of old JRPGs that hide import stuff - omega dungeon in ffx and the emeralda dungeon in xenogears for example - but it sucked then, too. I don't get why you would almost force people to read a walk through to find the end of the game. The difficulty curve is very frustrating throughout, not so bad most people will get bored and quit like bravely default, as when stuck in octopath there is generally not too much time lost in abandoning a quest and switching to another. It is still objectively frustrating however when a boss is way harder than you had a hint of (Therions quest is probably the worst for this.) But the worst annoyance is the final dungeon. Fight the same sprites you have seen before, 8 bosses one after another, then get massacred by the final boss. I cannot be bothered to try a third time because I could play a better game in the time it will take to grind out another 5-10 levels and fight the same bosses over again to try a different strategy.    … Expand
  6. GrumpySarcasm
    Jul 13, 2019
    5
    A well-made game with no soul.

    This game has a lot of content: - Each of the eight characters have their own story. Unfortunately all these stories are as boggstandard as can be. Each tale is a classic that you have heard before. When betrayal comes you will not be surprised. When the villain is revealed you will sigh. - So many areas with good art. But each area is exactly what you    A well-made game with no soul.

    This game has a lot of content:
    - Each of the eight characters have their own story. Unfortunately all these stories are as boggstandard as can be. Each tale is a classic that you have heard before. When betrayal comes you will not be surprised. When the villain is revealed you will sigh.
    - So many areas with good art. But each area is exactly what you would expect. Towns that look like towns. Roads that look like roads. Caves that look like caves. This seems like a silly criticism, but for me, one of the central parts of a great JRPG are the fantastical concepts. Those are not here, at all.
    - Bossfights are the best part of this game and one of the few things that kept me playing. The art for each boss is amazing. Some of them are very challenging, some are there more because every chapter needs a boss apparently, but overall very enjoyable.

    Although this game does everything right on the surface; detailed art, lots of options for combat and so much content, it lacks the important things. Character development; In spite of the many internal dialogues allegedly portraying internal conflict it does not happen in a believable way. Engaging environments; In spite of every map being beautifully made it lacks an interesting concept. Gripping story; Going through all eight initial stories there are no real surprises and if you read the conversations during those stories you have already figured out what the endgame story is.

    In a few months i will remember next to nothing about this game. If you love JRPGs think about your favorite game and the moments you remember and why. This game does not have that. Thus:

    A well-made game with no soul.    … Expand
  7. pmasterfunk
    Mar 5, 2019
    5
    I don't know how Square does it. They have a game full of potential and promise, with interesting mechanics, cool look, good music, but they still manage to pump out a smeller. I got pulled in by the demo - so beware.

    For the TL;DR crowd, here's the short version: fun at first, but combat becomes repetitive and awful story made me give up. Now Let's start with the good. I quite like    I don't know how Square does it. They have a game full of potential and promise, with interesting mechanics, cool look, good music, but they still manage to pump out a smeller. I got pulled in by the demo - so beware.

    For the TL;DR crowd, here's the short version: fun at first, but combat becomes repetitive and awful story made me give up.

    Now Let's start with the good. I quite like the look of the game. I've mostly played it in portable mode, but whenever I plug it into the TV I'm surprised at how good it looks. Areas shine and twinkie with all sorts of details and highlights, and it's really impressive. Maybe not your cup of tea, but I think it's amazing.

    The music is also quite good. Reminds me of Secret of Mana on occasion, which is compliment. Voiceover is a bit meh, but that's not a deal breaker for me. You can always switch to Japanese.

    Once you get a full team, it's a bit easier to start roaming around and exploring, which is probably the best part in the game. There are lots of places to see, and a couple areas off the beaten path that are interesting. Interacting with NPCs in towns is fun for the most part, but it does get tedious by the end of the game.

    The battle mechanics are pretty novel, and the Bravely Default styled BP (battle points) system is cool. Boss battles are usually a nice change of pace from regular battles, and boss sprites in particular look amazing. The shield/break mechanic is interesting if a bit exploitable, but overall the system is not nearly as easily exploitable as it was in Bravely Default.

    Sadly, that's all I can say that I like about the game.

    Near the end of the game regular battles are a bit of a slog, as enemies start racking up shield points - stretching out battles quite a bit. Boss fights are still interesting, but I feel that alternative approaches à la SMT are hard to apply. Boosting and buffing should be easier; the pace of battles is already slow, so having to do so much prep to boost the whole team is a bit of a downer.

    And then there's the story. Oh lord. The story.

    You probably know this by now, but none of the 8 stories have any relation to each other. Whatsoever. And even individually, the stories are mostly bad.

    Tressa's is the worst. Her final boss? A character whose name we just learned about 20 minutes ago, whose story basically goes like this :

    -HAHAHAHA I stole a diary from a loser I've never met! I have been searching for this diary for so long!
    20 minutes later:
    -ARGH, this diary is useless, even though we've never met and I have no reason to hate you, I'll try and kill you!

    I can't make this **** up. It's completely episodic. Most chapters could have been shuffled around and it wouldn't have made a difference. There is little to no character development.

    And. The. Pace. Is. So. Goddamn. Slow. Most story bits usually go like this: about 20 minutes of exposition, followed by about 10 minutes of gameplay, then another 20 minutes of exposition. Most of which is pointless banter.

    I'm also surprised that Square let this slip, considering the devs were the guys behind Bravely Default, another mechanically solid game ruined by awful storytelling. "Sure guys, just do whatever you do, I'm sure the story's fine". I know the game was financially successful, but still...

    Other odds and ends:
    - Quests are really hard to follow. All that was needed was a quest section in the menu. The vast majority of quests I've finished were purely by chance. "Oh, you want this? How convenient of me to have this forgotten item in my inventory that might be useful to you". Most of the time the rewards are garbage anyway.
    - Equipment management is surprisingly laborious. It's practically impossible to buy something useful from a store. As soon as you have access to a new location, you probably have stuff that's better than what they're selling. I've played through the whole game and never once bought an expendable item, they're so common.
    - Some battle animations go by really fast, and some take forever. Analyzing an enemy for weaknesses and showing HP goes by really fast, but HP and SP regen at the end of a turn is really slow.
    - I find the font too small. In portable mode it's okay, but it's barely legible on the TV from my sofa. My TV is not that small and no, don't suggest that I buy a 75" TV just so I can read the garbage dialog in this game.

    All in all, I'm sad to see Square - once again - put out a game that works well, looks and sounds good, and has an interesting premise but still ends up being bloated and unfulfilling. With just a few tweaks, it really could have been a great game. But I'm sure they already have a mediocre sequel in the works, Nonapath Traveler: Bravely Secure (financially). I may have forgotten the Re: in there.    … Expand
  8. EnduroDoug
    Jul 19, 2018
    7
    There's a part of me that wants to give the game a perfect 10. That's the part that only played a few hours. Sadly, the more time one spends with the game, the more tedious and repetitive it becomes.

    The problems with the lack of intertwined stories has been well reported, but an even bigger crime for me is the boring dungeon design. Every dungeon feels exactly the same, only with a    There's a part of me that wants to give the game a perfect 10. That's the part that only played a few hours. Sadly, the more time one spends with the game, the more tedious and repetitive it becomes.

    The problems with the lack of intertwined stories has been well reported, but an even bigger crime for me is the boring dungeon design. Every dungeon feels exactly the same, only with a different skin. I don't get curious to see what is around the corner, or where the next dungeon will take me. I don't bother looking for secret exits or hidden mini-bosses. None of that exists. It's exactly the same each and every time.

    Yes, the battle system, graphics, and music are all superb. And that's what kept me coming back. But the game's flaws, as few as they may be, are too serious to overlook.    … Expand
  9. LoomBoom
    Sep 11, 2018
    6
    Overall, I'm very disappointed with the game.

    The first 20 hours when I was going through all the first chapters I was in love with it. Then when I started the chapter 2s I started getting less and less engaged with the stories, but I was still pretty addicted so it, so it didn't bother me too much, but then I hit around 40 hours I just hit a wall. The stories aren't that great and    Overall, I'm very disappointed with the game.

    The first 20 hours when I was going through all the first chapters I was in love with it. Then when I started the chapter 2s I started getting less and less engaged with the stories, but I was still pretty addicted so it, so it didn't bother me too much, but then I hit around 40 hours I just hit a wall.

    The stories aren't that great and the characters pretty much stopped developing after their chapter 1s. They all have a similar structure: go to new town, discover problem, find person, go to dungeon, fight boss, repeat. There's pretty much no variety. I was really encouraged by the first chapters as I thought all the stories had potential to be great, especially Primrose's (who is my main), but they all peaked in the beginning. There's just no variety and I just stopped caring for the stories and the characters, I could literally care less how they end. The fractured story telling I think really damaged the characters and the story. Also none of them intersect which makes it really boring. I've completed half of the chapter 3s and I've finished Ophelia's story, and then I'm going to finish Primrose's story and call a quits.

