Everyone who plays them, knows how most RPG battle systems work. You use you attack as much as you can until you need to defend and heal when needed. Rinse and repeat for many mediocre battle systems. Really great battle systems challenge the player to think in and out battle. What moves are they making in battle and how are they building their party outside of it. Octopath Traveler has all the markings for a great RPG that challenges the player, tactically and strategically through it’s stellar battle system.
Background
Octopath Traveler is a turn based RPG first released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch by the RPG studio powerhouse Square Enix. From the minds of the production team of Tomoya Asano and Masashi Takahashi, who had their hands in such games like the Bravely Default series and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. Both games known for their old school RPG styles and interesting battle and job systems.
Boosting and Breaking
Octopath is a typical RPG game save for its Boost and Break system. Players can chose to ‘boost’ a turn, letting them make multiple moves in a single turn. Spending turns they have banked or choosing to save those extra moves for later. A mechanic that it partly borrows from the Bravely series.
The break system has to do with the enemies shield and their weaknesses that will break it down. For example an enemy with a shield number of 12 can be whittled down with swords or staves, or fire magic. When broken enemies will take more damage and be unable to make any moves. A prime opportunity for players to attack.
Flow, Timing, & Tactics
A typical battle will begin with players trying to sus out an enemies weaknesses while doing their best to stay alive and healthy. Once players know all or most of an enemies’ weakness they then need to formulate the best ways to break and enemy…
