WhenOctopath Travelerwas unveiled in 2017, it looked like nothing else on the market. Its landmark graphical style placed gorgeous pixel art characters in a landscape with three-dimensional depth. It was like a pop-up book, but with a tilt-shift perspective that gave scenes a vignette-y gradation from light to darkness. It was unique, and those visuals — alongside a best-in-class turn-based battle system — helped the game succeed and spawn a series.
Eight years later, the third Octopath Traveler game was revealed at this week’sNintendo Direct. TitledOctopath Traveler 0, this prequel explores new territory for the series — at least, new for console players; it’s a reimagining of the series' mobile title Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent — while maintaining the original’s gorgeous aesthetic. Sounds good, right? Well, it would if the trailer Nintendo played immediately before wasn’t forThe Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, a game with the exact same graphical style that is from the same studio.
“Seinfeld Isn’t Funny” Comes For Octopath Traveler
When a work is truly iconic, it sometimes becomes so influential that the things that made it special in the first place are rendered invisible. There’s a name for this phenomenon —“Seinfeld Is Unfunny”— a reference to the common occurrence of modern audiences returning to the seminal ’90s sitcom and being unimpressed. It can be difficult to see what made the series special when so much of the comedy that has followed has been iterating on the observational humor and interlocking plots that Seinfeld pioneered.
Even if it’s understandable, those people are wrong; Seinfeld still hits.
This happens to great works in every medium. If you went back and watched the 1934 romantic comedy It Happened One Night, you might think that it’s too trope-y, too familiar. But that’s because all the romantic comedies you’ve seen that made you familiar with those tropes were downstream from It Happened One Night. It isn’t trope-y; it created the tropes.
The same thing is now happening to Octopath Traveler. After the success of the first game, Square Enix’s 2D RPGs quickly followed in its footsteps.Triangle Strategy, theLive A Liveremake,Unicorn Overlord,Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, and the forthcomingDragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remakehave all taken this style and run with it.
Unicorn Overlord is the least similar to Octopath’s aesthetic, but similarly places 2D characters on a 3D plane.
When Everything Looks Cool, Nothing Does
Square Enix has long worked to keep turn-based RPGs viable in a landscape that’s shifted against them. It lost the battle with its big-budget console games, which is why a mainlineFinal Fantasygame hasn’t featured traditional turn-based combat in 19 years — if you count 2006’s Final Fantasy XII, 24 if not. Those games have taken some slow steps back in that direction — I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s action/turn-based mash-up — but they’re still action games at heart. This year’sClair Obscur: Expedition 33and 2024’sMetaphor: ReFantaziohave demonstrated that there’s still an appetite for traditional turn-based combat, especially if it’s spiced up with a little bit of timing-based action.
But for the last 20 years, Square Enix has largely restricted turn-based combat to the realm of handheld games. There’s been the odd console Dragon Quest, but the last new one came out in 2017 (in Japan, 2018 for the rest of the world). Even then, there have only been four Dragon Quest games released since 2004, so it isn’t exactly defining Square Enix’s approach to RPGs.
No, if you wanted turn-based, for the last 20 years, you’ve needed to own a handheld, but that changed with the Switch, since it was both a handheld and home console. Suddenly Square Enix’s turn-based RPGs were available to a wider audience, and Octopath Traveler was good enough that they actually reached that audience. Since then, Square has built on what worked, doubling down on the distinct look that helped Octopath pop.
But the unfortunate result is that, now, Octopath has lost its edge. When it shows up in a Nintendo Direct, it’s just one of multiple games employing this aesthetic. I don’t think Octopath should have to change; after all, this was its look to begin with. But I do think it’s time for Square Enix to find a new direction for the rest of its growing stable of RPGs. A new (octo)path, if you will.