    This game has really become a slog for me. The grinding became really bad after the chapter 2s and between trying to steal really good weapons and grinding for money, I just got exhausted from it all. I tried keeping everyone at a good level, but it became a big hassle. It's really annoying that there's no way to share experience with party members not in your party. A lot of other RPGs do that like Persona and it just makes things easier. The gameplay has just become really repetitive, along with the story.

    Also dungeons leave a lot to be desired, they don't feel very fun or interesting. No puzzles, no twists, no interesting environments, no significant length; you basically just run through them in 10 mins until you get to the boss and move on.

    The redeeming factors is its fun combat. It's not perfect: I wish I could examine my stats in battle and my weapons stats in battle, but other than that I find it a blast and that's one of the reasons I've been able to hold on for so long.

    The music is really great and I never get tired of the tracks. They hit it out of the park with that.

    The graphics are also fantastic. 2D HD is awesome and I hope to see it return for other games.

    I also like the voice actors, though I wish more lines were voiced.

    So, do I regret my purchase? I wouldn't go so as far to say that, but I'm just bummed out that this game really got worse the more I played it. I thought it was a nice experiment and I'm happy Square Enix has been successful, but I certainly would not recommend this game to any one except for big JRPG enthusiasts. I hope Square does something way different with the next game because I wouldn't buy another game that's in a similar vein to this ever again.    … Expand
  10. AsrielDreemur
    Jan 13, 2019
    7
    Octopath Traveler is a really solid JRPG that get's all the fundamental of the core JRPG correctly such as character design, unique character classes and soundtrack. Although the game is fun to play and somehow manage to capture the nostalgia feeling of playing an old school JRPG, Square Enix could have done better with the story in the game. Level progression for your characters in theOctopath Traveler is a really solid JRPG that get's all the fundamental of the core JRPG correctly such as character design, unique character classes and soundtrack. Although the game is fun to play and somehow manage to capture the nostalgia feeling of playing an old school JRPG, Square Enix could have done better with the story in the game. Level progression for your characters in the game at times could be very grindy as it could be really hard to advance the main story when your characters doesn't meet the certain level requirement. Overall the game is solid but it fall short on the story aspect especially the interaction between the 8 main characters in the game.… Expand
  11. VShadowLanceV
    Aug 5, 2018
    7
    completely unbalanced fighting levels, Half the characters have great attacks while the others don't even come close to the others. Locked starter character makes its level way higher than the others. 8 stories that don't have anything to do with each other. Battles are 4 to 7 min for basic battles unless your levels are way above the enemies. hidden job system slowly evens it out. talkingcompletely unbalanced fighting levels, Half the characters have great attacks while the others don't even come close to the others. Locked starter character makes its level way higher than the others. 8 stories that don't have anything to do with each other. Battles are 4 to 7 min for basic battles unless your levels are way above the enemies. hidden job system slowly evens it out. talking to town people just gives you information about the town person and doesn't have a conversation with them when trying to get info out of them. I thought that was kinda lame. Menu screens need much improvement for equipping and switching characters. I feel that they didn't even try and just threw it together like it was an unfinished product. Disappointed for all the hype this game got.

    the plus side is the battle system is new and the stories are interesting even though its 8 separate stories and the other characters are only involved in the battles like hired mercenaries or once in a blue moon it will have you press + to have them talk with each other but that is rare. Music is great like all square games.    … Expand
  12. cookiecache
    Jan 23, 2019
    7
    I don't understand the excessively high ratings for Octopath Traveler. The character development/story line is on par with fan-fic written by a teenage weeb (who referenced TVtropes.com for everything) and the graphics are on par with a $15 indie game written by one person. If this were an indie game, it'd be an 8/10... but it's not and it and this $60 game developed by a large team withI don't understand the excessively high ratings for Octopath Traveler. The character development/story line is on par with fan-fic written by a teenage weeb (who referenced TVtropes.com for everything) and the graphics are on par with a $15 indie game written by one person. If this were an indie game, it'd be an 8/10... but it's not and it and this $60 game developed by a large team with vast resources shouldn't be graded on the same curve as indie games.… Expand
  13. brearick82
    Jul 14, 2018
    6
    I REALLY want to love this game. I love the art style, the music, the nostalgic feeling it gives me...but the fighting...ohhh the repetitive-ness of this game drives me crazy. Being an older gamer, I go way back to the OG final fantasy. I’ve played them all. Each unique in their own but always had great battle sequences. This game though...the battle sequence is so dull and mundane, itI REALLY want to love this game. I love the art style, the music, the nostalgic feeling it gives me...but the fighting...ohhh the repetitive-ness of this game drives me crazy. Being an older gamer, I go way back to the OG final fantasy. I’ve played them all. Each unique in their own but always had great battle sequences. This game though...the battle sequence is so dull and mundane, it literally puts me to sleep. So take it from an old school gamer. Wait till this game drops in price. It’s not worth 60 bucks. It IS worth playing, just not for the price.… Expand
  14. MeinosKaen
    Jul 15, 2018
    6
    CONCLUSION - Octopath Traveler is a pretty game with a solid foundation but some GLARING FLAWS in its gameplay and more importantly its writing that weight it down something fierce. I feel it would have been better as a traditional JRPG.

    FULL REVIEW I resisted buying a Switch for a long time. I caved in this week, and Octopath Traveler is the first game I bought for it. The Switch    CONCLUSION - Octopath Traveler is a pretty game with a solid foundation but some GLARING FLAWS in its gameplay and more importantly its writing that weight it down something fierce. I feel it would have been better as a traditional JRPG.

    FULL REVIEW

    I resisted buying a Switch for a long time. I caved in this week, and Octopath Traveler is the first game I bought for it.

    The Switch was a pleasant surprise, I like the console very much. Octopath Traveler was a disappointment and it's the reason that made me get an account here.

    THE GOOD

    The Graphics - Didn't think this style of pixel art could look prettier and better than FFVI or Chrono Trigger but sonuva **** they actually did it. Also, the fusion between pixel art and the 3D environments gives it a new level that adds a ton of fun to exploring.

    The Music - Very well done and fun to listen to but I can't name off the top of my head a JRPG done by SquareEnix that doesn't have a good OST. Even their worst games at the very least always had at least one or two killer tracks -Blinded by Light comes to mind-.

    THE MEH

    The Fighting System - If you've played Persona 5 or a game from the Bravely Series, you probably had my same reaction when you noticed you can accumulate Brave -I mean, BOOST points to attack more than once or power abilities and that attacking an enemy's weakness makes them Dizzy for one turn. Problem is, the result is not as challenging or fun as either one, lacking the incredible depth of options and careful balance of Bravely Default and Persona 5. It's a frankenstein monster that while not being bad, doesn't exactly shine either.

    The Job System - Calling it a Job System doesn't even really fit, since if you compare it with any other Job System that appeared at SquareEnix, it comes up lacking. What's very weird is how abilities learned. Instead of each one having a different amount of JP needed depending on potency, you can learn almost any ability right off the bat but each subsequent learning takes more JP to learn. 30, 100, 500 (WHAT A JUMP), etc... This in turn forces each ability to not be that crazy, with higher power versions depending on the use of Boost Points in battle. This I feel ultimately forces a lack of options and puts a limit on battle strategies -unlike, again, Bravely Default.-

    THE BAD

    The Writing - On their own, the character stories seem decent if not at times pretty standard. We range from the story of revenge to the savior vocation to the thief finding himself in something larger than he expected... What's bad about them is their interaction or lack thereof. For all intent and purposes, it's like these characters exist in different worlds exception made for battles.

    In my playthrough I started with Alfyn, the Apothecary. Grabbing the White Mage off the bat seemed like the logical choice, also his Path Ability is arguably the best in the game -more about that later-. His story is standard but the guy is fun, I like his Seiyuu and I can respect the vocation of a guy who wants to do good by the world, and do unto others what was done to him: save lives.

    After that I went south, and I met Primerose.

    [SPOILERS HERE]
    I immediately felt that something was off when I had to learn her story's beginning through a flashback instead of having Alfyn being part of it. Also, the fact that the flashback featured a character telling Primerose that she's a good soul who doesn't want to bother others while in present time she had just literally told a complete stranger about her lifestory was distracting to say the least.

    But then Yusufa died.

    Yusufa was stabbed and thrown off a small cliff and Alfyn, the Apothecary, the character I had started the game with and that had been fighting alongside Primerose in the Catacombs just a couple minutes earlier, wasn't in the cutscene. He wasn't administering FirstAid, he wasn't wipping up a Concoction, he wasn't trying to stop the bleeding. He wasn't there and Yusufa died on the sands.

    But then he was fighting the Boss Battle right afterwards.

