Octopath Traveler

Which story would you like?

In Octopath Traveler we slip into the role of the dancer Primrose, who searches for her father's murderers in the swamp of organized crime in Orsterra. Or we play the thief Therion, who is forced by a nasty trick to find and steal three legendary gemstones. Or the former knight Olberic, who feels responsible for the death of his king and wants to restore his honor. Or, or, or, or, or.

One game, eight heroes

Each of our eight stories is told in four chapters in Octopath Traveler. However, we don't play through one hero story in a row, but switch between the chapters from figure to figure and collect experience points for all heroes (fighting in the party) across all campaigns. Theoretically, we can grind for hours with our starting hero until he is strong enough for the second chapter, but it is much more fun if we first devote ourselves to the other introductory chapters.

Our first protagonist always stays firmly in our party, just like the one whose story we are currently playing. Only positions 3 and 4 in our group can be changed at will in order to level further heroes fit enough for the next chapter. Sounds terribly complicated in theory, but in practice it creates a far stronger bond with our characters than in most other JRPGs. Because we don't passively consume every background story in cutscenes or text windows, but experience it ourselves.

The individual acts themselves are far less complicated than the nested chapter structure. Most of the time it's not about saving the world, but about smaller but much more personal problems. Primrose, for example, sacrifices everything and everyone to avenge the death of her father, but otherwise her life is terrifyingly empty. The warrior Olberic has nothing to fight for after the death of his king. Both have to learn that their life is not just one dominating problem. The others also have their own demons.

And their very own skills that also influence the story. For example, the analytical talent of the scholar Cyrus, with whom he can assess people and, like a detective, solve a theft by comparing alibis and collecting evidence. Or the cleric Ophelia, who uses her leadership skills to convince a child to follow her back to their mother. That makes the individual adventures a little more varied than in other traditional JRPGs.

History for everyone

The many small sections rather kept us going than put us off. On the one hand, they keep us curious because every story is only touched upon at the beginning. On the other hand, the chapters with one to two hours are the ideal length to play a round in the evening and go to bed with a feeling of closure.

Because the first chapters of the heroes serve as an introduction to the game mechanics and the characters, they are very similar in their basic structure. But already in the second chapters the story corset is loosened, here the stories already diverge further in plot and mechanics.

In addition to the respective main stories, all kinds of side quests await us, which are solved with the talents of the characters. They are not reinventing the wheel, but sometimes they lead us to as yet unknown dungeons. If we ignore the side quests, by the way, we are sitting on Octopath Traveler for around 40 hours . If, on the other hand, we take care of our fellow human beings and possibly expand the four hidden careers, we are easily at 60 to 70 hours.

And now it's time for the big question: If the game is already about eight paths, do the heroes' stories also clash? Not directly. Although the characters share some locations, only the current main character appears in the stories themselves. And the threads themselves are only very loosely linked.

Especially in the respective end chapters, Octopath leaves a lot of narrative potential untapped. At the very end, however, there is still a surprise that we don't want to spoil here, but which in our opinion at least brings the fates of the heroes together a little.

Just like before ... or is it?

As soon as we get into a random battle along the way (enemies are not visible on the map), JRPG fans feel at home. In turn-based battles we fight against increasingly strong enemies and have to be careful to exploit their weaknesses. Status values such as speed, but also special attacks determine who attacks at what time - or who has to skip a round.

We can and must provoke the latter by targeting the respective weak points of the monsters, for example with the classic magic fire against plant monsters. In doing so, we are breaking the cover of our enemies, rendering them immobile and more prone to damage.

The fights in Octopath Traveler also have three special tricks. On the one hand, it is possible to collect so-called boost points with which we attack twice, three times or four times as hard.

Second , we don't see our enemies' health bars. As a result, we cannot estimate how long we will have to hold out in the fight against bosses. Is it worth taking our damage dealer off a few rounds so he can strike a devastating blow? Or does the opponent no longer have a lot of energy and can be brought to his knees with a simple knife?

And finally, the special abilities of our characters must also be taken into account. Primrose, for example, countered 50 percent of the time when attacked, and the huntress H'aanit had the same probability of double-striking.

The mechanics feel familiar enough that JRPG connoisseurs can easily find their way around. At the same time, the game also throws in enough new elements to keep it interesting. Together with the boss fights themselves, which can take 15 to 20 minutes, the combat system is one of the most tactically complex and exciting that Japan role-playing games currently have to offer.

All of this is also easy to do on the PC. Octopath Traveler is noticeably designed for gamepad operation, but since there is never any time pressure, we can easily handle the freely configurable keyboard control.

Pixels meet 3D worlds

When it comes to optics, too, Octopath Traveler chooses its own middle ground between old and new. At first glance, the retro pixel look is deliberately reminiscent of 16-bit JRPG classics such as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6, but at the same time surprises again and again with modern graphic effects, which initially irritates you, but after a short familiarization it turns out to be off works in one piece and creates an extremely atmospheric atmosphere.

And it's different in every area. Snow deserts alternate with actual deserts, gloomy stalactite caves connect friendly coastal cities with deep forests. The mixture of 3D textures and pixel optics provides additional details. A snow storm, for example, looks twice as beautiful when ice crystals flash up again and again in the light of our lantern, and the sea also looks so inviting that we want to stick a pixel toe straight into it.

With all the praise, the look is a matter of taste. Not everyone likes knobbly mini-heroes who march through a colorful pixel world. For those who have already annoyed Chrono Trigger, the modern 3D effects will not tear it out. And despite all the stylistic confidence, Octopath Traveler has to be compared to JRPG blockbusters like Dragon Quest 11 or Ni No Kuni 2 at a price of 60 euros, which are technically several leagues higher.

When it comes to the PC implementation , Square Enix does not show any nakedness, the port-friendly Unreal Engine 4 (no kidding!) Makes it possible and even allows quite extensive graphics settings. Of course, Octopath Traveler does not exhaust modern PCs in any way.

The orchestral soundtrack, on the other hand, is beyond any doubt: whipping up combat music, melodies individually adapted to the location and, if required, Japanese voice output give our ears everything they expect from a classic JRPG, but without the sometimes overused retro chip tunes.

And so Octopath Traveler manages the remarkable feat of tickling our retro charms on the one hand, but still surprising us again and again on the other. No matter which hero.