• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

BizzyBum

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,153
New York
I thought it was a great game but I just can't agree with the sentiment that it's the most openly designed JRPG in recent years. If anything, it's the exact opposite for me.

The world and locations the devs created was great and you can tell a lot of care was put into this game, but the majority of the game when traveling or dungeon raiding felt like you were just on rails the entire time, and each area was the exact same where the exploration options they do give you were multiple paths that concluded with opening a chest every time. I'm not asking for an open world game or anything like that, but something in between where it's not as linear and exploration is exciting and a little more rewarding.
 

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,532
I wonder if Octopath Traveler 2 will still stick with the 8 stories or if it will be a more standard jrpg with a weird title retained for historical reasons. Kinda like how Final Fantasy is never final or Dragon Quest is barely ever a quest to fight dragons

I can't see any Octopath sequel not also being anthological, though they might iterate a little in providing clearer links between stories, or more cohesively integrated interaction so that people don't miss most of it.
 

balgajo

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,251
I played like this but it didn't do much for me, got bored eventually. I think I stopped around 10 ~ 15 hours. I love the way it looks, music and some parts of the battle system. Bought day one on switch.
 

Moebius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,395
Incredible game. The boss fights and combat systems are so fun. It's not really possible to play the game linearly because you have to be certain levels to progress. That would require massive grinding. It's easier to just switch between characters and play whatever the lowest next level quest is.
 

ThreepQuest64

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
5,735
Germany
Played it on PC and thought it's really more a game meant to be played on a mobile console. It looks adorable, the combat is fast and fun, but the chapters are very short and the characters and story is nothing to write home about; pick up the game while on the train to work and play for 20mins seems like it was made for. It doesn't really feel engaging.
 

Oaklight

Avenger
Jun 16, 2018
933
I gave up around 30 hours into Octopath precisely because the game was too open. The game is unfocused, grindy, and failed to engage me after the battle system inevitably got repetitive. Honestly though I probably would have beaten the game if your inactive party members gained exp but even then the nonexistent plot probably would have made me quit at some point.

Octopath Traveler broke my heart. I loved everything about the game from its music to its artstyle and then some, but the game felt more like an unfocused tech demo with no real goal and I simply could no longer enjoy it. This is coming from a Jrpg enthusiast by the way.
 

silva1991

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,500
The open nature of the game is both strength and weakness. I liked the freedom and doing whatever I wanted with each character. However, it resulted to a disjoint journey between party members. It's like every protagonist is random non talking NPC if they join other protagonists's story. That was so unfortunate.
 

ibyea

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,164
While I find people saying they fell asleep kind of crazy, and I don't think the game boring, its structure definitely tests your patience and wears you down. The further you play, the less time you want to spend with it. It's the sort of game that makes you question how much longer it will last.
 

Yep

Member
Dec 14, 2017
531
I never understood why pretty much everyone i talked about the game were adamant on leveling up and making the scenario of all 8 characters, the moment i noticed than equipment weren't locked by class or level i knew it was better to focus on 4 characters, then making a ng+ with the 4 others, and not having to really level up since having the endgame stuff
 

Mr.Deadshot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,285
Imagine taking Schreier's opinions on JRPGs without a grain of salt... He's a good investigative journalist, but a questionable reviewer, and made quite an ass of himself in the Octopath pre-release threads — his own preview influenced by the interview mistranslation of the game as a "spiritual successor of FFVI," which it never intended to be, but which people still allowed to color their expectations.

The game has 8 stories, not 4, and they do come together meaningfully in the very end — but as connective backstory, not in a way that is the point of the game. Octopath is a short story anthology, full stop; it isn't trying to to be the epic ensemble narrative that people expect from their narrow experience in the JRPG genre.

But why is that automatically a bad thing? It's not Final Fantasy. It tells several great main stories and plays with themes in a way that many games don't bother with, to say nothing of the countless stories the game tells via its carefully connected NPCs.

If you go in expecting something Octopath isn't, your experience will be awful. If you go in with an open mind to its atypical structure, and take your time immersing in the world rather than beelining from chapter to chapter, you might find something truly special.

I think this is a very healthy way to go into this game. It's not Final Fantasy. It's not the grande epic some might expect. It reminded me of the little I played from the Saga games. It felt closer to these games but much more accessible.

