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Octopath Traveler - First Impressions
4 years ago - Edited 4 years ago1,755 words
Divine DreamsPlaying Games
This is likely only interesting to maybe a couple of people, but it's valuable for me since I'm making a game of this genre myself: here are some of the things I noticed and felt playing Octopath Traveler for about 50 minutes.

I got this game a while ago, and I've been meaning to play it ever since, but haven't found the time. I'm trying to look into other games more this week though, so... this!

Actually I intended to play Celeste, which I got from the ridiculous itch.io sale thing (it seems almost criminal to get so much content for so little!), but when I downloaded it and tried to run it, nothing happened! I re-downloaded it and tried again, same result. Oh well, I don't mind buying it again on Steam later.

But for now I had this. It's not an indie game at all, but it's the same genre as Divine Dreams, so it's interesting to notice how I feel about it as a player so then I can know how to approach similar problems in my own game.




What I assume is one of the game's most defining gimmicks is that it lets you choose which of eight characters you want to follow the story of from the start. The positioning of the cursor was closest to a scholar called Cyrus, so I assumed that this is the one the developers intended to be played first. I did!

One of the issues with Taming Dreams is that it started with an exhausting amount of dialogue before the player could do very much of their own accord. But that seems to be the case here too! It dives right into generic fantasy lore stuff too, the sort that - for me at least - goes in one ear and out the other. I don't care about kingdoms or wars or whatever; it's not how I think. I'm more interested in the personal, the psychological, though I wonder if I'm unusual in this and more people GO NUTS to learn that the Garustavarians defeated the Ch'harexieth in the Great War of 104 QCE. The Elder Scrolls' books are full of this stuff, so there's obviously some audience for it? I never had the slightest interest in history though.

I didn't know the game would have voice acting! A couple of people mentioned that Divine Dreams' dialogue should be accompanied by Animal-Crossing-like gabble; currently there's just a 'whoop' sound when a new dialogue box appears. Here, some dialogue is fully voiced, while others lines just have a voice fragment. This is nothing new, but I've always found these voice fragments an annoying solution, especially when they don't match up to the words actually being said except in general intention or feel. I find it distracting. It also feels weird to me having these graphics accompanied by crisp voice acting.

I felt there were too many cutscenes before I got a chance to move around manually, and it wasn't even clear to me when these cutscenes were over since there were long pauses at times. I think that movement should be introduced ASAP because there's a certain eager fidgetiness that I feel when I've yet to actually move the character which I can't imagine is unique to me. I never skip dialogue, but I also wasn't paying much attention during it because I was just eager to get to the actual gameplay.




I find this 'pixelated 3D' look abstractly interesting, but not especially pleasing on the eyes. It's something I'd be happy to support the creation of as an idea, but which my subconscious isn't responding well to. It looks rough, busy. It's something that made me think "I'd like to do something similar in my own games", but these screenshots don't look pleasant in themselves in the way that, say, ∞ GRIS ∞ screenshots do (to me).

It's interesting seeing modern effects like the sleek UI and depth of field blurring together with these heavily pixelated graphics. Feels like something that'll need to grow on me rather than an immediate "oooooh!".

I also found it annoying how there are NPCs standing around like statues who can't actually be interacted with. I can understand why from a gameplay standpoint, and other RPGs do this, but I suppose I've not played another one with these 2D style graphics which did it. Usually they're 3D RPGs where the characters at least animate to suggest interaction with one another.




I find these sprites quite limiting in general, really. I get that they were going for the nostalgia factor, and they did an amazing job of it, but I suppose it's just different to the direction I personally want to go in with DD. This dialogue line amused me; what expression? Or what face, for that matter!

Also, there's a clothy 'fwip' sound effect when this character changes between certain poses which felt... strange, to me. I mean, it made sense, but maybe it's got something to do with defying expectations for these types of visuals? The voice acting felt the same at first.

The angle at which characters stand make scenes like this odd; Cyrus is facing the camera more than he's facing who he should be talking to, it looks like.

I particularly liked how I could transition into rooms or even buildings and the cut between outside and inside was instant instead of a fade through black. Very pleasing; I went in and out of doors a few times just to appreciate it. Something I'd like to copy!




