Octopath Traveler
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"Challenges are what make everything worthwhile"
— Ophilia
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 Choose your fate. Eight stories await.
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Octopath Traveler is a role-playing game developed by Square Enix with the collaboration of Acquire. It was released for the Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Stadia, and Xbox One on their respective dates. A prequel, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, was released in 2020 as a Japan-exclusive title.
Plot
Taking place in the land of Orsterra, the Order of the Sacred Flame believed that the world was created by thirteen deities before twelve of them were forced to seal the fallen god, Galdera, who refused to relinquish what they created, within the afterworld, which can be accessed through the sealed Gate of Finis. The story follows eight heroes as they journey through Orsterra, complete with their own storyline.
Gameplay
Octopath Traveler features a graphical aesthetic known as "HD-2D", defined by the developers as combining retro Super NES-style character sprites and textures with polygonal environments and high-definition effects.
Players start the game by choosing a protagonist from one of eight adventurers, each of whom begins their journey in different parts of the world. Once a protagonist character is chosen, they cannot be removed from the active party until their story arc, which consists of four chapters, is concluded. Characters not chosen as the protagonist may be recruited at their starting locations.
Each character is paired with a distinct character class ("job"). It cannot be altered through gameplay. However, players can unlock the ability to assign a different character's class as a "subjob," which can be changed at any time but can only be assigned to one character at a time.
Each player character has a unique "Path Action" command that can be used when interacting with NPCs: The Warrior Olberic and the Hunter H'aanit can challenge characters; the Apothecary Alfyn and the Scholar Cyrus can inquire about certain bits of information that can be used for completion of quests or in the form of hidden items; the Merchant Tressa and the Thief Therion can acquire items directly from NPCs, one via commerce and the other via pickpocketing; and the Cleric Ophilia and the Dancer Primrose can guide NPCs and use them as guest summons. In all cases, the first action is a "Noble" Path Action: the ability's effectiveness dependent by the character's level or amount of in-game currency. The others are "Rogue" actions, which can be used on anyone but carries a risk of its user losing credibility with other NPCs. When the player loses enough reputation in a given town, they can no longer use any Path Actions in that town until a fee has been paid to restore the party's reputation.
The game features a turn-based battle system. All characters can attack with weapons, use abilities, use consumable items, and flee. The battle system is oriented around two features, "Break and Boost".
- Every foe comes with a set number of "Shield Points" and a series of weaknesses, which are revealed when the party first encounters that foe. Weaknesses correspond to one of the six different kinds of weapons, or six elemental attacks, in the game. If an enemy is struck, using something it is vulnerable to, an equal or greater number of times than it has Shield Points, the enemy is "Broken;" it loses its next turn and takes increased damage. However, once it gets a turn, it is guaranteed to act before the player does, preventing the player from locking it
- Each party member receives a Boost Point at the beginning of every turn and may store up to five at a time. During their turn, a player can use up to three Boost Points to either strike with their weapons multiple times or increase the potency of an ability. A Boost Point is not gained the turn after using them.
Development and Release
Octopath Traveler was announced on January 13, 2017, under the working title of Project Octopath Traveler. The project was started by producers Masashi Takahashi and Tomoya Asano, who previously headed the Nintendo 3DS titles Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer. Acquire was chosen as development partner for the game based on their previous work on the What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? series. During the development process, various graphics options such as the depth, resolution, saturation, as well as other features such as whether water should be pixel or photorealistic are taken into consideration to perfect the "HD-2D" look. The eight main characters, four male and four female, are chosen to provide different party variations. All characters have different classes, and the character design, as well as the field commands, are based on different occupations in Medieval Europe. Each playable character is accompanied by unique themes during specifics sections of their story arcs. For example, Primrose's theme is intended to project a femininity that exudes sadness and melancholy. According to sound producer Yasunori Nishiki, the developers wanted to create a sense of wistfulness as well for her music theme even though her story is driven by revenge against her father's killers. Metallic sounds were incorporated into the theme to evoke a desert setting to reflect the beginning of Primrose's journey in the desert city of Sunshade.
The game's first public demo was released on the Nintendo eShop on September 13, 2017, For the demo, Olberic and Primrose were chosen to be the protagonists due to the relative proximity of their stories' starting points, and the developers wanted people to be able to recruit the other character after beating the story. Consideration was also given towards presenting the appeal of the game's mechanics through these characters. The second demo was released on June 14, 2018 and included various tweaks and improvements gathered from surveying players, along with all eight playable characters and save data transfer to the full game. The second demo consisted of the first chapters of each character's story, with certain areas blocked off to the player, and also had a three-hour play time limit.
