‘Octopath Traveler’ on Switch Plays to Nostalgia While Still Feeling Fresh

Alexa Ray Corriea
Games
Games

It looks like Nintendo is keeping Japanese role-playing game fans in its sights as it builds up the Switch’s library. This December we’re getting Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and in January the year kicks off with Lost Sphear. Now there’s one more JRPG slated to come out next year: Square Enix’s oddly-named Octopath Traveler.

Eight Heroes, Eight Special Abilities

Octopath Traveler primrose
Primrose, one of the eight protagonists in 'Octopath Traveler.'

Octopath Traveler focuses on eight protagonists — hence the “octo” — and their individual journeys — the “path” part. The demo, currently available on the Nintendo Switch eShop, features two of them: Primrose, the daughter of a formerly-wealthy, now fallen house who is posing as an exotic dancer to get revenge on her father’s killers; and Olberic, a retired knight who is dragged back into the game when his home village is attacked.

The gimmick of Octopath Traveler is that each character has a unique ability when interacting with others in the world, one that the other seven character can’t use. Primrose can “allure” NPCs to follow her wherever she wants, and Olberic can challenge them to a duel.

Harking Back to the Golden Era of JRPGs

Immediately, Octopath Traveler’s looks are reminiscent of Square Enix’s older JRPG classics, with aesthetics calling Final Fantasy VI to mind and a three-quarter angled viewpoint similar to Saga Frontier. Nintendo calls it “HD 2D,” with mostly flat 16-bit-style character sprites playing out the story on a highly-detailed polygonal environment, all under that HD wash. The game looks gorgeous and fresh while still hitting all those nostalgia buttons.

Battles, too, call back to the golden era of JRPGs. They are turn-based, in which the hero character and enemies all take one turn per round. Players must figure out through trial and error what an enemy’s weaknesses are and use those attacks to “break” their shields, which will leave them open to taking more damage. Additionally, like in Square Enix’s Bravely Default series, there is a “boost” system that lets characters briefly power up to deal more damage.

A Game of Thrones-like Tone

octopath-traveler

The story itself feels very Game of Thrones-y, in that you play as a knight who has shunned his duty or the disguised member of a fallen house seeking revenge, in locations that fit the magical-fantasy bill. Also like Game of Thrones, the tone and dialogue are more mature; for example, in Primrose’s part of the demo, the man employing her as a dancer alludes to sexual behavior and calls her a “whore.” So this isn’t some kiddie-friendly stuff like Secret of Mana — this appears to be a more adult-themed game in general.

Old School Nostalgia

If you’re someone who longs for the glory days of JRPGs, Octopath Traveler looks like it will scratch that itch. The game looks classic without feeling stale, and everything from the writing to the music makes you feel like you’re booting up your SNES or PlayStation 1 to dig into a story. As someone very deeply invested in the state of JRPGs, it’s exciting to see something like this in the work — and for the Switch no less, the console everyone wishes every game was on.

Octopath Traveler makes me hopeful that more JRPGs will come to Switch. Hopefully this isn’t one of the only ones we get next year.

Alexa Ray Corriea
Alexa Ray is Fandom's Senior Editor for Games, with a borderline unhealthy interest in Kingdom Hearts (she literally wrote the book on it) and all JRPGs, with a more healthy affinity for the anime. When she's not gaming, she's obsessing over Star Wars, all things Disney, and Taiwanese glove puppets.