    All the marketing material about the Eight travellers being together is a lie. For all intent and purposes, they're not. This is a lack of attention or just plain not giving a **** about your writing when the entire base concept of your age is 'pick the story order you want' that is frankly insulting.

    The Path Abilities - Start with Alfyn. End of story.

    No, seriously. There's literally no reason to not start with Alfyn. On top of being a White Mage with also a decent Physical Attack, on top of his Concoction Ability, his Path Ability is Inquire. Aka, by talking to people he discovers hidden items, lore and SIDEQUESTS. They made sidequests OPTIONAL by putting them behind Alfyn's path ability and I feel that by doing this they screwed up the Path Abilities balance. Some are clearly superiors to others.

    Score - 6/10    … Expand
  15. Morkeleb
    Feb 4, 2019
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Story:
    Stories, for me, are a driving force that can make me continue playing a game even if the gameplay or combat aren't good enough. A game with a good-great-interesting story can make me push forward through grinding just to find out what's going on.

    This was not the case with Octopath, not for me anyway.
    I feel it so bland, so cliché but in a bad, cheap way, I couldn't be less interested in what was going on, with a few exceptions.
    JRPGs usually don't win awards by their stories originality, but they are usually strong enough to keep all the parts together if you don't scratch too much into them. Great JRPGs have a way of inducing a sad, nostalgic feeling about their world, characters and the parties that are formed when you play them. The world is at stake and the odds are grim. There's a sense of urgency to your party's quest that drives you forward, even without any counter clock. You are important to the world and your actions have a meaning behind them. JRPGs (and some WRPGs too, but with less frequency) also have a twist when talking about good/bad, light/dark concepts. There's a certain philosophy very subtly exposed, always shown through characters motivations/narratives; Not all baddies are completely bad and many of them have deep, intrinsic motives to do what they do. There's an explanation to what's going on which goes beyond "They are evil for the sake of it".
    Of course, this doesn't mean all jrpgs stories are deep, original or even interesting, and many times this is a formula repeated over and over again, like movies from a genre repeat the same key components all the time (e.g. a western). Games can and should be innovative when storytelling. And World-saving concepts do not determine whether a game story is good or bad should it lack them.
    However, Octopath story, at least for me, doesn't seem to have a story that sticks everything together. I can't find a sense of unity over the world and the pieces seem all over the place because they don't belong together or don't care about the others. The eight completely different characters with entirely separate stories don't do a good job telling the story of the world because... there's no story of the world. There are 8 characters with 8 stories... and that's it. For me, that premise along with the issue of the "open world" narrative, fails as a driving force of the game.

    Even the character's stories, with a few exceptions, are very cliché and the motivations feel old, overused after so many years of jRPGs classic characters formulas; The hero with the all life friend that betrays him, the traveler that wants to see the world to be the best in what he/she do (this is used more than once in Octopath), the cold, distant hero that only feels love for his/her master and has to go searching for him/her after a mysterious disappearance, etc. We have seen these so many times before you know what's going to happen, twist or not.
    Yes, maybe the stories get better and interesting after 2 chapters, but that is not good story telling. If you don't capture your reader/player/watcher over the first pages, you lose it. And this is even worse in a game where you can't go straight over to chapter 2 to see if anything interesting is going to happen or not. You have to spend several hours to see what's going on with that particular character you liked, and after so many other equally important stories, you start to lose interest over that first character. If this was the way the designers thought the story was going to be told, then they could've added writers tricks to keep you wanting for more at the very beginning of the game. Small connections or mentions about the other characters stories while you are doing one of them. Something like "hey, that's ophelia's friend, what's he doing here?????" or "Why is Primrose enemy mentioned here???". Remainders of the bigger picture.
    The same happens for the world as a whole.
    Why do the characters join the party? Why do you even let them join?? They are not friends, they do not talk to each other almost at all during the first chapters, so why are we helping them?
    Why there are so many monsters over the fields? Why those kind of monsters in this map and these over that map?
    Side quests are clichés that come out of every other game of the genre, plus clichés from open world games. There's almost no motivation for you to complete them as they feel bland and boring. For example, a fisherman inside a city is concerned and sad that he doesn't catch as many fish as before. So you walk to the map to the size of the city and you spot another fisherman that almost literally says "hahaha all the fish for me, hahaha, i'm so bad and selfish". You need to defeat that fisherman in a duel so he promises he won't do it again before running away from you. This quest remained me so much of Pokemon's Team Rocket I almost laugh out of embarrassment. The quality of these side quests is terrible.    … Expand
  16. CriticNamedZack
    Aug 12, 2019
    7
    Story: Octopath Traveler follows the tale of 8 different characters with different tales of their own, rather then one main story with it branching out. Each story has it's own theme, revenge, redemption etc.

    Pros: • I have to say, the stories being told in Octopath are very engaging and a few of them were quite spectacular to play through. For me personally, the journey each of the    Story: Octopath Traveler follows the tale of 8 different characters with different tales of their own, rather then one main story with it branching out. Each story has it's own theme, revenge, redemption etc.

    Pros:
    • I have to say, the stories being told in Octopath are very engaging and a few of them were quite spectacular to play through. For me personally, the journey each of the characters take and where they end up was the real drive in playing through all the stories.
    • I really liked all of the characters as well with none of them feeling much weaker in terms of how much I was interested in them. However, Primrose and Ophilia were the ones that really stood out from the rest. Without giving anything away, both of their tales are tragic and yet so masterfully told.

    Cons:
    • If I had one problem with the way the story was told, it's probably how you usually would start 8 chapter 1's with all the characters, the all the chapter 2's etc. I just found the pacing especially slow because of it. Look I understand that's what it's suppose to be like, but it's still a problem with the game itself.

    Gameplay: Octopath Traveler is a JRPG with a total of 8 playable characters with each of these characters having their own classes and a unique path ability that usually involves interacting with NPCS in a certain way.

    Pros:
    • The combat was quite enjoyable. With all the different classes attacks, spells and abilities. The Bp system as well added depth to the combat as well and the boss fights were excellent throughout the game. Also being able to combine different classes with a character made for more interesting playstyies.
    • This is a massive game even if you only do the main stories which is about 50/60 hours of gameplay. However, if you do the side quests, dungeons etc. it could be over 100 hours. My playthrough was about 85 hours.
    • Exploring the lands of Orsterra was a joyful one. Maybe a few more areas to explore, but it was pretty good overall.
    Cons:
    • This will depend if you like it or not, but I have to say the use of grinding in some JRPGs to increase the length of the game is a bit ridiculous and Octopath is no exception. Though it's nowhere near as bad as some other games I've played, it's still a very cheap tactic in this game and I found it very frustrating how it just slowed me down from experiencing this games character stories for a boring, repetitive task and really dampens the experience for me.
    • The side quests are really just real small filler that allows you use the path abilities to complete tasks. Although a few lead to some exciting rewards, many are just uninteresting fetch quests to fight someone, gather info etc.
    • Progression can be very slow in this game.

    Sound and Music:
    • The music is just astonishing. The composer Yasunori Nishiki has created a masterful score for this game and some of the tracks really got my emotions feeling strong and helps tell the stories and create life in the world of Orsterra. One of my favourite soundtracks in recent years from a game.
    • The sound fx are solid.
    • The voice acting is very good. Certainly a high standard in the English voice acting when used.

    Cons:
    • During the dialogue in the story, the voice acting is not used all that often and the game has you mainly just reading the text to yourself. this is a shame really that the voice acting only shows up at certain times. I wish they just picked voices or reading, not a weird mix of both.

    Performance and Graphics:

    Pros:
    • Very rarely does a game catch my eye before playing it with the graphics, but my word... Octopath is gorgeous and stunning. It's graphics was one of the main reasons I decided to play it and my god they will stick in my head for a long time.
    • Ran excellently, both on my TV and when holding my switch tablet. No bugs or glitches or frame rate drops for my whole time playing.

    Verdict: This was a very tough one to decide. Octopath has the interesting stories, the great sound and amazing music, flawless performance and orgasmic graphics. Unfortunately it really suffers in terms of gameplay with the overuse of grinding and a lack of interesting activities outside the main story. I did enjoy my time and it's a decent game that I will remember, but probably won't play again anytime soon. At the end of the day if the gameplay isn't great, the whole game suffers.

    Story(s): 9/10
    Gameplay: 6/10
    Sound and Music: 9.5/10
    Performance and Graphics:9.5/10
    Octopath Traveler: 7.0/10    … Expand
  17. juanlobo
    Jun 28, 2019
    7
    well the aesthetics are awesome, the music is great, the combat mechanics are nice, not awesome but nice, the plot is where this game fails ... from the 8 stories only 3 or 4 are good, not excellent but at least good, the rest are just MEH!
  18. Leo_Manzano
    May 13, 2019
    6
    Produced by Square Enix Octopath is perhaps the most faithful homage to the JRPG genre of the 90's, using all the good and bad clichés of the games released in that decade, at the beginning of my adventure i was dazzled by the beautiful graphics 2d and the captivating soundtrack.

