Project Octopath Traveler Demo Impressions

Not too long ago, Square Enix unveiled an RPG that is in the works, tentatively titled "Project Octopath Traveler." They're touting it as "a true RPG experience" with "2D HD" graphics - something they seem rather proud of. The game lets you choose from one of eight characters to start with, each with their own abilities and story lines. Already it seems that a vast majority of people are enamored with it, but to quote Phoebe Elizabeth Audelia Hemsworth IV, "I'm... Not impressed."

Even before jumping in to the demo, I found these promotional claims to be quite false. First of all, Octopath is not anywhere close to what I'd call "a true RPG experience." This is definitely nitpicking, but I wanted to bring it up anyway; feel free to ignore this paragraph. In my book - which so happens to be the 5th Edition - a "true RPG experience" means freedom to create your own player character, much like you would in a game like Elder Scrolls. Octopath doesn't even let you so much as rename the protagonists or choose their classes, like you could in early Final Fantasy games.

Second, Square Enix seems convinced that their "2D HD" graphics are completely revolutionary. I disagree with this notion. 2D characters in 3D environments has already been done; Paper Mario has been doing it for years. Again, this is nitpicking, so feel free to ignore this paragraph. It surprises me that anyone is impressed with these "2D HD" graphics; to me, they look like something a small indie developer team could throw together. The difference here is that the indie team would also put a unique and interesting spin on the turn-based combat formula to make the game more interesting, where as Square Enix has yet to prove that this is the case.

At least from what's playable in the demo, Octopath is very bog-standard when it comes to gameplay. In the overworld, you walk around, talk to people, and so on. If you walk around enough outside of a town, you'll get into a random encounter - which, might I say, starts with a very unpleasant bright flash that hurts my eyes every time it happens; yeah, that's totally something I want happening randomly throughout the 60-80 hours that this game could take to beat. The fight mechanics are almost as basic as it gets. You and your opponents take turns making actions. On your turn, you can melee attack, cast spells, use items, et cetera. There are two mechanics that prevent this battle system from being completely basic: the Break mechanic and the Boost mechanic. If you hit an enemy enough times with the right weapon or spell, you'll "break" them, stunning them for a turn or so. This pairs well with the Boost mechanic, which lets you use the same attack up to five times in one turn, making it fairly easy to break an opponent.

Now, I've got nothing particular to say about the break mechanic, it's about as good as it sounds, but I find the boost mechanic laughably underwhelming. Okay, so it's as good as it sounds too, but it pales in comparison to the Brave mechanic from Bravely Default. You see, the Brave mechanic lets to take up to four actions in one turn, similar to the boost mechanic, but you're not limited to the same attack four times; you can choose any four actions. To put that more succinctly: Brave lets you have four turns in a row, while Boost only lets you use one attack five times in a row. I'll say it again, the boost mechanic pales in comparison. The funny thing is, both of these games are developed by Square Enix. Frankly put, I'd rather spend $40 bucks on Bravely Default than what'll likely be $60 on Octopath, because at least Bravely Default would let me change the classes and abilities of my player characters.

So if the graphics and gameplay aren't as unique as Square Enix might want you to believe, the story must be what saves it, right? Eh, I'd say "no." Honestly, I attempted to skip past the dialogue as fast as possible to get to the gameplay, so it's probably more detailed than I'm going to give it credit for, but what I did pay attention to seemed rather trite. The demo only lets you choose one of two characters to play as, a dancer and a soldier, and both characters had pretty simple set-ups - not to say that simple stories are inherently bad. The soldier's story revolves around him dealing with war and betrayal within his ranks, which I'm sure Fire Emblem has already done better several times by now, while the dancer's story revolves around her trying to find the three men who murdered her father. I played the dancer's story while over at a friend's house, and he was able to predict a story element miles before we got to it in the demo. Does that speak for how predictable the final game will be? I don't care enough to find out, honestly.

Overall, I'm not impressed with Project Octopath Traveler in the slightest. If I had to give it a number, it's a 1 out of 5, but this isn't a full review, so that number holds very little value.

Image Source:

Nintendo Everything:

http://nintendoeverything.com/project-octopath-traveler-demo-footage/

http://nintendoeverything.com/spring-2018-release-window-for-project-octopath-traveler-listed-in-nintendo-uk-news-post/