I was looking to down some details for the upcoming demo but didn’t see a full thread, so figured we may as well get one going, as I have a feeling this one is going to be very special. This is (for now?) exclusive to Nintendo Switch.
Let’s kick things off with what the game is. A turn-based RPG featuring 8 different characters, you choose one at the game’s start and that informs your path through the main story (hence the Octopath in the title, one presumes). Did anyone else play an old NES (SNES?) game called 7th Saga? You picked one of 7 characters, and the characters you didn’t pick were in the game world as NPC’s, with a unique story for each. This seems (fingers crossed) like a modern take on that excellent (if brutally difficult) RPG.
Each character has unique abilities, skill trees, and different stories. It sounds like a huge game - reportedly the main story is a 40+ hour affair, with 90 or more with side quests. It also sounds like each path has a different ending, so you could potentially play this game… well, 8 times I suppose?
The combat is very interesting. As mentioned it’s turn-based and features weaknesses of enemies to take advantage of as well as a boost system. I played the original demo back when the game was revealed and I liked the combat, but as I’m typing this up I can’t honestly remember much about it. Like the game itself, it’s really nice looking and while not easy by any means, it’s easy going with it’s turn-based and old-school approach.
Anyway, the new demo drops today, and it sounds like it’s actually the first 3 hours of the full game, complete with your progress transferring over to the full game, which you can pre-load now and will be out on July 13th!
What a terrible name! Where are the squids I was expecting coming in?!
Thanks for the write up. It lookd a bit like a successor to those romancing saga games as well?
Sounds like it’s going live in NA tonight (which seems odd to me but JP) and then EU will follow, presumably later tomorrow morning (whatever time that ends up being over there).
And it’s $48 at Amazon if you are a Prime member, if that helps.
I am so in on this it’s not even funny. I love the artistic style and it sure looks like the perfect throwback style JRPG updated with lots of really cool modern trappings. I won’t get to start the demo tonight but hope to complete it by the time the game ships.
Man, calling this game a “$15 pixel art game typically found in the Steam junk bin” is crazy. This seems like one of the biggest and most beautiful RPGs released in years.
In the earlier demo, the combat felt rather restrictive in that there was one way to do things, but it was also early looks at each character before they’d added much in the way of new skills and the like, so difficult to project what it will be like further in.
On top of that, I’m 20 hours into battle chasers, which is a blast, and definitely don’t have the need for another rpg right now.
Beating 7th Saga remains one of my crowning gaming achievements, for sure. That and the NES Ninja Gaiden.
As to your question, I wondered the exact same thing, but I can’t find any details on it. Possibly because it’s still a mystery, I suppose. I guess it will be more fun to find out as the story unfolds, though.
There’s nothing that indicates either way yet, but I think the developers of this game were clearly inspired by 7th Saga, a game I never played but have become supremely interested in since I got the Super Nt. At some point I will buy it to play it.
Thanks for the screens @Scotch_Lufkin! That looks great! I love the idea of basically getting the shareware now and the full game later. :D
Looking forward to this one. Everything about it strikes me as a smart take on what might have evolved from late-era SNES RPGs like FF6, Romancing SaGa 3, and Treasure of the Rudra if the genre hadn’t chased FMV bombast and offputtingly hyper-anime aesthetics.
I did play 7th Saga as a kid, but never came close to finishing it. Loved the premise, but I hit a brick wall of having to fight one of the other protagonists, who not only constantly hit my character’s weak points, but was set to always be higher level than mine.
A caveat: it’s a pretty niche crowd that loves this game. And it’s not any particular sort of niche (e.g. rpg players who love elaborate job systems). The game was unique though because you were competing with the other playable characters (well, some of them; some will join you in some circumstances), and they were racing you to find the, uh, thingies (which give you powers beyond what you got from leveling up) and could in fact find the thingies before you did. Sometimes they would give them to you and join you. Other times. . . it was fight them and winner take all.
It’s grindy in ways most JRPGs aren’t. It doesn’t have especially memorable systems (just a generic old FF/DQ “gain powers as you level up”). Each character does play pretty differently (I want to say some have equipment restrictions; there are casters, some hybrids, a pure warrior, stuff like that). And there’s some like/hate stuff between the characters if memory serves. But this is still a 16-bit RPG and this interesting ideas it has aren’t super deep. The game was a little ahead of it’s time I think.
