Octopath Traveler 

In Review

 

 

Octopath Traveler is a classically-inspired JRPG for the Nintendo Switch (and now PC as well). In this review I will go over the game fairly in-depth, from mechanics to story details for each individual characters- so spoilers shall abound. Let’s kick this thing off with general game details. 

 

Game Details

Octopath Traveler has carved out an interesting niche as far as artistic style is concerened- 2D pixel sprites against a somewhat 3 dimensional world with hyper-realistic light, water, and fire. This game’s look provided the initial spike of curiosity I needed to look into it. It has certainly become a unique fixture of the game’s style and look, and makes the game stand out against the waves of JRPGs that can be found on Nintendo systems. And while we’re on the subject of artistic direction, special praise ought to go to Yasunori Nishiki, the composer of the game’s absolutely brilliant score. The Main Theme- while never present outside the main menu and the medley that composes the end credits- is a wonderfully composed theme that represents the style and feel of the game. The Eight ‘Traveler’ themes for the eight main characters, are all pleasantly unique, and match the characters’ personalities, even including unique instrumental features (noble horns for the steadfast warrior Olberic, a lilting flute for the kindly cleric Ophilia, etc.)  The boss themes are also all excellent, and help keep turn-based boss battles from growing stale. 

Game mechanic-wise, I am not well-versed in JRPGs, so I do not know what is unique to Octopath, and what is not. The battle system focuses on the traditional turn-based RPG trope of weaknesses- and kicks it up a notch with the ‘Break’ system, giving all of your opponents a shield that your party must knock down by attacking a given number of times with attacks that the foe is weak to. Once your opponent is “Broken”, then is the time to use up your accrued BP (or Battle Points), to strike multiple times, or use more powerful variations of  the specialized “Profession Skills” (12 jobs, with 8 for the main characters, and 4 others that are hidden, endgame type special jobs.) I found this battle system to be heavily engaging, requiring skill and strategy, and is one of the reasons I stuck through with the game. 

 

Characters and Party Mechanics

Octopath Traveler is so named for the 8 main characters, all pursuing separate, distinct, yet subtly intertwined goals. At the beginning of the game, you are given the choice to start as any of the 8 that you choose, with the only stipulation to your party layout being that you must keep that character as the lead member of your “active party” (who you see walking on the screen, and who is sent into battle) until you have completed their story. So let’s get into it, Shall we? 

Cyrus: Cyrus is a scholar who becomes entangled in a web of mystery after discovering a 15 years cold case regarding the thievery of an eldritch tome from the Academy’s Special Archives. Cyrus was the character who I started with, and his story was a lot of fun to play through, giving off both Sherlock Holmes vibes and creepy, eldritch, demonic vibes. Each of the 4 bosses he faces throughout his journey are both well thought out gameplay-wise, and storywise. Each represents not only someone who is physically opposed to him, but also philosophically opposed to him (a common theme throughout several of the stories), but Cyrus is the only one who faces this with every boss battle. Cyrus is also not a perfect character, because while his intellect is highlighted, equal emphasis is placed upon his social deficiencies ( i;e his inability to recognize when women are attracted to him, and being unaware to the fact that he himself is leading them on.) It is ultimately these flaws that lead to some of the more precarious situations in his storyline. Gameplay wise, Cyrus is an incredibly useful Magic User- having 3 of the most common magic weaknesses instantly available. His Physical stats are terrible, making him mostly useful for the more SP Heavy magic attacks. His Talent is ‘Study foe’ which instantly reveals a weakness for all enemies on the field at the start of battle- this can be useful for more common foes, as after encountering up to 4-5 times, all of the foes weaknesses will be revealed minus the trial and error. ‘Analyze’ a native Scholar skill, is also helpful in revealing weaknesses, and is the only way in-game to view an enemy’s HP, which comes in particularly handy in boss battles of any kind. As far as subjobs are concerned, the Warrior class gives Cyrus much more powerful physical attack, while the Hidden class Sorcerer gives him devastating magical output, with some of the most powerful magic attacks in the game (and one for each element, giving Cyrus massive coverage). 

 

Tressa: Initially, I was unsure of Tressa, as her story seemed somewhat more whimsical and less serious than the other 7 paths, as it seemed to essentially be “Yay Adventure!” My prediction was entirely true, and I love Tressa for it. She is commonly referred to as a “Cinnamon Roll” (A phrase which here functions as a description for a character who is too sweet, pure, and good for this world), and I second the motion. Her path was a breath of fresh air after going through more dark and serious stories, and her 4th chapter, while a bit rushed, saw her story to a satisfying and emotional conclusion. She proved to be a strong character, with ideals to cling to and charming relationships, (Noa and Ali specifically). Gameplay-wise, Tressa is an excellent, well rounded character. Her skillsets focus around money, with the ‘Collect’ skill being able to get cash off of a foe, or the ‘Hired Help’ ability being able to buy foes into battle, including some which offer stat buffs, or inflict status conditions on enemies. Her Divine Skill, “Bifelgan’s Bounty” offers the ability to collect coin from your foe equal to the damage you deal (upwards of 5,000 usually). Tressa can also earn you money just by being in your active party, as her talent, ‘Eye For Money’ allows her to pick up forgotten cash when entering a new area (The amount that this uncovers increases as you go further in game). As far as subjobs are concerned, Tressa makes an average thief, a good dancer, and a Divine Runelord(lady). The Runelord skill “Transfer Rune”, which allows skills which only augment the user to augment your whole party, Combined with the native merchant ability of ‘Sidestep’, this allows your whole party to avoid upwards of 4 physical attacks with each consecutive use. 

