REVIEW
OCTOPATH TRAVELER
Octopath Traveler is a JRPG that is reminiscent of the 16-bit SNES-era JRPGs. You have a turn-based combat with interesting characters, curious storylines, and amazing music. All 8 playable characters have unique jobs of their own, and that can be further expanded with job mixing as well as learning the advanced jobs.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay features a typical turn-based combat system, but it suffers from a bit of laziness. The character animations do not actually attack the enemy, something you would typically see even in the Super Nintendo JRPGs. There are balance issues in certain boss battles, especially in the final boss fight. The gameplay will get repetitive fast, despite the unique break enemy system. The main issue is that most of the enemies have too many health points, and that makes every fight take too long, even when applying the break enemy system, where you hit the enemies with attacks that they are weak to. There are items like soul stones that do elemental damage and are best kept reserved for boss battles and elemental enemies and for the rare enemy. Certain jobs/classes are very good, especially the thief’s steal HP and steal sp skills, enabling the character to handle the battles more efficiently compared to most other jobs.
GRAPHICS & AUDIO
Octopath Traveler features HD-2D graphics, which are essentially highly refined versions of Super Nintendo graphics. Think of it as 16-bit era graphics but with modern effects. While it is pleasant, I believe that the character sprites need more polish. But overall, the graphics add value to the game. Various areas differ in visuals, and there is enough variety throughout the game’s traversal, such as desert, snow etc. Though most of the towns have a similar look, everything looks a little too basic.
One of the best aspects of the game are the story scenes, which are done very well. They add charm to the game. However, there is no auto-forward dialogue option, which can be annoying to some players. The game features tough boss battles. Bosses have bigger sprites and are well detailed. The difficulty balance of the game is fine, except that some of the bosses are likely to feel very hard, especially the optional bosses. While the story is not something that hasn’t been seen before in other JRPGs, there are enough variations that it still generates interest and curiosity. And of all 8 characters, some of them will certainly be favorites for most players. The NPC chatter in various towns are interesting, and there are certain skills that further enhance the interactions with the NPCs, and due to which, exploring the towns for hidden items is worthwhile.
The beautiful piano and orchestral-focused score in this game is one of its best assets. Also, there is a lot of depth in the background ambience; you will need to lower the volume of the music to hear a lot of details in the ambience.
STORY
Eight playable characters that have their own paths add enough variety to the rather typical storyline seen in many other JRPGs. There is enough curiosity and interest generated by these characters as their storyline progresses. Overall, the story is charming, a tale that touches on various social subjects, and some of the stories have emotional depth, which further adds value to it.
SIDE-QUESTS
There are some complex side-quests in the game, but the rewards are worthwhile.
OVERALL
The game is worth playing for the JRPG fans who prefer turn-based combat and have nostalgia for 16-bit era graphics. But the combat needs a lot of polish, and graphics require revisions, though overall, there is not much to complain about this game.