Date played: November 14th
Platform: Switch
Square Enix is putting out a unique RPG for Switch. Codenamed "Project Octopath Traveler", it's a traditional RPG that features 8 protagonists, each with their own story and unique abilities. In the demo, there are two heroes available, a former knight and a prostitute. I chose Olberic, the warrior.
I usually don't like JRPG's that much. I mean, I like them, but I rarely play recent ones. What really attracted me to this game is it's amazing visual style. It uses 2D pixel art for it's characters with a 3D background. The way the backgrounds are textured and modeled makes it seem very natural. On top of that, there's some very impressive dynamic lighting going on, so even the characters cast detailed shadows that move and change based on the light source. I've never seen a game look like this, and I think they pull it off really well. There's also some heavy use of bokeh effects and plenty of awesome special effects during battle. I'm very impressed with how this game looks.
It also has some absolutely amazing music. This feels like Square going back to it's 32 bit era glory days... including horrible voice acting. I couldn't take it, the voice acting was so bad... I changed the voices to Japanese, so at least, it feels slightly better, since I don't understand it.
The story has been interesting so far. Olberic used to be a powerful and glorious knight for his King, but during the war, the king was slain by his right hand man. Olberic never forgave himself for letting the other man betray the king, so he went into hiding, changing his name and working as a mercenary. His village is attacked by some bandits, so he goes out to stop them.
In the village, one thing that was great is the ability to "challenge" almost anyone to a duel. Each villager has a different difficulty level and grants some experience and money if defeated. Some of them even block doors until you defeat them, adding a cool element to exploration.
I went through a dungeon to reach the thieve's hideout. There are random battles and treasure to find, just like almost every other dungeon in an RPG ever. The combat system is interesting, it reminds me a lot of Bravely Default, where you can "save up" energy to unleash more powerful attacks. It also has a pretty elaborate weakness system, where each enemy is weak to a certain type of weapon.
Attacking with the right weapon will deplete the enemy defenses, eventually "breaking" them. This stuns the enemy for one turn and grants me a damage bonus. There are also some simple but powerful abilities that can be used.
Most battles are pretty easy, but to minimize taking damage, it's important to stun enemies as often as possible while dealing heavy blows when they are vulnerable. I eventually reached the end of the dungeon where I fought a giant boss. The bandit was powerful, and required careful use of my abilities. I ended up using a bunch of healing items to win, but I think I could have done a lot better.
Olberic is back in the village now, but I had to stop playing. This demo is really long, considering there's another character to discover. I really enjoyed what I played and will keep an eye on this until it releases sometime in 2018.
Platform: Switch
Square Enix is putting out a unique RPG for Switch. Codenamed "Project Octopath Traveler", it's a traditional RPG that features 8 protagonists, each with their own story and unique abilities. In the demo, there are two heroes available, a former knight and a prostitute. I chose Olberic, the warrior.
I usually don't like JRPG's that much. I mean, I like them, but I rarely play recent ones. What really attracted me to this game is it's amazing visual style. It uses 2D pixel art for it's characters with a 3D background. The way the backgrounds are textured and modeled makes it seem very natural. On top of that, there's some very impressive dynamic lighting going on, so even the characters cast detailed shadows that move and change based on the light source. I've never seen a game look like this, and I think they pull it off really well. There's also some heavy use of bokeh effects and plenty of awesome special effects during battle. I'm very impressed with how this game looks.
It also has some absolutely amazing music. This feels like Square going back to it's 32 bit era glory days... including horrible voice acting. I couldn't take it, the voice acting was so bad... I changed the voices to Japanese, so at least, it feels slightly better, since I don't understand it.
The story has been interesting so far. Olberic used to be a powerful and glorious knight for his King, but during the war, the king was slain by his right hand man. Olberic never forgave himself for letting the other man betray the king, so he went into hiding, changing his name and working as a mercenary. His village is attacked by some bandits, so he goes out to stop them.
In the village, one thing that was great is the ability to "challenge" almost anyone to a duel. Each villager has a different difficulty level and grants some experience and money if defeated. Some of them even block doors until you defeat them, adding a cool element to exploration.
I went through a dungeon to reach the thieve's hideout. There are random battles and treasure to find, just like almost every other dungeon in an RPG ever. The combat system is interesting, it reminds me a lot of Bravely Default, where you can "save up" energy to unleash more powerful attacks. It also has a pretty elaborate weakness system, where each enemy is weak to a certain type of weapon.
Attacking with the right weapon will deplete the enemy defenses, eventually "breaking" them. This stuns the enemy for one turn and grants me a damage bonus. There are also some simple but powerful abilities that can be used.
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| This boss battle was hard, but really fun |
Olberic is back in the village now, but I had to stop playing. This demo is really long, considering there's another character to discover. I really enjoyed what I played and will keep an eye on this until it releases sometime in 2018.