 

Olberic: Olberic is an interesting character for me, as his story is immediately one of the more cliche of Octopath’s stories. I initially wrote off Olberic’s story as plain, predictable, and unexciting. Unlike Tressa, where my predictions were correct, I was entirely wrong with Olberic. Is his story somewhat tropey or cliche? Yes. However, it is an example of a trope pulled off incredibly well. Olberic’s story was engaging, satisfying, and allowed the character to experience ample amounts of growth. A former knight of the now long-gone kingdom of Hornburg, Olberic was unable to protect his charge (The King) from the betrayal of his Brother-in-Arms, Erdhardt. A series of events inspire Olberic to take up his blade in a quest for both answers both in regards to the external plot, and his own internal questions of identity. Olberic gameplay-wise is a physical attack beast. He has access to both the sword and the spear, and a variety of specialized attacks, or physical augmentation skills. His divine skill, Brand’s Thunder, when paired with the right blade, can do massive attack damage to a single foe (5000-27000 damage range). Olberic’s main point of deficiency is his lack of access to any magical skills- a fact you should remedy when deciding what subclass to give him. In my experience, Olberic has made an excellent Cleric, giving him access to both light magic (A weakness of his final boss), and some good coverage healing abilities. 

 

Ophilia: Ophilia is a cleric, whose story arc started off incredibly uninteresting to me. In fact, while a lovable, and kind character, her story is uninteresting until chapter 3 (of 4). Ophilia is the adopted daughter of Archbishop Josef, who is the head of the world’s primary religion “The Church of the Sacred Flame.” Her sister, Lianna, as the Archbishop’s only biological child, is preparing to undergo a sacred pilgrimage known as “The Kindling”, when their father falls deathly ill. Out of compassion, and love for her sister, Ophilia decides to undergo the pilgrimage in her stead. In the end, her story ends up dealing with crises of faith, love, and occult rituals. Her final boss was beautifully done, and the two characters have a verbal/philosophical confrontation to match their physical confrontation. Despite this, Ophilia gameplay-wise is not the most useful character. Her only unique characteristic outside of some pretty good passive skills is the ability to cast light magic- a uniqueness quickly overshadowed by the Soulstone items that can be fairly easily acquired throughout the game. Ophilia’s other unique trait is healing, offering fairly decent healing ability for early-game (one use will generally restore the party to full health), mid-game, Alfyn’s healing abilities far outweigh hers, leaving her with very little to call her own. As far as subjobs are concerned, Ophilia played hostess to the Scholar subjob for most of her party’s run (I divided the cast into groups of four, and did them separately), so that I had both access to the skills I had come to rely on in my initial run with Cyrus, and gave her a bit more magical coverage.

 

Alfyn: Alfyn is an apothecary, who became dedicated to helping the people of the world, after a mysterious stranger cured him of a near-fatal plague in childhood. Alfyn’s arc is mostly internal, compared to others in the game, while it is physical events that trigger this. Alfyn’s third chapter was particularly well done, bringing in a lot of moral quandaries that had me scratching my head; alongside a particularly difficult boss. Morality and internal conflict aside, Alfyn’s external conflicts are some of the game’s strong points, with the villains of chapters 2-3 proving to be some of the most hateable people in the game. (Sometimes you need to have a hateable villain). Gameplay wise, Alfyn is a straight tank. You have the opportunity fairly early in the game to get him a fairly strong weapon, and given his great physical stats, he is one of the first characters in the game to have the ability to do 9999 damage. Alongside his wickedly good healing abilities (although they do require herbs and other items of that sort). It would be reasonable to claim that Alfyn might even be OP (Overpowered). As far as subjobs go, Alfyn played the role of the Hunter throughout most of my playthrough, giving him even more skills to use against the varied foes this game offers. However, in my attempts to complete most of the post-game content, Alfyn has been playing host to the Hidden Job Warmaster- a beastly subjob that allows a single character access to all 6 of the game’s weapon types, and the divine ability to attack 6 times a row on a given turn. Given Alfyn’s already significant battle prowess, this turns him into a beast. (although do be warned, the Warmaster abilities are draining on SP, and include a few that permanently destroy the weapon wielded.)