    But after 20 hours of campaign and enter in chapter two the nostalgia was no longer able to hold me to the    Produced by Square Enix Octopath is perhaps the most faithful homage to the JRPG genre of the 90's, using all the good and bad clichés of the games released in that decade, at the beginning of my adventure i was dazzled by the beautiful graphics 2d and the captivating soundtrack.

    But after 20 hours of campaign and enter in chapter two the nostalgia was no longer able to hold me to the game and the lack of variations in combat and the structure almost equal of the main quests, besides of secondary missions uninteresting, made me stay bored.

    The game in no doubt is a great homage to the old JRPG, but fail miserably to take any step beyond the structure already presented in the first chapter, being a repetitive sequence of grind and missions that fail to captivate and much less surprise the player.

    My final advice on octopath is if you are a nostalgic player of JRPG (who likes Grind) and misses the games that marked your childhood this game is for you, whether you are a younger player and looking for new experiences or even a experienced player in search of something new octopath will be a frustrating experience.    … Expand
  19. askeptic
    Jul 17, 2018
    7
    Octopath traveler is a blast from the past. It sucks you in early with its charming story and beautiful art work. Voice overs sound great and are a nice touch. Where this game lacks is lasting appeal. Once you exit your characters starting area, things get quite boring and repetitive. You can play each intro with the Demo, leaving very little reason to purchase the game at a whopping $60.Octopath traveler is a blast from the past. It sucks you in early with its charming story and beautiful art work. Voice overs sound great and are a nice touch. Where this game lacks is lasting appeal. Once you exit your characters starting area, things get quite boring and repetitive. You can play each intro with the Demo, leaving very little reason to purchase the game at a whopping $60. This game would be been better off suited at $40, but look on shelves in about a week and you may just find it for that. Overall, it is well done for what it is, however what it is, is a repetitive system and the story falls off all too quickly.… Expand
  20. Powermario0
    Jul 13, 2018
    6
    This game is great, I LOVE THE GRAPHICS! This is one of those games that you can't skip, you must have this on your Switch. There is 8 different characters and they all have their own story. That's it. Now buy it!

    9/10
  21. Ruberchicken
    Aug 9, 2018
    5
    This game is... fine. Nothing special. It has RPG elements that all work, a battle system that is reasonably well done, but the nod to nostalgia reminds me of a time when Square made better games. This is certainly not the new Chrono Trigger, and the time it takes to finish it does not correlate to the quality.

    Trying to keep this brief but informative, bullet points! -Music is    This game is... fine. Nothing special. It has RPG elements that all work, a battle system that is reasonably well done, but the nod to nostalgia reminds me of a time when Square made better games. This is certainly not the new Chrono Trigger, and the time it takes to finish it does not correlate to the quality.

    Trying to keep this brief but informative, bullet points!
    -Music is reused again and again. This game takes like 80 hours to finish, so this gets old
    -Story is very bad. All 8 characters have their own stories that don't play into a greater story, and most of them are pretty cheesy and devoid of appeal
    -combat is just good enough to make you think THIS GAME IS DEEP until you realize how repetitive the game is
    -art style looks good in a trailer but doesn't hold focus
    -20 hours of good game in an 80 hour package

    What I wish was different...
    -focus on world building and making the story interesting. There is very little charm to any of the characters, nor through-line in their paths. They don't even talk to each other unless you make them.
    -more music for a game that is so long
    -more depth in combat if the game wants to be so long (look at Xenoblade 2...)

    True final boss exists hidden behind a wall you would surely only find through the internet, and forces you to use every character, including the ones you've likely benched. So, to finish that, you must google and grind, all for a story that has 0 intrigue. Considering this means grinding my least favorite characters in a game full of uninteresting characters, no thanks.

    If you hardcore LOVE JRPGs, this one is competent but not special.
    If you care about story or presentation, skip this game!    … Expand
  22. gordingo
    Jul 26, 2018
    5
    The game does a lot right, and shockingly enough, it doesn't do much wrong. BUT, what it does wrong is so mindbogglingly bad and unforgivable, it actually ruins whatever momentum it had going for it. I don't feel any drive to play the game anymore. The two things that just really bury the deal for me are only two things but very, VERY significant. 1. The lack of real party interaction, andThe game does a lot right, and shockingly enough, it doesn't do much wrong. BUT, what it does wrong is so mindbogglingly bad and unforgivable, it actually ruins whatever momentum it had going for it. I don't feel any drive to play the game anymore. The two things that just really bury the deal for me are only two things but very, VERY significant. 1. The lack of real party interaction, and an overarching plot (Or at least the absence of an overarching plot 20 hours into the game.) The first 16-20 hours of the game consist of experiencing what is vaguely the same exact plot with maybe 3-5 constants changed. It's like watching the same 4Kidz Shonen anime pilot episode for hours on end, the only character with a plot i really find intriguing so far is Primrose, whose literally just the definitive telling of the same 8 basic stories. Out of curiosity i wished to see what the future of the game held, and it really disappointed me. The job system is my favorite thing that is incorporated in the JRPG genre, my favorite part of the classic final fantasy games, favorite part of bravely default, and favorite part of many other games. Now one of the most exciting things about the job system is mixing/matching and seeing what you get. But unfortunately this game's job system has very uninspired aesthetics, they don't try to make names for the hybrid class, the only character with a truly cool unique outfit is the Hunter outfit Tressa gets. Every other look in the game is just giving the character the same basic outfits of the other characters, no headpieces either. There are no characters with the charm and aesthetics of something like a dark knight, a dragoon, a black wizard, etc. It is extremely disappointing. I hear there are 4 unique classes at the end but i don't think that's enough. All in all i'm just severely disappointed with how lazy it is, especially considering how shallow and detrimental the main gimmick of this game is, id rather they made it a traditional JRPG if i knew they wouldn't have been able to pull it off. How they will add modern conveniences like fast travel but forget about how important those unique job's are. It's sad because i actually like the game but it **** up the two main things i was really looking forward to.… Expand
  23. EmilyMonster
    Jul 26, 2018
    7
    A bit disappointed, but I do not regret my purchase.

    Pros - Solid turn based combat with some modern conveniences (mainly a bar telling you who gets the upcoming turns) and enough new things like the boost system to keep it interesting. - Beautiful art work - Good voice acting - Each character has a semi-unique way to interact with NPCs (there are two versions of all four main ways    A bit disappointed, but I do not regret my purchase.

    Pros
    - Solid turn based combat with some modern conveniences (mainly a bar telling you who gets the upcoming turns) and enough new things like the boost system to keep it interesting.
    - Beautiful art work
    - Good voice acting
    - Each character has a semi-unique way to interact with NPCs (there are two versions of all four main ways to interact)

    Cons
    - There is no grand story. Each character has their own simple story. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I would have preferred if they were brought together by a similar goal and decided to team up instead of there being no real reason for them teaming.
    - Each chapter follows the same formula: Run around a town talking to people to get the story, and then go through a dungeon with a boss at the end. Rinse and repeat for 32 chapters. Wish there was more variety.

    Nit-picky cons
    - There is a weird blur effect on the foreground and edges of the screen. I looked through the options and found one that looked like it would turn that off, but it didn't. I just wish there was a way to turn off the blur on the edges as least.
    - I wish it was fully voice acted. Some parts are, but others they will just grunt or say a few word when a speech bubble appears. There doesn't seem to be any difference between the cut scenes that are voice acted and the ones that aren't.
    - Random encounters go on for a bit too long. I don't mind long, epic bosses, but random encounters I want to go by quickly. I am level 30 in a level 20 area and battles are lasting about how long I would want them if I wasn't over leveled.    … Expand
  24. Yay_Von
    Aug 9, 2018
    7
    The thing is the game can be sorta boring for some people. Don't get me wrong but its a good game! But fighting peasants ( annoying monsters) can get annoying and the story can be dull. Who would travel around the world just to find a stupid book! The only part that made this a 7 is the boss fights. I would recommend getting this game when its on a sale for 40 bucks.
  25. large_robot
    Aug 19, 2018
    6
    I just don't think that this game is respective of my time. The dialogue is slow and awkward. There is a half second pause between each part of spoken dialogue. The game is very linear too. I prefer a bit more freedom in my JRPGs. It's no Dragon Quest!
  26. cocomundi
    Jul 13, 2018
    5
    Un videojuego sensacional. Excelente banda sonora y aspecto visual muy acertado. Y un sistema de combate adictivo. Por desgracia, falla en el diseño de las mazmorras y en ciertas incoherencia argumentales que, de forma inevitable, lastran la experiencia completa.
  27. ALLCAPS
    May 29, 2023
    7
    Great game play mechanics including a really interesting job system. Only complaint is that the story is very very lackluster.
  28. VTL
    Nov 21, 2019
    7
    Me parece un gran juego,..... peeero creo que se ha sobrebalorado un poco. Gráficamente visualmente esteticamente es una delicia... lo que con sus 8 "mini historias" de cada personaje... se hace algo sin sustancia lo que es la trama general y pierde fuerza. Seria preferible 4 personages con más desarrollo de la historia (Quatropath Traveler). Todo y eso es un juego enorme. Unas 100 horasMe parece un gran juego,..... peeero creo que se ha sobrebalorado un poco. Gráficamente visualmente esteticamente es una delicia... lo que con sus 8 "mini historias" de cada personaje... se hace algo sin sustancia lo que es la trama general y pierde fuerza. Seria preferible 4 personages con más desarrollo de la historia (Quatropath Traveler). Todo y eso es un juego enorme. Unas 100 horas para completar todo todo en el.… Expand
  29. CoJackCity
    Sep 7, 2018
    6
    This game started off very slow with 8 separate stories and unlocking the 8 individual heroes, but the battle mechanics of the game are fantastic and really keep you engaged and interested in continuing each of the chapters. There's a minor grind, but to some it may seem more of an annoyance to have to grind while the story lines are so weak. After 60 hours of this game I figuredThis game started off very slow with 8 separate stories and unlocking the 8 individual heroes, but the battle mechanics of the game are fantastic and really keep you engaged and interested in continuing each of the chapters. There's a minor grind, but to some it may seem more of an annoyance to have to grind while the story lines are so weak. After 60 hours of this game I figured everything would come together and my grind would be worth it. Unfortunately, if your'e looking for satisfaction from the story this game falls extremely short. I want to keep this short so I'll list the
    Pros: Nintendo 2D graphics are awesome, battle mechanics, the menus to navigate through the map, weapons, and skills are easy and simplistic to understand and learn.

