Image: Square Enix
Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, recently available for mobile, is a worthy sequel to the original Switch RPG from 2018. I was expecting a watered-down combat system and menu hell like many other mobile gacha games . Square Enix proved me wrong. Champions retains the visuals and music that made Octopath a unique title in a field of beautiful RPGs, and its streamlined combat is a massive improvement over the rawness of the original game. Octopath is even better on mobile than ever on Nintendo Switch.
In 2018, Square Enix released the original Octopath Traveler on the Nintendo Switch. Set on the same continent as Orsterra, Champions is a prequel, taking place an unspecified period of time before Octopath. Although the protagonists of Octopath appear in a few side quests, the narrative centers around a band of merry adventurers who are united by the sacred ring worn by the first “chosen”, your first player character (which is randomized through the gacha). It’s an interesting take on the first game’s narrative system, where eight characters were brought together for even more tenuous reasons. While there are side missions centered around each of the characters, the main campaign focuses on three themes: wealth, fame, and power. Each main questline revolves around overthrowing a tyrant who exemplifies one of these qualities. The party of adventurers can also accumulate points in each of these qualities, which affect NPC recruitment and resource gathering.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
Critics generally praised the art style, combat, and music of the first Octopath game, but some found the progression clunky and the story uninteresting. So I was a little nervous when I heard that Champions was a mobile game. Many gamers who are used to premium console titles often find the grind on mobile too frustrating to bear. After years of playing mobile games, I have a lot of patience, but even I remember hearing that Octopath Traveler was a bloated time sink. I was prepared for the Champions to exacerbate the original problem.
I was also concerned about how the Octopath art style would adapt to a mobile game. The character designs are whimsical and effectively tap into the nostalgia many players feel for 90s 16-bit JRPGs, but they’re not exactly fun or flashy. With the exception of the dancers, the characters wear pragmatic clothes in earthy colors. I couldn’t see myself obsessing over Octopath character fanart like I did with Caenis in Fate/Grand Order or the dragon girl Ch’en in Arknights. When I started Champions, I barely remembered what the characters in Octopath Traveler looked like.
These were the concerns I had before actually playing the game. Eight hours later, those concerns largely forgotten, I realized that Champions is my absolute favorite way to play Octopath Traveler. The auto-travel feature, where you swipe the screen to automatically run across the landscape, feels intuitive. There are buttons to stack each character’s moves at once, which makes normal battles go by much faster. If I only ran into a couple of weak enemies, I could end the battle in two taps.
Champions also introduces the concept of reserve party members at the back who can be swapped in and out at will. If someone was hit by a status effect, I simply stuck them in the back lane and used the reserve party members. Benched characters also recover both health and SP (mana). Since there are up to eight characters in each battle, it’s easier to distribute experience points to more characters.
In both games, combat primarily revolves around targeting enemy weaknesses in order to break through their shields. Doing so was tricky in the original game. Multiple enemies in the same battle often had different weaknesses (such as ranged weapons, daggers, or fire), and boss battles became excruciating when bosses changed their weaknesses. In Champions, however, with my party split into two rows, I could set up my front line to break enemy shields with multi-hit basic attacks on the first turn, then use my back line of powerful characters to hit the health of the enemy next turn. . I marveled at how Champions managed to make Octopath feel less overspray by making small tweaks. It didn’t have to be an overhaul, and the combat still works similarly to how it does on the Switch original.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku
But wait, there’s more! The impact of status effects is now greatly reduced, a smart decision that allows Champions to completely remove inventory management. I could get equippable weapons and armor, but I no longer had to juggle recovery or status items. I didn’t have to think about the difference between Herb of Clarity and Herb of Awakening, which was a truly hellish experience when I finished Octopath last year. The NPC summoning system has also been greatly simplified. Summons are no longer tied to specific characters; you can now recruit people temporarily by fighting them or paying them, regardless of who is in your party. These may be sad changes for RPG fans who enjoy managing their inventories or enduring the consequences of status conditions, but they made for a more enjoyable RPG experience for me.
Champions also stays true to the stunning visuals, soundtracks, and stories that made Octopath Traveler so memorable in the first place. I felt so calm and at ease while traversing the HD-2D landscape to the energetic Octopath Traveler soundtrack. And I didn’t have to worry about character appeal – I loved every single person I recruited through the gacha system. The return of Octopath’s character-centric quest system allowed me to engage with the characters at my own pace. While some RPG fans might feel that Octopath’s characters aren’t gray or morally complex enough, I love how humble, relatable, and genuinely likable the characters are. I’m used to recruiting noble nobles, legendary warriors, and even gods in other gacha games. And while the cast consists of up to 80 playable characters, the writing makes each of them distinct and likable in a real way. Instead of everything being incredibly loud and intense, I spent a lot of time just helping people feed their kids or figure out their research project. The characters in both games are motivated by altruism or an inherent appreciation for the wonders of the world, rather than revenge or resentment. It was relaxing to see the characters care about small misunderstandings or easily resolved human struggles. I love JRPG melodrama about secret bloodlines or whatever, but sometimes I just want to chill with people who have normal human foibles. Champions fulfills this niche perfectly.
The smoother Champions experience allowed me to return to my game whenever I felt like it, and I didn’t have to relearn a complicated system to progress. It strikes the perfect balance between accessible enough for those who have never played Octopath Traveler and faithful enough for those who want Champions to be a direct follow-up.
While mobile gacha games often get a bad rap for being a cash-saver, it’s clear that the developers of Champions put a lot of thought into designing a turn-based RPG that feels good to play. And many of the new combat and quest system redesigns are aimed at improving the single-player experience rather than the monetization aspect. New features, the way themes intersect with game systems, and relatable characters make Champions a vastly improved single-player experience compared to its predecessor.