Sure, but the reason I am posting here is because everyone (including the director of the game) keeps making FFVI comparisons. Aside from the aesthetic style of the character sprites, this game is NOTHING like FFVI. If you're hoping for a new FFVI, look elsewhere.
He made one FFVI comparison that was
unrelated to narrative structure. It isn't some integral and deceptive crux of the game's marketing. Moreover, the usual FFVI comparisons have been to its graphical homaging, nothing else.
It's a pretty big hallmark in many WRPGs as well. Some of my favorite games have lots of party interaction, so I'm disappointed for sure that they don't even really acknowledge or talk to each other in this game, but... the demo was just so much fun for me, so I don't even care that much.
The protagonists do talk to each other and bond. It's shown in the GameXplain preview.
What they don't do is participate in each other's
personal stories (yet), which was plain to anyone avidly following the game's marketing, since the game is open-ended and you can play through the entire thing with only one character if you really desire. How do you implement meaningful party interactions into that? The way they did it—having them interact outside the scope of their personal stories.
Each of their stories has its own recurring characters, stand-out NPCs, and dramatic moments, without ever needing dialogue from the other party members. If that remains true, I don't see an enormous problem, especially knowing we see the protagonists bonding and sharing their stories with each other. It's a game whose conceit in marketing has been storybook roleplaying, so to have to use your imagination a little is unsurprising.
Not every game needs a singular story told through a deeply interactive ensemble. Octopath is doing its own thing, something relatively unique compared to most JRPGs, and I'm super excited to see how it all coalesces.
