Genre: RPG
Year: 2018
Developed by: Square Enix Business Division 11
Published by: Square Enix
Platforms: Switch, PC, XBOX One,
#41
Feeling Like: The Road Best Traveled
Octopath Traveler is exactly what I need when I want some JRPG comfort food. It’s precisely the kind of game that allows me to reminisce about my all-time favorites while dishing out modern updates and quality of life improvements. It divides up a massive campaign into perfectly acceptable bite-sized chunks. Much like in Persona 5, the journey isn’t nearly as daunting when you can make progress in less than half an hour, if that’s all you have time for.
It’s as if Square Enix opened up a diorama of my cheer. Everything about this works for me – the graphics would be the star of the show, if the soundtrack wasn’t even better. The combat renders button mashing useless, the bosses are tough as nails, there are treasures everywhere, and every party member gets their time to shine. I get more enjoyment out of watching these little guys and gals walk around and go into shops than I derive from some other games entirely. I am born and bred to find little SNES style sprites endearing and even though they can’t emote with the accuracy of Nathan Drake, the dialogue and music more than make up for it. I needed Octopath Traveler.
I don’t even know where to start.
Let’s go with the most obvious; the visuals. I can’t express how much I love looking at every sprite, every screen and every menu. This “2D-HD” style better be here to stay, because as impressive as some AAA modern games are at life-like portrayals, I still find a 16-bit creek puttering through a forest or a windswept desert dune just as appealing. Even going into buildings transported me into a pop-up book, with all the little tables and pieces of food and fireplaces and chairs all perfectly placed, just for me. Every character is immediately identifiable and the amount of color used bursts off the screen. It’s fantastic.
Let’s go with the more obvious next – the soundtrack. Thus far on the 500 I’ve mentioned a lot of games that I consider to be the top tier, but I foolishly failed to include Octopath Traveler. It should be considered among gaming’s greats, it requires a seat at the high table and the fact that it (and the sequel) didn’t garner enough attention to win every music award the industry dishes out is a gross oversight. I’ll never understand why much of the gaming press/audience seem enamored with orchestral scores that have completely unmemorable melodies. I know a lot of these modern games have professional sounding orchestras that chime in at opportune times to heighten the experience, but I couldn’t hum a single note of most of their soundtracks.
Octopath Traveler has unique themes for all eight characters. The main theme is a wonder, encapsulating everything I love about video games. My boy Cyrus gets one hell of a banger for his tune. Olberic’s could be right out of a Shakespearian adaptation. The Sunlands’ guitar feels like a lonely wanderer at a bar is telling you his tale. The sheer quantity of quality is staggering: The Riverlands, the Victory Fanfare and the Gates of Finis. I have to stop myself, otherwise I could very much just post the entire soundtrack and point to it. There. There you go, there’s the justification as to why Octopath Traveler is better than 459 other games on the 500. Nothing else needed.
But there’s more! The smaller, more personal stories were a great change of pace. Honestly, I’m a bit tired of fictional stories having the “save the entire planet” motivation. Star Trek: Discovery needs to take note, just because the scope of the stakes are universe wide doesn’t mean our investment will be. Octopath hints at a world-ending threat, but that’s in the end game and completely optional. Well, completely optional for people not like me because you know I played about 100 hours grinding my guys up to tackle the Gates of Finis and defeat the secret boss. Had to. There’s no stopping this train.
I started out with my boy, Cyrus the Scholar, but I can’t really think of a single character that stood out above the rest. Like Michael Bolton said in Office Space, I guess I sorta like them all. They all play differently enough that I relished finishing a chapter and switching up my roster.
With a game this large and specific, there are going be some loose threads. While each story is quietly compelling, there isn’t a lot of interaction between the characters themselves. A missed opportunity, to be sure, but I guess they didn’t have the budget, time or foresight to come up with dialogue options for every single scenario of who would be in your party, and when. Not a massive deterrent for me, but I know it put a lot of gamers off.
Man, the combat. There are so many ways to break enemy defenses, spells to learn, weapons to equip, armor to don, accessories to mix and match, jobs to experiment with, secret jobs to seek out that I found every single random encounter fun, or challenging, or satisfying. Planning when to use my stacked BP points for a massive attack ensured I had to plot every move in advance, or react accordingly when an enemy would launch a devastating attack. I want games like this to be challenging, I want to have to go grind for an extra 15 minutes before a boss. I know that may land in the zone of poor design, but the longer I can drape myself in Octopath’s world, the better. I’m here for a good time AND a long time.
It made my Top 10 in 2018, but didn’t win it. In retrospect, maybe it should have – though it was up against some hefty competition. Here’s what I said at the time.
This game was made for people exactly like me.
I cannot believe how wonderful Octopath Traveler is. It’s a time capsule for lovers of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. It’s a masterful product that brings massive quality of life updates to the old-school Japanese RPG. The music is astounding, the diorama style graphics are stunning and the turn based combat eclipses the classics it’s based on.
This is a hell of a game for the right player.
The concept to have eight main characters, each with their own smaller story, wasn’t something I’d played before, but I found it a nice change of pace. Each sub-chapter was interesting enough to keep me going. The game was difficult, but the combat and customization allowed for some fantastic fights, particularly against the bosses. I really, really didn’t mind grinding for experience. When the fighting system is this good, why would you?
Each area is beautiful in its own way, I couldn’t help but take screenshot after screenshot; the Riverlands, the Desert, the sparking snow, the inspiring cathedrals, the atmospheric caves, the bustling markets, the quiet forests were all obviously created with a love for the past and a desire to improve it for the future.
Each character having their own theme was so satisfying. How often do you see that in game today? And I’m not talking about forgettable orchestral pieces that could be at place in a car commercial ; I’m talking memorable melodies. The kind of pieces where, within the first few seconds, you know exactly who the song is encapsulating. The dancer Primrose, the warrior Olberic and the scholar, my boy, Cyrus were my digital besties for about 80 hours.
The main theme might as well be a love letter to everything we love about video games; exploration, collaboration with friends, overcoming adversity. It’s all there. Have a listen.
I understand that the disjointed nature of the storylines, as well as the lack of interaction between the main party members, was a knock against the game for some. I completely empathize; there’s no sweeping epic story, or a threat to take out the world. Maybe it was the mood I was in, but I appreciated the bite-sized conflicts. Not everything needs to be about saving the planet, but I’d be lying if I wasn’t hoping that a sequel will allow for some kind of medium-ground in this regard.
Want to know something even crazier? The sequel, Octopath Traveler 2, is even better in every regard. Ludicrous.
The 500 