Octopath Traveler was released worldwide on July 13, 2018. A special edition that includes the game's soundtrack, a replica of the game's in-game currency, a pop-up book, and a replica map of Orsterra was also released the same day. The game was released for Windows on June 7, 2019. A prequel for Android and iOS, titled Octopath Traveler: Conquerors of the Continent, was originally scheduled to be released in Japan in 2019, but was delayed to 2020. A Stadia version released on April 28, 2020. The game was released for Xbox One on March 25, 2021, and added to the Xbox Game Pass service on the same day. Versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released on June 5, 2024. According to Takahashi, no downloadable content or other large post-release content updates are planned for the game.
The game was delisted from the Nintendo eShop for roughly a month between March and April 2024. Upon its return, Square Enix was listed as the publisher of the game, taking over from Nintendo, the original publisher.
Why Every Road is Yours to Take
- Let's start things off with the biggest highlight of the game. The graphics! The graphical aesthetic used for this game is called "HD-2D", where you combine retro SNES-like graphics with polygonal environments and high-definition effects. As a result, mixing the two doesn't look out of place and instead looks so fitting, thus resulting in a retro and atmospheric feel. Even the lighting looks gorgeous.
- The main characters of the game allow you to be placed in the view of 8 different main characters with each of them having their own journey in different ways. The characters all come from different parts of the world complete with jobs and attributes.
- The characters all share a "Path Action" command that can be used when interacting with NPCs that come in two different categories. Noble has the ability to give out effectiveness that is dependent on the character's level or the amount of in-game currency. Rogue allows you to go over the risk of the user losing credibility upon other NPCs.
- Olberic (Challenge) and H'aanit (Provke) can challenge characters.
- Cyrus (Scrutinize) and Alfyn (Inquire) can inquire about certain bits of information that can be useful for quests or hidden items.
- Tressa (Purchase) and Therion (Steal) can get items directly from NPCs.
- Ophilia (Guide) and Primose (Allure) can guide NPCs and use them as guest summons.
- Since this is an RPG, you know that the gameplay is gonna be one. The game uses a turn-based battle system that allows the player to use different kinds of weapons, abilities, items, or elemental attacks.
- During the fight, there is a gimmick called Boost. In the beginning, each character has only 1 Boost Point, which allows you to increase your points by +1BP at the beginning of a new turn unless you use the boost. You can only have a maximum of 5 BP. The Boost mechanic can give your regular attacks more times to strike, increase damage for skills, and increase the number of turns buffs/debuffs last for.
- Each of the characters has a job that defines what skills and weapons characters can use. You got clerics, scholars, merchants, warriors, dancers, apothecaries, thieves, and hunters.
- If you come across hidden shrines across Orsterra and examine the altars within, you can give your traveler a second job. To unlock the hidden jobs, the travelers must also prove their worth by defeating the job's guardian god.
- Jobs also have stat bonuses. Cleric uses +18% for Max SP as an example.
- Every town has a Tavern. Speak to a barman and you can do the following:
- Change Party: Change which travelers are in the party. The initial traveler chosen at the beginning of the game cannot be removed until their story is completed.
- Equipment: This allows the players to view and change the equipment of all eight travelers once rather than just whoever is in the current party.
- Hear a Tale: If the player does not want to begin the next chapter of a traveler story immediately upon entering a town, speaking to the tavern keeper with the traveler in question in the party, they can begin the next chapter at their leisure.
- Restore Reputation: If you were to fail Rogue Path Actions five times and have your reputation in town suffer, the tavern will offer to spread rumors around the town to restore the player's reputation in exchange for a certain amount of money, which varies depending on the town in question.
- The travelers have skills that only cost a certain amount of JP. If you learn new skills, the corresponding job's Support Skills will be unlocked. You got your usual job skills as well as those that are more advanced.
- About support skills, they come in a variety of passive effects, such as increasing an attribute for your traveler or decreasing the chances of random encounters.
- Side stories are available in this game. The number of side quests is 101 side quests in general. If you complete them, you can get rewards like items.
- Thanks to the way the game is presented. Octopath Traveler combines novelty and nostalgia together as if it were to pay homage to 16-Bit or 32-Bit RPGs with the blend of fresh new air.
- The game is pretty long in a good way. It takes 50-60 hours for the main story. If you were to do side quests and optional content, you will get a whopping 100 hours of gameplay.
