Other Developers Should Take Note on Octopath Traveler’s Perfectly Timed Demo
After taking my first look at what was once called ‘Project Octopath Traveler’, I was pretty excited to play through a brand-new, original Square Enix JRPG that was reminiscent of classic Final Fantasy games of decade’s past. As a huge fan of games like Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IX, knowing that a game of that caliber was coming to my new favorite console was truly moving and made me want it immediately.
There are not many turn-based RPG’s available for the Nintendo Switch, which is honestly a bummer. The pick-up-and-play aspect that the Switch has to offer makes it super easy to start a game back up in just a few short seconds, with the sleep function making it simple to jump back into your game without much hassle. Being exclusive on the Switch, having its beautiful pixel art-style while also having modern HD elements mixed in made Octopath Traveler a must-play for me, especially after playing the entirety of the three-hour demo, that honestly left me wanting more immediately; it’s a neat idea that I think other developers should try out more often, instead of opting out of a demo like usual. If you have a good game and you’re confident that said game will review well, then why not let people try it before they buy it? It only makes sense. Octopath Traveler is on fire right now and that’s all thanks to Square Enix and Nintendo showing confidence in the old-school RPG.
In Octopath Traveler, you get to pick whichever of the eight characters that you so desire to start with, and from then, go either clockwise or counter-clockwise to meet up with the other adventurers. While playing through the demo, I decided to start with the caring alchemist, Alfyn, and then went on to meet Primrose. I was taken aback when I realized that the characters don’t really interact with each other too often and their stories don’t seem to interlap, like ever. I’ve seen that people on the internet sort of got angry about this fact, but in my opinion, each of the characters having their own vignette kinda makes the experience a tad different from other RPG’s. Once you meet up with a different character, you just end up joining their party to then help them in their story beat and defeat their boss. It’s almost as if each character is on their own, but is getting the help from random strangers. You get to see the fully fleshed out story for each individual and it’s really refreshing, to be honest. In most JRPG’s, you are used to forming a party of characters who chat and interact with each other, but in Octopath Traveler, it’s an anthology series that is loosely connected, sort of like some recent television series.
Finishing the three-hour demo with only four of the eight characters certainly made me want to travel the world and find the other four almost immediately, and if it wasn’t for Square Enix allowing me to play the opening hours of their game, then I probably would have waited a while to purchase Octopath Traveler, or I might not have played the RPG altogether. Other developers should certainly look into releasing timed demo’s of their games more often. If they were to draw people into their game for just a few short hours, envision how many more sales that game would make, if it did a good job at grabbing players attention that is. Octopath Traveler is probably the best JRPG on the Nintendo Switch at the moment and I’m so thrilled to jump back into the full game and learn more about these eight unique travelers.