I also like how the game gives you the option to just finish one story and be done with it, finish all stories, or just the ones you like. Or even go for the true final ending which seems like a massive grind but also fully explores the fun battle system. It's a repetitive games, yes. And the side-quests aren't very good. But really liked it overall.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,742
Haven't played it but isn't this game heavily inspired in the SaGa franchise?

It has SOME SaGa DNA, but I honestly don't think it feels that much like a SaGa overall. SaGa games generally have ONE story you play through per run, rather than trying to weave every protagonist's full narrative into an unfocused melange.
 

mnk

Member
Nov 11, 2017
6,340
I played it by splitting into two parties of four. Spreading it out and doing all eight at the same time seemed like too much, especially since people out of the party don't level up. I really enjoyed the game for the first party. I loved exploring, going to high level areas to access endgame towns early and robbing them blind, and all the openness that afforded. But by the time I got around to doing the second party, the repetitiveness of the chapter progression had really set in.

I even had the foresight to think that could be a problem, so I tried not to do everything with my first team. For that reason, I left both Olberic and H'aanit for the second team. That way the NPC fighting and monster collecting aspects would be entirely new experiences for the second sweep, but that still wasn't enough. I just got too bored in that second half, and never finished their stories.

I think if the game had been Quatropath Traveler, but still kept the world the exact same (so there'd still be all those towns and dungeons to explore optionally), I'd have ended up leaving the game with a much higher opinion of it. Either that or they just needed to find a better way to juggle all eight characters at once. I am sad I never got to see how the stories came together in the post-game. Maybe I'll go back to it eventually and the extended break will make it feel fun again.
 

TorianElecdra

Member
Feb 25, 2020
2,513
It was a good game but really flawed specially when it comes to story and overall immersion. The way how the stories come together at the end is pitiful, barebones and with barely any character on character interaction.

Now that I recall the game, it actually feels a little charmless I don't know why.
 

Dreavus

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Jan 12, 2018
1,729
Re: Side quests; I was a bit surprised by how many I was able to finish with no help. It's the kind of thing that I expected to hate, but usually when I thought "Oh, it's probably this guy I talked to before" it worked 80% of the time, and it was genuinely fun to puzzle out what exactly to do. There were a few that were very obtuse, including last one to unlock the final encounter, but overall they were pretty cool.

A big meh to stuff like the dead husband's spear though. There's really not too many consequences for robbing anyone you can. The first time getting destroyed by an "elder" while trying to fight them is a cheeky bit of fun though.

The game did drag on a bit, I'll admit. I had to "power through" the last few chapters, especially of character stories I wasn't terribly interested in. This is especially apparent when you start seeing the "formula" for every chapter, which in turn becomes frustrating when you hope and hope that it will do SOMETHING different, and it always loops around to the same thing every time.

I enjoyed the endgame encounter (despite having to look up how to trigger it, which didn't make much intuitive sense). However, the "gotcha" of
having to use all 8 party members in a difficulty spiked final fight, only after a managable boss rush with no save point
REALLY dampened my enthusasiam to actually go back and finish. I ended up grinding way more than necessary, just because I didn't want to have to go through the whole thing again, only to die again. A bit of warning or a way to back out before the very last part would have been much more welcome.
 
Oct 27, 2017
1,970
I picked this up recently on sale; after reading this thread I must play it sooner rather than later just to understand what the hell is going on with these opinions.

Turns out "JRPG expectations" needs to be a thread now. One thing about this last gen has been the JRPG resurgence. Even if I hate this game I hope it gets a sequel cause after reading through these posts it's definitely something I've got to get to the bottom of.
 

Watershed

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,820
There is a lot to like about OT and the invitation to play non-linearly is one of them but the main story is pretty boring and the boss fights get worse and worse. I put about 45 hours into it but the last 5 hours really turned me off the game. I put it down about a month after release and haven't been able to enjoy it again despite trying a few times. The non-linear progression is cool though.
 

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,602
Boring. So, so boring.

Others have elaborated well already, but if you do make the player do the same boring shit 40 consecutive times, you've failed as a designer.
 

entrydenied

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
7,567
If we want to talk about truely innovative JRPGs, I direct you to the Saga : Scarlet Grace thread 😁

www.resetera.com

SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions |OT| So Good It Sells Itself

Release date: December 3rd, 2019 Developer: Square Enix & studio R.E.E.L Developer: Square Enix Localisation: 8-4 Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam, iOS, Android Price: $29.99/£24.99/€29.99 Links: Official website | PlayStation Store | Nintendo eShop | Google Play Store | Apple...

