Octopath Traveler producer Masashi Takahashi from Square Enix, and director Keisuke Miyauchi from Acquire recently had an interview with Dengeki Online, where they talked about when development started, whether you’ll be able to skip recruiting the other characters, and whether DLC is planned.
Here are the highlights:
Dengeki: Regarding what you said regarding how long development took, was this game planned for the Nintendo Switch from the beginning?
Masashi Takahashi, producer: “That’s right. We began organizing development during a stage where nobody knew anything about the Nintendo Switch. We had a good relationship with Nintendo during the development of Bravely Default and Bravely Second, and that was the reason development began.”
Dengeki: Is there a New Game Plus in this game?
Takahashi: “Nope. We’ve made it so you can finish the game in one playthrough. However, depending on the order you go about things, the difficulty will organically change. There will be people who find some places easier because they went at it earlier, while those who play through the area later on will find a harder challenge.”
Dengeki: Around how long will it take to beat the game?
Takahashi: “Keeping in mind that players will likely want to finish every character’s story, if you were to just go through the main story, it would take around 50-60 hours. If you were to play through the substories, optional dungeons, and fully experience everything the world has to offer through the use of path actions, it would take around 80-100 hours.”
Dengeki: Can you beat the game with just one character, as some sort of challenge run? (laughs)
Takahashi: “You can play without recruiting any other characters.”
Dengeki: Is there any DLC planned?
Takahashi: “We haven’t even thought of having DLC. The retail version is a complete game.”
Octopath Traveler is releasing for Nintendo Switch on July 13, 2018.