 

Therion: Therion is a thief, who unfortunately doesn’t steal the show in any regard. Aside from the character of Heathcote, and Therion’s growing relationship with Cordelia, there’s nothing particularly of note in Therion’s Tale. Aside from it being a mediocre execution of a predictable trope, I don’t find people like Therion enjoyable to be around, so going through each chapter of his tale felt like a chore. Gameplay wise, Therion’s capabilities lie in his title- thievery. Many of the game’s items are obtained via NPC, and some of the more common items are better off stolen, rather than purchased. The success of this operates based off of a percentage system that will be explored more in-depth in another section. He can also allow the party to open special purple chests, that generally contain rare items, when he’s in the active party. He’s one of two characters to be able to wield a knife without any subjob, and has the better physical strength of the two. I actually cannot recall what Therion’s subjob was for my playthrough, so you’re out of luck in that regard. 

 

Primrose: Primrose is a dancer, with one of the most genuinely dark stories in Octopath Traveler. In any other tale, she certainly wouldn’t be the protaganist, given that her entire motive is to enact vengeance, and murder the 3 men responsible for the murder of her father, which she witnessed at a very young age. Her tale takes her on a quest to murder these three men ‘marked with the crow’, and see justice obtained. Primrose’s story continually surprised me, and I found myself wondering at times whether her story would bring her character any closure. Primrose’s story ended up as one of my favorites for this very reason. Primrose has decent physical stats, but her magic use is her primary offensive capability. However, Primrose has a whole lot of stat boosting, effect-causing, dances up her sleeves- which provide an excellent sense of party support. In fact, The Bewildering Grace skill is one of the best ways to increase experience from battles, as 2x XP is one of the myriad effects it can cause- including some rather nasty backfires. Throughout my playthrough, Primrose saw the most time with the Sorcerer(ess) Hidden Class, as it really allowed her access to her full magic wielding potential (Spells from all the elements).

 

H’annit: H’annit is a Huntress, who embarks on a quest to seek her missing master, a man who has acted as a father to her, as an orphan. Throughout this, H’annit battles deadly beasts, and speaks in the most hilarious pseudo-Old English I’ve ever heard. (“Letten the hunt beginnen” being one of the stand outs). H’annit’s story is surprisingly emotional, and one that takes on a new level of tragedy when going into the background lore. H’annit is a lovable character, through and through- although not groundbreaking in any fashion. H’annit’s skills center mostly around the trapping of beasts, including the ability ‘Leghold Trap’ which, un-augmented, makes a given foe move last for 2 consecutive turns (Particularly useful in Boss Battles). As far as Subjobs, H’annit was my Starseer, a class that is rather difficult to explain.

 

Now although that’s all eight characters explored- there’s one more party mechanic that makes them all feel more real. ‘Travel Banter’! Travel Banter is essentially Octopath’s version of a Support Conversation, where two characters interact, giving their insights on the current situation in the story. Most of the support conversations occur whilst doing story chapters, and generally focus on the character that the chapter is for. For instance, if both Cyrus and Tressa are in your party during Cyrus’s second chapter, they will have a conversation about how Cyrus, while focused, could stand to be more attentive to his surroundings. Including Cyrus’s humourous anecdote about an incident wherein he was so engrossed in a book, he failed to notice his neighbor’s house was on fire. These more story focused travel banters are great, but so are the pure character building banters. These occur when you have specific characters in your party and you enter a tavern. For instance, if you have all four male characters in your party, you will be treated to a travel banter where they have a drinking contest. These Conversations, while non-essential to the story, help make the characters feel real, and not alone on these quests they pursue.

 

Post-Game Content

Octopath’s post-game content helps tie the main characters’ stories together in a unique and refreshing way. In order to unlock the post-game secrets, you must first complete the ‘Daughter of the Dark God’ sidequest line, and the ‘Kit the Traveler’/ ‘In Search of Father’ sidequests. This allows fast travel access to the sub-area ‘The Ruins of Hornburg’, which contains one final dungeon, with trials against one boss from each of the 8 characters’ quests, and a secret final boss, that I have yet to beat. This dungeon does not allow you to save and leave, however it does give you a way to switch around your party. This dungeon gives a lot of the background lore intertwining the main cast’s stories, most of which can only be postulated with vague links.  

 

Verdict 

Octopath Traveler is not a perfect game, but I think it’s pretty dang close. Every player’s path will be different, and the game takes enough precautions with the storytelling and lore so that each Traveler’s tale can stand on its own, but still stand together as a satisfying whole. Early reviews that had not discovered the secret ending criticised the game for leaving the stories unconnected- however even if they had, I felt that a change of pace from the standard, “Save the World” story really benefited the game, and allowed the game to focus more on the growth of each of the characters with believable and compelling character arcs. While the Boss Battles and level farming could often be tedious, I genuinely enjoyed spending time on Orsterra, and challenging myself to the various trials it contains. However, despite that, I disliked that there were essentially no optional areas of the map, outside of the Final Area, and some sidequest dungeons. Each of the game’s eight regions only contains 3 towns, meaning there was very little to be done as far as exploring. I am genuinely excited for the prequel mobile game, and for the eventual sequel. I will certainly replay this game, and would even buy it again.