    Cons: The stories are so bad. I can't tell you how annoying it is to hear H'annit and her "old English". It's painful to get through some of these stories. As I got to everyone's 4th chapter I was so uninterested in everyone's stories that I skipped the prologues and went straight to the battles. Not every game is perfect, but this really REALLY brings what could be a great game to just an OK game.    … Expand
  30. EastGwilly
    Dec 5, 2020
    5
    Created account to rate this game. This game is a MUST OWN for fans of old school JRPG turned base battle. I can spend hours just grinding in this game. The battle system remains faithful to the best and the vast map, enemies and areas help keep the battles varied. Trust your gut on this game. Octopath is a gem.
  31. DinboNomad2z2
    Jul 6, 2023
    6
    Pixel JRPG had a strong start with it's visuals and music presentation. Sadly, story it self is too short and generic to be a story driven game. The combat improvement also stops half way into the game, making it very tiresome and repetitive through out rest of the game. Very disappointed on how it became bland very quickly into the game.
  32. JRice
    Dec 7, 2020
    7
    While the basics of the game are very well designed (nice graphics, tactical battles, a big world to explore, interactions with the environment), the execution is ultimately flawed:
    Lots of boring textwalls, unbalanced characters, recycled special-abilities, and especially: a LOT of necessary grinding, plus the extremely annoying need to level up 8 characters indivdually, with only 4    While the basics of the game are very well designed (nice graphics, tactical battles, a big world to explore, interactions with the environment), the execution is ultimately flawed:
    Lots of boring textwalls, unbalanced characters, recycled special-abilities, and especially: a LOT of necessary grinding, plus the extremely annoying need to level up 8 characters indivdually, with only 4 slots per party, leads to plenty of slow, boring and repetitive passages.
    And while i loved the game in the beginning and for the first couple of hours, the quaiity dropped continually from there...

    It still isnt a bad game, and introduced many exciting ideas into the genre, but after the first 30 hours of playtime, i have no intention or passion whatsoever, to continue playing, and am just bored and frustrated...    … Expand
  33. bulger_paul
    Nov 26, 2018
    7
    The artwork and music are absolutely gorgeous, and I love the combat system, and if just those three things were the only thing I could base my rating off of, it would easily be a perfect ten, but, there is a gratuitous amount of grinding required to progress in the story's chapters, and you have to grind with every single one of the characters, even the ones you don't enjoy using, thereThe artwork and music are absolutely gorgeous, and I love the combat system, and if just those three things were the only thing I could base my rating off of, it would easily be a perfect ten, but, there is a gratuitous amount of grinding required to progress in the story's chapters, and you have to grind with every single one of the characters, even the ones you don't enjoy using, there is practically not organic character interaction, as if each of the character's stories are just happening around each other with no effort put into weaving the stories in and out of each other, and the very often the dialogue bits drag on to an insufferable degree.

    But aside from those story flaws, everything else in this game is practically perfect in every way.    … Expand
  34. Umadbro
    Aug 17, 2020
    6
    I wanted to love it but it was just bad. Story was a mess, combat wasn't interesting and you couldn't take 2 steps between random encounters that take far too long to deal with. The graphics and sound weren't bad for what they aimed for but still could've been better, especially at full price.
  35. kallell
    Jan 19, 2019
    6
    Holy F, I thought I bought a game, not a book for my kindle.... Good game, but you'll spend 85% of it reading dialog boxes.

    P1: You need to go to the woods and hunt them down. P2: Ok, I'll head to the woods P1: Be careful going to the woods. P2: I will be careful going to the woods. Thank you for your help. P1: You are welcome for my help. P2: ...... P1: What is wrong?    Holy F, I thought I bought a game, not a book for my kindle.... Good game, but you'll spend 85% of it reading dialog boxes.

    P1: You need to go to the woods and hunt them down.

    P2: Ok, I'll head to the woods

    P1: Be careful going to the woods.

    P2: I will be careful going to the woods. Thank you for your help.

    P1: You are welcome for my help.

    P2: ......

    P1: What is wrong?

    P2: ........

    P1: Tell me, cat got your tongue?

    P2: Nothing. I better get going.

    P1: Ok, be safe going to the woods.

    P2: Let faith be my shield.

    P1: Please come back when you are done going to the woods.

    After about 30 minutes of this, I finally get to go to the woods for 3 sub random encounters and one boss fight.

    I know this is a JRPG, but holy **** this is painful.    … Expand
  36. shado474
    Apr 23, 2021
    7
    My first impression of this game was great. I was impressed by the visuals and the music, and the beginning of the stories or Cyrus and Ophelia were charming.

    However, as I went around and collected more characters, I felt like the same formula was repeating and it was breaking the logical progression of each story lines. I know the game reminds you of the state of each storyline at the    My first impression of this game was great. I was impressed by the visuals and the music, and the beginning of the stories or Cyrus and Ophelia were charming.

    However, as I went around and collected more characters, I felt like the same formula was repeating and it was breaking the logical progression of each story lines. I know the game reminds you of the state of each storyline at the beginning or each chapter, but it wasn't quite enough to put me back in the mindset. I also felt very disconnected with the kind of language that is used in the narration and between the characters in some of the stories. Each story also feels like a visual novel in a way since there is nothing to really do except to go to the green mark on the map after each cutscene to get to the next. I have played rather casually and I am at around 50 hours into the game. It currently feels a bit like a grind to push and finish the game, and I think I will stop once I finish 4 of the stories.

    That aside, I enjoy the combat system. At this point in the game it is probably the only thing I still enjoy. I also appreciate how the side quests let you figure out what you need to do, but many of them are incredibly hard to figure out. In that sense, I feel like there is such a large contrast between the side quests and the story quests that it is almost a bad thing. I would've personally preferred something more in the middle.    … Expand
  37. DinoBeam
    Feb 21, 2021
    5
    This is an addicting mixed bag

    Beautiful art design, tons of reskinned enemies (in modern times with pixel art enemies? come on!), lackluster level design until the final chapter, some abrasively long boss battles that you'll have to redo later after loosing 20 minutes (not exaggerating), very confusing sidequests without payoff (someone needs and actor, there is one, but you don't hook    This is an addicting mixed bag

    Beautiful art design, tons of reskinned enemies (in modern times with pixel art enemies? come on!), lackluster level design until the final chapter, some abrasively long boss battles that you'll have to redo later after loosing 20 minutes (not exaggerating), very confusing sidequests without payoff (someone needs and actor, there is one, but you don't hook them up, you are supposed to fight them? also if you want to do them without a guide you better write down everything people say, and 90% of that doesn't matter), you never really know what status effects from enemies do, fantastic heartwarming credit sequence, every npc has some back story but it feels hollow, and for the final hidden boss you are not warned that you will need all 8 characters leveled up, and that really pisses me off seeing as i did the smart thing and choose my favorite characters to level up, and you have to refight previous bosses, and the game was just addicting enough to get me to finish to the credits (not the ridiculous hidden boss)    … Expand
  38. frzpop
    Jul 29, 2021
    5
    The game is gorgeous and the soundtrack is fantastic but that's unfortunately where the positives end.

