"New games in the old style" is the deceptively pat label Square Enix has adopted for smaller JRPG projects like Octopath Traveler, and one that invites an obvious question: which parts are old, and which parts are new? Far from a reprise of conventions from Final Fantasy 6 and before, Octopath is a curious medley of tradition and risk-taking. It engages with topics a JRPG of the mid-90s might shy away from: one of the playable characters is a sex worker, whose quest to avenge her father's death sees her grappling with the cruelty and chauvinism of an outwardly blissful medieval world. But this is, nonetheless, a world constructed according to a cosy old playbook, in which every town you visit has the same facilities and a lone citizen loitering for all eternity near the entrance, offering a crisp intro to all who visit. It's a game that puts a familiar emphasis on timing, built around a turn-based battle system in which the ability to strike first often trumps how hard you hit. But like its spiritual predecessors, the Bravely Default series, Octopath also lets you bend time a little, banking action points in order to perform several attacks in a single turn.
The vibe is almost analogous to steampunk, in that the game feels at once archaic and futuristic. This temporal uncertainty is palpable at the level of the visuals, as authentically smudgy retro sprites scurry across dollhouse Unreal environments slathered in particle effects and depth of field. The fixed, angled camera perspective evokes the experience of wandering the mode seven overworld of Final Fantasy 4, with all those flat landmark textures traded for 3D geometry. The use of vignetting, meanwhile, creates an atmosphere not just of reverence, but of mystery: it's as though you're peering through darkening glass into scenes from the genre's history that never quite were.
Octopath's faded, tapering concept art recalls the Ivalice universe of Final Fantasy 12, and there is something of that game too in its ensemble storyline, with eight, more-or-less standalone tales unfolding in parallel across around 60 hours of play. You'll pick one character as your main protagonist - they'll always appear in your party, and the choice determines the ending quest you'll get - and scoop up the others one by one. Each character's tale is broken up into chapters set in different towns, their recommended levels marked on the world map. You can attempt them in any order, resuming each character's quest by asking town bartenders for news of their exploits, but the level curve imposes a discreet running order. Level requirements are staggered across the game's storylines, so that you'll generally want to change to another character's perspective after finishing a chapter - or else, spend a lot of time grinding between chapters in order to continue with the previous character.
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