Octopath Traveler

Octopath Traveler is a JRPG dream come true.

Octopath Traveler finds comfort in tradition but doesn't shy away from breaking the mold.

Another fine turn-based battle system and some charming dialogue and visuals make up for an occasionally dry ensemble campaign.

Never quite the sum of its parts, Octopath Traveler is a game with brilliant moments rather than a brilliant game.

Octopath Traveler is the magical RPG the Nintendo Switch needed

Combat is the highlight of the adventure. The stories unfolding between encounters are uneven, and the grinding required to progress is a frustrating roadblock

It’s definitely a different and interesting take on the genre, but ultimately I fear this will be a path less travelled by those after a stone cold JRPG classic.

A beautiful, challenging and often utterly brilliant throwback to the golden age of Japanese RPGs that somehow scuppers its chances of being a true classic through an ambitious but ultimately flawed narrative structure.

Octopath Traveler is a small triumph in that it mostly delivers on its promise to give us eight stories worth seeing through. None of them push the envelope in any way, and several drag, but that's not a huge issue when you have so many to choose from. Even if you skip one or several tales altogether you're still going to get a handful of RPG goodness.

Octopath Traveler is a beautiful game with one of the best soundtracks I've heard. The combat system rocks and will hopefully be used in more Square Enix games to come. There are plenty of good ideas in here. But the game is too grindy, too repetitive, too full of structural problems to be viewed as much more than another botched JRPG experiment.