Octopath Traveler is Octo-Finished.

My Switch profile says I have been playing Octopath Traveler for about 135 hours. This is only approaching the time I spent playing Skyrim, which is somewhere around 150 hours.

I was about sixty hours in when I started finishing the job quests. First was Alfyn’s, only because I accidentally killed his Chapter 4 boss. Then my main character, the hunter H’aanit, and the rest of my main team.

The credits rolled after H’aanit’s story ended. I was thinking of stopping there, but then I decided to finish up Ophilia’s (cleric) and Cyrus’ (scholar) stories, just to round out the group. By this time, my main group was overleveled for the “path” content, so I swapped in the other characters and did their stories, too.

Once all eight stories were done, I thought that would probably be a good place to stop. But I kept hearing the stories end with cryptic references to a “Gate of Finis”. I looked it up and found that this was a reference to the true ending.

I really should have stopped there.

Instead, I leveled up all the other characters not on my main team so everyone was on the same level, about. That took another dozen hours. Then I went and sought out the four advanced jobs. Add another dozen or so.

I tried the final gauntlet and failed, badly. I started working on all the side quests that give the best gear, learned which of my characters were nobles and which were commoners and why that mattered, explored all the nooks and crannies of the world and tossed myself at the final fight again and again.

Over the past few nights, I’ve been leveling everyone up to 70 or better, and getting them sufficient job points to learn all the important skills in the game.

I slaughtered the first eight bosses in a couple minutes while waiting for my Celeste personal pizza to cook. (You have to fight stronger versions of each character’s final boss before you can fight the big boss. Also, once you start, you cannot save or leave. It’s win or game over). I set the Switch aside after, for tonight.

I’d gotten through phase 1 before, so I didn’t have that much trouble tonight. The best thing about not being able to save from the start of the battle is that all the expensive and rare items required all are ready for the next attempt.

I’d died pretty quickly my first time on phase 2, but I knew what I’d done wrong (aside from being underleveled), and fixed it and won after some close calls.

Was it worth it?

I don’t know. I really enjoyed the characters and their stories and the advanced jobs once I’d unlocked them. I often just get bored with JRPGs and never get around to finishing them. I was compelled, somehow, to finish Octopath Traveler. There’s almost no boring stuff in the game.

The final fight is way harder than anything else in the game, and practicing it is a chore. Gathering the gear is a grind. Gathering the items are a grind. Grinding for the Job Points needed to master all the divine skills for so many jobs (twelve in all) is… is a grind. Having to find end game gear for two complete parties is a real grind.

But it was fun. I think it was as fun as any JRPG I’ve ever played, except Final Fantasy Tactics. I’m not good at these games. Forums claim someone finished this at level 35, but I find that hard to believe. Level 50 seems to be about the minimum, but I had to be at level 70 to do it. Maybe I missed some gear.

It’s done and I’m happy.