Octopath Traveler

 PC
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 140 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 72 out of 140
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 140
  3. Negative: 39 out of 140

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  1. Greyd_Grom
    Nov 1, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Я скажу коротко, честно и по-русски - ХУ-Е-ТА !… Expand
  2. JanaWonderland
    Sep 17, 2019
    2
    This is among the most disappointing JRPGs I've ever played.

    At first I was pulled in by its beautiful artstyle and more than beautiful soundtrack, but that is pretty much it. You could compare it to a disfigured and moldy pumpkin trying to hide its atrocities behind make up and plastic surgeries. The writing is beyond horrible. Characters that almost constantly act out of character,    This is among the most disappointing JRPGs I've ever played.

    At first I was pulled in by its beautiful artstyle and more than beautiful soundtrack, but that is pretty much it. You could compare it to a disfigured and moldy pumpkin trying to hide its atrocities behind make up and plastic surgeries.

    The writing is beyond horrible. Characters that almost constantly act out of character, don't make sense whatsoever and doing things that - sure keep the story going but - do not make sense whatsoever. And instead of anyone questioning their behaviour like a normal person would, everyone just takes it the way it is. Good writing shouldn't need these inconsistencies only to keep the story going, instead its characters should keep it going naturally. Other than that it was able to partake in the biggest sin of story-writing possible: Overexposition. Whatever you see on screen, the game will not hesitate to think you stupid enough not to have taken in what happened and explains it in great depths, over and over again. Then of course it also mostly deals with themes explored by many RPGs before it, making it feel even lazier and more uncreative.

    If that was the only gripe I have with this game, at the very least it could be a fun little gameplay-heavy game, but the gameplay is subpar at best for that to happen. Enemies, no matter if random encounter or bosses, are the epitome of bulletsponges. Fights are far from hard, after hours of playing it not once did I die, but instead fights are stretched out like an old stepped upon bubblegum. They are merely there to artificially make the game longer. Enemies weaknesses do not make sense most of the time and unlike other, good, JRPGs are just a guessing game, which makes the fights even more atrocious. The animations, slowdowns and particle effects at least make the actual attacks feel satisfying, but if the main parts of the fighting system can't hold up, that doesn't save it either.

    So the fighting system is frustratingly annoying and the story-writing is insultingly bad... What else makes a good RPG? Freedom and exploring! The game is rather free with you being able to choose from 8 different characters that have different stories from the start to fit your playstyle. However outside of battle - in which they all behave relatively same-y - they only get one "skill" for you to use. Things like being able to steal from people, charm them or provocate them for a fight should make the game more interesting, but they barely have any consequences outside of what items you got, how much experience you get or which places to go. Places are by the way scarce. The big "open" world is designed in such a linear fashion, that exploration mostly consists of going off the path for a few seconds to open randomly placed chests. Now linearity is not a bad thing per se, but in a game where there isn't much of anything else, it was the last hope to get some good out of it.

    The controls weren't problematic, as I've played it with my gamepad instead of using my mouse and keyboard, as that is just my preferred way of playing JRPGs. So I can't say much about how it does control with mouse and keyboard.

    My recommendation is to save your money for something better. The gameplay, the story and the exploration are beyond disappointing. Listen to the soundtrack on YouTube or buy it extra somewhere else and avoid this game as well as possible.    … Expand
  3. Olkadan
    Jan 25, 2021
    0
    bad story = bad jrpg.
    octopath traveller is a bad jrpg
    very overpriced
    music is good
    combat is ok (for turn based system)
  4. Nipple
    Jun 8, 2019
    0
    Парни, единственный русский обзор
    Игра - не стоит своих денег ни разу, не берите, особенно в стим за 4500
  5. Hanishaw
    Jun 8, 2019
    0
    This is an old fashioned J-RPG game with lengthiness dialogue and turn-based fight that would cost the player massive time. The interest in the plots is faded in such a long and boring time. BTW, Xbox controller is not supported in this game, and keyboard input sucks too. I recommended you not to spend your time and money on Octopath Traveller. If you really a J-RPG lover and want to tryThis is an old fashioned J-RPG game with lengthiness dialogue and turn-based fight that would cost the player massive time. The interest in the plots is faded in such a long and boring time. BTW, Xbox controller is not supported in this game, and keyboard input sucks too. I recommended you not to spend your time and money on Octopath Traveller. If you really a J-RPG lover and want to try this game, I suggest you buy the NS edition that controller is supported and you can sell the game card after finishing it.… Expand
  6. TsukasaHiiragi
    Mar 26, 2021
    4
    Pro's

    Amazing artstyle that pays homage to classic jrpgs 8 characters each with their own story and playstyle Good voice overs, nice music Cons Inexcusably tedious combat Boring Lacking polish Octopath Traveler would have been great on SNES or PS1 back in the late 90s but for this era it is very dated which is a shame because graphically, it has a lot of vintage charm with    Pro's

    Amazing artstyle that pays homage to classic jrpgs
    8 characters each with their own story and playstyle
    Good voice overs, nice music

    Cons

    Inexcusably tedious combat
    Boring
    Lacking polish

    Octopath Traveler would have been great on SNES or PS1 back in the late 90s but for this era it is very dated which is a shame because graphically, it has a lot of vintage charm with nice graphics and some interesting story telling that unfortunately is let down by obnoxiously slow paced combat that makes the game get exceptionally boring fast forcing the player to either not bother and move on to a faster paced game, even by all classic snes jrpgs virtually none have the same tedious turn based combat style.

