More Thoughts From Me #129: Traveling the Octopath Roads

Ever since I’ve played the second demo for Octopath Traveler, I have been super excited for play the full game. Don’t get me wrong: the first demo was good but that second demo blew me away. And now Octopath Traveler is out and I’ve played it some! Here are my first impressions of the game.

Octopath Traveler is even better than I thought it would be and thats saying a lot because I had high expectations (especially after that second demo).

What makes Octopath Traveler so special?

First of all, lets talk about its graphics. Octopath Traveler is one of the best looking games on…any system at all. You thought I was going to say the Switch? It is one of the best looking games on the Switch but its just one of the best looking games on any system period. This game is beautiful. Every single area that you explore in this game is fantastic looking: from the wide open areas to the towns to the mansions to the caves. It all looks great!

And then there’s the battle system. Its turn-based, which I love, but there is so much more to it. The boosting (BP) system in this game gives your characters an extra way to stick it to the bad guys. If thats not enough, each enemy has something they are weak against. Find out what those things are and you can “break” the enemy. Basically you stun them and that lets you attack them for a little without fear that they’ll counter attack.

Of course, we knew that the battle system was great and that the graphics were wonderful from the two demos. What does the full game reveal?

In the finished game, you get a sense of how large Octopath Traveler’s world is. There is so much to see and do in this game. From exploring towns to stumbling upon optional caves and people out in the wild, well, you just never know what you’ll find in this game.

If thats not enough, each of the eight characters in this game have their own stories (so far they are all interesting too). Octopath Traveler is a lot like a Saga Frontier game, expect better in my opinion. You can follow the story of each of the eight whenever you want. Well, depending on whether you are high enough in levels of course. This game gets really hard! Wow.

A bit of warning, if you don’t like random battles and grinding than you should stay away from Octopath Traveler. Random battles and grinding are ultra important in this game. In Octopath, it is much better to be over leveled than under leveled or even right at the level you are supposed to be. Trust me on this. Random Battles and grinding are you friend in Octopath Traveler.

I love old school rpgs. Octopath Traveler is a very old school, though it does have a few things that keep it from being too frustating (lots of saves). Square Enix has created the type of rpg that I love and I wish they’d do more games like this. Its too bad Final Fantasy will never again be as great as Octopath!

Have you played Octopath Traveler? What do you think of it?

Next week: Captain Toad for Nintendo Switch! I played this game on the Wii U and loved it. Is the game as good on the Nintendo Switch? Are you ready for Adventure?!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Excuse, I’m going to go play some more Octopath Traveler now.