Octopath was ok but really needed that little push to make it great.
 

Firemind

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,543
Boring. So, so boring.

Others have elaborated well already, but if you do make the player do the same boring shit 40 consecutive times, you've failed as a designer.
The chapters are different.
The bosses are different.
The optional quests are different.

I don't know how you can come to this conclusion unless you've been grinding hard and stealing all the high level loot by save scumming.

This isn't an open world RPG where you have a multitude of quests resembling 'slay x monsters.'
 

thefro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,996
Octopath Traveler remains a rote activity whichever order you do the chapters in because switching up characters doesn't change the formulaic flow of gameplay:

Explore area for shrine ---> Interact with / steal from everyone in new town ---> Start up opening dialogue scene ---> Path Action ---> Dungeon ---> Boss Fight ---> travel to new area on map and repeat

The repetitive nature is only broken up by side quests sending you back and forth across the world. But exactly because these quests are not handholdy and don't point you towards the right direction they are best solved by stumbling onto the solution. You don't break off your routine to go explore for side quests, you follow your normal travel plans and watch out for a sought after NPC or item while checking off the main tasks.

And if you do buck the level requirements, playing out of order will lead to the same basic patterns, but now when looping back around to the easier chapters the fights will be less challenging and you'll be more bored than if you'd followed the reccommendations.

There's a couple that are a little different, but that's the big flaw of the game is they use the same formula for almost all the scenarios (in how they mechanically play out).

It'd be a great game if they fixed all that, but I intended to go through Ch 2->4 with one party of characters after getting everyone and then go through with the other group, but got bored after finishing with the first group.
 

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,602
The chapters are different.
The bosses are different.
The optional quests are different.

I don't know how you can come to this conclusion unless you've been grinding hard and stealing all the high level loot by save scumming.

This isn't an open world RPG where you have a multitude of quests resembling 'slay x monsters.'
They're different in miniscule, non-meaningful ways.

I go to a town. Some trite nonsense that has no overall story significance happens. I then have to go to some canned, linear as hell dungeon. There is no interesting design. I fight a boss that I generally overpower quite easily due to Cyrus being OP as hell. None save maybe the final boss require much thought, as long as you're going through all eight storylines, keeping you well leveled.

It is the SAME. THING. OVER. AND OVER. AND OVER. I can't fathom why anyone likes this. (Possible shoutout to that one Olberic chapter for being *slightly* different.) There are no narrative connecting lines, no real inter-party communication minus forced scenes with zero production value or cohesion, no anything. It's a lifeless, soulless void of a game. It hits checkboxes, but fails to realize that games are more than checkboxes.

I hate Octopath Traveler.
 
Last edited:

Firemind

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,543
The characters develop within their arc. Don't you play RPGs because you care about the characters and want to know how it ends? Same applies here.
 
Oct 27, 2017
9,792
Peru
If we want to talk about truely innovative JRPGs, I direct you to the Saga : Scarlet Grace thread 😁

www.resetera.com

SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions |OT| So Good It Sells Itself

Release date: December 3rd, 2019 Developer: Square Enix & studio R.E.E.L Developer: Square Enix Localisation: 8-4 Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam, iOS, Android Price: $29.99/£24.99/€29.99 Links: Official website | PlayStation Store | Nintendo eShop | Google Play Store | Apple...

Octopath was ok but really needed that little push to make it great.
I bought it recently thanks to the eShop sale and a few gold coins. I thought it was... okay but neither the story nor the characters force me to continue.

Still wish there was a physical release already though.
 
Oct 25, 2017
9,053
I really wanna play it, but it's 70 fucking hours long. WTF.

It is easy to adapt to your playstyle.

- One plot
- Four plots
- All 8 plots
- All 8 plots, plus epilogue sidequests and sidebosses
- Final postgame boss

I have a bunch of friends that played the game. Different people will do different amounts over the overall game. 70ish is only for the last goal there.
 

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,532
They're different in miniscule, non-meaningful ways.