    Square Enix, you know better! Don't ever make a turn based JRPG that takes several minutes just to beat one basic monster this makes for a tedious eye rolling slog. It doesn't matter how deep the combat system is if you have players bored in the first hour of playing.    … Expand
  7. overratedhuman
    Apr 21, 2021
    0
    Is this a joke? I don't understand how we can have such a poor designed game in this day an age, you might as well get a SNES emulator and play any of the games in that platform.

    The storylines are plain out generic, made a million times over, the fight system has very little going on for itself. The game is a massive grind, you get generic story after generic story, I'm guessing you're    Is this a joke? I don't understand how we can have such a poor designed game in this day an age, you might as well get a SNES emulator and play any of the games in that platform.

    The storylines are plain out generic, made a million times over, the fight system has very little going on for itself. The game is a massive grind, you get generic story after generic story, I'm guessing you're supposed to collect all 8 travelers but after collecting 2 or 3 of them you realise you're in a silly grinding loop filled up with generic content, generic monsters which don't pose any challenge after a short while, and I didn't finish it, but I'm going to guess the completion of each story must be more of the generic content you have. Wrapped up in graphics from 20 years ago, you've got yourself a huge scam of a videogame, and somehow the internet is piled up with positive reviews, I've got no idea what on earth they're doing, maybe it's very young people who haven't seen this a million times? I don't know, if you managed to play this for more than a few hours I commend you on your stubbornness, it has worst graphics, worse gameplay and worse story than an average money grabbing gacha mobile game.    … Expand
  8. Frankie321
    Apr 18, 2021
    2
    I stopped playing this game because it's graphics are so primitive. The look of the game is so primitive it's not even cute or nostalgic. Developers, maybe there's a fine game in there, but please provide games with modern graphics, and, especially, drop that strong depth of field blur.
  9. Bertucciop
    Feb 25, 2021
    4
    Octopath traveler, they haven't worked enough on it and ask for 60€ for it. Made on Unreal Engine for quick development I think for commercial reasons. Below I break down the different aspects of the game.

    Fantastic music, sound track is the best of the game. Each character has his own music theme, maybe too melancholic but is a 10/10. The plot is too simple and linear, cliche    Octopath traveler, they haven't worked enough on it and ask for 60€ for it. Made on Unreal Engine for quick development I think for commercial reasons. Below I break down the different aspects of the game.

    Fantastic music, sound track is the best of the game. Each character has his own music theme, maybe too melancholic but is a 10/10.

    The plot is too simple and linear, cliche characters, there is no evolution in them over time. Too Manichean, evil and good well separated. A noble girl becomes a prostitute seeking for vengeance for no reason, instead of using her money and inheritance for it. Anyways narrative is ok, it is ok even if it is full of topics and empty of plot twists. It is a game for kids, not a book. Hire a Jewish screenwriter to review it before starting though, Square Enix 6/10.

    Gameplay is horrible, it is a typical 90's RPG game, but dynamics are too slow.

    They made a weakness point counter system which stuns and weakens enemies when they came to 0. But there are not any strategic but this in the game. In addition, they made an initiative point system, these points increase if you do not use them, and they boost your skills and attacks.

    Both systems combined make combat so tedious as you have to wait turns taking enemies weaknesses points as you wait to your initiative points to increase for making massive damage.

    Boss fights long the same as common fights. And skills are limited, attack, heal, low, and increase defense and attack. Enemies can blind, sleep, etc. you but it is very limited to you to do these things. You have very powerful ultimate skills at your disposal that end a combat after gaining some initiative points.

    These long fights appears each two steps on map, so you can't walk at all, unless you have a mage on team who provides of an extension walking longitude before fighting. Game is hardly bearable even with this mage's skill, it is unplayable if u don't have this.

    You do not need to properly manage your items, you are full of healing things and other things, you will never run out of them, even resurrection items.

    There is not any puzzle on map, just walking, taking treasure chests (some are hidden by 2D vision perspective) and fighting.

    The interaction of the NPCs is the 90's RPGs and they added that, depending of which character is in your team, you can steal or trade items with them, even fight a duel or investigate them, which improves skills or shows you the positions of hidden items, which is a great thing, but the plot is linear so when you get to a village you just examine, steal or trade with everyone to get new items and upgrade skills, you can also have an NPC character following you and help you in battles, you cannot control them .

    You cannot make any decision, there are not dialogues which spread a list of answers, plot is linear.
    3/10

    Talking about graphics, all goods things and effects came from Unreal Engine basics, so they didn’t have to work so much on it, they made low quality sprites for characters, and cartoon textures for the 3D maps and a static camera angle imitating 90's RPG quality, Low-cost graphics which did not provide budget for extending other game features.2/10

    In conclusion this game is just an experimental game made by Square Enix for commercial researches.
    Using a very portable graphic engine, great music, cute story, bad game development and cheap graphics budget. 4/10    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

81
#81 Best PC Game of 2019
83
#83 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
8
#8 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. RPG Fan
    Sep 18, 2019
    84
    An otherwise delightful and nostalgic JRPG, Octopath Traveler's lack of an integrated story leaves the experience feeling empty in the end.
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  2. GameCritics
    Aug 27, 2019
    70
    In the end, I love what Octopath Traveler is trying to do with its shieldbreaking and its eight-way narrative, but it’s probably better suited to the Switch than the PC. It feels like a title that needs to be played in short bursts, as is fitting for Nintendo’s portable platform. Perhaps I wouldn’t be as frustrated with its quirks if I walked away from time to time and did something else — I will go back and complete the quest, but for now, I just need a break.
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  3. PLAY! Zine
    Aug 2, 2019
    90
    An excellent port of a great game, that still requires a controller to enjoy it to the fullest. It has 8 great stories, 8 interesting characters, a bunch of mechanics to use and most of all - a tone of hours to pour into it and finish it all.
    Read full review
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