The great merit of trying to pay homage to a videogame genre in every way, a more general vision of a given type of games, now outdated and "badly seen", is certainly something very gratifying.
And if we talk about bringing back the JRPG genre of the past, those with strictly turn-based fights, with the 16-bit graphics and with the total absence of multiplayer elements, additional content, day one patches and whatnot, then it is clear that we are faced with something truly brave and out of the box.
This is, in practice, the business card with which Octopath Traveler presented himself at the starting tapes of the current videogame season, ambitious JRPG by Acquire and Square Enix, now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
It goes without saying that the greater the expectations and pressures, the higher the risk of falling, of disappointing. In the case of Octopath Traveler, however, everything takes on a balanced connotation, which manages to place it exactly at the center of this axiom: we are not faced with the long-awaited masterpiece, but not even a bad game.
Do you want to know why? Make yourself comfortable, then, the journey (or journeys) awaits us!
855ecc6f3a5b867da0-0.jpg">The plot of Octopath Traveler is a sort of story in chapters, articulated in a fragmented way due to the presence of eight different characters, all with their own narrative arc.
At the beginning of the game, the player has the possibility to choose a "protagonist", thus starting the general narrative with the narrative background of the chosen character. It is good to clarify one fundamental thing immediately: Octopath Traveler is not necessarily a story of heroes moved by the most disparate good intentions, on the contrary, it is basically a story of revenge.
Many of the protagonists, in fact, have a difficult past behind them, a life that is anything but comfortable, and are looking for a revenge, a way to chase away the darkness they bring with them.
The eight characters, therefore, will begin their respective journeys for completely different reasons, and then intertwine, basically, in a way that is all in all crude and far from convincing.. The overall plot of the game, in fact, does not exist, being simply a container that contains within it the eight different adventures of the various protagonists, who only touch each other without ever really touching.
The only real connection between the story, for example, of Alfyn And that of Therion it is linked to a series of playful devices. To be clear: the various stories are divided into chapters, and to play the second chapter of the story of one of the heroes it is necessary to level up your character a lot and, to do so, the best choice is to start the adventures of others.
All this is revealed during the boss fights or the most important dialogues, in which the NPCs relate to the hero of the moment in the singular, without taking into account the presence of the other three party members.
A real shame, in this respect, greatly increased by the absence of a "final chapter" that brings together the various vicissitudes in some way, which, objectively, greatly frustrates the excellent work done by the developers from other points of view.
855ecc6f3a5b867da0-1.jpg">As for the discourse linked to the narrative sector, even the playful one suffers from very similar problems.
Octopath Traveler appears, in fact, as a gigantic open construction site, in which, after all, everything seems to be at an embryonic stage. The game brings with it several ideas of valuable caliber, but often badly exploited or in any case only halfway. To end up in the dock is certainly, above all, the mismanagement of skills "in the field", unique to each character.
Outside of combat, each character has a unique feature: Ophilia, for example, can be followed by the villagers, Alfyn can find information around, and so on.
Let's be clear, everything is very beautiful, but on balance it remains very an end in itself, except for some of them clearly more useful than others. The actual fights, on the other hand, are set in a meticulous way and really seem to take us back in time. Throwing yourself without a good tactic, without studying the weaknesses and strengths of the various enemies, is almost never a smart move, which makes every fight slow and rewarding.
855ecc6f3a5b867da0-2.jpg">Each character, then, can enjoy a wealth of skills, both magical and physical, truly complete and varied, which makes their use during the various clashes more and more peculiar and targeted. Added to this is also a fair number of "passive" skills, very useful and almost always of great impact.
What is out of tune, however, is the progression of the character itself. Leveling up isn't fast at all, and too many random encounters make it really tough, also weighing heavily on exploration and the performance of secondary activities.
Even the latter prove subdued and anything but memorable. Over time, the secondary missions, almost always linked to the unique abilities of the various heroes, prove to be somewhat disappointing and quietly ignorable, which, in the end, increases even more the bitterness in the general mouth for the many wasted opportunities.
All this, without talking about the longevity speech: Octopath Traveler is a huge title, capable of taking away at least sixty hours of gameplay to complete., and not even at all.
855ecc6f3a5b867da0-3.jpg">On a technical level, however, Octopath Traveler is truly unassailable. Obviously you have to be a fan of pixel art to fully appreciate it, but the general charm of the production is truly undeniable.
Once you have started the game and taken your first steps inside the beautiful play areas, it is impossible not to let yourself be carried away by a charge of prodigious and breathable nostalgia at every step. A real triumph of videogame style and romanticism, a real tribute to a style now believed to be lost, but which comes back here with force. The title, then, also defends itself well in terms of technical implementation: both in portability and attached to the TV, everything works without any uncertainty whatsoever, testifying to the excellent work done in this respect.
The real "bomb" of the Square Enix production, however, is the sound sector. Every single piece is poetic, solemn, unforgettable, and the dialogues, even if few and of short duration, are always well dubbed. The actors mirror the characters they play well, which makes it easier to get attached to their vicissitudes.
855ecc6f3a5b867da0-4.jpg">Octopath Traveler is a half masterpiece, capable of astounding in several respects, but of disappointing in as many others. The lowest point of the production is certainly touched by the incomplete main story, told through the exploits of eight different characters but who, inexplicably, in the end never connect in any way. Too bad because, to see, Octopath Traveler is one of the most beautiful titles ever seen, destined to remain, in any case, in the minds of Nintendo Switch owners for a long time. However, it remains a mandatory purchase for all fans of the genre and highly recommended for all Nintendo Switch owners in general.
USEFUL INFOI've been playing Octopath Traveler mostly in portable mode, expecting really great things from the title and sadly being denied on many of them.
Duration- It took me about sixty-five hours to complete the various stories, but skipped most of the secondary activities.
- Octopath Traveler is an "old-fashioned" JRPG featuring a turn-based combat system, specialization classes, interchangeable hero party and so on.
- A few hidden objects here and there and some "special" monsters to find, but for the rest, essentially, nothing more.
- Game Name: Octopath Traveler
- Release date: July 13 2018
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Dubbing language: English, Japanese
- Texts language: Italian
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Review by Salvatore Cardone
Graphics
Artistically inspired, the title of Aquire shows the side of an overall modest visual rendering, also thanks to the technical choice of setting everything based on an outdated graphic style. Certainly not everyone will like it, but for all those who know how to look beyond the mere density of pixels this title will be able to give unique emotions, with some truly high-impact glimpses.
85
SOUNDTRACK AND DOUBLE ROOM
Every single melody that accompanies the journey of Olberic, Therion, Alfyn and all the other beautiful characters of Octopath Traveler is magical, unforgettable and profound. You will hardly stop humming the tune you can hear in the initial menu, and, all in all, even the dubbing of the various characters (albeit very skimpy) behaves very well.
90
GAMEPLAY
Despite featuring a large amount of usable magic, weapons and more, Octopath Traveler's gameplay turns out to be less deep and layered than expected. If you then add a general repetitiveness, an often poorly balanced difficulty curve and the overly cumbersome presence of random clashes, then we are really faced with something that, on balance, does not add up. And then the heroes seemed unbalanced to us, with some significantly easier to use than others.