I go to a town. Some trite nonsense that has no overall story significant happens. I then have to go to some canned, linear as hell dungeon. There is no interesting design. I fight a boss that I generally overpower quite easily due to Cyrus being OP as hell. None save maybe the final boss require much thought, as long as you're going through all eight storylines, keeping you well leveled.

It is the SAME. THING. OVER. AND OVER. AND OVER. I can't fathom why anyone likes this. (Possible shoutout to that one Olberic chapter for being *slightly* different.) There are no narrative connecting lines, no real inter-party communication minus forced scenes with zero production value or cohesion, no anything. It's a lifeless, soulless void of a game. It hits checkboxes, but fails to realize that games are more than checkboxes.

I hate Octopath Traveler.

No, really? Couldn't tell... Bit odd that you had to edit your post to add that you hate the game. Dial it back, mate.

I would say they're the same in miniscule, non-meaningful ways. If you ignore all story context, you can boil down a great many JRPGs to a gameplay loop of "Field -> Town -> Dungeon -> Boss." But that would be a bit disingenuous, wouldn't it?

Not to say that I disagree that the chapters' structure could be differentiated a little more, or that path actions could be used more as creatively in-story as they are in side quests (although the reason they didn't do this is clear: accessibility, since not everyone is creative enough to piece together the side quests).

I found the employment of the diorama effects to hide paths/items in dungeons interesting enough. Dungeons were short for the same reason that chapters were each digestible 45min segments -- because it was made to cater to older, busier RPG fans who played via handheld mode. Maybe they'll diversify that in future installments if there's enough feedback to indicate they should.
 

Hu3

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,587
Nop. Game has a lot of tedium and feels trite at times. It wanted to be but it didn't reach.
 

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,602
No, really? Couldn't tell...

I would say they're the same in miniscule, non-meaningful ways. If you ignore all story context, you can boil down a great many JRPGs to a gameplay loop of "Field -> Town -> Dungeon -> Boss." But that would be a bit disingenuous, wouldn't it?

Not to say that I disagree that the chapters' structure could be differentiated a little more, or that path actions could be used more as creatively in-story as they are in side quests (although the reason they didn't do this is clear: accessibility, since not everyone is creative enough to piece together the side quests).

I found the employment of the diorama effects to hide paths/items in dungeons interesting enough. Dungeons were short for the same reason that chapters were each digestible 45min segments -- because it was made to cater to older, busier RPG fans who played via handheld mode. Maybe they'll diversify that in future installments if there's enough feedback to indicate they should.
Most/all games can be boiled down to a gameplay loop...Portal is a nice example. I could easily say "Portal is a boring game. All it is is one test chamber after another, over and over again, until you beat it."

Except that Portal uses that regular structure to introduce new ideas. It delights with new mechanics, new ways those mechanics are combined, the story building up within those test chambers, building toward an inevitable conclusion.

Octopath Traveler takes its regular structure and introduces almost nothing new to the player, ever. (Advanced jobs are new, but even they exist sort of "between" those regular 40 loops.) Characters are flat, one-dimensional cutouts. No new gameplay is introduced save the standard numerical "getting stronger". There are no puzzles or interesting choices to be made while exploring dungeons. The same use of path actions never changes.
 

falcondoc

Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,222
The chapters are different.
The bosses are different.
The optional quests are different.

I don't know how you can come to this conclusion unless you've been grinding hard and stealing all the high level loot by save scumming.

This isn't an open world RPG where you have a multitude of quests resembling 'slay x monsters.'

Nope to all three of those. The chapters, bosses, and side quest are virtually all the SAME in terms of any meaningful gameplay.
 

Sheldon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,337
Ruhrgebiet, Germany
There's a couple that are a little different, but that's the big flaw of the game is they use the same formula for almost all the scenarios (in how they mechanically play out).

I'm not sure. Formulaic can work. A Octopath chapter is about the length of a TV episode and House was the most formulaic show ever yet remains entertaining even if you binge it. There's a problem with the content of Octopath, not only with how it's packaged.
 

Geobros

Member
Dec 31, 2018
670
One of the game's big mistake imo is to show a level requirement for the chapters. As the game is open designed, levels are not important, equipement is. You don't need to grind*.

