Square Enix Talks About Octopath Traveler’s Heavy Themes

For those who have tried out Octopath Traveler’s demo would know that the game does not shy away from some very dark and heavy story themes.

Explaining their reason as to why the stories are so dark, producer Masashi Takahashi and director Keisuke Miyauchi that they wanted to do a story about the dramas of the medieval world and the struggles the characters may face in it.

“We’re creating a medieval world, and we wanted to think of the realities within that medieval world,” Takahashi said, via a translator. “What would be a kind of inevitability that would happen as a result of this world existing? What kind of dramas would play out? I think, out of the eight people, that Primrose has the story that deals with the heaviest themes, but that’s not to say that the other themes are light in any way. There are also characters that deal with other heavy elements of this world, as well, like Cyrus, the scholar. His story deals with the darkness that exists within this world.”

Those who have a small taste of Primrose’s story know that the themes of sexual abuse and human trafficking are not something you would usually find in an RPG, making it very dark and heavy for younger audiences. Still, it is great that developers do not inhibit themselves from making such work of art.