Octopath Traveler (Switch)
The biggest draw of this game is the graphics, which are clearly inspired by the SNES RPGs of old, thanks to the sprite work of the characters and the sprite-textured environments. Special effects like rays are thrown in depending on the environment, like the bright beaches of Coastlands. It gives the game a nice nostalgic feel that feels right in the modern age, and one that I immediately embraced (a Final Fantasy remake in this style would be most welcomed). The music is also generally fantastic, where each part of the terrain having its own theme, and the battles having a variety of themes also help.
When I started out, I picked Ophilia because previously I picked Primrose in the demo, so I thought of picking the character on the opposite side of the spectrum. This turned out to be a decent choice because Ophilia's talents come in handy, namely her healing and the fact that she has 100% chance of guiding people (provided that her level is high enough). The thing is, in this game, you cannot switch out your first character until you have cleared their 4 chapters, so you are basically stuck with them, resulting in them having a higher level compared to the rest of the team. Here are my opinions on each of them, based on the order of recruitment:
Ophilia: Character-wise, Ophilia is probably the least interesting of the eight travellers, as well as the least interesting voice acting, but I suppose her purity makes up for this. Not to delve too much into the story, but I found it interesting that her reason to travel is basically a foil to her antagonist's plans. Her ability to guide people is quite useful at times, but as the strategies of battle become more involved, I used this ability to summon NPCs into battles less and less. On matters of battle, her talent of healing is extremely useful, especially because at certain points of the game, you need to deal with heavy damage, and later on, the ability to reflect elemental damage is a huge boon. I often put her in a position of a magic user because it synergises very well with her usage of staffs, which usually grant high elemental attack bonus.
H'aanit: I have taken a liking to her middle-age English usage, which makes her sound very formal and stoic. She also has a snow leopard, Linde as her companion, which is really nice. Her ability to capture monsters is decent, but their limited usage hampers things a lot since the stronger monsters are more difficult to catch (the highest rating ones have only up to 3 uses!). Linde may be very useful early on since there's no limit in usage, but its power level will eventually be dwarfed by stronger monsters and H'aanit's skills. Because of how other monsters cannot fight forever, her ability to send monsters to NPCs is not very useful if Linde cannot overpower them.
Therion: The thing that makes Therion enjoyable is not only his loner personality, but also how snarky he is. His skills are also very useful to have, for he can steal from NPCs, meaning free items if the steal is successful. He also has the most annoying ability to open purple chests, because not bringing him on an expedition means that I need to remember to do that next time. I often gave him high evasion gear because he just seems like the type to evade a lot of attacks, and that comes in handy quite often.
Tressa: I have heard of how useful Tressa is when it comes to money, so I went all the way to the opposite side of the map to get her, and indeed she has very useful tools for money, like passively collecting them when travelling and her ability to collect money from most enemies. In fact, I have gathered a lot of money because of this, which are usually used for equipment in shops but not usually for purchasing from NPCs (because Therion is generally better since I get them for free). It's also refreshing to see a protagonist that have parents that are not only alive, but also present.
Primrose: The protagonist which is more difficult to use, because not only does her story contain many unsettling things like abuse and human trafficking, her ability to seduce people to join her is not very reliable, even at a very high level. Her dancer skill is useful for stat boosts but only affecting one character at a time is limiting, unless her "limit break" is used. However, since her allure is separate from Ophilia's guiding people, it's still useful for that very reason.
Alfyn: When I first started the game, I wasn't familiar with what Alfyn or Cyrus could do, until I got Alfyn and realise how awesome the ability to inquire people is. Basically it can reveal hidden items, make inns cheaper and even unravel some information that can be used for sidequests. He's also quite easygoing and has some pun-tastic lines like "Cool off!" and "Pick your poison!", and his ability to mix ingredients is a huge advantage itself since the concoctions have unique healing that items can't provide, like the ability to heal BP for the entire team.
