This is how I did it. After finishing those 4 stories had a small break and did the rest.
I don't think that's true. Games like SaGa Frontier take non-traditional narrative approaches and are still beloved. What's terrible about Octopath Traveler is that every single chapter of the game, outside of one Olberic chapter, plays out in the exact same way. You get to a new town, use your special ability a few times, talk to some people, go into whatever dungeon is right next to the town, follow the same repetitive dungeon layout for a few screens, and then fight a boss. End of chapter. It's horrible game design and I hope Octopath's critical and commercial acclaim doesn't lead to Square thinking it worked.
I will say that repetitiveness didn't bother me personally, maybe because I played it in small chunks over a long time. But even before you get to that point I think people were expecting a more traditional Final Fantasy-like set up. I just remember having a feeling playing even the first scenario that this wasn't going to be what a lot of Era members want it to be.
Or the Etrian Odyssey games. Gameplay first (or gameplay only) JRPGs can work and have worked in the past, and I agree with you OT has issues that sabotage its core gameplay on a fundamental level.
It has vignettes, I'd say. It's a bunch of (mostly) interconnected episodes happenning across a surprisingly well-realized 2D open world. The lack of an overt "world ending" storyline until the optional post-ending dungeon brings personal journeys to the forefront, which are boosted by a lot of interesting towns and NPCs.
Exactly this. Playing a chapter per play session is the best way to play through Octopath.
We get it, you hate the game. Just put it down and play something else.
That's a horrible recommendation. The game would be much more repetitive like this. I cannot fathom why people did this at all. To me the fun of Octopath was switching up my characters and the story every chapter I played to see new combinations. My wife played the same way. Picking four and never changing just sounds godawful. It would emphasize the game's structure much moreso I would think.
I *almost* gave up, and ended up stringing a series of successful turns in what was supposed to be my very last try. It was fucking intense, to say the least.
I'm glad you mentioned Bravely Default/Second because the shortcomings of this game to me feel right in line with those two games. That said, no amount of budget is going to fix the issues with the writing or character interactions. I think they need to take a serious look at their approach to the format when they inevitably tackle the sequel.
Structurally it's going to remain the same anyway. Every character basically has a noble/rogue clone too, so whether you stick with one set of four or do all eight makes no real difference in variety. I attempted doing everyone at once for everyone's chapter 1s and 2s, and it severely magnified the repetition. Moving things along staved that off. By moving on to later chapters, he'll be able to counter the "braindead" vibe he got from the combat. The steeper challenges will start demanding more from him, and he won't be overlevelled, like you would be if you do 'em all at once. It's also the quickest path to unshackling you from your main character, which shouldn't have been a thing in the first place. The subjobs gave me plenty of flexibility to work with, so I never felt like I was missing out on tactical options. If you had a different experience, then fair enough though.
