 Hmm We have to talk Octopath Traveler It might be the best switch game it might be the best game on the entire platform a platform I own almost 50 titles for point 50 different games on switch and this one Yes, this one might be the best of course in the middle of me editing this video Beat them ups that guy had to upload a video about how Octopath Traveler is the best switch game. I'm not copying him. I promise but damn you Damn you man All right Let's get back to my conversation of why I think that this game is the best in the series so Octopath Traveler it is a game about eight characters eight stories eight Paths as the name suggests Octopath eight paths and these characters all have their own standalone storylines in fact That's actually one of the criticisms a lot of people have for Octopath Traveler is that these are standalone Storylines there's not an overarching story that really connects all the characters at the end you you go around the map You pick them all up and then you just go on to chapter 2 and you just keep going from there until each storyline for each character is complete but see Herein lies the beauty of this approach It's never been done before that is what I really love about a lot to patch up with the the Criticism against Octopath Traveler. It's actually to me one of its greatest strengths It is not about an overarching storyline It is about these eight individual characters and their eight Individual journeys whether it's with Ophelia or Cyrus or Tressa or Albarac or Primrose like there's so many Characters in this game to care about passionately that it's hard for me to even express things in a coherent matter I don't want to spoil this game for you because it is a game truly to be experienced It is one of the few games I will say the storylines alone are enough to justify a purchase and That's what's crazy to me is because typically a story is not enough to justify a purchase for me I care about the gameplay mechanics. I care about the music. I care about the art direction and the thing is is this game actually delivers and every aspect I care about gaming in Spades now I need to note that obviously Octopath Traveler is not gonna be for everyone Do you not like turn our turn based RPGs? You're probably not gonna like the combat system Do you not like 2d? Animations and and that kind of presentation style, you know, you've seen videos of it by now Okay, then this game is probably not gonna be for you and I understand that some people think the writing is terrible and That the story, you know without the storylines interconnecting none of it really matters and also I get it. That's fine But I don't care what you think because this is my video man my video about this game encompasses the whole of what Octopath Traveler means to me I grew up playing traditional turn-based RPGs like Final Fantasy and Chronal Trigger and I started to fall off as I got older because I sink literally Hundreds hundreds of hours in to turn-based RPGs in fact even just RPGs in general from the Witcher 3 to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Some people consider Breath of the Wild an RPG. I sink lots of time into these games And so I just don't play very many of them because I don't have that kind of time But it's rare that a game comes along that makes me create the time to play it. No folks I am not hundreds of hours in the Octopath Traveler. I wish I was I don't have that kind of time But I wish I was but it is basically unless I am live streaming a different game The only game being played on my switch since its release has been Octopath Traveler I can't get enough of the story the characters the music So my my first experience on to my traveler came in the demo There was the demo last year then there was the prologue demo this year I didn't carry any of my prologue data over I started fresh with a character I'd never played in Ophelia, but before I got to that I picked up this bad boy from Best Buy and big shout outs to be righteous who Somehow was able to get me a collector's edition copy of this game on day one as a late birthday present I don't know how he pulled that off It's impossible to to get this version anywhere that it's almost impossible just to get the physical copy But reality is that the very first experience I had with the full game was the sound selection CD So the collector's edition comes to the sound selection CD I immediately put it in my CD player in my car as I was driving my kids back from You know a town that's about 20 minutes away and oh my gosh this music that it just gripped me and it would not let go Just listen for yourself. I mean this music man from the battle music to the individual character music to the towns So the traveling music to even music when you're in the shops all of it It's just it's like the best of what I grew up with combined with today's technology in today's instruments It's amazing to me that they packed this kind of soundtrack into such a unique package of a game And yes, I admittedly love the art style I know the art styles I love it or take a thing But it does it for me and what it does it for me by bringing back the classic JRPG turn-based styles of the past with like Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono trigger and then adds these extra visual elements on top from the snow drop in the background to the light shafts to The the smoke effect or even when you're in the town You're in Tressa's village and look at the water. The water is super realistic Yet somehow that realistic looking water does not feel out of place in Octopath Traveler because Octopath Traveler is a game that just sucks you in and despite being this bright based thing Makes you feel like you're part of this world like this world is real this world exists this is a world you could travel to and enjoy adventures in and That's why the blending of these different realistic effects with this 2d art style works So well because it draws you into that world and it's so rare to me that a game Actually draws me in a lot of times. I feel like I'm on the