A Review of Octopath Traveler

There’s something special about traditional turn based JRPGs to me. Maybe it’s because I grew up with them: Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, Pokemon, and especially Golden Sun. These were all games I played during formative years of my life that shaped my tastes in video games, and I see them as fundamental to explaining why I have such a fondness for turned based JRPGs. While Pokemon and the Mario RPGs do follow the format mechanically, aesthetically they don’t follow what Golden Sun and Final Fantasy IX went for that really captures the feel of a traditional JRPG: a colorful fantasy setting with characters and a world that come to life. There’s just something about a historical fantasy setting that really appeals to me, and when you combine that with a turn based combat that heavily favors complex strategies, I am smitten in a way no other game can. I think this is a part of why I have taken so much to the Fire Emblem games recently. 

By discussing my history and fondness for traditional JRPGs (as I will now refer to them as) I hope to explain why Octopath Traveler appealed to me so much upon its initial reveal. I’ve kept my eye on it, doubly so due to it being a spiritual successor to Bravely Default. That was a game I played recently and…despite really disliking the second half of game to the point that it ruined the whole thing for me, I still greatly enjoyed the first half, as seen in my write up for it: http://johnnyappleshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/bravely-default-review-part-1.html. 

I hoped that Octopath would be different. Maybe, at last, I could get into, love, and beat a traditional turn based JRPG, something I have not done since the Golden Sun games. So, when the game was 50% off, I jumped at the chance, excited to dive in. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

TLDR version at the bottom for those looking for a quick summary of bullet points.

I think the most interesting thing about Octopath Traveler is that from looking at it and listening to its music, it has the aesthetic of a classic JRPG that follows all its tropes and structures like you remember. Ironic, because of all the traditional JRPGs I’ve played, Octopath is the most unique mechanically, something I was not expecting.

The first element that separates Octopath from its predecessors is its emphasis on exploration. Normally JRPGs are known for, and often criticized for, being overtly linear. This is because they tend to focus on a grand story and character arcs, ones which require a strict path that send you from point A to point B so the story may progress logically.

Octopath however, is completely different. In Octopath you start by picking 1 of 8 characters as the protagonist for your journey. You begin by completing Chapter 1 of their story in their hometown, and once you complete it, you can go anywhere you want in the world immediately. It is a level of freedom not present in JRPGs. However, one must then ask, how does the game guide you with such freedom?

First, the game lets you know what level you are recommended to be at upon entering a new part of the world. This can serve as a warning for players who would otherwise find enemies far too strong to handle, while also guiding players down the direction of the one path they feel they are leveled up enough to handle. As you level up, you are able to explore more parts of the world, so it naturally opens up without feeling like it is blocking you off for no reason.

Secondly, the game gives you a world map immediately, and on it are labeled the locations of the hometown of the seven other main characters in Octopath Traveler, and the recommended level you be at to complete their first chapter. Whenever you complete a character’s chapter, the next chapter will appear on your map so you know which town to go to, and what level you should be at to attempt the chapter.

Essentially, rather then having you go from Point A to Point B, Octopath lays out Points A-H on your map, and you can complete them in any order you want. It allows you to plan your journey and explore the world all on your own, providing an incredible amount of freedom that makes your traversal of the world feel like your own.

To accompany this freedom, the game has loads of sidequests and optional dungeons and bosses you can find all over the world. It encourages exploration, and overall sets the stage for a world enticing you to search every corner of it.

The second element that sets Octopath apart from its predecessors is its narrative structure. For, if the game lets you explore the world in any way you want, how in the world does it handle its story?

The simple answer is that Octopath does not even try to have a traditional JRPG story and instead goes for an unorthodox approach. Rather then have one plot that hangs over the main characters and pushes them along, each of the eight characters has their own personal journey to go on. Their stories are separated into four parts: chapters one through four, that see them venturing to towns, meeting strangers, learning more about themselves, and finding their own unique answers. Rather then have an epic quest about saving the world like most RPGs, Octopath’s story feels more personal, intimate, as characters search not for the truth (well, Cyrus does), but simply for their own happiness and meaning in life. It’s a different take on storytelling, and I loved it if only for its unique structure.

