As one of the games coming this year I was most excited for, I find myself a bit torn. It may well be the most fun game I have played this year, and does a great job with its retro feel and style in ways that I Am Setsuna, the studio's last project, failed to do. At the same point, there are a few things that feel very off in regards to the game's narrative.
I guess to start off, Octopath Traveler is a game telling eight different stories. You don't have to replay the game multiple times, as you can bounce between the chapters of each character whose story you unlocked. The only real stipulation is you cannot switch out your starting character until you finish their story, and you have to have the character whose story you are doing right now in your party.
For the most part, the characters have great stories and premises. You have Primrose, my personal favorite, a child of a noble family who abandoned her life to hunting down those who killed her father. She is even willing to essentially become a dancer in a skeevy club, where prostitution seems heavily implied and serves there for years waiting for one of the men with the Crow Tattoos to show up. There is the knight of a fallen kingdom seeking a reason to wield his blade after letting his king die, the Scholar Cyrus who searches for a lost tomb of old world knowledge, and some others. Ophelia is a good Idea with someone taking on her sister's duty to become the Flame Bearer and goes on a pilgrimage, though the character is a bit boring so it's hard to really get into the story.
But then you have a couple that just feels very out of place. Like a girl wanting to become a merchant. There is a sense of wanderlust about it which helps but compared to everything else it feels underwhelming. But the biggest problem with the whole thing is Therion, the Thief. See, he botches a robbery and gets an armband put on him he cannot take off. This Armband basically just tells everyone he botched a job and now they are going to laugh at him, so he agrees to get the Dragon Stones back so they can remove the armband for him. The motivations of this game range from pride, honor, revenge, wanderlust, duty, and suddenly this guy just doesn't want people mocking him.
It goes farther than that with this guy though. See, he is a thief. Not a good Robin Hood-style thief mind you, and one who insists on doing things alone. His story starts with him wanting to break into a manor to steal their treasure just because. Firstly, what reason do any other characters have to help him out in order to recruit him, a thing you have to do to access the final dungeon of the game? Is the goody too shoe cleric going to help him do this? The prideful and honorable knight? There really is no reason why anyone would choose to help this guy out. And considering his insistence on working alone, and how much thievery is supposed to be involved, it makes no sense for him to be working with the others who have no experience doing what he does. He is this really bizarre blemish on the game that you can't help but notice doesn't' belong.
That isn't where the oddities of the game end, you also have this weird thing where Olberic or H'aanit can just challenge anyone in the world to a fight. The noble knight Olberic is seen traveling the world challenging the elderly and injured alike to fights.
And if I can get into two more issues briefly, many of the stories feel too short to be as investing as they otherwise could have been. Primroses story feels like there was so much more to it, Olberic's final enemy is just kind of brought up at the end of the second to the last chapter of his story and a few more instances like that. All stories also feel largely singular in that no character other then the one the story focuses on the matter. Rather than feeling like an actual group of people, it's like eight different stories that share no relation.
I know I spent a lot of time there basically trash talking the game, but now I'll start giving it some due praise. Despite my issues with the various stories length and lack of relevance any other characters have on the stories, the game does a fantastic job with what little time it has. Primrose, again being my favorite example, has a lot of really traumatic events happen to her, and to see the way she fights forward and struggles with her actions is fascinating. In a very short time they manage to give you a great look at what kind of man Olberic is, and quickly you understand where he is coming from in his search for a reason to continue holding his blade. The game is an excellent example of how you do a lot in a very short period of time.
And while I have an issue with how un-unified your group of adventurers is on their individual quests, there are some fantastic bits of optional dialogue that come up between characters at various pubs across the world, as well as those relevant specifically to the quest they are currently on. I am endlessly charmed by all the times I saw Primrose try and fail to flirt with H'annit, in part because H'annit is a bit oblivious to it all as well as Primrose seeming to genuinely like her, or at least that's the way it comes across to me. Considering Primrose's normal skill set of seduction failing her here, the attraction comes off as very genuine. You also get a lot of insight into how various characters think and feel, though once again it always feels awkward once Therion and his thieving are involved.
Combat is a whole lot of fun too with the games break system. Each time you strike a weakness, a counter on the enemies goes down. When it hits zero you break them, canceling out their actions this turn and the next, leaving them vulnerable to increased damage. Every weapon time and elemental type can be a weakness, and there are a lot of skills for purposes of buffing, debuffing, or even altering how certain skills work. Throw in a big variety of passive skills you can unlock, you have a variety of strategies at your disposal and that is backed up by a lot of bosses with various tricks and gimmicks to keep it fresh.
Random encounters get a bit old with how repetitive they can feel after a bit, as well as a fairly game-breaking passive ability that drains most of the challenge of the game once you realize what it is (Imagine every character in your party is now, basically, a massive tank), but despite that the game still manages to be a lot of fun. Interesting boss fights do a lot to carry the gameplay.
The game is also a great example of how sprite art can still look fantastic in this day and age. Character and enemy designs in the game are great, and it's backed up by some pretty solid voice acting. Throw in some solid music you expect from Square Enix, and you have an overall great aesthetic experience.
Octopath Traveler has some issues, some of which I think bother someone like me more than others in term of how the narrative is structured, but the game is still one of the better reasons to own a Switch for anyone a fan of old school RPGs. If you already have a switch, this is a great game to grab. If you were on the fence before Octopath Traveler, it makes a great case for why you should purchase one.