It's amazing to me how Square continues to make high quality games with modern sensibilities that get snubbed simply for being such, yet when they commission low-effort, barely-playable-and-never-enjoyable faux-retro games that bring nothing new or interesting to the table year after year, they consistently get rewarded with praise and high sales. Octopath Traveler is another example of that, mashing low-resolution 2D sprites into a 3D engine with pixelated textures and a gross blurring filter on everything that isn't dead-center in the foreground to create an overly busy mishmash of elements that is neither appealing for fans of retro RPGs nor pleasing to look at in the slightest. You can't even admire the (admittedly decent) spritework because the colors are consistently washed out or undersaturated by the harsh lighting and every combat sprite and action is accompanied by dozens of incredibly distracting visual effects. Even navigating around towns is a pain since everything more than a few yards away from center screen becomes a blurry, darkened soup; this might just be the world's first video game simulation of glaucoma. Gameplay is no better than the hideous graphics, just being a drawn-out and terribly paced experience where dialog scenes drone on for ages, every fight is a damage sponge filled slog that takes far too long to finish and constant random encounters only further add to the agony. Fill the rest with shallow characters, cliched storylines, atrocious voice acting, dragging grind-heavy gameplay and dialog quality well below the level of the games its allegedly paying homage to, and you have a truly wretched experience. Save your time and money for a few of the real standout JRPGs of the 16-bit era instead, like Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest 5, Final Fantasy 5/6, Super Mario RPG, Phantasy Star IV, Breath of Fire, Soulblazer, Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia or Earthbound. Or if you want modern games that celebrate everything great about their predecessors while doing much to set themselves apart too, play Horizon's Gate, Undertale, Dragon Quest XI S, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Hades, One Step From Eden, Ikenfell, Divinity: Original Sin II, Prey 2017 or Trials of Mana 2020. Either way though, leave this one to be forgotten right alongside the other yearly dozens of lazy imitation retro games made by committee-run content mills like Acquire who say they love retro gaming, but really just love the easy sales they get by saying they do. Fuck this opportunistic exploitation of the classics and their fans, and fuck the sequels they're already planning too.
Developer: Square Enix/Acquire
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: 2018
Platforms: Switch, PC, Stadia