Octopath Traveler
Octopath Traveler is an rpg released by Square Enix and Acquire in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. And it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.
In Octopath Traveler, you play through the eight separate stories of Cyrus the Scholar, Ophilia the Cleric, Therion the Thief, Alfyn the Apothecary, Primrose the Dancer, Tressa the Merchant, Olberic the Warrior, and H’aanit the Hunter. Each character’s narrative is entirely independent with no intersection from any of the other narratives. Despite the divergent storylines, players assemble a team of four travelers to take on their adventures.
The independence of each character’s story is both a strength and a weakness. Through having each story be entirely self contained allows for the narrative to be focused and streamlined, making each traveler the focal point of their own story. The dramatic beats are precise and impactful because they are polished to a mirror shine and tailor made to fit each story. The motivations for each character are crystal clear, the destination of their journey is sharply focused, and the consequences of their actions follow both logically and thematically from the previous story points. In terms of their length, they are not enough to be a standalone game, but in terms of their narrative arc and dramatic action, they are more than enough to stand on their own two legs.
However, there are several moments in each story where the independence of the narrative does strain against the game mechanics. The text of each chapter treats their focal character as though they are entirely alone on their journey despite the fact that they have three companions with them. For example, in Therion’s story, a rival thief will ridicule Therion for coming to a confrontation alone, even though Cyrus, Olberic, and Ophilia are there too. Or in Cyrus’ story, he falls into a pitfall trap and, consistent with his melodramatic character, launches into a sonnet, “I all alone beweep my outcast state.” An npc interrupts Cyrus before he can finish Sonnet 29 and rescues him from the trap. But Cyrus was never alone in the pitfall, H’aanit, Alfyn, and Tressa were down there with him. However, in the grand scheme, these moments are the slightest dissonance that cause laughter more than anything else.
Additionally, the way the adventuring party is constructed is at odds with the narrative. Players assemble a four character team from the eight available travelers. However, the character whose story chapter you are focusing on at the moment must be in the party. This stipulation is fine in a vacuum, however, there will always be a weak link in the party. For example, my battle party was composed of Cyrus, Obleric, H’aanit, and Ophilia. This was my preferred team as I had coverage for every weapon and every magical element and each character had their own role in strategy. However, when I wanted to continue Primrose’s story, I would have to rotate out someone from my main party and by rotating Primrose in, I was reducing the strength of my party because Primrose was often ten or more levels below where the main party was. In an attempt to remedy this, I would rotate Primrose in and then walk all the way across the continent to Primrose’s next story location taking the longest route possible so she would gain levels on the way. This stretched out the game and was tedious to do when what I really wanted was to see more of the story.
There is something refreshing about the culmination of these narratives being against small scale threats rather than the world ending clashes that mark the end of most rpgs. For example, in the final battle of H’aanit’s story, you fight a monster with a frightful petrification curse. This boss would be an early battle in a game like Bravely Default whose final boss is a god that intends to destroy the multiverse. This downscaling of threats relative to other games in the genre helps the stakes of each narrative feel more personal. Too often in rpgs the stakes ramp up from “Find a merchant” to “Kill God.” And I find myself asking, “Hey why are we dealing with this and not someone like the military?” Octopath Traveler solves this masterfully. I am personally invested in Cyrus’ quest to uncover academic corruption because I have also had awful professors and I never question if another power should get involved because the Knights Ardante have more important things to do than investigate illegal research.
The music of Octopath Traveler is the best soundtrack I’ve heard in recent memory. Yasunori Nishiki’s beautiful score is incredibly atmospheric on the world map with tracks like Among Stately Peaks which creates a regal air in mountainous regions and Atlasdam Seat of Learning which is perfectly suited to the university city. The masterful use of horns, strings, drums, and piano in battle music establishes a dynamic and tense scene. The escalation of the musical intensity matches perfectly with escalation of narrative intensity. As you progress through each story, you progress from Decisive Battle I to Decisive Battle II, and finally Battle At Journey’s End. Each track builds expertly upon the last, with the music reinforcing the stakes of the narrative.
The combat system of Octopath Traveler is brilliant. Each traveler has their own specialty and can learn a secondary class both of which give them combat abilities and support skills. The secondary class can be changed at will, which opens up a world of possibilities. If you want to play a mighty paladin, Olberic is a warrior and you can give him Cleric as his secondary class. Ophilia becomes a powerful supportive unit if she learns the buff skills of the Dancer secondary class. Every monster is weak to a selection of weapon types and magical elements, and through exploiting their weaknesses a certain amount of times, they enter a break status. When broken, enemies take increased damage and lose a turn, allowing the party to unleash their strongest attacks when they will be the most effective. Determining each enemy's weakness is a puzzle that rewards players for thinking creatively and having a variety of skills.
Alongside the break system, is the boost mechanic. Boosting your characters spends boost points, or BP, which you gain each turn you don’t use boost. When you boost, your characters deal more damage or restore more health with spells, attack multiple times with weapons, or extend the length of status effects. Breaking enemies and boosting your allies creates an intricate combat dance. The question of whether to save your BP to unleash powerful attacks on a broken enemy or use your BP to break the enemy more frequently will define how you play the game. And later boss monsters will unleash powerful attacks that can only be avoided by breaking them before they can harm you. I have never experienced more tension doing math than when I was figuring out how to reach the number of weak point attacks I needed to break the enemy before my adventurers were killed.
Octopath Traveler is a beautifully constructed rpg with compelling narratives and fantastic characters. The eight independent stories are all compelling and crafted with a precision that is rarely seen in video games. The combat system is simple but incredibly deep, with nearly limitless options for players to express their individuality. And to top it off, the soundtrack is a masterpiece.
Final Score: 94%
Time To Complete: 70 Hours