Cyrus: I am surprised to find that Cyrus' skill is one of those that can make their reputation suffer, since he's also kind of gentlemanly compared to the others who are more understandably sinful. I suppose he's a bit socially awkward if he had to scrutinise people, which sounded like he's interrogating them when it's put that way. Since he's basically another mage character, he is really useful for that reason, and it's favourable to put him in another mage class for this reason. Plus, he can scan one weakness from each and every enemy or boss at the start of the battle, making the battle go a little smoother. His way of speech is very enjoyable, because he sure has a way with words.
Olberic: The one that I hired the last is also the one that will eventually be my powerhouse, because he has high attack and eventually I gave him a skill to increase the damage cap. Not only that, his skill to challenge NPCs is great, because you can draw from his entire skill set rather than dispatching monsters (which is not as reliable). Similar to Cyrus, his speech is enjoyable but for a different reason: he has a more spirited way with the way he delivers his lines, especially if you boost to the max ("My blade is unbending!").
One thing that kind of fascinated me with the game is how it's overall more grounded than the average Final Fantasy game. Yes, the game has monsters still, but they are more generally inspired by real-life, such as animals (including animal tribes), plants, automatons, skeletons and good ol' human enemies (in fact, encountering a dragon is considered a huge thing in this game). The best part is that stronger versions of enemies are not just recolours, but instead have a feature that make them look different from the others. The items are also more realistic, for instead of potions and elixirs, fruits are the main source of healing, including jams which are the elixir of this game, and nuts which give permanent stat boosts. That's not to mention that most of the game has more grounded character quests, like Olberic fighting his way in a tournament and Tressa rescuing a fellow merchant from a ruthless landlord.
The battle system may seem quite complex, but the existence of on-screen elements also made it simple. For one, the turn order is outlined on the screen, similar to Final Fantasy X. Also, every enemy has vulnerabilities, and if you hit them with one, then it will be revealed to make life simpler. If they run out of shields, they become super vulnerable, making every hit much stronger than before. This is even encouraged because you get 10% more experience if you do that. To aid in battles, every attack and skill have the ability to consume BP (here, it's called Boost Points), which unlike Bravely Default, only boosts one move at a time, and in general it's more useful if boosted. For attacks, it means attacking more than once; for boosting/debuffing skills, it increases the duration; for offensive skills, it increases its power; finally, every class has an equivalent of a (unlockable) Limit Break which can only be used if you use at maximum boost, and they have generally useful abilities like making an ally use the same move twice, make status moves hit all instead of one, or just outright unleash a powerful attack on a foe. I daresay that the battle system is where half the fun is, because the amount of strategies that can be executed felt limitless. It's helped that every boss have some twist to keep things interesting, such as those with weaknesses that are locked until certain conditions are met, such as defeating the boss's minions.
The game also has a job system, which can be unlocked by going to shrines. It's basically encouraged to do so, because the characters get stat boosts and an expanded moveset by doing so. Not to mention: unlocking skill also unlocks support skills that can be mixed and matched, like taking the Thief's Snatch and apply it on the Merchant to obtain twice the money, or using the Dancer's Second Wind to apply passive SP recovery on a mage character. The game also have a few more jobs other than the ones used by the main characters, but they require fighting a tough boss to properly earn them. What makes the job system fun is how the characters deliver their lines if they have a different job.
Although the game is considered complete if the protagonist's fourth chapter is completed, given that that's when the credits roll (in the order that you clear the chapters, a very nice touch), the game has one extremely tough boss that is basically the final boss since it requires all party members to be used. It's best to clear the side quests before that because they offer some nice rewards, especially of those with the significant side characters for each traveller. The final boss is tough because you need to clear stronger versions of existing bosses (which is the easy part) first, and they cannot be skipped. I had to read up on the strategy of the boss, but I am fortunate to make it out alive with one close call, because it took a long time to beat it.
After beating the optional final boss, I can breathe a sigh of relief that I have just conquered the most difficult boss in the game.
Thank you for reading.
