If you haven’t looked at Octopath Traveler yet you may be missing out. The retro-style RPG recently released a demo on the Nintendo Switch and allowed players to experience the game first hand. After over 1 Million downloads and 45,500 responses to a survey players were asked to take about their experiences, Square Enix has decided to listen to player feedback and make changes.
Here is a list of some of the things that were changed to the game based on the player feedback:
Originally players had to press B to initiate your character to run, that is no longer the case. Now players can just use the analog stick and push it further to initiate running. On top of this they also increased the run speed of your character in general. To balance the game they increased the random encounter rate when you are running at full speed.
Fast travel which didn’t exists during the demo will now also be available in the game.
Darker areas, such as caves and dungeons have been adjusted so the player has more visibility. Wall and floor colors have been adjusted, and visible landmarks have been added.
Radar has been added to point players to important destinations on the mini-map.
Added the ability to adjust screen brightness to increase visibility.
The user interface is being adjusted to create a better feel for the players. This included changed font sizes, as well as including more save slots so you don’t accidentally overwrite your most recent save file.
Cutscenes that were previously unskippable can now be skipped.
Plans have been implemented to be able to replay cutscenes for those who want to catch up on story or re-immerse themselves.
Increased text display speed so player’s who want to read faster through the game’s dialogue will be able to.
Fights and random encounters are being balanced better to reduce the difficulty that the demo provided.
For a full list of things they are doing to the game as well as new information check out the trailer below:
I’m personally excited to hear about the updates, and can’t wait to get my hands on the game. Something about the retro-style pixel feel from the SNES era mixed with 3D just does a lot for me. I will definitely be picking this one up at launch.