This Headmaster character seemed like A Villain from the first three seconds he was shown. I suppose that's good communication of the character's role, but also an example of how this genre is typically populated by caricatures (some people recently expressed concerns about DD's characters appearing caricatured; I suppose it's different for some NPC though than for the protagonists).

The plotting so far seems... uninteresting to me. All the characters on the character select screen came across as familiar to the point of being boring (a thief, a paladin, a scholar, etc), but I suppose the point of this game is to pay homage to the genre's history, and familiarity breeds appeal. I've yet to have a reason to particularly care about this character's concerns, but that too is very similar to how a lot of these JRPGs tend to go.




This cave is interestingly chaotic and vertically variable in design. Again I find it quite rough, unpleasant on the eyes. Not TERRIBLE, but it doesn't inspire awe or envy or anything. It's fiiiine. Suits the game. I like the pixelated 3D treasure chests!

The camera angle is interesting. I had to think a bit about this with Divine Dreams: do I angle it more top-down, or more flat like this? With this, much, much more of the scenery in front has to be visible, so a lot more needs to be made. I chose the easier option.

There's an item vendor NPC next to this little dungeon's save point for practical reasons. If I had someone like that in my games, I'd give them some absurd dialogue explaining why they're there to make the player laugh. Here, he just says he has some supplies and you can buy them if you want. But why is he there?!

This whole area just exists as a forced-in gameplay obstacle though; the character is seeking out one of his colleagues who just happens to do his research in an underground lab. There's also a bit before this where he's doing some detective work to find out who's committed some crime... and it just happens to be the one guy with the vast underground lab? Who ever would have suspected.




I got up to this first boss, which I found hilarious because he's ENORMOUS, in an obvious reference to how human enemies were handled in the early Final Fantasies (though exaggerated here to really make the point). I always found that funny, how my allies were these little dolls by comparison; really interferes with immersion! I definitely appreciate it here, though, because I know why they did it. And yet this isn't exactly a comedy game, so... hmm.

I died against this boss. I don't understand the battle system yet, despite a brief tutorial (in the form of a static info screen shoved briefly in my face), and despite running around enough to trigger more battles than I would if I'd made a beeline to the goal (also, I greatly dislike that the battles are just random encounters, though that's very much congruent with the aim of the game too so it'd be odd if it was any other way).

My ignorance here is notable because some people on this blog expressed concerns about Divine Dreams' potentially elusive combat mechanics. I can't think of a JRPG I played where the battle mechanics weren't baffling to me for the first hour or so of gameplay! They become clearer as I get more familiar with them.

From what I can tell so far, these mechanics seem straightforward enough, nothing worth really saying much about. I tend not to have strong opinions about JRPG battle systems anyway and just accept them as whatever they are. Strange, maybe, considering how much thought and effort I've had to put into my own.

Also, I notice there's a turn order indicator in the UI, so that's interesting. My character's status display is in the upper right corner, which feels too out-of-the-way to me, though perhaps it'll feel different with more characters. Interesting what's displayed for the enemies: weaknesses, and a number relating to the unique mechanics I don't understand yet, but no HP bar.



I probably spent more time writing this than I did playing the game! But I felt it was valuable to make a note of these thoughts now because the first few minutes are the most valuable for winning a player over or not. I might seem particularly critical here, but it's because I'm paying attention to things I'd rather not do to players with my own work, which I feel is more important than stuff they might like. Human minds are more attuned to annoyance than appreciation, annoyingly.

I enjoy the game overall and I'll keep playing it, to be clear! I'll probably write about it again when I finish, whenever that might be. It seems long.

4 COMMENTS

Maniafig222~4Y
I really like this blog, having started the game not long ago myself! Our experiences are quite different! I shall avoid spoiling anything, to let you experience the game with fresh eyes!

My first pick was Tressa, who's the Merchant character. Since she starts next to Cyrus, I did go pick up Cyrus second though! Cyrus has actually been a REALLY valuable party member I felt, and I usually have to find reasons to not have in my party at all times, but I've been told there aren't really any 'bad picks'!

Cyrus's story stands out in how it starts with a literal history lesson! Most other character introductions are not like that, it just happens Cyrus is the sort of scholar who's a total lore nerd and probably edits the Hornburg wiki and has online arguments with people.