This format creates a disjointed narrative as you jump between characters who each have their own separate story. Every time you start a character’s chapter in a town, the game will provide a short recap of the character’s story up to this point, in case it has been a while since you’ve done their last chapter.

These two elements: the freedom and different narrative structure, meant Octopath was far more unique of a JRPG then I was expecting, and I loved that the developers were willing to experiment. I might even argue it was done in an attempt to modernize the genre to fit in a world where RPGs that tend to emphasize player freedom more.

However, while these two elements gave the game a unique flare, nothing helps a JRPG more then having an excellent battle and class system. Does Octopath fare well?

While I would say the battle and class systems are not quite up to the brilliance of those in Bravely Default (though considering Default has my favorite battle and class system, that’s nothing to scoff at), I would still say that Octopath’s do an excellent job nonetheless, and after spending significant time with the game, I have fallen in love with both its battle and class systems.

Let’s start with battles. It took some time to wrap my head about it, but once I understood how Octopath’s battle system worked, it clicked beautifully. Octopath’s battle system is weakness oriented. Each enemy has certain weapons or elements it is weak to, and you must discover these weaknesses and then use them to “break” an enemy. Once an enemy is broken, it will be vulnerable for one turn, unable to attack, and will take more damage then it would otherwise. This adds a fun element of strategy to the game as you learn of every new enemy and try to best strategize your battle plan to break enemies as quickly as possible.

However, the boost ability is what really makes Octopath’s battle system special. At the start of each turn, all of your characters will gain one BP. During any turn, you can use up to three BP to power up your characters and unleash powerful attacks. Using multiple BP on normal attacks will result in your character attacking two to four times instead of one, depending on how much BP you use. If you use multiple BP on special attacks, the attack will still be used once, but with much greater power.

This creates an interesting dynamic, because BP can be used both with normal attacks to break enemies quicker, but also with special attacks such that when enemies are broken you can unleash stronger attacks that will do the most damage to them. Add to this the fact that when you utilize BP at all, your character will not gain one BP the next turn, and will only resume after a turn has passed, and you have a complex battle system that offers for lots of strategizing. You will want characters that can unleash powerful attacks when enemies are broken, but also characters who can use strong normal attacks to break enemies. At the same time, you will want to wait for the opportune moment to unleash your BP such that you maximize the amount of BP you gain each turn, and there is just so much to the battle system.

What all this means is that the boss battles of Octopath will require much thinking on your part, making them incredibly fun. Like Bravely Default, a lot of my fondest memories with Octopath came from the boss battles. There’s nothing quite like a long boss battle, in which you have to constantly watch your characters’ health and points, while also strategizing how to best break the boss, but also how to do so while ensuring when the boss is broken you can unleash massive damage. Add to this the fact that bosses can prepare powerful attacks that they will unleash in one to two turns unless you break them, or the fact that bosses can unleash abilities that change the game; such as increasing their magic defense, summoning enemies, or attacking an extra time each turn, and you will find yourself constantly having to change your strategy in these tense and fun boss fights. They feel like a complex and ever-changing game of chess, and I adored so many of these bosses. The best were those that I found myself struggling and losing to on the first try, only to stop, rethink my strategy, go in with a different plan, and find it works as I barely come out victorious. It was fantastic, and Octopath’s battle system is one of the game’s greatest strengths.

However, what adds an additional layer of complexity to the battle system is the job (class) system of Octopath. See, in Octopath, all eight of the main characters have a unique class. As you explore the world, you will gain the ability to add a second class to your characters. You can give any of your characters a second class to use, but only one character can use each class as their second class, so you will have to mix and match the eight classes on your chosen party of four. Each job uses different weapons (some use only one while others use two), each job has unique special attacks they learn, and most of all, each job has unique skills to be learned and then equipped on said character. Each of your characters can equip a maximum of 4 job skills, and each class has 4 skills to teach its bearer. When characters learn said skill, they can continue to have it equipped even if they are no longer the class they needed to learn it.