- An engaging storyline that has eight individual tales for each of the eight main characters. They give enough effort to have individual tells their tales to the player.
- Ophilia's plot involves her going on a pilgrimage to renew the flames of the church in her stepsister's stead. However, she is unaware that her faith's benefactor, Mattias, created a cult dedicated to Galdera.
- Cyrus' plot searches for an ancient Hornbergian grimoire known as From the Far Reaches of Hell. The theft was arranged by the current headmaster's aide, Lucia.
- Tressa's plot has her being spurred by the journal of the apothecary Graham Crossford to see the world while taking on an Obsidian bandit Esmeralda.
- Olberic's plot focuses on how the former knight from a fallen kingdom of Hornburg seeks the truth of his homeland's destruction by the mercenary Werner and his former brother-in-arms, Erhardt.
- Primrose's plot has her seek revenge against the Obsidians because her father was killed by them.
- Alfyn's plot focuses on his backstory about him being cured during a plague as a child by Graham. He ends up following the man's footsteps to help others.
- Therion's plot has him being forced into the servitude of House Ravus to retrieve the stolen Dragonstones and settle things with former friend, Darius.
- H'aanit's plot puts her into finding master, Z'aanta, and saving him by slaying a nightmarish monster called Redeye.
- The story is split into two parts. As already mentioned before. You get to learn about the travelers. But then there is the part where you get to realize the quests became intermingled. Now Mattias, Lucia, the Obsidians, and Werner are revealed to have been under the employ of an immortal witch named Leblanc. To make things worse, she was responsible for many events, such as the destruction of Hornburg and the theft of From the Far Reaches of Hell.
- A strong cast of characters including the 8 party members.
- Olberic, as a knight, is honorable and has a strong sense of justice. He may be stoic, yet he always keeps his calm no matter what.
- Primrose matured quickly after the death of her father. She just wants revenge on the people who took her father's life. She has very good control over her emotions, rarely raising her voice even when she's feeling intense rage. But behind her soul, she is a sad and lonely woman, yet the suffering helped her to become more empathetic and is kind to those who aren't there to anger her.
- Ophilia is a kind-hearted girl who was raised by Archbishop Josef. She does what she believes is the right thing and can help those in need whenever the time is right.
- Cyrus is a knowledgeable man who uses his smarts before everything else. He believes that knowledge is something that must be shared with other people. He's also respectful towards others as well
- Tressa is a cheerful girl who loves to seek adventure and discoveries. She is a force to be reckoned with and will do anything to continue on her journey. So don't be fooled by her cutesy looks as she's more than that.
- Alfyn is a genuine young man who is willing to help those in need. He's very responsible for his profession, believing that every life is worth saving, no matter their social class or status. He used to be a troublemaker until he got ill, only to get healed later on as a life-changing experience. He went into a state of a personal crisis after questioning his own beliefs. He gets words of encouragement from a letter saying that he's a human apothecary, not a god, and he has no right to decide who lives and who dies.
- Therion is a cocky and cynical guy. He never wants to partner with two other thieves. He's like a lone wolf who works better by himself, yet it is revealed that he has trust issues due to being betrayed at a young age. When he meets Darius again, he has learned to trust people again.
- H'aanit is a hunter with a moral compass. She's really mature and believes in the ideals taught by Z'aanta.
- A rogue gallery of bosses that are a lot to cover. You got some like Galdera, Winnehild, Dreisang, Balogar, Mattias, Devourer of Men, Steorra, Monarch, Mystery Man, and Shady Figure, Behemoth, Ogre Eagle, the list goes on.
- Good voice acting for the 8 main characters, as well as the additional voices (especially the former 8 who are the main cast of characters).
- Then there's the Break system. Each enemy has a defense strength paired with weaknesses to a certain weapon or elemental type. The damage is increased by 30% and reduces the enemy defense by one. If they lose all their strength, they will lose any remaining actions for the current round.
- The developers behind the game can take criticism over the game itself. They have made various improvements to the game like movement, visibility, and game balance.
- When you play the second demo, you have the ability to use the save data transfer for the full game once you get the game in full form.
- The main characters have talents exclusive to them.
- Olberic has a talent called Bolster Defense. He boosts when defending against the mighty blows of formidable enemies.
- Cyrus can study a foe. He would get some information about the weaknesses of the enemies at the start of the battle
- Tressa has an eye for money. She collects money left behind by those who are fallen.