The partially voiced bits of dialogue are really weird! I can only imagine they line up better in Japanese, but the text boxes and voice lines got divergent translations... Or maybe it's like that in Japanese too! I do agree it can be rather distracting!

Honestly I also found that the cut scene density could get very dense. It does vary from character to character and chapter to chapter, I found Cyrus's second chapter more tolerable anyway!

The artstyle had to grow on me too! When I first saw the reveal I thought it just looked weird, though I do like it more. I agree that the sprites aren't as expressive as they could be though, there's one area where you've exceeded such limitations in your games, compared to the style used in MARDEK for example.

The abundance of dummy NPCs was odd to me at first too, but I think it makes sense given that every NPC can be interacted with used various Path Actions. Cyrus can Scrutinize every interactive NPC for details, and there's other types of NPC interactions as well, so if every NPC were interactive it'd get very bloated!

I like Cyrus's flappy cape sound when he does an interrogation! It's the sort of flair that reminds me of games like Ace Attorney, where lawyers pointing at each other and debunking each other's theories while engaging in courtroom antics are accompanied by all kinds of dramatic animations and sound effects!

I found it almost amusing how transparently the headmaster is set up to be a possible antagonist! Octopath Traveler feels like it plays most of these things incredibly straight, though I've noticed a few times where the game kinda pokes fun at itself, usually when talking with or Scrutinizing NPCs. I'd scrutinize every NPC if you can, a lot of them are rather amusing and flavourful!

Some characters are more interesting and have more daring plotlines than others! Different people like different characters more, though some seem generally more well-liked. I won't spoil which are which though, but I'm curious to hear who you'll wind up liking most! I know who's my favourite!!

The item vendor NPC is weird! It's just a chapter 1 convenience and it stops happening later in the game it seems! An NPC like that also existed in Bravely Default and Bravely Second, but in that series that character actually turned out to be MAYBE VERY IMPORTANT in a secret, out-of-the-way easily missed twist!

I do really like the huge boss sprites, they convey a lot of character! Like, the guy you're fighting here isn't even someone important, he's just some down-on-his-luck scholar who's in debt due to drinking problems, but he still gets this giant, epic sprite!

The lack of a HP bar is honestly annoying! Scholars can Study foes to see their current HP, but I feel like it should also just reveal a HP bar. Whenever bosses die I always feel surprised since I refuse to keep track of their HP manually!

The shielded number and the weakness indicators are very important! The baubles above your characters HP bar are also important! They're basically the core of the game, like Brave and Default were in the aptly titled Bravely Default!

I'll get back to the game this weekend, too. I'd been playing it a lot and enjoying it, but I got into one random battle in someone's chapter 2 where I got wiped very suddenly, which kicked me back a few minutes. Mrgrgr!
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Tama_Yoshi82~4Y
Back when I mentionned Octopath Traveler, I mentioned I found the story very meh, and it seems we agree! Yay! I think it just speaks for itself, except it gets worse as none of the paths (significantly) intersect!

The comment on the characters not facing each other is... interesting. It has become common in game design to have characters stand in a theatrical manner (where the chest is aimed at the player) to increase expressiveness; similar to how an actor on stage would. It's rare that side-scrollers have the characters facing left or right with their chest, and is usually bad design when it happens. I know you understand this concept because you've applied it to your own design.

I don't take much issue with the visuals personally, but they don't blow me away either.

I had no problems with the battle system, and I think I only started dying from the ~12th boss (having done all 8 first character). The way the mechanics work in this game is they basically encourage the player to find the best way to "break" the game. I found a couple (and still died), but never anything approaching the insanity I found when I looked online, after I'd been obliterated by the "secret end boss" (which requires you to severely break the game, because it is broken itself; isn't that elegant game design?). I think this speaks to the qualities of the mechanics, that I found some strategies on my own, but missed out on others.
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Refurin24~4Y
I don't know the exact proportion of people who dislike random battles to those who just don't really care either way, but personally I mostly quite like them as I've noticed in recent years from playing some RPGs that try other means of handling battles.

I much prefer them to the alternative of having X amount of preset battles placed on the map, which both leaves things feeling a bit empty and not fun if you just run out of them, but also when I can see them coming it makes me like them less.