    I came into this game as a fan of FFVI and Chrono Trigger expecting a rich story and deep combat. This game is the opposite of that. Fighting gets old within the first 20 minutes of playing, which is also when I encountered the first color swapped enemy sprite. The playable characters    The game is gorgeous and the soundtrack is fantastic but that's unfortunately where the positives end.

    I came into this game as a fan of FFVI and Chrono Trigger expecting a rich story and deep combat. This game is the opposite of that. Fighting gets old within the first 20 minutes of playing, which is also when I encountered the first color swapped enemy sprite. The playable characters don't interact with each other at all which is very jarring. Their stories are bland. Would not recommend!    … Expand
  39. Cougargames
    Apr 27, 2020
    6
    I just wanna meake it clear i didnt hate this game i just thought it was okay, And the main reasons are alot of grind specifically when you finish all the storys and have to level up for the end game boss i think i had to grind for 10 hours which really desroyed it for me. The game also has really bad storys on each character som of them are decent but thats it and the character never talkI just wanna meake it clear i didnt hate this game i just thought it was okay, And the main reasons are alot of grind specifically when you finish all the storys and have to level up for the end game boss i think i had to grind for 10 hours which really desroyed it for me. The game also has really bad storys on each character som of them are decent but thats it and the character never talk or have conversations, I mean they kinda do but it felt like a last minute add in.

    With that said the game is very beutiful the combat really makes up for the bad parts but they really missed out they could have made an Incredible game. I dont understand why devs cant hire good writers.    … Expand
  40. hime
    Jun 11, 2020
    7
    Очень понравился визуальный стиль, атмосфера и повествование, местами история. Однако всё испортил гринд и его обязательность для прохождения сюжета вкупе со случайными боями.
  41. kraftw33rk
    Nov 17, 2019
    5
    Alles was dieses Spiel richtig macht ist süße 16Bit Retro-Grafik und angenehme Musik. Das wars! Ich habe jetzt 60 Stunden reingebuttert und ich bin so unfassbar enttäuscht. Octopath Traveler hat sehr stark angefangen. Schnelles Spiel gutes Vorankommen.
    Nach dem ersten von vier Kapiteln ändert sich das schlagartig! Man ist eigentlich nur noch tagelang (!) am Leveln um überhaupt ins zweite    Alles was dieses Spiel richtig macht ist süße 16Bit Retro-Grafik und angenehme Musik. Das wars! Ich habe jetzt 60 Stunden reingebuttert und ich bin so unfassbar enttäuscht. Octopath Traveler hat sehr stark angefangen. Schnelles Spiel gutes Vorankommen.
    Nach dem ersten von vier Kapiteln ändert sich das schlagartig! Man ist eigentlich nur noch tagelang (!) am Leveln um überhaupt ins zweite Kapitel zu kommen. Dann dauert das eine halbe Stunde wo die Story weitergeht und dann wieder tagelanges Leveln für weitere 30Minuten Stroytelling was auch noch vollkommen langweilig ist.
    Mir kommt das so vor, als hätte SquareEnix seine Glanzzeit seit Jahren verloren und sucht nach seiner Form. Solange packen wir mal mass-en-weise Lückenfüller in das Game und hoffen, dass die Spieler es nicht merken.
    Fazit: Kaufen, wenn Ihr jRPG-Fans seit und das Game im Megasale ist! Zahlt nicht den Vollpreis von 60€!!    … Expand
  42. auditbadger
    Nov 10, 2018
    7
    I think that this is truly a unique game and I would recommend that if you are a fan of this type of genre then I think you should give this game a try.
  43. Zoltar238
    Nov 4, 2020
    5
    Tenía potencial pero no se aprovecho bien. Después de mas de 50 horas solo puedo decir una cosa sobre este juego: es demasiado repetitivo. Todas las historias tienen la misma estructura, están divididas en 4 capítulos cada una en los que pasas por una zona y al final hay un boss, también estarás forzado a grindear por horas para alcanzar el nivel recomendado para cada capitulo. Por otroTenía potencial pero no se aprovecho bien. Después de mas de 50 horas solo puedo decir una cosa sobre este juego: es demasiado repetitivo. Todas las historias tienen la misma estructura, están divididas en 4 capítulos cada una en los que pasas por una zona y al final hay un boss, también estarás forzado a grindear por horas para alcanzar el nivel recomendado para cada capitulo. Por otro lado las historias son horribles, sin ninguna profundidad ni interés, además de que son independientes, es decir, la historia de un personaje no tiene ningún tipo de relación con la de los demás. Sobre las misiones secundarias, pues no hay mucho que decir, son bastante mediocres y se resumen en ir de un lado para otro recolectando items, matando cosas o hablando con npcs; no merece la pena completarlas porque tampoco dan buenas recompensas. El combate estaba bien en un inicio, sin embargo, la poca variedad en el combate lo hace rápidamente aburrido. Existen 4 clases para 8 personajes, por lo que el estilo de combate se repite entre ellos, lo que resulta en personajes con diseños diferentes pero que se juegan igual. A lo largo del juego conseguimos una serie de trabajos que "cambian" el estilo de un personaje, aunque en realidad, todos excepto unos pocos lo único que hacen es añadir las habilidades de otra clase. En resumen, octopath traveler en un juego cuyas únicas características salvables son los gráficos y la música, pues todo lo demás deja mucho que desear, si decides jugarlo lo más probable es que te acabes aburriendo antes de completar todas las historias.… Expand
  44. Vedenskiy
    Jul 29, 2018
    6
    Octopath Traveler — доброе фэнтези про мечтающих героев, но это не уровень Chrono Trigger или Final Fantasy. Возможно, игра была бы значительно лучше, если б авторы не пытались искусственно растянуть её гриндом, а показали хорошую цельную историю про четырёх проработанных персонажей.Octopath Traveler — доброе фэнтези про мечтающих героев, но это не уровень Chrono Trigger или Final Fantasy. Возможно, игра была бы значительно лучше, если б авторы не пытались искусственно растянуть её гриндом, а показали хорошую цельную историю про четырёх проработанных персонажей.
  45. vodkaffee
    Dec 12, 2019
    6
    great music and job and turn battle mechanics, but the lack of character development, all having **** stories, i know there is an ending that ties some of the quests but i really didnt even want to get it; the battle system is the only reason to play this game, and if you get the 4 secret jobs you can broke your party and it's amazing.
  46. AlexKidd
    Feb 23, 2020
    7
    Great atmosphere and grahpics. Love the oldschool artstyle. The oldschool JRPG combat system feels solid. One big flaw of the game is the 8 seperate stories that they put in the game. It somehow doesn't feel right.
  47. GreenMenace
    Jun 12, 2020
    7
    I was really beginning to feel bogged down by this game. There was just too much grinding required. In my opinion, there are better JRPGs available. Still, Octopath Traveler was a game I can respect.

    Pros Unique, fun battle system Great Value Beautiful 16 bit graphics Great art style Cons The grind Limited interactions The story The side quests Frankly, this isn’t a    I was really beginning to feel bogged down by this game. There was just too much grinding required. In my opinion, there are better JRPGs available. Still, Octopath Traveler was a game I can respect.

    Pros

    Unique, fun battle system
    Great Value
    Beautiful 16 bit graphics
    Great art style

    Cons

    The grind
    Limited interactions
    The story
    The side quests

    Frankly, this isn’t a game I would want to play again (after 70 hours of play and exploring just about everywhere). It convinced me that I’m a casual gamer. If I cared to do the many fetch side quests, I could easily sink in another 30 hours. However, I didn’t have much interest in scouring the world doing x to then be able to do y. Reviewing a guide is a must to save the player time from pointless npc interactions searching for the solution of an arbitrary quest. Equipment is more valuable than the character’s level. Late game, it took me hours just to level up my characters five times (and yes, I am fully aware of the fastest farming methods). Even though there are many places to farm with a wide variety of monsters, I found myself going to the same spots to farm, hoping to get the most experience. It didn’t take long for me to memorize every kind of encounter for each area I farmed in.

    The story, as well as the characters, are good, but not great. The way the game is structured inhibits any real character development. While trying to get to a high enough level, a player must play the first chapter of eight different characters. In short, you never can just focus on one story; you are forever tied to eight okay stories, instead of focusing on your favorite story. The character conversations were there, and they were needed. However, most of the time, I found myself uninterested in the conversation. The unique character interactions were okay, but they got old fast because it was always, “walk up to an npc, press y, and resolve.” Character classes, over time, seemed to just meld together and lose their individuality. The characters with any individuality are the most popular and are going to be in everyone’s party because their unique passive is irreplaceable.

