Octopath Traveler asks you to pick one of eight strangers and live with that choice for a long time. The 2018 role-playing game opens with a selection screen that doubles as a commitment. Whoever you choose cannot leave your active party until their four-chapter story arc is finished. It is a small rule that shapes everything after it.
Trailer, via Nintendo of America.
Square Enix’s Five Credited Studios
The game was developed by Square Enix Business Division 11, Square Enix Business Division 6, Square Enix Business Division 9, ACQUIRE Corp. and Team Asano, and published by Square Enix and Nintendo. It launched first for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018, then reached other platforms over the following years.
Eight Travelers, Eight Path Actions
The eight leads each start in a different corner of the fantasy world of Orsterra, and each carries a fixed character class, or job, that cannot be changed through play. What can change is a “subjob” — another character’s class assigned as a secondary role, swappable at any time but only ever held by one character at once.
Their Path Actions split along a moral line. The Warrior Olberic and the Hunter H’aanit can challenge people. The Apothecary Alfyn and the Scholar Cyrus can inquire after information. The Merchant Tressa and the Thief Therion can take items directly from NPCs, one through commerce and one through pickpocketing. The Cleric Ophilia and the Dancer Primrose can guide NPCs and use them as guest summons.
- Olberic and H’aanit: challenge
- Alfyn and Cyrus: inquire
- Tressa and Therion: acquire
- Ophilia and Primrose: guide
The first of each pair is a “Noble” action, its strength tied to the character’s level or in-game currency. The second is a “Rogue” action, usable on anyone but carrying a risk: lose enough credibility in a town and you can no longer act there.
A World of Thirteen Deities
Orsterra was made by thirteen deities, and one of them, the fallen god Galdera, was sealed in the afterworld by the rest after he refused to give up what they had created. The Order of the Sacred Flame, the continent’s dominant church, rose to worship the leader of the gods who remain.
That backstory feeds the eight personal plots. Ophilia Clement, a priestess, walks a pilgrimage to keep the Sacred Flame burning, opposed by a man named Mattias who wants the flame for himself. Cyrus Albright, a Royal Academy teacher, hunts a stolen tome of dark arts called From the Far Reaches of Hell. Tressa Colzione, a merchant, sets out after finding a journal of someone else’s travels.
Olberic Eisenberg, a former knight of the destroyed Kingdom of Hornburg, looks for purpose after the sellsword Werner razed his home. Primrose Azelhart, a dispossessed noblewoman, hunts the Obsidians, the criminal group that killed her father. Alfyn Greengrass, a traveling healer, took up the trade after a stranger he cannot name saved him from a terminal disease as a child.
The HD-2D Look Holds Up
Square Enix calls the game’s style “HD-2D”: Super NES-era sprites and textures set against polygonal environments and high-definition effects. It is the rare retro gambit that reads as a design decision rather than a filter. The battle system and the music drew praise, and the game sold over 3 million copies worldwide by September 2022.
The story received more mixed responses.
What the Reissues Change
Octopath Traveler has since traveled widely: Windows in June 2019, Stadia in April 2020, Xbox One in March 2021, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in June 2024, and Nintendo Switch 2 alongside its sequel in July 2026 in Japan. A prequel, Champions of the Continent, came to Android and iOS in 2020 in Japan and worldwide in 2022. A sequel, Octopath Traveler II, arrived in 2023, and Octopath Traveler 0, a console adaptation of the prequel, followed on December 4, 2025. The original and its sequel are scheduled for worldwide release in October 2026.
The Path Action split is the part worth defending. It turns a menu of interactions into a reputation economy, and it gives each traveler a way of moving through Orsterra that the others cannot copy. That is why the original still earns its place.
Published critical score: 8.5 of 10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 9 outlets).
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