There seems to be another huge addition coming to Game Pass this year.
As reported by True Achievements, both Octopath Traveler 1 and 2 could be coming to Game Pass. eXtas1s claims that Octopath Traveler 2 will go straight to Game Pass Day One. They also believe that the first Octopath Traveler will debut alongside it on Xbox, but they aren’t as sure if it will also be Day One Game Pass.
The reason this rumor has a bit of credence to this is that Microsoft seemed to have failed to coordinate on their messaging on these releases. Xbox president Sarah Bond herself revealed that Octopath Traveler 2 was coming to Game Pass in an interview, but that was removed after the fact, with Microsoft claiming that that was included in error.
So, it seems likely that Square Enix and Microsoft already agreed on this release, and that it would be Day One Game Pass. But they were not supposed to talk about it that early, particularly if Square Enix still had some obligations in a contract with PlayStation, or truthfully, Nintendo. While Square Enix famously had an exclusivity contract for some games with Sony, they had a similar contract, at a much smaller scale, with Nintendo as well.
In any case, both Octopath Traveler would be worthwhile games for Xbox gamers to play for the first time. These are only two of the games developed by Team Asano, a very well regarded RPG studio within Square Enix led by Tomoya Asano.
Team Asano has demonstrated an affinity for traditional turn based RPGs, tweaked to fit modern day gamer sensibilities. The games certainly demonstrate a visual style to rival Vanillaware and Atlus, on one end. However, on top of that, the team has a refined sense of RPG design, that reflects on both the game loop, and their satisfyingly deep narratives.
This may also signal the end of Xbox gamers lacking in Japanese RPGs. Microsoft had long suffered in this account, as Japanese RPG game companies had closer, deeper relationships with PlayStation and Nintendo. The PlayStation, in particular, was likely to have blocked Xbox from getting many RPG games, with Sony making Japanese devs to sign up exclusive contracts.
Square Enix may have recently announced a new multiplatform strategy, but they aren’t the only Japanese RPG maker to have changed strategies. Sega’s Atlus seems to have stumbled upon the need to go multiplatform on their own, with a huge marketing push projected for Metaphor ReFantazio on Xbox as well.
Is the Xbox fanbase a potential blue ocean of potential RPG fans for Japanese developers to explore? We are all about to find out, it seems.
