This was the first HD-2D game Square Enix developed along with Acquire. This is a good spiritual successor of Bravely Default but this game can be a huge time sink due to eight characters having different stories. Characters you have recruited during the course of your playthrough will scale accordingly depending on the number of travelers you have recruited after.

You start the game by picking the character of your choosing which is a nice touch and a huge upgrade to the JRPG class system based on your class preference. What I liked about the game itself is that it allows you to have interactions with NPCs that allows you to purchase items that are normally missing through the shops and armorer, inquire to gain valuable information and to be more receptive with certain actions in the field, challenge to a battle to gain item drops that are not normally present through other means of acquiring and guide the NPC which allows the said NPC to be summoned during battles.

This game has a lot of flexibility in terms of exploring the world since you can go to different regions to your heart’s content. You can choose to continue the next chapter of the character’s tale or choose to explore the rest of the world. Everything else is up to you.

Soundtrack is great and there is so much to love for the background music.

For completionists, you will need to play the game at a slower pace that requires you to analyse non-one time encounters enemies without missing its entries. Once you recruited travelers, the danger level will increase. Good thing that one-time encounters such as bosses for each chapter are not required. It may be possible to miss enemies and not exploit its weaknesses if you are playing blindly.

The difficulty curve of this game makes the game feel like a drag if you are still not familiar with the abilities of the classes of your travelers which can make the battle not just lengthier, but the lack of familiarity of the travelers’ ability itself can punish you at times at a later chapter. Utilising support skills can change the tide of the battle as well as purchasing Job Points to learn new abilities for the travelers to use for its related subclass. Not to mention, punishing drop rates just to get certain items can make the game feel like a gacha game. Getting more experience points just to align with the danger level on later chapters can also make your playthrough a bit longer if you’re not really focusing on maintaining traveler levels.

Ultimately, Octopath Traveler is a beautiful game that totally nails the old-school JRPG vibe. It doesn’t hold your hand, and it can be a serious time sink, but if you’re willing to put in the effort to learn its deep systems, the payoff is a seriously rewarding and nostalgic adventure. It’s a game that asks for a lot of your time, but it definitely gives you a rich experience in return.