Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is mobile prequel to Switch game

One of the best-reviewed and best-selling titles on the Nintendo Switch doesn’t have “Mario” or “Zelda” in the title. It’s Octopath Traveler, an old-school JRPG that attempts to modernize the pixel sprite artwork of Super Nintendo classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 (or Final Fantasy 3, if you’re a heathen).

Now, it looks like Octopath Traveler is coming to mobile in the form of a prequel titled Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. According to the first trailer above, the artwork will look remarkably similar to the Switch title, although the gameplay will be optimized for touchscreens.

Square Enix didn’t divulge much about the plot of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent in its announcement, but one thing is fairly notable just from looking at the trailer and the screenshots: it appears you’ll be able to fight with all eight party members.

Octopath Traveler for the Switch centers on eight playable characters from different areas of the world with different specialties. However, you can only ever play with four characters at a time. It appears that the mobile version of Octopath won’t have that limitation.

Although Square Enix’s “HD-2D” artwork style for Octopath Traveler gets a lot of recognition, it sometimes overshadows the fact that the game achieves the extraordinary: giving you a nostalgic feeling with its 2D artwork while not just being a boring retread of other, better titles. Instead, Octopath Traveler is a terrific game in its own right, introducing some interesting gameplay mechanics and crafting an engaging story.

We’ll have to wait and see if Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent can continue that success.

The game is scheduled to reach Japanese players sometime this year, but it’s a sure bet it will see an international launch sometime afterward. We’ll be on the lookout.

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