ride I mean I'm experiencing the journey of another character But in this game because of the different past and the choices I make it makes me feel like I am these eight Individual characters experiencing these eight different stories now speaking of the story themselves each Character in the game all eight of them have their own story arc and their own story arcs are different and unique From all the different ones and a lot of them are based around their background Ulburek as an example used to be a knight He was a knight that defended the king and there was another knight that did some bad things and Defeated Ulburek and Ulburek kind of went into retirement and just was protecting a little village until one day He gets out and protecting the village and defeats these bandits and it turns out these bandits are kind of sort of working for that Other night and it kind of inspires Ulburek to be like alright I I can't let that one moment in history Define me as a knight I need to get back out in the world and I need to make things right and I know that sounds like such a cliche story of times, but that's just one of eight journeys from Hanat and and trying to Get her master like her master is in danger and her master was her mentor growing up And she needs to go out in the world and save him from an adventure that he might be in danger in and then you have Ophelia Oh Ophelia. Oh Ophelia. Yes The story feels like it's straight out of frozen for a little bit and complete with snow and everything but the she's adopted and and by by this Priestess is bishop like person who has a daughter and you become like a sisters and you're trying to save your sister from herself as your as like your adopted father is going through a sickness and All you want to do is do everything you can to show your appreciation for them Picking you off the street and providing for you for 15 years of your life It's just it's this amazingly gripping story that really draws you in and each character has these great background stories that lead into the whole story now as I said The game isn't perfect There are certain caves you go in that feel like you've been in that cave two or three times before But because of the story elements in the game I ended up not carrying so much because within those caves Not only were unique enemies and unique boss fights But also unique NPCs and I found myself at least so far in the game Running through and talking to these NPCs like crazy I don't know what it is about this game's story But I can't pass an NPC without seeing what they have to say and even if it's that irrelevant NPC That's a soldier off in the corner doesn't move the entire game There are characters that have these path actions that you can find out these extra details about the background of that character That's really flesh out the world and make these characters not just feel like your everyday passable NPCs But rather real living breathing people that have a life and a story to tell and while you can't go down the path To figure out their story, you know a story is there just like people you meet in the real world You hear a little bit about them. Maybe you've eavesdropped Maybe you met them out at a club or something But reality is you don't really know them but you know a little bit about that journey and I guess social media is a good way to look at it too You might follow someone on Twitter and learn little bits about their life And it might make you want to learn more, but you're not living their life That's not your life. That's not your journey But it makes them feel like they are living breathing characters like they really exist and adds to this whole aspect of Feeling like I am part of this world this Octopath Traveler world and what's interesting to me is How they're gonna take this and move it on to an Octopath Traveler too I want this game to sell so well There's a second Octopath Traveler and and what are they gonna do that? There's gonna be eight new characters eight new journeys Or is it going to explore a more connected storyline with the current characters in there and taking them on new adventures? I'm so connected to these characters. I don't want them to vanish in a sequel But if they do I'll probably fall in love again with a whole set of another eight characters Or maybe they're gonna go from Octopath Traveler to Quinn Tufflet Traveler. Alright, I don't know what I'm even talking about at this point And then there's the battle system I'm not gonna tell you that this turn-based battle system is the most unique battle system in the world Turn-based combat's been around for a long time and we've seen a thousand takes on turn-based combat But what I love absolutely love about this turn-based combat is just how perfectly it melds itself with the characters from the characters abilities To the characters weapons to even the break system We've seen a system like this before but I love how each enemy has its own weakness and that weakness can sometimes correlate To specific characters that are dealing with certain story arcs And then you weaken that till you break their defenses and then you just take them out with massive giant attacks It is such a unique feeling to me compared to other turn-based combat where I just don't care This is the first game I have played in my entire life where I don't mind grinding You guys know what grinding is that thing where it feels like you're wasting hours and hours of your life Just to level characters up and level abilities up And you wish you could just move on to the actual important story thing or the next important boss fight But you feel like you need to spend all this time grinding. I mean Zelda 2 had that issue A lot of action adventure games actually have issues Unibike Chronicles 2 is that way up as a lot of JRPGs in general are that way We got a grind and generally I don't enjoy the grind It's one reason why I don't like you might sink hundreds of hours into an RPG But how many of those hours were you actually having fun and how many of it was he feeling like you needed to