Octopath Traveler on temporary hold

Alas, all good things must come to an end. I had a good time with my brother’s Switch for a solid month and now I’ve returned it. Since I was so close to finishing Octopath Traveler, I’m negotiating for a little extra time to clear it properly, possibly later in November. But apart from that, my Switch adventures are over for the foreseeable future.

I had a blast playing Picross S4 and S3. I got to try one or two new games. And Octopath Traveler was much more enjoyable than I’d expected. It’s been a while since I played an ordinary JRPG like that, and it felt really comfortable. In my head I’d like to play more action RPGs and other challenging games because they give me a rush of adrenaline, but in practice turn-based play is the most accessible and most relaxing for me.

I also loved the versatility of the Switch. Very often I just want to flop into bed and play something without fiddling with cables and controllers and staring at a huge screen. On the other hand, sometimes I want grand spectacles and nice graphics like Ys VIII offered. Getting both experiences from one console is a great detal, which is why I’ve never considered getting the Switch Lite.

The poor battery life on the original Switch and the joycon drift are the main drawbacks, but that’s not the reason why I’m not planning to buy a Switch any time soon. The problem is the Switch doesn’t have any “killer apps” that I absolutely must play. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was the closest, and I’ve played it. Octopath Traveler was also great, and I’ve also played it. The other games I tried (Tales of Vesperia and Ys VIII) aren’t exclusives and aren’t great either. Plus I’m not that interested in Nintendo-only franchises like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon and Animal Crossing. Honestly the Switch is very nice to play but doesn’t have much to offer me.

That could all change next year if/when Rune Factory 5 and Shin Megami Tensei V come out and there’s an English release of Yomi ga Saku Hana. Or it could change instantly if Nintendo ports Xenoblade Chronicles X to the Switch. They did it for the original, so they can do it for X as well.

What’s next?

Back to Tokyo Xanadu eX+! I also need to do a one hour review of The Alliance Alive. Then I can sort all the games I’ve tried in order of priority. And I just realized that it’s already November but I haven’t done a single thing I planned to in my 2020 New Year’s Resolutions. Ooops~. On top of all that, I promised someone that I would check out Genshin Impact when the 1.1 patch lands on November 11th. So even without the Switch I have a lot to keep me busy. See you in the coming days!

2 thoughts on “Octopath Traveler on temporary hold

  1. Kumiko says:

    I wouldn’t worry about Yomi wo Saku Hana at all. Experience Inc games have an extremely good track record of being brought over to the west ever since the original Demon Gaze on the Vita came out. So good in fact, that NISA even went to the trouble of bringing over one their previous Tokyo games that had released before Demon Gaze, just to get that full catalogue. Even their niche Spirit Hunter series got picked up by Aksyss.

    As long as they port it to either a Sony or Nintendo console that is. If they leave a game as a microsoft exclusive, then bye-bye western version. Which is fair, localization companies know that most weebs aren’t on Xbox. Not enough to make a profit that is.

    To add fuel to this fire, NISA just announced that Saviours of Sapphire Wings + Stranger of Sword City Revisited will come out on March (really looking forward to that double game BTW, I actually hadn’t gotten around to playing the version of Sword City we got for the Vita yet, so it all worked out), and Yomi just got ported to both PS4 and Switch last month. So I’m pretty sure NISA will start working on it after Sapphire is released.

    • Kina says:

      Eeyup, I have a lot of faith in Yomi coming over, that’s why I held off on buying the Japanese Switch version, though I was sorely tempted. I’m really happy about all the Experience Inc. games that have come over these days, and doubly happy about Saviors of Sapphire Wings because the original (Students of the Round) was my first and favorite Experience game.

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