Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, newly available on mobile, is a worthy sequel to the original Switch role-playing game from 2018. I expected a watered-down combat system and menu hell like many other gacha games on mobile. Square Enix proved me wrong. champions preserves the images and music created Octopath a unique title in a field of beautiful RPGs, and its streamlined combat is a huge improvement over the grindiness 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. Located in the same continent of Orsterra, champions is a prequel, which takes place an indefinite time before Octopath. While the main characters of Octopath Appearing in some sidequests, the story is centered around a group of merry adventurers who are united by the sacred ring worn by the first “chosen”, your first player character (which is randomly arranged through the gacha). It’s an interesting take on the story system of the first game, where eight characters happened to come together for even more obscure reasons. While there are sidequests around each of the characters, the main campaign focuses on three themes: wealth, fame and power. Each main quest revolves around overthrowing a tyrant who exemplifies one of those qualities. The adventurer group can also collect points in each of those qualities, which affect the recruitment of NPCs and the collection of resources.
Critics generally praised the first Octopath the game’s art style, combat, and music, but some found the progression sloppy and the story uninteresting. So I was a little nervous when I found out champions was a mobile game. Many players accustomed to premium console titles often find the mobile grind too frustrating to bear. After years of playing games on mobile I have a lot of patience but even I remember feeling that Octopath Traveler was an inflated pastime. I was prepared for champions to exacerbate the original problem.
I was also concerned about how well 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 the 16-bit JRPGs of the ’90s, but they’re not exactly hot or flashy. With the exception of dancers, the characters wear pragmatic clothes in earthy colours. I didn’t see myself getting obsessed with fan art from Octopath characters like I did with Caenis in Fate/Great Order or the dragon girl Ch’en in Arknights. By the time I started championsI barely remembered what the Octopath Traveler characters looked like.
These were the concerns I had before I actually played the game. Eight hours later, those worries 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 through the landscape, feels intuitive. There are buttons to stack each character’s moves at once, making regular battles a lot faster. If I only encountered a few weak enemies, I could end the fight with two taps.
champions also introduces the concept of reserve party members in the back that can be exchanged and exchanged at will. If someone was hit by a status effect, I would just put them in the back row and use 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 spread experience points to more characters.
In both games, the battle is mostly about attacking enemy weaknesses to break their shields. This was tricky in the original game. Multiple enemies in the same battle often had different weaknesses (such as Polearms, Daggers, or Fire), and boss fights became excruciating when bosses changed their weaknesses. In champions, however, with my group split into two rows, I could set up my frontline to break enemy shields with basic multi-hit attacks on the first turn, then use my backline of powerful characters to boost the enemy’s health on the next turn to destroy. I was amazed at how champions managed to make Octopath feel less grindy by making very small adjustments. It didn’t have to be an overhaul, and the combat still works the same way as in the original Switch.
But wait, there’s more! The impact of status effects is now greatly reduced, a smart decision that allows Champions to do away with inventory management entirely. I could get equippable weapons and armor, but I no longer had to juggle items for recovery or status issues. I didn’t have to think about the difference between Herb of Clarity and Herb of Awakening, which was a really hellish experience when I finished Octopath last year. Also, the NPC subpoena system has been significantly simplified. Summons are no longer tied to specific characters – you can now temporarily recruit people by fighting or paying them, regardless of who is in your party. These may be sad changes for RPG fans who like to manage their supplies or endure the effects of status conditions, but they gave me a more enjoyable RPG experience.
champions is also true to the stunning visuals, soundtracks and stories that created Octopath Traveler so memorable in the first place. I felt so peaceful and at ease as I walked through the HD-2D landscape to the sound of Octopath Traveler‘s energetic soundtrack. And I didn’t have to worry about my character’s appeal – I loved every person I recruited through the gacha system. The return of OctopathThe character-focused search system allowed me to get attached to the characters at my own pace. Though some RPG fans may feel that Octopath characters are not morally gray or complex enough, I love how humble, relatable and genuinely likeable the characters are. I am used to recruiting high born 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 distinctive and likeable in a down-to-earth way. Instead of everything being incredibly high stakes and intense, I spent a lot of time helping people feed their children or develop their research project. Characters in both games are motivated by altruism or an inherent appreciation for worldly wonders rather than revenge or resentment. It was relaxing to watch characters mulling over minor misunderstandings or easily resolved human struggles. I like JRPG melodrama about secret bloodlines or whatever, but sometimes I just want to chill with people who have normal human frailties. champions fills that niche perfectly.
The more streamlined 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 being approachable 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 have a bad reputation as a money grab, it’s clear that the developers of champions have 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 enhancing the single-player experience rather than monetization. The new features, the way the themes intersect with gameplay systems and create the recognizable characters champions a vastly improved single player experience compared to its predecessor.
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