Octopath Traveler
Top 5 Best Console Exclusives of 2018 So Far
Octopath Traveler immediately piqued our interest as soon as we laid our eyes on that gorgeous aesthetic, and thankfully, the gameplay and story turned out to be just as compelling. Seriously, those graphics, though… Called HD-2D, pixelated sprites combine with polygonal textures to produce something truly unique and special. It’s a nod to the golden SNES era of JRPGs, of course, but there’s much more to enjoy than just gawking at the design.
Octopath Traveler’s narrative and design premise is as unique as its aesthetic: eight individual stories play out simultaneously, all independent from each other. At times, it’s a little disjointed, but we loved having so many characters with stories that we could delve into so deeply. Speaking of which, the world of Octopath Traveler is superbly detailed on the whole, and it really is the type of JRPG in which you’ll find yourself endlessly talking to NPCs to really soak everything up.
A JRPG wouldn’t be anything without a solid battle system, and Octopath Traveler delivers here, too. Random enemy encounters trigger active time battles in quintessential 90’s JRPG fashion, but there are some interesting fresh mechanics that really give it a neat point of difference.
