Square Enix announced today thatOctopath Traveler Tairiku no Hashais getting delayed. The prequel, currently only announced in Japan, and which already got a Beta Test, was supposed to release by the end of 2019 for iOS and Android. Now, the game is planned for a 2020 launch.The 2020 delay was announced via a long message from the game’s Producer Yuki Yokoyama,published on Twitter:
I hate translating Japanese apologetic messages because of how annoying it is, and my paycheck isn’t worth the trouble. In summary, Producer Yokoyama said they’re delaying the game to increase its quality. This is the usual justification that doesn’t tell us much that all Japanese development studios use when delaying a game. The development staff also apologized for the delay in the tweet.
In a more poetic way, Producer Yokoyama also said in the message the delay is “to make it sure that the charm of the Orsterra continent is conveyed properly in the mobile game, just like in the original Switch game”.
As a reminder, despite being on mobile,Octopath Traveler Tairiku no Hashais an actual JRPG, with an actual ending. We covered all that andstory details in a previous article,most notably how you may start from three different storylines. You can also readmore details and how Square Enix teased an English version.
WhenOctopath Traveler Tairiku no Hasha/Champions of the Continentwas first announced, the development team mentioned they’re also working on a newOctopath Travelerconsole game. And that fans should play this mobile game in the meantime.You can read more about that here.
I’m personally not really excited about this mobile game, nor the new console game. Especially seeing how disappointing the originalOctopath Travelerwas outside of its battle system (and all its cool seiyuu like Houko Kuwashima and Tomokazu Seki). I still can’t believe this passed as an example of good dungeon design or good storytelling.
