Octopath Traveler review
This neo-retro JRPG is frustratingly close to something special.
What's new is old again. The trademarked 'HD-2D' art style of Acquire's likeable JRPG tips its hat to its publisher's rich genre history while acknowledging technical advancements since Square's 16-bit golden age. Combining pixel art with contemporary effects--shallow focus, bokeh, real-time lighting and shadows, slightly excessive bloom--it's an immediately distinctive look. As a fusion of past and present, it works very well...up to a point. And, well, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.
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It's a pity your party only really becomes a team on the battlefield. Outside it, the characters rarely feel connected, while potential conflicts are also conveniently ignored, even when two characters' morals should theoretically be in opposition. Octopath Traveler gives us reason to care about the eight protagonists as individuals, but in failing to bring their stories together, it falls short of the classics that inspired it.
Score: 76/100