Essentially, each of your characters can have two classes equipped, each class has its own unique abilities and attacks, and you can mix these to all sorts of fun combinations. There is an insane amount of customization in Octopath that you will spend hours figuring out and using to compromise your team in whatever way you want. The amount of unique strategies you can come across is incredible, and it encourages you to experiment and see what sort of strategies other players come up with.

As an example, I’d like to share the main battle strategy I ended up using for my main party by the end of the game, as I was proud of it and felt clever at being able to theorize and put it together. The character I started with was Ophilia the cleric. Being someone who always favors healers in JRPGs, and one who loved her calm and kind personality, I had to go with her. As I progressed through the game and recruited the eight characters, I discovered that whichever character you pick as your starting point cannot be removed from your party. This meant I had Ophilia in my main party gaining exp more then anyone else, so she was my highest leveled unit. With this in mind, I decided to have her abilities to be the core of my strategy.

The other 3 characters I had in my party were Cyrus the scholar, Primrose the dancer, and Olberic the Warrior. Primose was primarily support, powering up Cyrus and Olberic, while Olberic unleashed powerful physical attacks, and Cyrus unleashed powerful special attacks. Ophilia kept everyone healed and protected at all times. One thing I could not help but notice was that my party make up was very similar to the one I went with in Bravely Default. There, I had had the four main characters act in similar roles (healer, support role, physical attacker, special attacker). Perhaps that sort of team is one I gravitate towards…

Regardless, with all this in mind, what was my end game Ophilia centric strategy? Well, because Ophilia was my highest leveled unit, I gave her powerful armor and magic boosts so that she could heal the best. I also gave her abilities that allowed her to recover special points and use powerful ones at half cost such that she could use the most powerful healing spells with ease.

But the real kicker was the abilities. See, the Cleric class’s fourth ability, the one it learns once you upgrade the character’s cleric class to its max potential, is one that allows the character to be healed over their max HP. However, it only works once, and once their HP is over max, they cannot be healed again until their HP is below max.

So, what I did was get every character in my party to learn this ability by maxing out their clerical abilities. Then, at the start of boss battles I would have Ophilia defend, meaning she would go first next turn and with an extra BP. Then on the second turn I would have her boost twice and use the most powerful healing magic to heal all four characters well above their max health. While bosses knocked our health down I would have Ophilia build up her BP to max and set up measures to increase our defenses, such that whenever a character’s health got to less then their max, I could have Ophilia use the most powerful healing spell again fully boosted. In this way, I could take on powerful bosses that did massive amounts of damage to my characters, and thanks to Ophilia’s healing capabilities we could take such massive damage and keep fighting.

This strategy was a lot of fun because it took me a long time to figure out and could only work by combining all the unique mechanics of the game together: the ability for everyone to learn another class, combining the abilities of different classes, and taking advantage of the fact that because Ophilia was who I chose first, she was my highest leveled unit. It all came together to make the class system of Octopath well designed and fun to play with. I loved experimenting with the classes and learning how they mixed, and it made reaching my final strategy satisfying.

Up to this point I have been singing the praises of Octopath. It has a great battle system, class system, a world that gives you lots of freedom to explore, and a unique narrative structure. Despite all these praises however….I cannot lie that I have conflicted feelings and large issues with Octopath. It’s time for critiques.

To start, despite how beautiful the world of Octopath looks and how much freedom it gives you, the world itself is not very fun to explore. Unlike the Golden Sun games which gave you psyenergy abilities to use to interact with the world, or Pokemon and Paper Mario which gave you HMs or partner abilities to interact with the world, Octopath has none of these. Instead, the abilities given to your characters outside of battle involve different ways of interacting with NPCs. These include 1) encouraging them to follow you into battle and on your adventure, 2) battling them, 3) scrutinizing them for more information, or 4) buying and stealing items from them. These are fun and can add more character to the NPCs and towns of the game, but as a result, the dungeons and non town areas are very lacking in terms of imagination. This is a major setback given the freedom of the world is such a potentially great selling point. The lack of a world that is fun and interesting to explore damages this, and it did not take long for the world to feel repetitive. Every area is a simple maze that sees you locating which paths lead to treasure chests and which lead to the boss, and nothing more then that.

