We have played the Project Octopath Traveler demo, an RPG with Bravely Default spirit

'Project Octopath Traveler' (still an interim title) was one of the big surprises left by the first Nintendo Switch presentation in January 2017. An old-school RPG, from 'Bravely Default' producers, developed by the Japanese studio Acquire. Yes, the Tenchu.

Yesterday, as we saw, was another of the great surprises that left us the recent Nintendo Direct, among so many games, when publishing its demo in Switch eShop. And of course, we did not want to miss the opportunity to try it out.

How to download Project Octopath Traveler demo

First of all, no matter how obvious it may seem, we'll explain how to download the 'Project Octopath Traveler' demo from the Nintendo Switch eShop, because, oddly enough, it is not seen from the store.

Neither comes out of the eShop news, nor do we use the search engine with some of the keywords: "demo", "octopath", "traveler" or "project".

We can only see it from the News section, from the console menu itself, with a highlight that takes us directly to the product tab in order to download the demo for free. Or, to do it via web, accessing its official page in Nintendo and clicking on "Download the demo" after logging in first. Doing so will start downloading to the console.

A role-playing game like those of yesteryear

Going into the matter, the 'Project Octopath Traveler' demo allows us to play with two of its eight protagonists. And it is that the grace of this RPG with novene seal are those eight different points of view, with their own stories, that will end in the same direction later.

Here we can control Olberic, the warrior, of the Adoquinia Highlands; and the dancer Primrose, from Nocturnia, in the region of Soleaia. After knowing a little of his past (Primrose saw how his father killed three beings with raven marks), we can enjoy in first person of his world today ... and also to see with what special ability (action of path) counts each.

The demo does not take much advantage, but it is a characteristic that is striking and that, in a way, we have seen in other RPG. Except that here will be eight characters with unique path actions. With Olberic, for example, we can fight in duel against almost any villager that we encounter, while with Primrose we can use their charms for dance (with probability of success) and make us follow someone.

Project Octopath Traveler and the shifts

As if the "Brave" system, seen in Bravely Default, is, Project Octopath Traveler has a similar mechanism (Impulse) to speed up the fighting. In each turn we accumulate a PI (impulse point), thanks to which we can (up to a maximum of three) increase the number of attacks per turn.

It will also have to take into account the defense of the enemy. If we can hit him with an attack on him who is weak, we can rebuild his "shield" and cause him a break that will leave him stunned during a turn. The problem is that the stronger enemies have several "shields", so it will be more complicated to leave them vulnerable. Especially if we do not know their weaknesses.

Adding Impulse and Breaks, 'Project Octopath Traveler' makes combats fast and dynamic, even though we are only controlling one character (there are also skills that damage several enemies at the same time, of course). But it is clear that we will not get the whole game until we join the eight protagonists of this story when it comes to the market in 2018.

For now, things promise. And thank you more RPG from the old school