The developers have created a storybook world that extrudes the dungeon maps of 16-bit console RPGs into three dimensions, then soaks everything in atmospheric lighting and shadow effects. Square Enix has applied Unreal Engine 4 tech to vintage sprite work, creating a world that blends modern polygons with old-school bitmap graphics. It looks, quite simply, like no other game before it. The first thing you’ll notice about Octopath Traveler is its striking graphical style. While the endearing whimsy of vintage classics like Chrono Trigger continues to elude Square Enix’s writers - Octopath Traveler is nothing if not self-serious - this latest effort comes closer to recapturing bygone days than perhaps any retro-chasing RPG to date. Happily, Octopath Traveler comes a lot closer to realizing that dream than the hopelessly cluttered Lost Sphear and painfully clumsy Secret of Mana did. This actually isn’t Square Enix’s first attempt to rekindle the Super NES fires in 2018. With Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler, we have the latest modern-day RPG whose creators hope to recapture a little of that 16-bit magic. They ran on hardware just powerful enough to allow game makers to express their bold narrative ideas, yet not so powerful as to make development too expensive for devil-may-care experimentation. But it’s also true that RPGs of the 16-bit era genuinely did possess a certain je ne sais quoi. It’s only natural that those would be their touchstones. That’s nostalgia speaking to a certain degree after all, many people encountered menu-based battles with teams of magic-slinging warriors through the likes of Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger. This encourages you to try out every character, use new strategies, and carefully plan your attack.For a certain set of role-playing fans, the Super NES era represents the golden standard of RPG design. Each monster has both visible and hidden weaknesses, that when exploited, offer opportunities for huge damage. While each character has their own strengths and unique abilities, the true crux of combat is in the enemy weakness mechanics. As you go about your quest and amass party members, you'll be able to select four characters to take into battle. The battle system in Octopath Traveler is both nostalgic and inventive, providing an endlessly entertaining turn-based system.
Most of your hours in Octopath Traveler will be spent adventuring around the wilds of Orsterra, where you'll inevitably run into enemy creatures. The voice-acting is very well done and available in multiple languages.
Since Octopath Traveler mostly resembles a 16-bit era RPG, a good chunk of storytelling is done through dialogue sections. You'll seek revenge, hunt monsters, recover ancient relics, and much more on your dozens of hours of adventuring. While these stories eventually come together to form a natural conclusion to the overall narrative, most of the plots are remarkably different and have no bearing on each other. There's a great variety in the cast of playable characters, ranging from knights and thieves to salesmen and scholars. In order to discover the truth behind Osterra's mysteries and the threat facing the land, you'll need to complete every tale. The narrative is spread out across eight different sub-stories, each one focused on a different adventurer in Orsterra.
The story of Octopath Traveler takes place in Orsterra, a beautiful fantasy land believed to be created by thirteen gods and goddesses.