Square Enix On Project Octopath Traveler’s Fixes And Adjustments Made From Fan Feedback

A demo for Project Octopath Traveler has been available since September 2017 and Square Enix has already made numerous fixes and adjustments based on fan feedback.

Here are some of its highlights:

Travel Speed Requests

1. Fast-Travel Added – “It’s troublesome going back to a place we previously visited” was one of the frequent voices heard from the feedback. Square Enix added a fast-travel function that lets you instantly travel from town to town.

2. Ability to change between “Walk” and “Run” added along with “Speed-Up” function – Many felt that it was awkward to press the B button to switch between “Walk” and “Run” so it has been adjusted to automatically change based on the angle of your stick.

Additionally, many felt that the walking speed was too slow. To fix this, you can now press the B button for a “Speed-Up” that is faster than the regular running function. However, to balance things out the Speed-Up function increases encounter rates while out in the field and such. This makes for a good way to grind monsters.

Requests for Map Visibility

1. Destination guide added along with texture adjustments – Many felt that “It’s difficult to know where you need to go,” so a destination radar function was added. Some felt that the “dungeon maps are difficult to see” so they’ve changed the width of the paths and texture colors for the map. Placement of objects that will act as guides and such are also being carefully revised.

2. Brightness and screen effect adjustments have been implemented – With the game’s HD-2D screen effects, some players felt that parts of certain maps were difficult to see. Lighting adjustments and other options are now available. The above images show a before (top) and after (bottom) for the adjustment option.

Requests for Event Progress

Event skip and other – “Having to watch the same event scene” after losing in a boss fight was a nuisance to many so an event skip option has been implemented.

There are also plans to add a menu to track your main story and sub-story progress in the menu screen. Other options including text speed are currently in the works.

Menu Requests

1. Cursor’s default position in save menu adjusted – Several players said that they’ve overwritten their save data due to poor positioning of the cursor in the save menu. This will be adjusted for the full version.

2. Save slots expanded to 10, including an auto-save – The full version of the game will give you 10 save slots including your auto-save.

Others

Other adjustments needed to fix issues such as “The help text font is too small” and “I want to see a smoother menu” are in the works.

Requests for Battle

“I want the battles to be more fun” is one of the many requests. Square Enix says that the four-man party battles haven’t been implemented in the demo and there are still some unannounced details regarding battles, so they ask fans to share feedback on that after getting to try out what the game has to offer. More details will be shared later.

Project Octopath Traveler releases on Nintendo Switch in 2018. In case you missed it, check out our previous report for a bunch of more details from Producer Masashi Takahashi from Square Enix and Director Keisuke Miyauchi from Acquire.