Matt Roszak's RPG series (Epic Battle Fantasy) has always had enemies on the map instead of random battles and I honestly find it a chore to explore because everything is always blocked off by an enemy that you have to fight.

I couldn't play them for 10 hours in one sitting in the same way I've been doing with the recent MARDEK release. I just get tired of battles and go play something else.

Maybe just because when battles are random, I never really think about them? I spend more time thinking about the area, where I'm going and what's happening than always staring at what battles are 20 steps down the next corridor and thinking "I really don't feel like fighting all of those!".

Both are effectively the same thing when you really look at it, I'd probably do the same amount of battles either way, but they feel a lot different as a player.
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tank40001~4Y
Remember me, from in ye olden days? Before you even released Mardek Chapter 3: Keystones? Don't worry, I'm no longer a 10 year-old troll; I'm an adult with mental illnesses and an original role-playing video game project of my own (starting out as a Mario fan-game and later Kirby fan-game, while I was still in high school several years ago).

But your post was about Octopath Traveller, and - although I haven't played it myself - I have watched playthroughs of it on YouTube. And I assure you that my comment will be spoiler-free: the plot may at times be quite predictable, but at least it isn't so predictable you can figure out the ending by only knowing the beginning.

I believe that beginning with Ophilia Clement is actually how you're supposed to play the game if you want to do so in any order (hint: read the first names of each main character, then read the title of the video game), and - knowing that you're "more interested in the personal, the psychological" - I do believe that Ophilia would've been a better choice than Cyrus.

But she's right next to Cyrus's location anyway, so you would've certainly met her very soon if you headed north. And if you truly don't care for lore, Cyrus really was a bad character to pick: I recall that Tressa (my second favourite character, after Cyrus) has absolutely no backstory whatsoever. Again, she's also right next to Cyrus's location; you would've met her if you headed south.

I personally thought the voice acting was fine: it's certainly better than Bravely Default's, at least (the audio quality of those voice clips were so terribly annoying without their volume being at least half of the background music's; also, some voice clips dragged on far too long for how few words they were actually saying).

I felt that the cutscenes were fine: if anything, the lengths of certain boss fights were so tedious to watch that - if the uploader hadn't edited the boring parts out - I'd often skip them. I certainly do enjoy challenging boss battles, but I don't want to waste over an hour of my time trying to defeat them (it's why I chose to exploit game mechanics to easily defeat the final boss in Bravely Default, since a battle with the penultimate boss felt like battling a final boss).

I liked the game's visual style, but I do agree that - while I understand the reason behind why it is what it is - the lack of interaction with NPCs is disappointing, especially as I'm someone who likes interacting with each and every NPC. I especially like role-playing games where a lot of attention is given to NPCs, such as Earthbound or Mother 3.

I would have to disagree with your thoughts about the sprites. It's like reading a book: you can't even see the characters, but you can imagine their appearance and their reactions. However, expressive sprites certainly do improve the player's experience: I recall so many memorable moments in the Mario & Luigi RPG series because the sprites could be so expressive.

I never noticed it at first, but yes: I agree that it's a little strange how Cyrus appears to be facing the camera, when he should clearly be facing away from the camera. I suppose that it's just an oversight, because it certainly would be amusing if Cyrus was facing the camera while confronting his final boss (I checked; unfortunately for those who enjoy comedy in their video games, he doesn't face the camera).

I don't recall having ever noticed the transitions, so this means that the transitions were indeed done well.

Of course the headmaster is a villain: everyone knows that he's a villain. But I must say, the plot twists I remember were good ones (and I knew that there would be plot twists eventually: it's to be expected of media these days). Although, I'd argue that Bravely Default did it better with a certain character: I saw the first one coming long before the reveal, but I was still surprised by it and I'd never expected there would be a second one after defeating the final boss.

I would argue that Cyrus has the best plot, followed by Ophilia and then Primrose. Tressa's was fine, and I never cared enough about the other characters to even bother watching their final chapters; even now, I do not know how their stories end.

So, I'd say that it's more of a mixed bag: you'll care about some characters, and couldn't care less about others. I know of a YouTuber who hated Tressa's, so... to each his own: Tressa is best girl, and no amount of complaining about her storyline will change my mind.

