There are a lot of games out there vying for your time. Some are worth playing, and some of them are clearly eclipsed by better games. Today we ask “Is Octopath Traveler worth playing in 2023?”
Table of Contents
Background
Octopath Traveler is a turn based JRPG. It strives to mimic old JRPGs, and largely does. The basic premise is that there are 8 characters, all with their own storylines. You recruit them all and finish their stories. It’s non-linear, and you can recruit the characters in any order, at any time.
Octopath Traveler sold like gangbusters largely because the Switch was low on RPGs at the time and because people are still hoping that Square-Enix can still crank out something magical.
The success of Octopath didn’t mean that it would get a sequel, of course. Instead, it meant that Square-Enix would immediately begin to milk the IP with a mobile gacha game. If you find that upsetting, just be glad it wasn’t developed in 2022, or else your gacha pulls would be minted on the blockchain.
What does Octopath Traveler do well?
Battle System
You can store up extra attacks. Every enemy has up to several weaknesses. You can deplete a gauge to send them into a stunned state so that they take more damage.
This isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but it leads to some strategy and planning so that you can maximize your damage. While you can use skills or a certain character to automatically reveal some weaknesses, you can also fish for weaknesses with relatively little risk.
Music
It’s not bad.
Open World
If you can dodge, escape, or save scum through high level zones, there’s nothing stopping you from exploring the whole world as soon as you finish your first chapter.
Access to items
Piggybacking off the previous entry, you can gear up really quickly in this game through efficient exploration and theft. Many high-tier and endgame items are right in plain sight, and the only limiting factor is your patience. This is clearly intentional design, because if the developers didn’t want you to be able to steal rare items, they would have given them a 0% steal chance, as in the case of the “Forbidden” weapons.
What could Octopath Traveler do better?
Random Encounters
I suggest getting Cyrus (the Scholar) quickly, as his evasive maneuvers skill drastically reduces their occurrence. Keep in mind that rushing through areas might end up in your characters being underleveled. Don’t fret, as that will likely happen anyway, since your off-team won’t gain experience and JP unless you rotate them in.
Grinding and Pacing
If you approach this game like a normal RPG you’ll quickly hit the wall of uneven difficulty. You’re going to have to stop and grind.
Whether it’s random encounters, save scumming to get through areas, or resetting to steal rare items, progression is largely linked to your patience.
Eight paths that don’t come together
Each narrative is self-contained, and there isn’t much overlap, except in occasional skits (think Tales series). While most RPGs will have X amount of party members all along for the same story, this is the opposite: it’s 8 unrelated characters with different storylines who only see each other during random encounters.
Sprites, Shading, and Maps
When it comes to art, this game is a mess. The sprites for people follow one scheme, the enemies follow another, and neither mesh well with the environment. I also think the maps would look better if they didn’t have the filter over them that turned everything brown or grey. There were a lot of times that the environments were harder to traverse than I would have expected, leading me to get hung up on ledges or corners instead of stairs or paths. This isn’t much of an issue in cities, but it’s downright annoying in wild areas, because every wasted step just puts you that much closer to another annoying random encounter.
Is Octopath Traveler worth playing in 2023?
If you absolutely have to scratch a JRPG itch, it’s an option, but there are better RPGs out there. It’s on a variety of platforms at this point, so it’s easy to get ahold of.
When we originally published, I suggesting passing on Octopath Traveler. However, I can see why you would want to try it, since Octopath Traveler 2 is launching soon. Just know that the sequel is a standalone title and doesn’t require any knowledge from the first game. I also suspect that a lot of my gripes with this game will be addressed in the sequel, but it’s hard to tell with Square Enix.
If you’re looking for an RPG with multiple character storylines:
Play Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3) or Live a Live. These games are the blueprint that they worked off of to create Octopath Traveler. For Trials of Mana, you can play the original version or the 2020 3D remake, just know that it’s more action-focused. Live a Live was never officially released in the West, but is getting a remake later this year.
If you’re looking for a classic-style JRPG
There are, of course, the retro options: the older Final Fantasy titles, Chrono Trigger, or literally any of the Dragon Quests.
If you’re looking for a modern turn based RPG
I’d heartily recommend Shin Megami Tensei V. If you’re not a fan of the aesthetic, consider Tokyo Mirage Sessions or Persona 5 (vanilla or Royal). There’s also Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Players seeking a stress-free, silly experience should check out Miitopia or Monster Hunter Stories 2.
If you’re looking for a challenging RPG
These games trend more towards “crossover genre”, but consider Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon.
Looking for more?
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