Octopath Traveller: A Modern Take On Classic Final Fantasy

By Andrew Webster

 

If there’s one constant for the Final Fantasy series, it is change. One moment, you’re playing a systems-focused role-playing game like Final Fantasy V, and two decades later, that’s morphed into the strange, open-world road trip of Final Fantasy XV. But this continual metamorphosis also creates a sense of nostalgia. You miss those classic games because they just don’t make them that way anymore. This is particularly true of the 16-bit era Final Fantasy games for Super Nintendo, which ushered in a new wave of Japanese role-playing fans in the 1990s. There are plenty of games that have tried to recapture that magic over the years, but few have done it as successfully as Octopath Traveller, which launched on the Nintendo Switch last Friday.

On the surface, Octopath has all of the trappings of a SNES adventure. Its cast of heroes are all cute, pixelated sprites, and they travel a map filled with dangerous caverns, snowy fields, and quaint towns. As you wander around, you’re thrust into random encounters where you fight off monsters in turn-based battles using swords and spells. For the most part, Octopath feels like a particularly polished take on the genre. The combat is familiar, yet it has a depth that makes it feel fresh even after dozens of hours. There are also a number of quality-of-life improvements — like plentiful save points and warnings about high-level enemies — that help it feel like a modern interpretation of a classic. It even looks new, thanks to a tilt-shift effect that blurs the edges of the screen, creating a pixel art world that feels like a virtual diorama.

But where Octopath really differentiates itself is with its story and structure. Japanese RPGs are almost uniformly linear experiences. You venture from one town to the next, completing quests on a set path to saving the world. Maybe there’s a side-mission or two, but that path is the same. Octopath is different. It doesn’t have a single main character. Instead — and here’s where the ridiculous title comes in — there are eight adventurers, and you can move back and forth between their stories as you like. The game opens with you choosing a starting place; in my case, I began the game in a sleepy seaside village as Tressa, a merchant who wants to travel the world learning her trade.

Each character has their own individual arc, which is divided into a series of chapters. You can approach these in any order or even skip some if you want. You can only have four characters in your party at any given moment, so you don’t actually need to complete every story. For me, the individual tales were all worth playing through. There’s the young dancer who has spent a decade searching for the men who killed her father and a disgraced knight who is looking for redemption after being betrayed by his best friend. My personal favourite is Ophillia, a religious devotee who sets off on an ancient pilgrimage through dangerous terrain.

Everyone has secrets, and they’re usually quite dark. Each chapter follows a familiar pattern: you venture to a town, learn about something going on, and then head over to a dungeon to defeat the bad guy. Once you complete a chapter, a new one will open up elsewhere on the map. These are gated somewhat. While most initial chapters are playable early on, you won’t be able to tackle chapter two of a character’s story until they reach around level 20. This trend continues with later chapters, so you’ll either have to play through all of the characters or do some grinding to get the necessary experience to continue.

As much as I enjoyed this more open structure, it did come with one significant drawback: the stories don’t intersect in any significant way. At any given moment, there are multiple things happening simultaneously, seemingly disconnected events taking place all over the world, but you can feel the narrative threads start to converge as time goes on. That doesn’t really happen in Octopath. Instead, each storyline feels separate from the rest. While your characters travel together in the same party, they hardly interact. They might be together physically, but they’re separate narratives.

This often feels odd, especially if you play a lot of RPGs, games that are typically about a group of people banding together to accomplish a particular goal. Octopath is more like a travelling adventurer hostel. Everyone technically works as a team to battle foes and share resources, but they’re all focused on themselves. Each individual story is interesting on its own, but that larger sense of unity has been lost in the quest to make a more open-ended JRPG.

Octopath Traveller: A Modern Take On Classic Final Fantasy

By Andrew Webster If theres one constant for the Final Fantasy series, it is change. One moment, youre playing a systems-focused role-playing game like Final Fantasy V, and two decades later, thats morphed into the strange, open-world road trip of Final Fantasy XV. But this continual metamorphosis also creates a sense of nostalgia. You miss those classic games because they just dont make them that way anymore. This is particularly true of the 16-bit era Final Fantasy games for Super Nintendo, which ushered in a new wave of Japanese role-playing fans in the 1990s. There are plenty of games that have tried to recapture that magic over the years, but few have done it as successfully as Octopath Traveller, which launched on the Nintendo Switch last Friday. On the surface, Octopath has all of the trappings of a SNES adventure. Its cast of heroes are all cute, pixelated sprites, and they travel a map filled with dangerous caverns, snowy fields, and quaint towns. As you wander around, youre thrust into random encounters where you fight off monsters in turn-based battles using swords and spells. For the most part, Octopath feels like a particularly polished take on the genre. The combat is familiar, yet it has a depth that makes it feel fresh even after dozens of hours. There are also a number of quality-of-life improvements like plentiful save points and warnings about high-level enemies that help it feel like a modern interpretation of a classic. It even looks new, thanks to a tilt-shift effect that blurs the edges of the screen, creating a pixel art world that feels like a virtual diorama. But where Octopath really differentiates itself is with its story and structure. Japanese RPGs are almost uniformly linear experiences. You venture from one town to the next, completing quests on a set path to saving the world. Maybe theres a side-mission or two, but that path is the same. Octopath is different. It doesnt have a single main character. Instead and heres where the ridiculous title comes in there are eight adventurers, and you can move back and forth between their stories as you like. The game opens with you choosing a starting place; in my case, I began the game in a sleepy seaside village as Tressa, a merchant who wants to travel the world learning her trade. Each character has their own individual arc, which is divided into a series of chapters. You can approach these in any order or even skip some if you want. You can only have four characters in your party at any given moment, so you dont actually need to complete every story. For me, the individual tales were all worth playing through. Theres the young dancer who has spent a decade searching for the men who killed her father and a disgraced knight who is looking for redemption after being betrayed by his best friend. My personal favourite is Ophillia, a religious devotee who sets off on an ancient pilgrimage through dangerous terrain. Everyone has secrets, and theyre usually quite dark. Each chapter follows a familiar pattern: you venture to a town, learn about something going on, and then head over to a dungeon to defeat the bad guy. Once you complete a chapter, a new one will open up elsewhere on the map. These are gated somewhat. While most initial chapters are playable early on, you wont be able to tackle chapter two of a characters story until they reach around level 20. This trend continues with later chapters, so youll either have to play through all of the characters or do some grinding to get the necessary experience to continue. As much as I enjoyed this more open structure, it did come with one significant drawback: the stories dont intersect in any significant way. At any given moment, there are multiple things happening simultaneously, seemingly disconnected events taking place all over the world, but you can feel the narrative threads start to converge as time goes on. That doesnt really happen in Octopath. Instead, each storyline feels separate from the rest. While your characters travel together in the same party, they hardly interact. They might be together physically, but theyre separate narratives. This often feels odd, especially if you play a lot of RPGs, games that are typically about a group of people banding together to accomplish a particular goal. Octopath is more like a travelling adventurer hostel. Everyone technically works as a team to battle foes and share resources, but theyre all focused on themselves. Each individual story is interesting on its own, but that larger sense of unity has been lost in the quest to make a more open-ended JRPG.