Square Enix's latest gacha game is Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, styled after the Nintendo Switch game, but now offering all of the free-to-play mechanics most gamers hate. That's right; Square thought it wise to cash in on the popularity of Ocotpath Traveler with a monetarily abusive gacha game on mobile, offering a familiar amalgamation of its popular HD-2D art style, but it's severely lacking in polish, almost as if the bare minimum is a perfectly sound business strategy when developing and launching free-to-play mobile games, clueing everyone into precisely what Square Enix thinks of its fans.

Seeing that Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent has finally left pre-registration, having just launched globally, I figured I'd update my hands-on with the game's beta to report my findings now that the game is officially available for everyone. Seeing that very little changes since the beta, I'm still unimpressed with Square's latest cash grab. Let's dig into why that is.

The gameplay video above (recorded at 1080p/30fps) offers a detailed look at the first hour of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent's closed beta, which lines up with the full release, poor performance and all. Basically, I play through the first chapter, and since this is a gacha game, the first hour exists as an overly-long tutorial, and boy, oh boy, does Square throw a ton of text boxes your way to explain the game's mechanics. It's annoying and unnecessary, and shows a lack of design skill where mechanics should be revealed through play, not endless text boxes. It's lazy and I hate it.

Much like the OG Octopath on consoles, the turn-based battles in Champions of the Continent utilize a break system, where enemies contain weaknesses to specific weapons and magic. Taking advantage of these weaknesses by breaking the enemy will see them stunned, opening an opportunity to unleash your powerful attacks. Seeing that you can save up how many attacks you have on hand (again, similar to the original Octopath), balancing breaks with the number of moves you can save is still the key to success.

As you can see in the video, the HD-2D graphics the original Octopath is known for are only mimicked in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, as characters are simply 2D sprites. Backgrounds remain 3D with pixel art on top, but characters don't look nearly as good as they do in the mainline game since they don't quite mesh as well with the 3D world. Thankfully much of the original music makes a return, and it's a killer soundtrack, a high point for sure.

The game's performance is where things first turn sour. The close beta I tested months ago performed poorly, locked to 30FPS, and the full release is the same, no matter what graphics options you choose. For a game offering simple (but admittedly pleasing) graphics, this is another area where Square's laziness shines through.

Now comes the bad news. Like all gacha games, Champions of the Continent contains many of the awful systems the genre is known for. Sure, Square dressed the game up with lengthy story sections, but the first grind wall is revealed relatively early. Sure, you can dip into the in-game shop, the most accessible avenue to unlocking new characters, which means the game is pay-to-win, by definition.

So yes, what you see in my beta gameplay video above is fully representative of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent now that it's launched in the West. Square did very little to improve things since the beta, and that's incredibly disappointing but sure lines up with the dev's track record. Still, there may be a few story beats worth experiencing, which is why we offer a handy guide for those looking to work their way around the game's abusive systems, though the grindy gameplay is anything but appealing, especially once you hit the first grind wall, as you can't escape these roadblocks with skill. Ultimately, this is a problem with many free-to-play games, so it's hardly surprising, though it sure sucks to see a competent franchise dragged through the mud so that Square can make a quick buck.

UPDATE: 2022/07/27 11:21 EST BY MATTHEW SHOLTZ

Updated with fresh content

• Edited to reflect the features and content of the stable release