Quick Look: Octopath Traveler

This game has such a nice look to it

I'm stoked for this game, thanks for the overview Dan. Even if the story doesn't blow me away, I think the combat, art style, and world building will be enough to carry the game forward.

I really enjoyed the demo. Will be picking this up when it's a bit cheaper. Can't find it for less than £39.99 at the moment.

Great quick look, I think its oddly fitting that Dan did this one. For me, good combat is enough for a handheld RPG and hopefully the story is at least passable. It doesn't need to be as engrossing as something like the Witcher.

I’m still looking for this game to sell me

I like how Dan says this is what we would have gotten if there had been pixel art/sprite JRPGs on the Playstation. Yeah I wonder what that would have been like, could it have maybe been like Xenogears, Arc the Lad, Alundra, Breath of Fire, Grandia, Saga Frontier, Final Fantasy Tactics, Star Ocean, Lunar, Suikoden, etc, etc... lol.

Dog big

Meh story and grind? $60? Ehhhhhhhhh.

WOW, an educational intro by Dan Ryckert

The complaints for this make it sound like the game ignores other characters stories and doesn't really intertwine even if you have said character in your party and

Man I can't wait to play the full game of this for sure! Been looking forward to Octopath since I played the first demo and good to know from Dan that its super solid!

@pixelomen: The battles in particular remind me of Suikoden 1/2, when you got the "binoculars" item that let you move the camera in battle.

I don't blame Dan for not having played that stuff back in they day. The hyped up RPGs of the time were full 3D (or at least pretended to be), and the niche stuff really had to be sought out. There aren't a lot of RPGs from that era I'd suggest going back to too, as a lot of them were slow and had translations that ranged from passable to terrible. Suikoden 1/2, FF Tactics, maybe Arc the Lad 1/2, and the Lunar games are about the only ones I'd suggest to a modern audience, and the Lunar games were technically Sega CD games.

@steveurkel: “The complaints for this make it sound like the game ignores other characters stories and doesn't really intertwine even if you have said character in your party and”

... AND?! And what? Don’t leave me hanging!

@kodamun: I disagree, I think the PS1 was probably the best era for JRPGs. I prefer it to the SNES era. There were definitely translation issues, but that was true before then as well. I still think a lot of them hold up. Grandia and Xenogears are among my favorite JRPGs, even if some of it nostalgia. I also wouldn't call most of those games niche, at least not more so than the genre itself, they made up the vast majority of the entire genre.

While watching this, Chris Plante of Polygon retweeted, back-to-back, reviews from two different sources with vastly different conclusions. I think that's great! One took issue with the game's structure and how it fails to integrate the 8 character's stories, something alluded to in the QL but Dan admitted he hadn't seen every chapter yet. And I I honestly think it's a bummer. But the second reviewer admitted that when it comes to JRPGs, he's more interested in battle and other systems and this had him hooked. I hope this serves as an illuminating example of how individual expectations and preferences color every review, and differing opinions aren't inherently "wrong."

Having played essentially 4 Chapter Ones across the two demos, I'm both very excited to spend a bunch more time playing with this battle system and the Path Actions and Skills, but also wish the story was more cohesive than it apparently is. Maybe in a sequel? Nonopath Traveler?

I don't like how this game looks, it is displayed in a way that makes it very hard for me to focus on anything.

I think it's the shading and the blur.

This makes me want a new Bravery game for Switch, or to throw a deluxe Bravery Default on it so I don't have to go back to my 3ds.

I liked what I've played of the demo, but hearing the general scuttlebutt about how little the 8 characters' stories are actually integrated makes me think I might be better served waiting for this to get a bit cheaper before I jump into another lengthy JRPG. The combat seems excellent though, which I guess I'd expect from the Bravely Default team.

I can't wait for this, I wish the reviewers payed attention like dan. Quips like oh I zoned out or what are the stars like at the end of the battle, how can't you know what they are its obvious what the stun is jeezz...

What a boring boss fight, huge damage sponge that attacked like 3 times over the course of ten or so minutes. The overworld battles also seem to take too long, and there's random encounters. Yikes.

I'll never understand how JRPG standards dropped so far after PS2-era that this is the sort of thing that now gets people excited. I rather go back to PS1 and pick-up one of several JRPGs I missed at the time.

