Octopath Traveler - Each route had its own charm. Primrose was quite cool.

Octopath Traveler is a turn-based RPG developed by Square Enix in collaboration with Acquire. Released back in 2018, it is one of those increasingly rare entries in the JRPG world that does not rely on a massive budget yet still manages to gather attention, proving that there is a market for it.

The story of Octopath Traveler revolves around eight different adventurers in the land of Orsterra, a realm created by thirteen deities. Each of these adventurers has their own journey and story that compels them to travel the world for various reasons.

You can choose to start with any of them, but eventually, you will recruit all of them for your party anyway (there are level gaps that essentially force you to complete the stories of the other adventurers to progress without excessive farming). Each story is completely separate and independent; while the stories have small connections here and there, they can be enjoyed entirely on their own.

Once all eight stories are complete, there is a post-game element where we discover that a single entity has been behind most of the events, serving as the final boss of the game. Unfortunately, due to the way this was handled, it feels more like an optional challenge than a true part of the main game.

The eight characters are:

• Ophilia Clement: A priestess of the Sacred Flame. She is entrusted to perform a religious pilgrimage in place of her adoptive sister. Her specific class is Cleric, which uses healing and buffs.

• Cyrus Albright: A teacher at the Royal Academy. He is accused of being involved in stealing something and is exiled from the academy. He continues to investigate the case revolving around a mysterious book that disappeared. His specific class is Scholar, which is a magical attack class.

• Tressa Colzione: The daughter of a merchant. She is inspired to explore the world after reading a journal written by an unknown adventurer detailing their journey. Her specific class is Merchant, which has various perks like being able to use money to activate effects.

• Olberic Eisenberg: A former knight of the Kingdom of Hornburg. The country was ruined by the betrayal of a fellow knight, and he is still in search of the truth about what happened that day. His specific class is Warrior, which excels at physical attacks and techniques.

• Primrose Azelhart: A former noblewoman. She witnessed the murder of her parents when she was a child and is currently searching for the culprits, whom she identified by a snake tattoo. Her specific class is Dancer, which she can use to power up other characters or herself.

• Alfyn Greengrass: A traveling healer who took the job after being saved by an unknown healer when he was a child. His specific class is Apothecary, which allows him to combine reagents to create various substances used for attacking, healing, or buffing allies.

• Therion: An expert thief tasked by a noble family to retrieve a set of Dragonstones in order to obtain his freedom. His specific class is Thief, allowing him to steal items from enemies and NPCs alike.

• H'aanit: A huntress who is trying to find her mentor after he disappeared during the hunt for a terrible creature called Redeye. Her specific class is Hunter, which allows her to use beasts she captured in combat, giving her great flexibility in attack types.

I would rank the stories in this way Cyrus>Primrose>Tressa>H'aanit>Olberic>Therion>Ophilia>Alfyn. Cyrus was extremely interesting because of all the lore drops around the world mythology. Primrose didn't have that, but was carried by her personality and the whole revenge plot.

The battle system is very similar to that of Bravely Default, featuring the ability to use multiple actions in a single turn. This can incur a debt for future turns or allow you to defend and gather action points to use all at once in subsequent turns. You can perform up to a maximum of four actions at a time. Spells are not executed multiple times; instead, they gain power if used with multiple action points. At maximum power, you can even use Ultimates for each character.

The Job System allows each character to have a "Sub-Job," which lets you mix and match classes that are not specific to a particular character (for example, I loved having Ophilia as a Cleric/Scholar and Cyrus as a Scholar/Cleric). However, you can only have one character assigned to a specific Sub-Job at any one time.

In battle, enemies have weaknesses against certain attributes. If you hit them a certain number of times with the weakness element, they get "Broken." This allows you to deal more damage and prevents them from acting, which is useful when they are charging a super move.

Octopath Traveler is pretty much a staple of the JRPG world at this point and an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a lengthy RPG (it took me 48 hours to complete). I am currently playing the second game as well and may come back with another post later on.