OCTOPATH TRAVELER™

While the game has a great combat system, amazing graphics and art style with a beautiful soundtrack, it suffers from a lot of issues that deeply affect it all over the game.

Personally, after putting almost 70 hours into it, I wouldn't recommend it.

Score 7.5/10

Pros
- Visuals are amazing and got me to really love the game, from snowy terrains to the gusty sand dunes, really well done
- Soundtrack was very nice

Cons
- The stories are pretty forgettable, as not only do the 8 paths fail to really intersect, but the stories on their own are very basic and predictable. Writing is serviceable but pretty forgettable.
- Gameplay-wise, it feels and looks like a JRPG, but unless I am missing something, after you unlock the job system...that's it. Feels fine to test out new builds/jobs, but reaching the end of the storylines felt pretty mundane in terms of fighting as it was rinse and repeat. Wish there was more to the combat later on in the game (Chapter 3 and beyond).

Play this after 100% the 2nd game
Really missing the QoL&features like auto scroll / day-night cycle and improved combat system
The story is also way more disjointed here in this game and barely have a hint toward real endgame boss
Even across these negative points, its still a pretty good jrpg. Try it if you like 2nd game.

I tried really hard to like this. Some of the stories, if not suffocated by 7 others, could have had potential. But a level gap in the second act left me thinking i would rather play something else.

A chill and a very heartwarming game. The art styles, graphics, story, soundtrack, and everything is a 10/10 for me. One of the games I feel has no flaw. The characters are so well written, the comedy gets me everytime, and Tressa's story is pretty heartwarming. Only played this game for 7 hours so more updates soon.

While not *quite* as good as its sequel, this game is a delight to play, and offers a great deal for the JRPG fans out there.

I played this game for 31 minutes and didn't get past a stage of just clicking "next" to read some low-effort one-sentence-at-a-time dialogue interspersed with ... and bad puns. I don't think I have it in me to sit through more of this to even get to play the game. I don't know what gameplay is even like. Seriously. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY What a waste of TIME

Very good game. The graphics are beautiful, pixelated but with modern lighting, giving the game a nostalgic yet refreshing aesthetic. The art is nice, the music is nice, the stories are nice, the combat is good, and it doesn't feel like you have to grind mobs for hours, leveling up just to not get one shot by bosses. The majority of the achievements are obtained while playing through the story, however there are a lot of missable achievements and require a good amount of extra time spent. Game is amazing overall, but unless you really love JRPGs, I would MINIMALLY wait for the game to go on sale for 50%+ off before buying.

Story- 3/5
Characters- 4/5
Gameplay- 4.5/5
Music- 4/5
Graphics- 4.5/5

19.5/25

I actually played this game after it's sequel and the only metric I can say this game has on par with it's successor are the characters. The gameplay is very fun and engaging but there's sadly no option to speed up battles apart from fleeing and also a lack of latent powers which makes characters feel a bit more unique in battle. I did however feel that they handled the secret jobs better when it came to their skills and also unlocking the jobs by beating a tough boss.

Most definitely worth playing still!

I like-a the story and also the fighting and also the music and also the voice acting and also the combat and also the leveling and also the job mechanics and also the visual effects and also the pixel art and also the other stuff.

I also like when every fight goes:

~Here we go! For You!(donates BP) MY BLADE IS UNBEND- WHINNEHILD FIGHT WITH US!!!

The stories and character personalities and developments are great, sound design and music scores, and high replayability with not so linear path.
The only criticism may be that it may feels quite boring mid-game, because of repetitive pattern of scenarios, and there's no new game plus mode.
But overall, worth playing for sure.

The gameplay is great. The leveling system is custom and allows you to build any time of character. Easy to pick up and play. Cool story line.

I got you a 20 pound bag of ice. And some bacon, and some eggs, and a couple of those steaks that you like. Some fuel canisters. It's enough for three or four days. After that, you're on your own. I am done.

Super fun game with really good world building and depth. The combat does experience a spike in difficulty very quickly, but learning the game mechanics will be all you need. I definitely recommend this game

Octopath Traveler is worth a playthrough. It's a very good game in it's own right.

There are so many things in this game that SE enhanced in Octopath 2, but the first one is still solid.

Turn based games are not really my thing, but there is something about the storytelling and atmosphere of this game that just nails it. I am always excited for the next encounter!

I'm writing this review pretty early... I'm going to try and stick it out, but it's off to a pretty meh start. First off, if you're wondering if the game really is that pretty, it is. It's gorgeous, though the blur loses it's mind every once and a while (idk what that's about). I think I'm mostly writing this because it's clear that the goal of the game is that each character has a thing they need to do, and you can meet everyone else and everyone can help them do that thing... but my first interaction with a different character didn't feel like I was meeting them mid thing, if felt like I was meeting them at the beginning of their quest...

It then has the AUDACITY to try and make me sit through that characters cut scenes and backstory, after I just got done with another's cut scenes and backstory... like this is Suicide Squad.

I had just gotten a taste for the combat too, which feels pretty good! Love the animations, strategies seems pretty tight and simple. It's snappy as all hell, very satisfying... until 5 minutes after you really get into it and the game asks you do start the game again? Am I going to have to do this until my party is full? Oh god, am I going to have to do this eight times? I can't watch that many more cutscenes... plus I'm not sure how much the voice acting is doing it for me in this format, which is weird because if you had asked me before I'd say that was a great idea.

I think they're pretty straight forward about you not needing to sit through every character's backstory... though you still have to finish their call to action starting quest. Hopefully the characters have more interaction later, because right now it feels like you meet, they're like "you're cool, wanna help me leave my region" and you just kind of go. You're not even in their cut scenes after... it's like you're not there. The whole thing feels weird, especially in a world dripping with great art and a seemingly good combat system. I just, if this feels weird, isn't that like... the whole selling point of the game? Like, they named the game after this and it doesn't feel natural?

Overall, I just don't really feel like I need to keep going, but I'm going to keep at it and hopefully it picks up... I'm skipping everyone's backstories though. Feels like that should be on by default after you get through the first one.

In simple terms: this is an extremely flawed masterpiece. It's fun, but has many things it could've done better.
For example:
The story is great. Each of the 8 characters has their own story with their own goals and motivations. The merchant seeks adventure, the warrior seeks answers, and the dancer seeks revenge.
But... the characters' stories hardly interact with each other. If you happen to have the right person in your line-up at the right time, you can see a "travel banter", but that's just a small side conversation with no actual impact on the story. I understand that the devs wanted to let players to do the stories in any order, or even do a character's entire story WITHOUT any other travelers (there's even an achievement for that), but it causes a narrative clash when the thief gets called an "idiot for coming all alone", even though he clearly has 3 sidekicks.
The side quests don't rely on the age old "kill 10 mobs" or "gather 5 flowers" that too many JRPGs fall back on, and many of them have multiple solutions. Someone wants to hear more about the "City of Gold" she read about in a book? You can find the author of said book and lead him to her, or find a young scholar reading about the same city in a different book and ask him some questions. What's better: the outcome changes, but the reward doesn't, so you don't have to worry about getting the better reward if you want to see a different ending.
But... the side quest UI isn't very good. In the journal, main-story/side-quest completion is shown via banners that gradually get longer as you do more. All the main story banners are the same length at the end of each chapter, but because every side quest unrolls the regional banner by the same amount, and each region has a different number of quests, they all end up being different lengths, leading me to search for non-existent quests until I looked up a complete list that told me I had already found them all, even if I hadn't finished them. Also, you're given very little guidance on how to complete most quests, which will often lead to fast traveling to every town you've already visited looking for an NPC that it turns out is in a town you haven't been to yet.
The achievements are a completionist's dream. Get every chest? Find the weaknesses of every monster? Collect one of every item? Cool!
But... there is one chest that is missable (though it's not at all hidden), and there is no indicator or way to mark an area as being complete. You're never quite sure if you've gotten every chest in a dungeon, and some chests require the thief character (not just class) to open. All fights are random encounters, so you can't be sure if you've got all the mobs in an area figured out, either. You'll be left scouring every corner of the map for the final few chests and monsters that you missed until that steam achievement notification pops up. And some items are only available in 1 or 2 places: at that one specific story beat in chapter 1, or as a 15% drop from dueling a specific NPC.

if you enjoy tacticl rpg games then you will for sure enjoy this game it have a good story so far it kinda net how this game works all characters have there own story and can travel with you

Only under 2 hours in and I am HOOKED. Love the art style and the story telling is great.

Neat graphics, great music, jobs system is nice to play with.

it's a fun rpg with great storytelling

A classic RPG that matches the modern era's need for flexibility. The completely open storyline allows you to pursue only what's interesting and find efficiencies.

So, I had this game on the Switch originally, but recently got it here finally.

I love this game so much. The graphical design is so good to me, and the music (which is a really big selling point for me as a musician) is fantastic.

Now, the stories are a bit disconnected and could be a bit better, and you're being introduced to characters and other stories a bunch and it can kind of pull you out of it a bit, especially with sudden random encounters when you walk.

But despite all of that, I love this game, it's one of my favourite JRPGs for so many different reasons, even if the stories are a little lacking in some ways. I would say it's definitely worth the money if you're thinking about picking it up.

A nice JRPG with the cool premise of having 8 mini stories instead on one huge one. VERY pretty graphics, animations, music, models,... As a piece of art it is amazing.

As a game however....

It is expected to play the stories in a mixed manner. Like chapter 1 has a recommended level of ~12 or something. I want to continue the same character's story but no, that's not possible because the level leap is HUGE. Instead of scaling the level with the amount of chapters completed the requirement is fixed. What's more is that 4 party members can only be active at a time and the other 4 sit in the tavern and will not gain any EXP but you can't just brute force their stories with the low level character and 3 of the ones that you actually like,noooooo. Their specific mechanic is mandatory in their stories which makes things unnecessarily annoying... For example I don't like Olberic so I benched him. In his chapter 2 he was like Level 13 but I had to use his provoke where his alone in the fight... Ofc, the NPCs crushed me.

In addition, the individual stories are of mixed quality. I like Cyrus' because I'm also very curious by nature and I can absolutely understand the appeal of a forbidden book nobody has seen in ages. Tressa is also fine because she is a child trying to see the world and become better at her profession in the process. Ophilia has an understandable motive to embark on her journey with her adopted father being sick and her sister wanting to stay with him. H'anit wanting to find her master... ok.

The others... well. Primrose's premise is terrible. "3 dudes killed my father so I WILL KILL THEM REVENGE EDGY". Therion's reasons for travelling are okay but I just don't find him very likeable. Alfyn and Olberic are both less interesting than watching grass grow. Alfyn wants to be a good apothecary and leaves his friend, Olberic appearently has forgotten why he fights, aka total midlife crisis.

As of now I have no idea whether I will finish this game. Grinding is strong in this game because all gear is extremely expensive and the chances of stealing from NPCs are trash, if you are like me at least and don't like using Therion in combat, and while save scumming works, I have better things to do than reset the game a million times until I finally hit the jackpot on that 3% chance, this ain't a gacha game. Trash fights either need to be shorter or give more EXP to feel feasible.

Currently I have completed everyone's chapter 2.

One of the best JRPG games I've ever played
The first HD-2D game that brings new genre in game industry
Soundtracks in the game are definitely god-tier music

I like JRPG's but this wasn't very good, about 5 hours in and the game didn't get good, in fact the combat kept getting more samey and boring each fight.
Also the tutorial just keeps going, sure they throw you out into the world fast-ish, but you're stuck getting the other characters else the game just isn't fun and they have tutorials in their own and they take a long time to complete and I'm not willing to get 8 different characters that take me 2 hours to actually get.

if you like classic old school jrpgs then this game is for you. i got the bundle and i am working my way through the first and into the second.
The way they approach the wait system is unique with its crit break approach. It makes you more tactical especially if you want evry character to do something specific every battle. Very Nice.

It's been long since I've played games with great storyline. This is one of the first games in 10 years where I got addicted playing again because of the great storytelling. Thanks Octopath!

I wish there was a middle rating here, but I decided to lean towards "not recommend" based on my own personal experience with the game compared to the hype I saw around this game. If you read this review, and the pros seem to outweigh the cons, then you'll likely enjoy it far more than I did.

The tl;dr version: Underwhelming, shallow story. Interesting combat and gameplay mechanics overshadowed by hand holding and lack of difficulty. Fantastic art and design, outside of limited voice acting (quality and quantity).

Story:
The game is set up to allow the stories of the 8 characters to progress in such a way that they can be completed in any order, which allows for some natural stopping points for those with limited play time. This concept allows for some freedom in which order to complete quests in (or whether to complete them at all). However, given that the stories don't overlap or converge within the first 38 hours of gameplay, I found the experience very disjointed.

As far as the characters themselves, the game presents each with a backstory followed by a series of events stemming from that. As the chapters progress, the game provides a very brief text-based recap of the prior chapter and where the character's story left off, which is helpful given that the expectation is that the players jumps from story to story as the game progresses. However, most of the characters' stories are based on heavily used fantasy/adventure tropes, with very predictable story turns and reactions. At some points, the story is so shallow that it felt like a story that would be written by generative AI when prompted with something like, "Write me a story about a thief to be used in a JRPG." Some of the characters were more interesting, and provided a refreshing break from the more poorly written ones.

The combination of constant story switching and lack of depth and creativity in storytelling left me feeling unable to invest in any of the characters, and overall I found I was never immersed in the story during my time playing (through chapter 3). One of the main reasons I play JRPGs is for the storytelling, so this is a major factor in why this game left me feeling so disappointed (particularly since this is touted as a "love letter" to classic JRPGs).

Gameplay and mechanics:
The combat system involving battle points, initiative, and weaknesses is fairly interesting, and kept me engaged throughout the first 2 chapters of the game. Identifying the monsters' weaknesses can be a fun challenge, as can strategizing at the start of each turn to maximize the odds of breaking enemies. The boss fights were often interesting, and involved some variety of mechanics that kept me on my toes. However, at some point during the game, battles started to feel trivial and deterministic to me once these strategies become engrained. I don't believe that I "over-leveled" since I just got my party to the minimum suggested level in between each chapter (most characters were in their mid-30s during chapter 3, apart from my main character at level 51), and I didn't grind for currency to get any weapons outside of what I could normally afford by completing the story.

The job system was also somewhat interesting, where players can earn job points through battles to be spent on skills associated with different jobs. Each character's main job is also linked to a road action, which can lead to interesting discoveries and plays a central role in quest progression at many points. There are some mid-game mechanics that I will not spoil here, other than to say that it provides some depth to these systems. However, based on the combat play pattern that I mentioned above, these seemingly interesting mechanics quickly felt irrelevant to me given the lack of difficulty. I don't think I used a Concoct action once in the entire gameplay, for example. It was all about ensuring I had a variety of weapon/elemental types in my party, and then just identifying and exploiting those weaknesses (often with basic attacks). Please take this all with a grain of salt, as I did not progress past chapter 3, and it is entirely possible that this becomes more relevant later in the game.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of the game are the way the players are led through the main story. As each story progresses, the game provides the players with potentially interesting tasks, like "obtain X item" or "learn something about Y." Rather than allow the player to make these discoveries or complete these actions on their own, the game provides exact map markers for every step in the quest, to the point where there is no thought required at all. And I mean, at all. The side quests are not handled this way at all, and it was fun to navigate my way through those without handholding. However, the main quests for each of the 8 characters quickly devolved into a sequence of fetch -> return -> chore -> return -> dungeon -> boss that was to be repeated for every character, in every chapter (for me, this was 8 characters x 3 chapters each = 24 runs through this sequence).

Atmosphere:
This is one area where the game shines. The art in the game is stunning (provided you mess with the visual settings a bit to fix the screen edges), and provides a sense of nostalgia that is hard to find in modern games. The music is fantastic as well, and is still something that I listen to while working. Both were so good, in fact, that they were the major factors that kept me playing for more than the first 5 to 10 hours.

The only part lacking for me in this area was the voice acting. Very few of the story scenes were fully voice acted, with the remainder involving generic voice call outs that got repetitive within the first chapter. In many cases, the voiced scenes were fine, save for some over-the-top villain acting. Combine that with the repetitive voice call outs every...single...time a battle starts, and I got the feeling that the game would have been better off without voice acting altogether.

Overall:
With everything above in mind, this game just doesn't do it for me. I tried to enjoy it, I really did. Maybe I'll return to it at some point to enjoy the artistic elements, but I can't bring myself to finish my playthrough at this point. The game certainly has it's high points with a lovely atmosphere, but it falls short in too many other aspects of what I consider to be a fun JRPG.

Eight strangers traveling together, have almost no connection to each other whatsoever. Worth the money tho! 8.5/10 in the begining and drop to a 7/10 towards second half of the game.

While the idea of having 8 protagonists seems really cool at first, the way it's handled is a boring letdown.
There is no major overarching story connecting the characters, all of them just have their own chapters that you get through like going down a checklist. The characters hardly ever interact with eachother or acknowledge eachother's existence. It's a real shame because the visuals and the music are great, and the combat can be satisfying too, but the severe lack of character interaction and lack of an overall story really turns this into a disappointing, repetitive experience.
There's a reason why the greatest, most memorable jrpgs over the years happen to have a strong story and well written characters.

Pro:
Great looking gaming.
Very nice, fun take on turn based combat.

Con:
The 8 stories are completly seperate and not very deep/interesting.

after a few hours of playing, you're still doing the same thing as at the beginning. Constant battles that don't really get any more exciting. The story is boring and you can't interact with the different characters.

But the art style and music are beautiful

This game gets really overshadowed by its own sequel but tbh I absolutely love this game except for the Galdera fight where you have to fight 8 minibosses if you die and there's no save point within the dungeon.

After five years, this game still holds up to this day. Although the story can get campy and one dimensional in certain places, the character chapters are genuinely interesting and the combat gameplay actually provides a certain amount of progress to the story. All in all, this gets a 8 out of 10 from me, not perfect but certainly a good game.

great battle system! decent story telling..

It's not really for me. I think everyone sees the flaws and virtues of this game quite clearly, it's just a matter of whether the pros outweigh the cons for your tastes.

There is a lack of immersion as you jump from story to story. It feels like a bunch of disconnected tales (because that's what they are). Maybe its a fun novelty for some, but being introduced to new characters constantly, yanked out of your current party and storyline, can be a bit exhausting. The party you have and the story you experience are disjointed from each other, and the party members kind of just tag along to make the combat work, not because of story reasons. They don't really have much of a connection to each other, and it's as though I am reading short stories rather than one epic novel.

The combat encounters use the "random encounter as you walk around" formula, which, similar to the story, yanks you suddenly out of your exploration. The combat itself is kind of OK. There is an initiative system and ways to break the initiative of the enemy, which is always welcome. However, how that's done and the central mechanic of the game lies in enemy weaknesses, which ends up just being guesswork until you figure out what the enemy type is weak to. Discovering every enemy etc can be interesting, as they all have such gorgeous art, but from a pure combat standpoint it all just ends up being OK, reliant on guesswork and a small bit of strategy to make the party survive long enough to break the enemy. The fights just take too long and require minimal thought after you have your party figured out (and since there isn't really that much inter-character interactions or complex builds, that's easy to figure out too.) There is a monster catching system though, as well as storing and summoning NPCs, so those have all been welcome and make it all a bit more bearable. Other character unique mechanics include crafting concoctions to use mid-combat, which trigger element weaknesses etc, but the summoning/monster catching was the most engaging/fun. Also ofc the thief can steal things mid-combat.


As for the positives, that would be the overworld and the art style. The overworld has a wide variety of biomes and locations to explore with gorgeous art. The lantern you hold casting shadows in dark caverns in a pixel-art game is so dramatic, and the 3D lighting in a 2D-ish world is just such a unique and satisfying look. I also liked how the side objectives didn't hold you hand, just gave instructions or added context enough for you to puzzle things out. Octopath truly is a fun world to explore and interact with, at least until a random encounter triggers for the 1000th time.

It's really pretty to look at, which is the game's biggest strength. The art and the music are top notch, and I think that's what really carried the game when it first came out. There are other "HD2D" games inspired by Octopath now though, so I think I'll be trying those.

Overall, the game might be alright if you are looking for a super light experience, and are just looking for the good "vibes" of the game rather than a deep storyline, combat, etc. That's not what I'm looking for, but I do appreciate what the game is going for at least.

Really dull. I hear there's a job system later and I wanted to at least get that far. I do like job systems after all, and I was hoping that might save this game.
But no, it just takes way too long to get going. It's boring.

Ended up playing it on console and loved it so much I didn't refund here.
This game and its sequel are two of my all time favorites.
Not to mention the OST is a masterclass in music front to back.

This game is fun and great. Everything is well done, kool graphics, fun gameplay.
why the bad review? kuz the final boss.
Ive never played and RPG where there is a huge dugeon, with a final boss and NO SAVE POINT.
wtf? I destroyed everything and was super over powered... beat the mini bosses in the final area and spent like 2-3 hours killing it... only to get 1 shotted by the final boss. Yeah, nope.
I read the guides and everything, finished all the side quests... beat the ultimate side bosses...
but the final boss. Its ridiculous. It wouldnt bother me that he is powerful and challenging... by why all the cut scenes and a whole area with NO SAVE?
I mean, even the whole game has auto save, so when u go from map to map it auto saves, which is really nice for an RPG. So many little details and got right...
but when I died in final dungeon, it loads me in the town I was WAYYYY before. It didn't even auto save me in one area of the final dugeon? why??? I thought we were way past the 90s with no saves and this nonsense. Really not fun. I suggest cheating for the final boss, I might consider beating it another time. But dont lose. its a LONG way back.
not fun at all.

It's simply splendid. I can't complain at all about my experience with it so far.. besides for the fact that I enjoy all the characters so much that I find it very difficult to find a party to stick with.

Really fun! Variety of characters with an open world, lots of little details and interesting mechanics to explore!

OST: Mid
Storyline: Trash
Combat System: Good
Dialogue: Middle School Fan-Fic

The fact that people herald this game is mind-boggling.

I'm not a big JRPG player. I've played some of the classics way back when but can't really compare Octopath Traveler to any one of those because honestly, I don't really remember that much about them. I used to have fun as a kid while playing. And I'm having fun playing Octopath Traveler, so I guess it's as good :D

The combat is somewhat tactical and some character stories I've opened so far (4 out of 8) have been intriguing, highlight being Primrose's. Some of the combats have been a tad bit too grindy for my taste but they are the boss fights, so I guess they should take a while to complete. The art and music are good.

AMazing gameplay wise.
Story is more like little stories. It is good written and fun though.
Would recommend 8.5/10

Its ok, the music is relaxing overall too, but it got a lot grindy towards the end, especially since the exp tapers off, and multiple bosses felt like healthsponges... it could also just be me.
The story does connect eventually, but its really just 8 different small stories and not much of an overarching plotline past that.

Just dont be a completionist (like me) as theres not really an ingame way of tracking things so you have to do it manually, which is a real pain especially when something is missing either because you went too fast, or it just didnt pop due to a bug... (rip that savefile)

Shoutout to marcv666 for the amazing spreadsheet/checklist.

This game looks like a cool game, and i got it because of the high ratings, but been playing for 2.5 hours and 85% is dialogue/cut scenes. that's the absolute WORST even on an RPG where it's expected to have some cut scenes. it's so unbearable i had to skip most of the last characters dialogue so now i don't know what's going on. i need a refund asap.

A great JRPG with very satisfying mechanics. Honestly I don't think this game is worth it's full price, but it's definitely worth buying on sale.

I started playing JRPG's in the 90's, with Chrono Trigger.... I didn't play another one until I recently got back into it with Final Fantasy 6, and online opinions seem to say that if you like those games, you'll like Octopath Traveler, and I agree. I've only played 9 hours, but so far it's awesome!