    Gameplaywise, this game is at a 5 or a 6 for me. It was hard to finish. But there are some fantastic aspects about the game. The most well known is its combat system. Players are encouraged to strategize to get “breaks” to really rack up the damage. There is a vast array of weapons, armor, and accessories to choose from. I found myself changing my equipment from time to time to adjust to a big fight. So while the game is an awful grind, at least it was a grind spent in a fun combat system.
    The graphics are beautiful. The art style is unique. There are a lot of monsters to fight in Octopath Traveler, and each are charming. The stories, while weak, were enjoyable because they had fun themes associated with them.

    In conclusion, this game was worth it for me. In my opinion, it’s a game that’s overrated. The story, the side quests, and the satisfaction from leveling up my characters were lacking. If you don’t mind a heavy grind, and you enjoy the artwork, then this is a solid game to check out. You can easily figure out whether or not you like the game by downloading and playing the demo for free. Believe me, the game doesn’t change up the game mechanics…    … Expand
  48. Kingdomhear
    Dec 5, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gameplay carino...anche se la difficoltà piuttosto bassa non incentiva il giocatore a studiarlo a fondo....LE STORIE SONO TUTTE SEPARATE ... la cosa mi ha dato parecchio fastidio...grafica old school veramente carina... non male...… Expand
  49. Stevetoast
    Jan 27, 2020
    7
    Visuals are amazing, combat is incredible, character progression is seamless without much grinding AT ALL with an excellent job system to flesh out exactly what you want for each character. My absolute favorite are the boss sprites in battles, stylish as all heck! You'll not regret this purchase... BUT

    Pretty much all 3 of the points missing from my score are due to the story. They are    Visuals are amazing, combat is incredible, character progression is seamless without much grinding AT ALL with an excellent job system to flesh out exactly what you want for each character. My absolute favorite are the boss sprites in battles, stylish as all heck! You'll not regret this purchase... BUT

    Pretty much all 3 of the points missing from my score are due to the story. They are all pretty tropey and generic despite laying down groundwork for some incredible stories, falls back on mustache twirling weirdo villains and other tropes you see a lot in anime. I didn't expect all 8 stories to be in the same singular story but it's pretty disappointing that they don't interact AT ALL. Would've added more oomph to the weaker stories knowing they are still helping in some way and would've created opportunities to have characters interact and such.    … Expand
  50. jakkaof86
    Apr 18, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A game that is an old fashioned RPG. But where other games have nice pacing throughout, the pace of this game grinds to a halt as you have huge difficulty spikes throughout the game.

    The story is also inconsistent. It goes from a lighthearted adventure to a story about sex slavery on a whim between characters.    … Expand
  51. Denvers
    Nov 6, 2021
    6
    I wish I could have liked Octopath Traveler more than I did. I'd like to start on the positives: the combat is fantastic, and is simply one of the best systems I have seen in a video game. It is deep, tough, and not overly complex. Unfortunately, the game's stories are boring and it is hard to keep up with eight different stories in random orders. The characters have no dialogue outside ofI wish I could have liked Octopath Traveler more than I did. I'd like to start on the positives: the combat is fantastic, and is simply one of the best systems I have seen in a video game. It is deep, tough, and not overly complex. Unfortunately, the game's stories are boring and it is hard to keep up with eight different stories in random orders. The characters have no dialogue outside of their story section, and even if they did, they would not be memorable. This game had so much potential, but unfortunately failed to live up to it.… Expand
  52. Sanghelic
    Jun 12, 2020
    6
    octopath traveller es un juego RPG, que mantiene muy bien la esencia de los RPG de la vieja escuela, la musica es muy buena, la historia esta bien, la exploracion es buena, sin embargo tiene un ritmo que no es para nada amigable con los principiantes o incluso los amateur de los juegos RPG, las peleas son muy largas y estresantes y el juego constantemente te pide que te pongas a subiroctopath traveller es un juego RPG, que mantiene muy bien la esencia de los RPG de la vieja escuela, la musica es muy buena, la historia esta bien, la exploracion es buena, sin embargo tiene un ritmo que no es para nada amigable con los principiantes o incluso los amateur de los juegos RPG, las peleas son muy largas y estresantes y el juego constantemente te pide que te pongas a subir niveles para poder entrar a un area, si hay algo que yo odio es que un juego te pida que seas nivel muy alto para apenas la primera mision, si eres un fan de juegos RPG como chrono trigger, final fantasy o dragon quest, probablemente sea bueno para ti, pero si los unicos juegos rpg que has jugado es pokemon, la saga de mario and luigi o cualquier juego de rpg occidental, definitivamente no es un juego hecho para ti.… Expand
  53. nightstroller
    Apr 30, 2020
    7
    Octopath Traveler is a bit of a mystery to me. On paper, it has everything I love about games and I love RPGs. But having played it back when it first came out, thinking about how soon I lost interest/drive with it, that has to signify that something is/was awry.

    The art style is fantastic I think. And although it requires specific characters in your party, I like the aspect of needing    Octopath Traveler is a bit of a mystery to me. On paper, it has everything I love about games and I love RPGs. But having played it back when it first came out, thinking about how soon I lost interest/drive with it, that has to signify that something is/was awry.

    The art style is fantastic I think. And although it requires specific characters in your party, I like the aspect of needing to use various skills to advance things or solve scenarios. The classic final fantasy turn based combat is also great. But digging deeper, I can't remember where I heard it/read it from, but someone had said that this game was lacking in substance or a purpose to it all. At first I didn't pay much mind to that comment, but as I played more into the story and the character's various arcs, I realized I was in agreement with that sentiment and slowly but surely lost interest.

    Not to say that this is a bad game, but rather it feels a bit void of a meaningful purpose or direction.

    Octopath Traveler
    Gameplay enjoyability (0 - worst, 10 - best)

    Story - 6
    Lore - 4
    Looting/equipment finding - 6
    Questing/variety - 5
    Combat - 8
    Side quests/activities - 6
    Music/soundtrack - 8
    Visuals - 9    … Expand
  54. vixer
    May 4, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Boring game overall, I've played for 30 h so I think it's enough to make the conclusion. The music is good, the graph is good, but the story is extremely boring. It's like some simple stories written for kindergarten kids. The fighting mechanism is ok, but not so interesting. I can totally bare it if the story is good because you need lots of effort to level up your characters. While the story is bad so you don't even have the motivation to do the work.… Expand
  55. bancandrei
    May 15, 2020
    7
    This game looks great. It is the dream of any retro inspired game to look this good. Other than that it is very retro in that it plays just like something which would come out in 1990. Good to scratch a nostalgia itch, but that's about it
  56. Skurttish
    Jun 5, 2020
    7
    First off, if you haven’t heard it before, then here it is: It looks stinkin’ gorgeous. Very cool feel. And I also really enjoyed the musical score—the ambience in this game is extremely well done.

    The gameplay is also a strength. It is very strategic, with a cool system of ‘Breaks’ that are critical to victory. But, that being said, some bosses will make you tear your hair out, and one    First off, if you haven’t heard it before, then here it is: It looks stinkin’ gorgeous. Very cool feel. And I also really enjoyed the musical score—the ambience in this game is extremely well done.

    The gameplay is also a strength. It is very strategic, with a cool system of ‘Breaks’ that are critical to victory. But, that being said, some bosses will make you tear your hair out, and one boss forces you to use one specific character, so I hope you’ve been leveling him up (I hadn’t been before I got there, not that I’m emotionally scarred or anything, but......still in counseling after what that boss did to me).

    However, I have three criticisms: One, that I couldn’t assemble the team I wanted after I started the game and got a feel for how the mechanics of the game worked. To work on a character’s story, you have to have that character in your party, and the characters come in pairs, so it makes the most sense to switch the character out with whoever has the corresponding skills so you aren’t left lacking in a battle or story situation. But, you know what, I’m a boring person, and I just wanted to pick four people and ride them all the way. I docked it a point because I had to keep switching.

    Another negative point is that after I beat all the stories, none of them except for one were really remarkable enough to stay with me. The game was beaten and then forgotten, because the stories were fairly standard.

    Finally, some of the bosses were really challenging. I do think the level of difficult was a mite too high.