The lack of imaginative design is not only reserved for the world unfortunately. The eight characters, all with the promise of having unique and personal stories, are overall…not very memorable. Of the eight character stories, there were only three I found myself invested in and having an overall great time with, that being Ophilia, Alfyn the Apothecary, and Olberic.

I theorize a part of why I could not get into even half of the characters stems from a larger problem the game has: repetition. While the game has eight characters that feel different in their own way, their stories felt surprisingly similar at times, which led to them feeling predictable and redundant by the end. The themes of the eight stories are quite similar, to the point that I’d argue you could have easily condensed the eight stories into three.

Cyrus, Alfyn, and Tressa’s stories all revolve around a character who wants to go on an adventure, explore the world, and find its secrets, while encountering friends, foes, mysteries, etc. and learning what it truly means to be a noble scholar / apothecary / merchant.

Ophilia and Haanit’s stories both revolve around their devotion to a person, being Ophilia’s sister and Haanit’s mentor respectively. They both go on journeys for this person, and as such their stories revolve around their history and relationship with said character, and their general devotion and faith to their values and cause (you could argue that Primrose and Olberic’s stories revolve around similar themes).

Therion, Primrose, and Olberic’s stories all revolve around the theme of loss and being traumatized by a dark event in their backstory. With Therion it was being betrayed by his former partner, Primrose it was witnessing the murder of her father, and Olberic it was being unable to protect the kingdom he was sworn to protect as it was slaughtered by his former friend. All three of them search for answers to their grief, learn the truth of what happened on that dark day, and find reason to heal and move on from this scar in their life.

These are all nice setups and themes for stories on their own. The problem however, is that because there is so much overlap between the character stories, none of them feel particularly stand out and worthy of praise, such that as I write this, I have little to say other then I think it would have worked better as three or four larger stories.

This leads to what I would argue is the core problem with the game and what led to so much repetition in the overworld and narrative: the game is too big.

It took me just over 100 hours to get to my breaking point. I had completed the first three chapters of all eight characters, but when it came to the chapter four stories, I was excited and curious to see how the characters’ stories would conclude, but the more I did them, the more bored I grew. They touched similar story beats that I could see coming, they were following the same formula that every chapter in the game follows, and by the time I completed five of the characters’ final chapters, I put the game down because I had lost motivation to continue playing. I no longer cared about the world and characters. After a month I worked up the motivation to pick it up and do one more character’s final chapter. By the end of it I felt even less motivation to continue and wondered why I had played through it.

Octopath Traveler, despite trying to be a modern JRPG in some ways, still falls into the trap of needing to make a game feel long and like a big adventure. This would be acceptable if the world continued to change as you explored it, if the mechanics of the game changed as you progressed, if the stories and characters changed, etc. However, none of this happens. Each chapter for every character follows the same formula with little deviation: you enter a new town, talk to npcs, use the character’s special ability on some npcs, find a dungeon, go through it, fight the boss, and then leave the town in search of the next one. With such little variation, it gets predictable and uninteresting by the time you reach the chapter three stories for each character.

On top of this, every new area you discover is designed like a maze, and after you gain the ability to change characters into a second class, the battle mechanics never change. I was taken aback when I was over ten hours into the game, having completed every character’s first chapter, and discovered the ability to make my characters a second class. It completely changed the mechanics of the game, and made each character’s second chapter feel that much more like an evolution. I could not help but wonder if any other cool mechanical changes awaited in the game to continue this feeling of progression, say new classes for example. Unfortunately, this does not happen, and you do not come across new classes until the final chapters of the game, at which point gaining them is harder then defeating the eight final bosses, so it feels rather pointless. The problem with Octopath is that it expects you to explore this large world and eight different stories and characters. However, the world and character stories are not made interesting and creative enough to warrant such exploration, such that by the end I was bored of the game and had little motivation to finish it.

In my ideal world, if I could fix Octopath, I would make one large change to the game. I think as is the game can work, and I did not find myself growing bored or done with it until I was completing the final characters’ third chapters. What I would have done, is shrunk the game in half, or at least just shy of that. Make the world half as big, have the adventure only feature four characters, and if you’re feeling ambitious give the four characters a fifth chapter, allowing their stories to be fleshed out more. If Octopath had ended around the time I had completed 20 of the character chapters, I would have been content with that.

