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
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  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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.
  7. alan2pc
    Nov 2, 2020
    6
    I’m generally not an RPG fan, and this game didn’t do anything to change that.
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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.
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. kamhagh
    Jul 16, 2018
    4
    Awful cringy voice acting
    terrible looking graphics (pixel art can be interesting but this is a blurry ugly mess compared to celeste or stardew valley or other games)
    story isn't interesting
    saving is annoying too!

    but I didn't play much the first hour was enough to make me not want to buy it

    But don't feel bad if you like it people have different tastes!
  27. Sammy680
    Jul 3, 2019
    4
    After seeing the hype and rave reviews- "spiritual successor to FF6"- this was a complete letdown.

    If you adore grinding and don't give a jot about story, this game's for you. If you want a polished storyline and deep characters, it's not so good. Sunk in 40+ hours before giving up. It's just so dull, it ends up being a complete chore going from one chapter to another. It looks    After seeing the hype and rave reviews- "spiritual successor to FF6"- this was a complete letdown.

    If you adore grinding and don't give a jot about story, this game's for you. If you want a polished storyline and deep characters, it's not so good.

    Sunk in 40+ hours before giving up. It's just so dull, it ends up being a complete chore going from one chapter to another. It looks alright, but it's nothing mind-blowing.

    Battle system isn't innovative in the slightest. You hit the monster with various weapons/spells, work out its weak spot, rinse and repeat for every single battle.

    The story... what story? It's all so tedious and clichéd I actually forgot what was going on. There's very little interaction between the characters and there's no incentive to become invested in their outcomes.

    Overall, probably the worst JRPG experience I've had in modern times.    … Expand
  28. bunchesofdonald
    Aug 7, 2018
    4
    There are a lot of things to love, it's beautiful and it has an inventive and new battle system but those just can't make up for the lack of story or characters that you care about, the repetitive battles, the poorly designed dungeons, or the awful script.
  29. Bertucciop
    Feb 25, 2021
    4
    Octopath traveler, they haven't worked enough on it and ask for 60€ for it. Made on Unreal Engine for quick development I think for commercial reasons. Below I break down the different aspects of the game.

    Fantastic music, sound track is the best of the game. Each character has his own music theme, maybe too melancholic but is a 10/10. The plot is too simple and linear, cliche    Octopath traveler, they haven't worked enough on it and ask for 60€ for it. Made on Unreal Engine for quick development I think for commercial reasons. Below I break down the different aspects of the game.

    Fantastic music, sound track is the best of the game. Each character has his own music theme, maybe too melancholic but is a 10/10.

    The plot is too simple and linear, cliche characters, there is no evolution in them over time. Too Manichean, evil and good well separated. A noble girl becomes a prostitute seeking for vengeance for no reason, instead of using her money and inheritance for it. Anyways narrative is ok, it is ok even if it is full of topics and empty of plot twists. It is a game for kids, not a book. Hire a Jewish screenwriter to review it before starting though, Square Enix 6/10.

    Gameplay is horrible, it is a typical 90's RPG game, but dynamics are too slow.

    They made a weakness point counter system which stuns and weakens enemies when they came to 0. But there are not any strategic but this in the game. In addition, they made an initiative point system, these points increase if you do not use them, and they boost your skills and attacks.

    Both systems combined make combat so tedious as you have to wait turns taking enemies weaknesses points as you wait to your initiative points to increase for making massive damage.

    Boss fights long the same as common fights. And skills are limited, attack, heal, low, and increase defense and attack. Enemies can blind, sleep, etc. you but it is very limited to you to do these things. You have very powerful ultimate skills at your disposal that end a combat after gaining some initiative points.

    These long fights appears each two steps on map, so you can't walk at all, unless you have a mage on team who provides of an extension walking longitude before fighting. Game is hardly bearable even with this mage's skill, it is unplayable if u don't have this.

    You do not need to properly manage your items, you are full of healing things and other things, you will never run out of them, even resurrection items.

    There is not any puzzle on map, just walking, taking treasure chests (some are hidden by 2D vision perspective) and fighting.

    The interaction of the NPCs is the 90's RPGs and they added that, depending of which character is in your team, you can steal or trade items with them, even fight a duel or investigate them, which improves skills or shows you the positions of hidden items, which is a great thing, but the plot is linear so when you get to a village you just examine, steal or trade with everyone to get new items and upgrade skills, you can also have an NPC character following you and help you in battles, you cannot control them .

    You cannot make any decision, there are not dialogues which spread a list of answers, plot is linear.
    3/10

    Talking about graphics, all goods things and effects came from Unreal Engine basics, so they didn’t have to work so much on it, they made low quality sprites for characters, and cartoon textures for the 3D maps and a static camera angle imitating 90's RPG quality, Low-cost graphics which did not provide budget for extending other game features.2/10

    In conclusion this game is just an experimental game made by Square Enix for commercial researches.
    Using a very portable graphic engine, great music, cute story, bad game development and cheap graphics budget. 4/10    … Expand
  30. Crimson9
    Dec 25, 2022
    4
    JRPGs have really gone down the drain since the demise of Squaresoft. Octopath traveler tries to revive them by divorcing the genre with all the changes and quality of life that have happened over the past 2 decades. What is ultimately presented is a pretty sharp, decent, game. But the problem with JRPGs isn't that they changed, its that they changed in a negative way. Octopath TravelerJRPGs have really gone down the drain since the demise of Squaresoft. Octopath traveler tries to revive them by divorcing the genre with all the changes and quality of life that have happened over the past 2 decades. What is ultimately presented is a pretty sharp, decent, game. But the problem with JRPGs isn't that they changed, its that they changed in a negative way. Octopath Traveler doesn't address any of the problems JRPGs have, it doesn't borrow game design from new masterpieces. Its a very uninspired game in terms of design, and also falls short of the old JRPG masterpieces such as Chrono Trigger and FF7 in the music, storytelling, and characters aspect.

    Furthermore, its always overpriced.    … Expand
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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.
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  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
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