I usually dislike caves in RPGs: I feel that they're quite overused and often boring. How difficult is it to add some beautiful vegetation, or attractive gemstones, or fascinating railways, or calming waterfalls, or terrifying lava flows? That's not to say that I dislike all of Octopath Traveller's caves - I remember there was at least one I liked - but I do remember there being a lot of caves.

I wouldn't like pixelated 3D chests just yet: I personally dislike being forced to use certain characters because they're necessary to do certain things, especially if you can't freely switch party members. If you like the character and always have them in your party, it's fine, but if you don't and are a completionist, it's annoying.

I would choose the easier option as well: I'm only one person, and a lot and time and effort is necessary to develop a good video game. In fact, I've been so busy that - since the beginning of this year - I've only thought of ideas, created pixel art of the elements (fire, water, nature, etc.) and drew some character artwork for my video game project.

I wholeheartedly agree with your views on the item vendor NPC. In Bravely Default, there's a similar character who appears everywhere and sometimes provides amusing dialogue. And - if you know where to look - you'll find him and his canine companion at the end of a dungeon, offering a laughably difficult battle. It's a shame Octopath Travaller's counterpart is so underutilised.

To be fair, I remember that Russell's actual lab was a small room in the upper-rightmost part of the caves. I'm sure that people would've just thought that he was a weirdo and tried to forget about him and the caves.

My first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy IV, but for the Nintendo DS. If there's anything I remembered about Final Fantasy IV for the DS, it's the surprising lack of clothing on certain characters (Barbariccia especially); so the first time Octopath Traveller reminded me of Final Fantasy was actually when I saw one of the final boss battles.

I'm quite certain you'll need to grind: from what I can tell, it's a rather difficult game. And I personally believe that the player should be able to manipulate the frequency of random encounters: I know that I never would've completed Bravely Default without this option (I would set encounter rates to 0% when I didn't want to be interrupted by battles, and 200% when I wanted to grind).

If you haven't already figured it out, you can determine the enemy's weaknesses by attacking them a certain way and determine the enemy's health by seeing the colour of their name. Or you can just use Cyrus's skills. I thought "Study Foe" revealed an enemy's HP, but I could be wrong: it's been quite a while since I last watched a playthrough of this game.

But yes, I enjoyed this game: not so much as to want to learn about what happens to half of the main characters at the end of their stories - let alone who or what the true final boss of the game as a whole actually is - but I would rate it a 4 out of 5: if I had the time to spare and the money to purchase it, I would play all of it.

I myself spent over half-a-day writing this, but I just found out that you were reimaging MARDEK RPG for the third time and I thought I'd respond to you for the first time in... what, 10 years now? Well anyway, I wanted to wish you the best of luck with Divine Dreams.

I know that it's difficult, getting through life with a mental illness: 2015 and 2018 were my worst years. Depression fortunately isn't a concern for me anymore because of another mental disorder I developed in 2015 (this one being something I'd be fine with after 2019), but I do still have one mental disorder preventing be from being fine.

My avoidant personality disorder. My heart raced faster than ever before and I cried over an email I never received last week, worrying that I wouldn't be different from my past, inconsiderate self. Remembering how much I used to love receiving replies to my emails, I knew that there was no doubt about it: my AVPD was so bad it was hurting me.

I know that it won't be easy - especially as I believe my AVPD is so bad in part because I lost my other personality disorders - but I'm determined to not give up on using social media. I hope that one day, I'll be able to look forward to receiving replies again; and if never, I'll nevertheless make an effort to not let AVPD stop me from writing emails and comments regardless of how much it may hurt me.

So, know that you're not alone. I can't say that I'm glad that you have depression - and having had major depressive disorder, I understand how... well, depressing, depression can be. You feel as though if no-one cares about you, though people around you clearly like you. You want to commit suicide, to end to your miserable experience in this world.

No words can adequately describe the feeling of true depression: I can assure you that it's far worse than AVPD, because you're hurting even in your sleep (or at least, it did for me in 2015). But it's reassuring for me to know that there's someone else out there with a similar mental illness, who seems to be successful in quelling their mental illness.

And I'm not quite sure how to end this comment. Apparently, it's about 1,800 words long; so, I salute you for bothering to read my entire comment. And every time someone does read my entire comment, we're able to slay a princess and save a dragon.
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