work at it Like a job to get to a certain level see an autopath traveler I enjoyed the combat so much that it never really felt like I was grinding. I mean I subconsciously knew yeah I'm running around this area to attack enemies and grind But I enjoyed the combat so much that it just didn't matter and there's always unique abilities You know you have one character that can like steal money from other characters in the middle of battle like oh You know you have another character that unveils abilities Obviously you have healers and then different types of healing You have Tressa who can like self heal and return like get her own SP back And then there's the the whole man that the attack system so cool where every turn you do an attack It gives you like a point like an attack point And when you get get up to four of those attack points stacked you increase the the power of your spells your attacks It pretty much anything your character can do to Make more damage be done more healing be done more curing being possible. It's just an amazing System to me that works very well with the break system that is being used on the enemies They have a break point you also have an attack point and it works in tandem to create something beautiful And the enemy designs are just very interesting and very different a pirate very much looks like a pirate a bandit Looks like a bandit and you might think bandits and pirates to two pieces of the same public the same But they don't because there's unique personalities involved. There's unique story lines involved unique boss fights involved Haven't even gotten to the story of hate it. Oh Hate it the hunter. Oh my god the huntress. I should say sorry Don't want to take it away is a female character And that's another cool thing as you're building out your party and you're swapping characters in and out to do Different stories every time you're swapping it even just one character out for another it changes up your entire Battle strategy because each character's got these unique items these unique abilities that just change everything You could actually run a party if or a half of this game of just Female characters one is the last time you could say that about any RPG Any RPG and it's not just female characters to be female characters They're female characters that have stories that are related to those characters and you can do the same thing with male characters It's oh man You can't tell I love Octopath Traveler and now this is where we get into the controversial statement This is the best game on switch My favorite game of all time is breath of the wild I make no bones about it breath of the wild has been my top dog forever And I debated on saying that this is the best game You know switch exclusive wise because I've always argued mario plus rabbits kingdom battle My favorite game on switch in terms of switch exclusives Even more than mario odyssey even more than swatoon 2 even more than mario tennis ace is not that that's a high hurdle to climb but the thing is is I think I actually like octopath traveler more than breath of the wild For now i'm going to leave it as Octopath traveler is my favorite switch exclusive game to date I'm not going to talk about if it tops breath of the wild for me until I put more time into it because it took a Long time for me to decide that breath of the wild is my top of the mountain So I need to put that hundred hours in that I plan to put into this game Over the course of the rest of this year and come to a conclusion at the end of the year About whether or not octopath traveler. They're truly tops Breath of the wild for me But here's one thing I can say Not only is it my favorite switch exclusive game right now It's might be my favorite jrpg of all time and I'm not just talking turn based jrpg I'm talking all jrpg's I've ever played keep in mind No one's played every single jrpg including me But of the ones I have played both growing up and in the now even zeno bay chronicles 2 This is a better game to me than those games. Well polished great great story great art direction great music great battle system I mean the game is practically perfect for my taste Is it a perfect game? No, no game is perfect And I could probably come up with ways that I might do things a little bit better But that's all I can come up with was a little bit better And that's what makes me think that I might actually enjoy this game more than I enjoy breath of the wild because in breath of the wild I could think of big Sweeping things that I would do better in that game or do different a second time around But I'm not too bad traveler if I'm myself going I Really love this game the way it is. I don't like you want an overarching story that connects all the characters great. I don't So at the end of the day, I just want to hear your guys's thoughts on octopath traveler Have you picked it up? Are you waiting to pick it up our turn based combat games now for you? I turned off by the arch style. I've heard several arguments about how I'm waiting for a price drop $60 is too much for this arch style. I'm just like no Oh my gosh play the game this if any game in my life was ever worth full price It is this game Oh my gosh. Oh and did I mention if you could somehow get the wayfarer collectors edition It's got this really cute pop-ups of all eight characters in their hometowns Isn't that awesome. I mean seriously. Oh my gosh. This is Oh man primrose. Oh man Just all right folks. I hope you really enjoyed my look here at octopath traveler my thoughts my opinions I'm not going to call this a official review. I don't I don't even how you review a game that you love so much I just want to start a conversation about how much I love this game Get your guys's thoughts on it and See where we all stand in the world of octopath traveler. You guys let me know Now if you excuse me, I need to actually get back to play and sing in fact Do I know how much I mean look at this I don't know if octopath traveler's physical cart has left my switch Since I bought the game. I better get back to traveling