    I had gone into this game expecting to rave about it when it was over, but after beating it six months ago, I’ve found I haven’t actually recommended it to anyone. Well, go figure—such is life.    … Expand
  57. bingbang
    Jun 22, 2020
    6
    The job system is excellent but it isn't very well supported by the story, which lacks cohesion and forward momentum.
  58. ViKabbu
    Aug 8, 2021
    7
    It's a good title, but not a great one.____________________________________
  59. doproyee
    Nov 17, 2020
    5
    the story of this game is not only boring but also too slipshod. which is the most bad point in this game.
  60. HeavyMachineGon
    Jun 18, 2021
    7
    说实话这个游戏有点让我失望，因为游戏的核心内容是分裂的。8个角色之间没有任何关系，相当于是8个小型rpg拼凑到了一起。进行一个人的剧情的时候其他人就等同于工具人，剧情上没有任何互动。而且每个人的剧情都比较单薄，简单。
    断断续续打了45小时，中间还是穿插着其他游戏打。剧情现在过半了，感觉游戏的玩法很单一，跑图，找NPC，找boss，在找boss的过程中升级。比较容易腻，目前没有动力玩下去。
    喜欢的几个点是，能用不同的技能“调戏”所有可以对话的NPC，以及每个NPC都有各自的身份和背景可以被玩家查看。画风我很喜欢的，故意做成了像素风，但又非常精致。而且游戏的配乐是亮点，原声CD碟已入手，这是唯一支撑我打完这个游戏的动力（以后再也不要在游戏通关前买原声CD了）。    说实话这个游戏有点让我失望，因为游戏的核心内容是分裂的。8个角色之间没有任何关系，相当于是8个小型rpg拼凑到了一起。进行一个人的剧情的时候其他人就等同于工具人，剧情上没有任何互动。而且每个人的剧情都比较单薄，简单。
    断断续续打了45小时，中间还是穿插着其他游戏打。剧情现在过半了，感觉游戏的玩法很单一，跑图，找NPC，找boss，在找boss的过程中升级。比较容易腻，目前没有动力玩下去。
    喜欢的几个点是，能用不同的技能“调戏”所有可以对话的NPC，以及每个NPC都有各自的身份和背景可以被玩家查看。画风我很喜欢的，故意做成了像素风，但又非常精致。而且游戏的配乐是亮点，原声CD碟已入手，这是唯一支撑我打完这个游戏的动力（以后再也不要在游戏通关前买原声CD了）。
    游戏的战斗系统好评，跟以往的回合制轮流放技能不同，加入了“弱点击破”的效果，给战斗增加了更多的可变性，让队友的选择更重要。但是这样就不能自动战斗，boss战前的刷级尤其无聊，很需要自动战斗，减少跑图的时间。战斗可以改进成，如果本轮遇到的敌人所有的弱点都已经被玩家发现，则该轮战斗可以自动战斗。
    通关更新：85小时。断断续续9个月，这个游戏真的不能算好玩。还想吐槽支线任务，提示过于少了，有一些任务完全摸不着头脑。很多任务都是莫名其妙得到了消息，但完全不知道是哪一个任务需要，点了NPC对话才发现已经得到了任务完成所需要的内容。    … Expand
  61. alan2pc
    Nov 2, 2020
    6
    I’m generally not an RPG fan, and this game didn’t do anything to change that.
  62. ophone
    Apr 12, 2021
    7
    This game has so much to offer:
    Basic sprites style combined with beautiful backgrounds, a majestic soundtrack, involving combat system and touching character stories.
    But I got disappointed by it because I am stuck at two bosses in the third chapter. I don't know what my errors are, maybe I have to start grinding. Although when it comes to grinding, I clearly prefer RPGs where you have    This game has so much to offer:
    Basic sprites style combined with beautiful backgrounds, a majestic soundtrack, involving combat system and touching character stories.
    But I got disappointed by it because I am stuck at two bosses in the third chapter. I don't know what my errors are, maybe I have to start grinding. Although when it comes to grinding, I clearly prefer RPGs where you have to do this from the get-go.    … Expand
  63. Stiffshanks
    Apr 14, 2021
    6
    Will keep it short:
    In its favour:
    * Looks and sounds great * Each of the 8 individual campaigns are quite well written What in my opinion overshadows the above: * it is very repetitive, very early. Having 8 different protagonists is wasted if they are essentially all doing the same thing * the difficulty does not progress clearly or intuitively. It feels like it’s all over the place or    Will keep it short:
    In its favour:
    * Looks and sounds great
    * Each of the 8 individual campaigns are quite well written

    What in my opinion overshadows the above:
    * it is very repetitive, very early. Having 8 different protagonists is wasted if they are essentially all doing the same thing

    * the difficulty does not progress clearly or intuitively. It feels like it’s all over the place or poorly explained in game.

    What I mean by this is that you can go from curb stomping an outdoor area one minute to being utterly annihilated after stepping inside a cave in the same area.

    * Boss fights feel king for the sake of being long. It doesn’t add much to the experience.

    Anyway, summary is it’s not a bad game, but by no means a great game.    … Expand
  64. RCAVHS
    Dec 3, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I had a long journey with this game. Originally attracted by the art style and traditional turn based battle, I played the demo and quickly bought the game. I went through and got all the characters first. Each character had 4 chapters, and I completed one of my characters Chapter 2s. The boss battle was incredibly challenging and took a really long time. I was so burnt out that I stopped playing the game. About two years later, I was looking for a good RPG to play, I picked the game back up rather than finding a new game. I kind of figured some things out where the game got a little easier. I went through and completed all the Chapter 2s. I got burnt out again. I stopped for a week and then picked it back up. I was half way done with the game and I didn’t want all the time spent to be for nothing. I finished all the Chapter 3s and the stories got quite a bit more interesting. I then went through and finished all the Chapter 4s, but my starting character (Cyrus) was so OP by that point, it was mostly just going through the motions and completing the chapters. Most of the challenge was gone. I would say 6/8 of the stories were interesting. I liked powering my characters up with new weapons and equipment. The most challenging and rewarding bosses to defeat were the four subjob bosses. They took several attempts each and really made me change the way I had been using the characters abilities. Ultimately what soured me on the game was the postgame “true” final boss. I know that a few characters endings allude to the final boss/location, but I had no idea of where it was (well I knew where it was but not where that was on the map). I finally looked it up online and found out that you have to do some side story to get there. The side stories in this game are not done in a way that motivates you to do them; they’re far too ambiguous.… Expand
  65. Enriesto
    Mar 5, 2022
    6
    Overall enjoyable. Its real fault lies in the tireless jrpg tropes that plague the plethora of titles released each year. Poor voice acting and writing compound the dull stories you embark on, which can completely break the immersion you’re experiencing. Such a shame, as the soundtrack is magical and the gameplay mechanics did keep me interested in the game’s combat and roster evolution.Overall enjoyable. Its real fault lies in the tireless jrpg tropes that plague the plethora of titles released each year. Poor voice acting and writing compound the dull stories you embark on, which can completely break the immersion you’re experiencing. Such a shame, as the soundtrack is magical and the gameplay mechanics did keep me interested in the game’s combat and roster evolution. Maybe next time? Some will enjoy it, but if you have little patience for terrible voiceovers and juvenile scripting in a story, you may want to try elsewhere.… Expand
  66. otmiyo
    Jun 18, 2022
    7
    Stunning visuals and music, fun battle system, but with many shortcomings in the story, instead of "Octopath Traveler" could be named "Eight Short Stories" subtitle "None of them memorable"
  67. RetroGamesMania
    Sep 29, 2022
    7
    In linea generale il gioco mi è piaciuto , ma l’ho trovato complicato seguire la storia , sopratutto quando si cambia il personaggio della storia principale . Oltre a ciò più di una volta mi sono trovato in situazioni , dove i nemici erano così forti , che ho dovuto cambiare personaggio per seguire nuove quest. Per il resto nulla da dire. Diciamo che mi sono spesso trovato un po’ smarritoIn linea generale il gioco mi è piaciuto , ma l’ho trovato complicato seguire la storia , sopratutto quando si cambia il personaggio della storia principale . Oltre a ciò più di una volta mi sono trovato in situazioni , dove i nemici erano così forti , che ho dovuto cambiare personaggio per seguire nuove quest. Per il resto nulla da dire. Diciamo che mi sono spesso trovato un po’ smarrito Forse perché sono abituato ad una storia più lineare. Comunque lo reputo un buon gioco… Expand
  68. Heracross93
    Oct 11, 2022
    6
    A brilliant turn-based battle system with a stunning visual aesthetic. It is a shame the game is ruined by an unfair superboss that makes you do too much to reach it without being able to save. Should you fail, you will need to restart hours of work.

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best Switch Game of 2018
5
#5 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018
5
#5 Most Shared Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 79 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 70 out of 79
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 79
  3. Negative: 0 out of 79
  1. RPGamer
    Jun 21, 2019
    90
    While those looking for a deep, story-heavy RPG might find Octopath Traveler lacking, the game is a hugely enjoyable modern take on traditional turn-based games of yesteryear with a collection of short story, rather than novel-length, narratives. The graphics represent the pinnacle of pixel art and the score is amazing. This game was pretty much a system-seller for me and well worth every penny and hour spent with it.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Oct 25, 2018
    85
    You can either hate Octopath Traveler’s art direction or love it, but it definitely will not leave you indifferent. Distinct visuals are just one of the game’s many strengths which make it a feast for the fans of jRPGs – and much more than that. It’s not flawless though – the dungeons are bland and there are virtually no relations between the characters in your party as they don’t communicate almost at all. [09/2018, p.66]
  3. RPG Fan
    Sep 13, 2018
    88
    Octopath Traveler is unapologetically old-school, and would not have been out of place if it had released back in the golden age of JRPGs.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »