[Impressions] Octopath Traveler (Demo)

Octopath Traveler is poised to be another great (J)RPG published by Square Enix, but this one seems to be as promising as it can be in its attempt to ignite a spark of innovation in the genre.

What makes Octopath special? Well, a lot of things but let’s start with the basics: gameplay. The combat feels weighty and attacking enemies to break their shields feels and looks incredibly satisfying. Along with the incentive to use different attacks to discover enemy weaknesses, the combat overall feels engaging and dynamic instead of a monotonous chore. Because you should always aim to break your enemies’ shields, you need to be using attacks of elements the enemies are weak to since mindless attacks will most likely get you a bitter defeat. Beyond the raw extra damage you’ll deal, attacking an enemy using its elemental weakness will break their shields, leaving them stunned and vulnerable to extra damage for a couple of turns. Add on top of it the boost mechanic, that is, where each turn you receive one boost point which you can use up to three for the same attack, you can deal insane amounts of damage and attack multiple times in the same turn. With all of this, Octopath ends up with a deep combat system that keeps you on your toes at all times, rewarding player creativity and ingenuity.

Specifically, the game truly clicked for me when I had to fight the first boss in Primrose’s story because I was forced to understand how the game works to beat it and, ultimately, ended up enjoying it a lot more. It’s not because of story points, even if what transpired was a cathartic moment for Primrose’s life, rather it was because of what that battle taught me about the game. It was by no means an easy fight and I had to retry multiple times. Because of that, I had to do a bit of leveling up and it was during that time that I got to understand the different mechanics involved in the battle system and, outside battles, I had to turn to Primrose’s unique ability to enchant NPCs so that I could later bring them to fight the boss with me. It was also during this preparation that I dug deeper into the character’s equipment and got around to buying new pieces of gear so that I could have a chance in the fight. All in all, I found that by being presented with, what was at first, a foe so much stronger than what I could handle at the time, I had to get more involved with the game and its systems and, ultimately, fall in love with this brilliant game.

On the side of the visual and sound design, the game truly excels. Somehow, the developers pushed 2.5D pixelated graphics to the limit and ended up with a gorgeous game that feels both retro and modern at the same time. The sound design also excels and plays a great part in making the world feel immersive and in making the combat feel so weighty and satisfying. It’s actually quite incredible how when I look at the game I can’t quite decide if I’m looking at a retro game or something that isn’t by no means realistic graphics but is still something special. Just as last year’s Persona 5 or this year’s Dragon Bal FighterZ can be recognized instantly, Octopath Traveler leaves a visual impression just as impactful, if not more, as these two games.

Overall, the demo itself had a lot of content to dig through, specially when you take into consideration all the eight main characters were available. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play much more than what I did with Primrose, so the most I can say is that for the very short time I played with the huntress H’aanit, the game felt, at its foundations the same, but a different game due to this character’s completely different story and abilities. While Primrose had the ability to enchant NPCs and later bring them to battle with her, H’annit is able to force any NPC into battle, and most specially, she is able to capture the wild monsters you encounter to later fight alongside you. If just these two characters are anything to go by, the gameplay diversity in this game will be through the roof, full of new things to be found, understood, put into practice and enjoyed across eight completely different characters.

After playing this demo, I can say I am more than looking forward to July 13th to get my hands on this game.

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