Well....I will agree 100% with that. The game is great, really great. But there a big mistake which makes it boring. You can finish first the story of one Character, this means you will be high level for the chapters of other characters and the battle will be really boring. As I made this mistae, I suggest to everyone to not hurry to level up early in the game.
 

AppleKid

Member
Feb 21, 2018
2,532
The non-linearity is one of the main things that kept me interested (plus music and art-style/graphics of course). Acquiring Therion early on and then navigating my way to the highest level areas so I could steal strong armor and weapons from townsfolk there was sublime.

I do really wish the dialogue/story was better though; had lofty expectations after the first demo in 2017 that more or less crumbled on release.
 

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,532
Octopath Traveler takes its regular structure and introduces almost nothing new to the player, ever. (Advanced jobs are new, but even they exist sort of "between" those regular 40 loops.)Characters are flat, one-dimensional cutouts. No new gameplay is introduced save the standard numerical "getting stronger". There are no puzzles or interesting choices to be made while exploring dungeons. The same use of path actions never changes.

For every person who complains about Octopath's simplistic dungeons, there's others who complain about other JRPGs' overly complicated labyrinthine dungeons. Everyone has preferences.

Considering how many people refuse to understand what mechanics that Octopath does implement, and consequently complain online about how fights take forever because they aren't engaging with them correctly: no, I'm not sure introducing even further mechanics would have been to the game's benefit.

The beauty of Octopath's combat is that its systems should be (assuming the player can read) easy enough to understand when introduced immediately, while having depth enough that they're satisfying the whole game through. That's what I found, anyway. Same with the Bravely games. There's no need for a XB2 situation where you're being poorly tutorialized to for 20-odd hours.
 

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
The non-linearity is one of the main things that kept me interested (plus music and art-style/graphics of course). Acquiring Therion early on and then navigating my way to the highest level areas so I could steal strong armor and weapons from townsfolk there was sublime.

I do really wish the dialogue/story was better though; had lofty expectations after the first demo in 2017 that more or less crumbled on release.

I thought the writing was great, and the characters had an earnestness to them than reminds you of the 16bit era hero's journey RPGs without falling into Parody. As I said upthread, this view is only really been solidified with the Trials of Mana remake. This game's writing is very definately above average, even for modern JRPGs.
 

Firemind

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,543
Nope to all three of those. The chapters, bosses, and side quest are virtually all the SAME in terms of any meaningful gameplay.
Not really unless they're the generic ones. All the chapter end bosses have some gimmick you have to play around. Same with the optional bosses. Cyrus can't solo those bosses no matter how much Feep wants to say otherwise.
 

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,849
Octopath Traveler has some neat mechanics and design ideas but it's so boring, and dungeons are so rote and one note, I quit the game around 3/4 through.
 

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,602
For every person who complains about Octopath's simplistic dungeons, there's others who complain about other JRPGs' overly complicated labyrinthine dungeons. Everyone has preferences.

Considering how many people refuse to understand what mechanics that Octopath does implement, and consequently complain online about how fights take forever because they aren't engaging with them correctly: no, I'm not sure introducing even further mechanics would have been to the game's benefit.

The beauty of Octopath's combat is that its systems should be (assuming the player can read) easy enough to understand when introduced immediately, while having depth enough that they're satisfying the whole game through. That's what I found, anyway. Same with the Bravely games. There's no need for a XB2 situation where you're being poorly tutorialized to for 20-odd hours.
I mean, okay. You're defending the game by saying "some people don't want interesting dungeons or new gameplay mechanics introduced". I am very much not one of those people and I believe that is boring, bad design. Your opinion is fine. This is mine.
 

AppleKid

Member
Feb 21, 2018
2,532
I thought the writing was great, and the characters had an earnestness to them than reminds you of the 16bit era hero's journey RPGs without falling into Parody. As I said upthread, this view is only really been solidified with the Trials of Mana remake. This game's writing is very definately above average, even for modern JRPGs.
In terms of dialogue, I think my problem is that much of it feels expository with lots of flashbacks or explanations of background, lore, or off-screen events. Combine this with how painfully obvious most of "twists" are with characters not voicing suspicions despite being so chatty and it wears on you after a while. And I even mostly ignored the party chat feature

If I compare it to something like Chrono Trigger I feel the plot advancement to dialogue ratio is far different.
 

