TL;DR: A collection of middling stories with beautiful presentation and an engaging, almost puzzle-game-like battle system. It won't change the way you view JRPGs, but it definitely gives you your money's worth if you're a fan of the genre.

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I came to this game a little wary; I haven't really enjoyed a JRPG since Persona 5 Royal, and I was worried that my tastes had changed such that I no longer cared for what had been one of my favorite genres in my youth. P5R's story was pretty repetitive, but the dedication to its stylish aesthetic and fun, fast combat made up for that shortcoming. Octopath Traveler is similar in that way, though it is a very different JRPG. If you enjoy pixel art, this game is absolutely gorgeous, full stop. On both the adventure and battle screens the characters and enemies are rendered in what looks like an HD-reimagining of SNES sprites inhabiting a 3D world. Bosses feature especially large and expressive graphics that help give them character. While not as inspired, the soundtrack is excellent orchestral work, but doesn't really stand out with many memorable tracks.
Story is critically important in a narrative-driven game, especially in JRPGs where you don't usually have much control over your characters' choices. Unfortunately, this is Octopath's greatest weakness. The plot is split into a series of short stories, one for each of the eight characters, and each of those comprised of four chapters. In practice, this means you are encouraged to keep cycling through different members in your four-person party as you travel from story to story. While this is a fairly novel approach, the end result is that all eight stories suffer. None are really given time to breathe, and villains are often introduced and defeated in the same chapter, resulting in a plot that feels broad but shallow. On top of that, the tales tend to be trite and packed with standard tropes. Some are slightly more engaging, but each chapter adheres closely to a specific formula, and there just isn't much in the way of surprising or moving storytelling.
Happily, the job and combat systems are very enjoyable, and kept me going throughout the very long run time of this game. Your party consists of four members, and each character has a dedicated job that they can not change, rounded out by a secondary job that can be swapped between fights. At first, these secondary jobs will be limited to those of the other characters, which draw from fairly standard fantasy damage, healing, and support archetypes. Later in the game you can unlock a handful of other jobs as well, and some of these make one of the starter jobs obsolete, though that's not always the case. Your job combination dictates which weapon types you can equip, as well as which active skills you can use. Over time you'll also get access to a job's passive skills that can be combined with any others you've unlocked, regardless of job, to let your build fill a specific niche.
The trick in combat is to try to make sure your party has all weapon and elemental damage types covered, as you'll need to hit enemies' weaknesses consistently. Each foe has a number of shields that can be broken by a single hit from a damage source they are weak to. Once all shields are gone they enter Broken status, which leaves them vulnerable and removes any remaining turns they would have had in the current and next round. Additionally, each round your team members build up BP, which can be expended to make a standard attack hit multiple times (thus breaking multiple shields) or to make a special attack hit harder. What this all adds up to is fairly fast-paced combat where you're constantly weighing the benefits of expending points to take away an enemy's turns, versus using those same points to really drive an attack home against an already broken foe. When you enter new areas, do you blindly strike foes hoping to uncover a new weakness, or do you use your Scholar to uncover weaknesses while you focus down a single target? Should you use your healer's extra points to recover from the bosses last attack, or to help break their shield and prevent even more incoming damage? It's compelling without being pointlessly overcomplicated, and bosses tend to introduce unique snags to untangle.
While I saw some people online touting Octopath as a thoroughly modern JRPG, I feel like it's almost the opposite. Its structure and adherence to established tropes land it squarely in traditional territory. Adding to the retro feel is the slight jank of certain design decisions and failure to include what should be no-brainer features. For example, you pick which of the eight people you want to start as, then slowly collect the others (or not) as you make your way around the world. No problems there, but for whatever reason your first character isn't allowed to leave the active party until you finish their story around level 50. This means that you are locked in to a character whose main job cannot change, thus limiting your party composition options. As you pick up other characters and experience their stories, your main will inevitably be roughly 10 levels higher, carrying your party. Also, each character has a unique skill that can be used on the adventure screen to interact with NPCs in different ways. While this is a neat idea, in practice it means that while you're in town you have to run to the tavern to change out your party if you don't have the ability you want, just to change them back to your combat team before leaving. Also, for some reason they decided to put special chests in nearly every dungeon that can only be opened by the thief. Not A thief, but the singular character whose main job is thief. For this reason, I wish I'd picked him as my first character, since he's the only person you essentially always need if you want to get meaningful loot. Decisions like this are baffling, detract from the experience, and don't respect the player's time.
As I mentioned in passing, this is a LONG game. I did most side content I happened across, but wasn't a completionist, and at my leisurely pace it took around 100 hours to clear all eight stories. While I enjoyed my time with Octopath, I didn't love it, so I decided against completing the post-story content or working on achievements. Aiding that decision were the stories I heard of people needing to grind levels for the annoying mega-boss fight, and the fact that some of the achievements are just asinine in their implementation. You have to open every chest in the game and find every enemy's weaknesses, but there is no way to see how many chests are left in a region or bestiary to let you know which critters you're missing. Completing achievements would require a screen-by-screen walkthrough with checklists, and for a hundred-plus hour game that just seems like no fun. There are also solo run and speed run challenge achievements, the latter of which is not my thing, but worth noting if you're interested in such things.
Ultimately I'm glad I played this game, and it reaffirmed that I can still enjoy the genre. I just wish some of the design had been more player-friendly, and that the things I did enjoy had been in service to a more compelling narrative.

100% Review

Octopath Traveller is now probably one of my favorite RPGs of all times. I loved the neo retro aesthetic of this game, and as you might have noticed a bunch of other games have started to copy this style since it's release.

Achievement Hunters beware though, this is NOT an easy 100%. You need a spreadsheet and you need to follow it religiously. There are too many missable monsters/items in the game that you need to get before they vanish forever in order to get all the achievements. Tacked on to that, there is also a solo run (recruit no other characters) and a speed run (beat the game under 8 hours). I used a guide for that as well and was able to beat it in 7:30 with Tressa, but I've heard people beating it in as little as 5.

Peak