Primrose Azelhart


Primrose Azelhart is a fictional character in the 2018 video game Octopath Traveler, where she serves as one of its eight protagonists.

Concept and creation

Primrose was created for the 2018 video game Octopath Traveler. She is a dancer who is seeking information on and revenge for the murder of her father. Primrose is described by sound producer Yasunori Nishiki as having a femininity that exudes sadness and melancholy. Primrose's story is themed around revenge, but the creators wanted to create a sense of wistfulness as well for her music theme.They added metallic sounds to the theme to represent a desert setting. She is voiced by Laura Post in the English version of Octopath Traveler. She and fellow Octopath protagonist Olberic were made playable in the first demo due to their relative proximity to other characters and for them showing the appeal of the game's mechanics best.

Appearances

Primrose appears in Octopath Traveler, as one of eight characters that players can choose to select from the start. If they do not select her to start, they must later recruit her. Primrose, along with Olberic, appears in Final Fantasy Record Keeper.

Reception

Primrose has received mixed reception. Brittany Vincent of SyFy Wire called her the "video game heroine" of July 2018, calling her personality and story unique. Mat Smith of Engadget felt her story was the highlight of the game, while Zach Wilkerson of RPGFan felt her story was "mishandled and ultimately fizzled." Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku found her story to be interesting but cliched, while Katharine Castle of Rock, Paper, Shotgun felt her story had been seen "a dozen times before." Brian Gilbert of Polygon felt her story was the most compelling and the most bearable to have in the party, while Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report considered her a highlight of the cast. Scott Clay of RPGFan called her "beautiful and deadly," giving her an award during the website' game of the year awards. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer found her gameplay mechanic of seducing people to help her in battle to be problematic due to Primrose's backstory of misogyny and sex trafficking. Jess Joho called her a "grotesque cliche," criticizing the writers for using "women's trauma to give a thin character some semblance of personality or depth," while noting that this element is forgotten during lighthearted moments. Joho also finds issue with the relative darkness of her story compared to the relatively "rosy" stories of everyone else.