I think cutting the game down would be relatively easy. The eight characters have four out of battle abilities, with two characters sharing each ability, so it would be a simple solution of taking out half the cast. Since Alfyn and Haanit have unique battle mechanics, they are the most interesting of the cast mechanically, so keep them in, and remove Cyrus and Olberic. Between Primrose and Ophilia, Primrose seems the more unique and popular character, so keep her (sorry Ophilia). This is also true when it comes to Tressa and Therion, with Tressa being more of a fan favorite, so keep her, and maybe give her Therion’s out of battle ability as well. 

Once that is done, change their stories to make them more unique and go in interesting directions, borrowing what I liked from the cut characters’ stories. Give Primrose Olberic’s chapters: Have her have to enter a tournament and battle various foes to encounter her target. Have her find that one of her father’s murderers is regretful of their past, trying to make amends, and will help and point her to the true enemy’s hideout. Give Haanit Ophilia’s chapters: Have her encounter a fellow hunter with a different philosophy on hunting and their mutual teacher. Create an interesting ideological conflict and dynamic there. Also, have her rescue her teacher sooner, such that they can have more interactions and their relationship can be explored more.

You can even keep the job system as is. Have the player discover the ability to equip second classes as you progress through the second chapters, but only for the classes of the four starting characters. Then as you explore the third chapter environments, allow the player to discover the brand new classes of scholar, cleric, warrior, and thief. Finally, as players explore the fourth chapter environments, have them run into the final four classes in the game (though tone down how overpowered they are), such that up to the fifth chapter each one adds new classes that change up the way players customize their party.

This is my ideal Octopath. Alas, that is not how it is. Still, I think such a thought experiment helps to explain my problems with this game. I think in making it too big for its own good, in adding so many optional bosses and areas, the developers didn’t have the time to spend on making every part of the world interesting and unique. I have read one way to play Octopath, and this is likely what I will do should I replay the game in the future, is to only recruit four characters, then avoid completing the first chapter of the other four characters, and progress through the game with only those four. I think I would enjoy this more, and I will definitely try it out in the future.

Upon reflection, I find it interesting that my largest problem with Octopath is also my largest problem with Bravely Default. That is a game in which, if it was half as long as it was, if it ended at its fourth chapter instead of going all the way to eight, I would have remembered that game much more fondly and had few problems with it. I think it shows that while I do love traditional JRPGs and they hold a special place in my heart, the large length they are known for is something that does not appeal to me. Perhaps this is why I treasure JRPGs such as Undertale and the Golden Sun games so much, as they are much shorter.

C

The Golden Sun games are roughly half the length of Bravely Default and Octopath

 

To conclude, I have conflicted feelings about Octopath. In a weird way my feelings towards it are similar to those with Bravely Default. I adored its look and music, and will definitely listen to songs from it for a long time. I loved the battle and class systems, and the boss battles and customization were incredibly fun. But alas, it’s hard for me to recommend a game that ends on such a sour note. Because I had to force myself through its end and wasn’t even able to fully complete every characters’ story (never mind the true secret final boss that connects all the stories together), I do not know if I could recommend this to someone. Like Bravely Default, I only could if they are a big fan of traditional JRPGs like myself, because that is the only reason I tried so hard and put up with it for so long when I had grown bored of its stories and world. Alas, I would say that overall, I enjoyed Octopath more then Bravely Default, but like Bravely, I would still say that I much prefer the Golden Sun games to it. Still, I have not played those in a very long time, perhaps a replay is in order…

TLDR version:

+Beautiful look

+Fantastic music

+Excellent battle system

+Wonderful class system

+Freedom unlike anything seen in a traditional JRPG

+Unique storytelling and narrative structure

-Lacking imagination in the environmental design

-Repetitive structure for the main chapters

-Repetitive story beats for the characters and their journeys

-Lack of twists, new mechanics, or set pieces to change things up after the second chapters

-Far too long

-You will likely not finish this