Sheldon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,337
Ruhrgebiet, Germany
There are no narrative connecting lines

I broadly agree with your other points though not the magnitude of your dislike, but this is wrong. There are narrative lines between the individual stories. Hell, there are connections between throwaway background NPCs. That's where the soul of the game can be found, if you pay attention and don't succumb to the mindless grind.

also the octopath sprites are better than Mysterious Monsters'
 

RDreamer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,106
Nope to all three of those. The chapters, bosses, and side quest are virtually all the SAME in terms of any meaningful gameplay.
Does any JRPG have "meaningful" gameplay change then? Like, I legitimately do not understand this. Nearly every JRPG gives you the battle system structure and then you gain abilities/spells/equipment/characters over time. You manage all of these while taking on enemies and bosses with differing skills, weaknesses, and attack patterns. Are you saying none of this existed in the game? Because it factually did.

The chapters are structured the same but many RPGs have a field > town > dungeon loop. This one just made them similar time frames and let you know where they were. Everything around the structure is meaningful though. Personally I found it nice to know what I was in for when I picked up my switch to play. But you could also break out of that with side quests.

And speaking of those, how were they the same? Sometimes you needed to fight something, sometimes find something somewhere, sometimes perform an action on someone and bring back an item, etc. Some are singular events and others have you find someone all over. But they're all different in story.
 

KartuneDX

Banned
Jan 12, 2018
2,381
The chapters are different.
The bosses are different.
The optional quests are different.

I don't know how you can come to this conclusion unless you've been grinding hard and stealing all the high level loot by save scumming.

This isn't an open world RPG where you have a multitude of quests resembling 'slay x monsters.'

Not at all. There's so little variance to the formula that I'm sure you know that's what people complaining about it being boring are talking about.

The structure of the main game, as pointed out already, never deviates from Start Chapter > Path Action > Dungeon > rinse, repeat. It's mundane to the point of being near insulting, and the lack of impactful interaction between characters traveling together make it a chore. For a JRPG it's important the pacing doesn't feel like a chore and Octopath falls flat here. Characters offer their 2 cents on another's dilemma, and that's the full extent of it. It's boring, most seem to agree.
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,072
The lack of any real party interaction kills the game for me. To me that's an integral component to a JRPG, like it should be one of the JRPG 10 commandments.

I think the ideas are solid, the game just needed a bigger budget and scope to actually have the concept realized.
 
Last edited:

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,276
Remembering what NPC is a singer isn't engaging when A.) there's a hojillion NPCs and B.) most of them are super basic and boring. Add into this that aside from the handful of recurring travelling quest givers, the actual quest giver and their story is often boring and basic, and offers little reward.

It's an admirable idea on paper, but it doesn't work well. What I would have highlighted is you can complete sidequests different ways. Maybe you do go find that singer, but you could also like, steal something that would placate the quest giver as well.

I don't really buy your journey argument either. Outside of the intro of the second acts when you can go find secondary job shrines, they game is often tedious and frustrating to explore. Oh boy, I found a cave with nothing at the end. Oh whoops, it only has a boss after Chapter 3 of X character's main quest, or after some side quest.
 
Last edited:

Firemind

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,543
Not at all. There's so little variance to the formula that I'm sure you know that's what people complaining about it being boring are talking about.

The structure of the main game, as pointed out already, never deviates from Start Chapter > Path Action > Dungeon > rinse, repeat. It's mundane to the point of being near insulting, and the lack of impactful interaction between characters traveling together make it a chore. For a JRPG it's important the pacing doesn't feel like a chore and Octopath falls flat here. Characters offer their 2 cents on another's dilemma, and that's the full extent of it. It's boring, most seem to agree.
Have you ever (re)played Final Fantasy IV? Or Breath of Fire I? They're much worse in every aspect and yet they're considered JRPG classics. Why is that?
 

Dodgerfan74

Member
Dec 27, 2017
2,696
The battle system, path actions, music, and art were great. But the stories/anthology style were forgettable as hell and utterly boring after 3 or 4. I couldn't finish the fucking game.
 

Meleina

Member
Oct 25, 2017
282
I finished the game but I thought it was okay at best. I loved the music and the art style, but, as many people said here, it's repetitive and lacking in a few aspects. I'm also really disappointed that the characters didn't actually interact throughout the storylines. Considering how different everyone is, it would have been great to see how they actually connected with one another in each situation.