Even After 6 Years, Octopath Traveler’s Battle System Makes up for Its Disconnected Story (2024)

After six long years of waiting, Square Enix's beautiful Octopath Traveler finally made its way to PlayStation after captivating players on the Nintendo Switch in 2018 as one of the Switch's best RPGs. This comes after the game made the jump to PC in 2019 and to the Xbox One in 2021. Even its sequel, Octopath Traveler II, beat the original to the punch by releasing alongside the Switch version in 2023. PlayStation players can now finally see what the hype was all about.

So was the wait worth it? For the most part, yes. Octopath Traveler is a gorgeous game with a highly engaging battle system. Its story may fall short of what RPG fans have come to expect from the genre, but the world of Osterra is still well worth visiting for those who love strategizing their next move or simply long for the days before the typically turn-based Final Fantasy embraced more action-oriented combat.

In Octopath Traveler, Eight Adventurers Embark On Eight Fascinating Tales

A Great World and Cast Are Held Back by a Slow and Disconnected Story

Leaving home can be tough. Saying goodbye to loved ones and the comfort that comes from familiarity can be daunting. Octopath Traveler tells the story of eight characters, each who find a reason to leave home and set out for an adventure. For the "Unbending Blade" Ser Olberic Eisenberg, it's setting out to find the fellow knight who betrayed the fallen kingdom he served. For the merchant Tressa Colzione, a mysterious journal written by an unnamed author compels her to continue filling out the missing pages with her own adventures. For Therion, it's using his thieving skills to recover three Dragonstones to secure his freedom. Each of the remaining five characters shares a similarly simple and believable reason for succumbing to the call of adventure, which makes up the first chapter of each of their stories.

At the start of a playthrough, players can select their starting character. For the most part, the only purpose this serves is to simply determine which story and character will be introduced first and who the player's journey will start with. There's no added story element to this pick, as every character's story can be viewed in full as soon as they're recruited in their respective starting locations. What this selection does do is leader-lock the chosen character. Whoever the player chooses first will lead the party and cannot be removed from the top post until their four-chapter story is completed. With this in mind, picking someone like Ophelia Clement first makes sense. Not only is she a healer as a Cleric, but she's also in the far North, which makes recruiting the remaining party members more natural by simply traveling Osterra clockwise.

Osterra itself is massive. Its world is heavily populated with towns, people, dungeons, and secrets. Quest markers are minimal, and the map only shows areas visited. Traveling to a new town involves plenty of glancing at road signs and checking the world map, which really sells the feeling of adventure better than most RPGs out there. It's easy to make a wrong turn or stumble upon a cave with higher-level enemies. It's very refreshing, and yes, there is a fast travel system, but only to towns visited.

Each of the eight adventurers is highly likable and easy to root for in their own way. Characters like Ophelia and Alfyn Greengrass strive to help others by any means necessary, while it's easy to get invested in Olberic and Primrose Adelhart's pursuits of vengeance. There isn't a weak link between the eight. However, this does shed light on one of Octopath Traveler's biggest issues. There are so few opportunities to see this great cast interact with each other. Each character's story is fully individualized. During cutscenes, they're on their own. If that character is in peril, no one else will jump in and help. The rest of the party will still follow around and participate in battles, but there is an awkward disconnect. This also leads to some pacing issues where players can go eight to ten hours in between a character's chapters. While each character's stories are individually good, the overall pacing feels slow.

There are, thankfully, optional travel banter scenes that can be played. These are similar to skits in other RPGs. These can be played at certain moments in a character's story and are only available for characters within the active party, so seeing every bit of travel banter does require switching out active party members. As tedious as the mechanic to start them may be, this banter does bring out each character's personality and background more. By Octopath Travler's end, the banter established a degree of chemistry between the eight plus the player as well.

As for the endgame, each character's chapters take about an hour to two hours each. Accounting for travel and side stories/quests, it'll take roughly 55 hours to complete each character's four chapters. For the true ending and the coveted platinum trophy, the run time will be around 70 to 75 hours. This true ending can only be reached through a side story chain and does well to tie everything together, especially as each individual story builds connective tissue over time, loosely linking each story to one another. Octopath Traveler's final dungeon and boss are not for the faint of heart, especially since players can't leave or save upon entering. It would've been nice to have some warnings before that first attempt. When that true ending is secured, the bittersweet feeling of an adventure's end comes and the overall outcome is a satisfying journey.

Octopath Traveler's HD-2D Visuals Live Up To The Hype

And the Soundtrack Is Really Good, Too!

One of the biggest hooks of Octopath Traveler, when it was first revealed, was its HD-2D pixel graphics. The game perfectly blends nostalgic pixel art with modern aesthetics, such as lighting and depth perception. Altogether, Octopath Traveler is an absolutely gorgeous game. The colors pop, the particle effects in battle are stunning, and the lightning and blur effects ensure that the environment will keep wowing from beginning to end. Seeing the party leader carrying a dimly lit lantern in a dungeon goes a long way toward making any dungeon feel intimidating and mysterious. It's no wonder Square Enix will be using this art style for their remakes of early Dragon Quest games.

That said, Octopath Travler's visuals are not flawless. The lighting can distract when it shines directly on characters, obscuring expressions during dialog. During larger boss fights in particular, there were noticeable slowdowns and hang-ups. In these fights, the frame rate will drop or there will be a slight delay when shifting to the next character's turn in battle. These tended to happen early on in big boss fights and rarely, if ever, occurred in smaller fights like random battles. These problems were rare and minor enough that they didn't impede the overall experience, but they were frequent enough to where it became an expected hassle when confronting a boss.

