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Ambitious games from big studios using classic sprite art have been few and far between since the mid 90s. Square Enix’s work-in-progress, Octopath Traveller, is an enticing prospect for those searching for a pastiche of 90s Japanese role-playing games or for something different to the modal blockbusters of recent years. It’s set to be a massive role-playing game in which the player will step into the shoes of one of eight characters — hence ‘octo-path’. The demo features two of these characters; Oberic and Primrose, and hints at a game with a diverse yet uneven storytelling.

Both Oberic and Primrose’s storylines revolve around a common thematic core and structure, but involve wildly different characters. Primrose has been working as a dancer in a shady tavern as a means of finding the men who killed her father, which marks a radical departure from traditional Square Enix’s RPG tales of knights and monsters. During Primrose’s campaign the player can use a seduction technique to recruit allies. The success of this technique depends on a “reputation” statistic which creates an interesting risk versus reward dynamic. The idea is interesting, though having only played a portion of the game myself, the mechanic naturally has little time to evolve  Oberic is a knight, in keeping with the conventions of the games to which Octopath Traveller pays homage. The freshness to the former narrative is a welcome turn for the genre, but it only serves to highlight the clichéness of Oberic’s tale.

I feel the Octopath premise may undermine the full game — creating eight unique, satisfying narratives is no small feat. Clearly the team is trying to push outside their comfort zone with concepts and stories such as that of Primrose. They may not be as well-developed as they could be, however, if the writing and design teams focus wasn’t split by the addition of less interesting campaigns. From what we’ve seen so far, the game may have one foot planted a touch too firmly in the past; despite robust and engaging battle mechanics, the game is primarily carried by its narrative and role-playing elements. Other games have tackled the same concepts as the Oberic campaign in the past and they are seldom more fulfilling the second-time round.

Whether the full game can transcend the issues of its demo mains to be seen — there are elements that indicate that it could go either way.