- Both Ophilia and Primrose can summon a townsperson. This difference is that Ophilia uses the townsperson as guidance while Primrose uses the townsperson as a charm.
- Alfyn can concoct potions and destructive substances from various ingredients. They can either aid your allies or harm those that come in your way.
- Therion can open the tightly locked purple chests you encountered.
- H'aanit can capture monsters and beasts in battle just to train them to fight by your side. Add the monsters to your roster and summon them for battle.
- A greatly orchestrated soundtrack that is composed by Yasunori Nishiki. You got those that sound beautiful while others sound epic. Just imagine going to an orchestra listening to those songs.
- Nuts happen to be the best items in this game. They are useful for increasing your stats permanently.
- 32 chapters to play through in total.
- The artwork used for this game is cool. It looks like it resembles the European medieval era as well as a manga of some sort.
- The plot overall has moments of emotion, thus creating a powerful narrative complete with the feels. This ought to be something that needed to be mentioned.
Bad Qualities
- Grinding can be pretty mindless and tedious at times.
- After battles, you get little money with some items being expensive to obtain. Though a lot of side quests do give you a lot of money.
- Bewildering Grace is basically Russian roulette. It causes one random result to occur. While it can be positive, it can be negative as well.
- Even though most of the side quests are found, a number of them have cryptic solutions with no hints. As a result, it can be nearly impossible to do without a guide or going onto the Octopath wikia site.
- The final boss dungeon has you fight 8 bosses who happen to be recolored stronger bosses from the past. After that, you get to fight the final boss. However, there are no checkpoints, so failing to beat the toughest fight in the game forces you to go back to the beginning. You need to beat 8 bosses again for every attempt and it takes a while to do so. What's worse is that not everyone has probably grinded and trained the 8 main characters.
- It's kinda repetitive. The formula is basically "enter the town, use path action, walk to the dungeon, and boss battle". That formula takes like 90% of the game.
- Back then, the Japanese players were unable to get a physical copy due to stock shortages during the week and the following week of its release. However, Square Enix did apologize.
- North American stores had similar issues during the first two weeks, to the point where physical copies of Octopath Traveler that were ordered via Amazon shortly after launch (briefly) ended up listed on backorder for up to two months
Reception
Octopath Traveler received "generally favorable" reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Polygon's Jeremy Parish hailed the game as "the magical RPG the Nintendo Switch needed". GameSpot's Peter Brown praised the game for its "innovative battle system", character progression and presentation but found that the main drawbacks were the stories of the eight playable characters, which he described as "lackluster" and "repetitive".
The depiction of female characters in Octopath Traveler was met with a mixed response from critics. While some commentators singled out Primrose's story arc as a highlight of the game, others felt that it was cliched or mishandled due to its reliance on sexist tropes.
Sales
Square Enix issued two apologies after many in Japan were unable to purchase a physical copy due to stock shortages the week, and the following week, of its release. The game sold 188,238 physical copies within its first two months on sale in Japan and placed at number one on the all-format sales chart. By August 2018, the game had sold over a million copies worldwide. As of March 2019, the combined physical and digital sales of the game have exceeded 1.5 million copies worldwide. The PC version was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam. Square Enix wrote in March 2020 that combined retail and digital sales of Octopath Traveler had surpassed two million copies. As of February 2021, the combined physical and digital sales of the game have exceeded 2.5 million copies worldwide. By September 2022, it was announced that the game had sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.
Sequel
A prequel for Android and iOS, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, was released in Japan in 2020 and worldwide in 2022. A sequel, Octopath Traveler II, was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows on February 24, 2023.
Legacy
Square Enix has subsequently developed other games which follow the "HD-2D" style introduced with Octopath Traveler. These include Triangle Strategy and a remake of Live a Live, both of which released in 2022, as well as an upcoming remake of Dragon Quest III.
Additionally, Primrose and Olberic appear in Final Fantasy Record Keeper as part of a September 2018 crossover event.
Trivia
- In the English version of the game, H'aanit (voiced by Cindy Robinson) speaks in a very particular (and fictional) dialect that borrows some particularities of speech from Middle and Old English; the stylized speech is absent in the Japanese version.
- All characters have different classes, character designs, and field commands based on different occupations in Medieval Europe.
- Primrose was the very first non-villainous role for Laura Post.
- The English voice actors for Therion (Chris Niosi) and Cordelia (Kira Buckland) is a Newgrounds reunion
- More games with HD-2D graphics have been released after this game. They are called Triangle Strategy and the remakes of Dragon Quest III and Live A Live.