On top of the impressive visuals, Octopath Traveler boasts a wonderful soundtrack. Each track perfectly fits every region, town, or moment. Dungeons feel creepy while climatic moments feel adrenaline-pumping. Thankfully, the battle themes never get old. When starting a battle, enemies will make a unified cry like in Pokémon. Certain enemies, like bats, will make a shrieking noise, which can be painful if playing the game with headphones in. Other than those instances, they're inoffensive and fit the enemies encountered. When the battle gets going, the audio design truly shines. Hearing the crackling of lightning-based magic and the force behind a sword attack, it's easy to feel the weight behind every move in battle.

In Octopath Traveler, Every Move Matters In Battle

The Game Features a Fantastic Battle System

Octopath Traveler's audio design is the cherry on top of what is an already great battle system. While so many modern turn-based RPG battle systems keep things simple and straightforward, to the point where it can become a mindless bore pressing a single button, Octopath Traveler ensures that every move counts. Every enemy has a shield with at least one weak point. This shield is complimented by a number, while the enemy's vulnerabilities are initially unknown. The early stage of a battle is dedicated to determining what types of attacks an enemy is vulnerable to. Use the right attack and the number on the shield will deplete by one. When that number hits zero, a Break will occur, which will stun the enemy for one turn. This is similar to staggers in modern Final Fantasy games. During these periods, the enemy's defenses are weakened, which makes it the perfect time to go all out on attacks.

As for the attacks, at the start of every turn, the party members gain up to five Battle Points (BP). Spending BP, up to three of them, makes a standard attack even more powerful. However, if any is spent, that character doesn't receive a BP at the start of the following turn. There are ways to manipulate this, whether through certain items or moves, like a Merchant's "Donate BP" move. Much of the flow of battle is timing an enemy's Break with having enough BP to take full advantage of the enemy's stun state. This is made easier with the turn order on top of the screen, which is similar to Final Fantasy X.

Using certain moves will give a character a higher priority on the next turn, while a move like the Hunter's "Leghold Trap" can shift an enemy's priority to the end of a turn. Unlike most turn-based RPGs, players in Octopath Traveler will be plotting out multiple turns in advance, offering a degree of strategy rarely seen in the genre. The one downside to this is that bosses often have a massive amount of HP, so longer fights can get a little boring once the fight settles for a predictable pattern. Bosses can change things up over the course of battle, which can either continue to drag out fights or overwhelm an unsuspecting player. Regardless, it's still immensely satisfying to defeat each of Octopath Traveler's bosses.

A lot of thought was also put into each of the eight party members' unique skills, strengths and weaknesses. Each character has a base class, whether it's Cyrus's black mage-like Scholar or Therion's Thief class. Each class is well-balanced and can complement each other well in battle. These base classes cannot be changed, but players can go off the beaten path to unlock a secondary job or even the more difficult-to-obtain advanced jobs, allowing for fun mixing and matching such as Olberic being a Warrior and an Apothecary. It's an impressive level of depth and one that can ensure no two playthroughs are the same.

Additionally, every character has a unique Path Action and Talent. For Ophelia, she can Guide NPC citizens to have them follow the party. For her Talent, Ophelia can summon them into battle. There is some overlap to these Path Actions as Primrose can Allure NPC citizens, which functions the same way as Ophelia's Guide. Olberic and H'aanit can Challenge/Provoke NPC citizens into a fight while Cyrus and Alfyn can ask them questions with Scrutinize/Inquire. Tressa can buy things from NPC citizens while Therion can steal from them.

Beyond that, Talents vary more. Tressa can find money on the ground while Therion can open specific treasure chests. H'aanit's can capture enemies like Pokémon and send them out into battle. These Path Actions and Talents go a long way to individualizing every character and making the decision of who to include in the party a difficult one. Most characters' stories and side stories lean heavily into their Path Actions, which in the case of Olberic and H'aanit, may require some leveling up if they spend little time in the active party.

Octopath Traveler Feels Both New & Old

The Game Is a Good Start for a Potentially Fantastic Franchise

Altogether, Octopath Traveler is a must-play for RPG fans. Fans who felt that modern turn-based RPGs lacked a lot in the strategy department will likely love Octopath Traveler's battle system. Random battles can feel satisfying to conquer and defeating a boss will almost always warrant a celebratory fist pump. Osterra is a joy to explore, and the journey across the realm hearken back to a time when similar games didn't hold the player's hands every step of the way.

Octopath Traveler may fall short for players who are looking for a stimulating, well-paced, narrative or hoping to find party chemistry similar to Persona 4 or Final Fantasy IX. Despite not being as complex or deep as those of its genre contemporaries, Octopath Traveler's worldbuilding, lore, and individual characters are not to be scoffed at or overlooked. The game obviously has room for improvement, but its first foray is a strong start nonetheless. A lot of heart clearly went into this world, and the result is a memorable experience in a franchise that will hopefully see 16 mainline entries like Final Fantasy.

Octopath Traveler is now available to play and own physically and digitally.

Octopath Traveler

8

10

Embark on a vast new role-playing adventure as one of eight travelers, all with their own origins, paths, and goals.

JRPG

Systems

OpenCritic Reviews

Top Critic Rating:84/100 Critics Recommend:85%

Franchise

Octopath Traveler

Platform(s)

Xbox One , Switch , PC , Stadia

Released

July 13, 2018

Developer(s)

Square Enix

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol

How Long To Beat

60 Hours

Pros

• Beautiful visuals and soundtrack.
• Highly likable characters.
• Battle system that rewards strategy.
• True feeling of adventure.
• Party-building depth.

Cons

• Character stories are disconnected from one another.
• Minor technical issues.
• Some bosses can feel like bullet sponges.