Square Enix’s new turn-based JRPG Octopath Traveler is almost here, but there’s one important question that hasn’t quite been answered yet: does it have an overarching story?

I’ve been excited for Octopath Traveler ever since I tried the first demo and fell in love with its traditional feel and the intriguing start to the characters’ stories.

However, I did mention my hope that they’d all end up united in a single story.

This has pretty much been my biggest concern about the game. It looks great, but if the characters have eight individual stories with no justification for them traveling together, that doesn’t sound nearly as interesting to me as if their stories eventually came together.

From the early marketing, it sounded like the stories would be separate, but then comments from Nintendo representatives indicated that the character stories were part of the build-up for the main story. The demo also included hints of a connection between certain stories.

A few days ago, someone reported that they got the game early and there was no connected main story.

This was shortly followed by a different report that after the individual stories, there would be payoffs involving all the characters.

Jason Schreier from Kotaku said the stories are entirely separate and that the other person’s report was false.

After that, a new interview came out saying the stories absolutely intertwine.

And there’s even more besides these, on both sides of the argument. What makes this even weirder is that an apparent final boss theme was datamined, but it doesn’t appear to be used in the eight individual stories.

For what seemed like a simple question, there sure is a lot of conflicting information. The only thing that makes sense is that it’s one of two things:

1. The stories come together into a single main plot, but this is some sort of secret/true ending that must be unlocked.
2. Different people are interpreting the question in different ways.

The second option seems more likely. Some people might look at small connections between the stories and say that’s an overarching plot, while others see it as eight separate stories. Still, that doesn’t explain the final boss music…

Well, we should know soon enough. The review embargo lifts tomorrow and the game comes out on Friday. In the meantime, share your thoughts on this unexpectedly confusing situation and keep an eye on the Octopath Traveler subreddit for the latest round of confirmations on both sides.