@vampire_chibi: The depth of field effect is WAY too strong, with too much of the screen needlessly blurred in a way that's distracting rather than natural. It turned me off the game from the first demo that released last year despite liking the 2.5D concept. I think there was news from the dev team a few months ago that they had "listened to feedback" and added options to tweak the visual effects.. I'm hoping it's true.

What are the chances this gets released on other platforms? I have a PS4 and PC, but this game looks pretty sweet.

Time to Metal Gear Solid reference: 33 seconds.

@grizwold53: It's being published by Nintendo outside of Japan, so I'm gonna say very unlikely.

The internet flipped out over Dan saying "Frietza," but we continue to sit quietly by when he says "brewtch" in every video?!?

edit: don't comment after hitting pause. Thank you dear Abby for finally putting a stop to that

Seems pretty good. Too bad its only on the Switch. Oh well.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but Dan enjoying both Anime and JRPG feels like a good sign of times, given politics looks like Metal Gear Rising.

This was a feel good QL. Good on Dan both trying new things and being a positive voice about them. Maybe it's time for me to finally get a switch.

There were a lot of pixel art RPGs on the PSX. You just had to dig a wee tiny bit deeper than the surface-level Final Fantasies

Have fun.

I played the demo and did not enjoy it. The combat was fine, nothing too special; but the writing and story just seemed incredibly bland. The only thing that stood out to me was the pixel art of the bosses, that was fantastic.

@brunoffs: Having played both demos, every other boss fight I've played in the game is way better than the one shown here.

I hear the stories aren't particularly deep but for me the main problem is definitely the look of the game. Other than the lighting I don't like the art style of this game at all. The painterly bits are great and the effects are fine, but they massively clash with the 16-bit-like pixel art if you ask me.

Dan knew a thing! Amazing!

Looking forward to getting my copy tomorrow. Love the look of this game, and really enjoyed the demos. This is everything I've been wanting from a more traditional JRPG.

I know the whole 'how has Dan got this far in life without knowing...' is done to death.

But the brooch conversation just left me with serious Blinking Drew Syndrome.

@matiaz_tapia: It’s always time to get a Switch!

Took the words out of my mouth. This game is getting an insane amount of coverage over at Kotaku but if the only positives are how it looks and the combat system, I don't understand how this RPG's grind, bland story, and price point are making people excited.

The official "time to Metal Gear" for this video was 32 seconds in case anyone is keeping score.

I wish gameplay audio was a little louder on some of these quicklooks

They brought it up briefly in the video, but I feel like there's also a clash within the pixel art. The characters look really simplistic and flat, but the enemies and environments look like they have far more depth and detail.

Wait, are people saying "brooch" (the jewelry) and "broach" (as in "to raise a topic of conversation") are supposed to have the same pronunciation? My head asplode.

Also, I can think of no one better to helm this Quick Look than anime expert/JRPG connosieur Dan Ryckert. ;)

@davekap:Because Jrpgs nowadays rarely have interesting/significant combat system that ask more of someone than mashing attack until more story happens? And combat is usually 80%of what your doing in these games if not more.

Also I believe this game either used from softwares 3d dot hero engine or had some staff from 3d dot hero working on this. Not sure but I believe the guys at 8-4 play once talked about it. Theres definitely a similarity in the vfx used.

I always assumed it was just pronounced Broh-sh btw, like a french person would say it. Guess that doesn't make much sense with the double o though.

Looks like Dan turned off the shading around the edges. I keep going back and forth on it. Not sure which style I prefer.

I hope this eventually comes to Steam.

Also I wish the battle music was better in this game. It's pretty boring compared to final fantasy 3.

They do, in fact.

Never trust words.

Dan: "We get many of our words from Greek. For example, Octo means eight..."

translation: "I just learned that words can come from other languages and that octo means eight"

I already had this preordered based off the demo. Glad Dan is into it!

Also, lots of people saying there's a "meh" story, I disagree, at least with the few characters I've seen, 2/3 of them were interesting / memorable, and made the decision to purchase the game. Combat and mechanics are also good.

Im kinda with you, every year I wait for something to kickstart the next good batch of them; Persona 5 didn't do it, neither did any of the western RPGs. I miss the PS1/PS2 golden era!