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Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread
- Thread starter Meelow
- Start date
You can do all 8 main plots on one save file, rather than having reset progress when doing the other characters.
Finally broke down and start playing the 2nd demo with Ophilia. Gosh this game is beautiful.
BTW, the JP text is not difficult. I love how Ai Kayano voice her too.
BTW, the JP text is not difficult. I love how Ai Kayano voice her too.
If the stories don't converge in a meaningful way at some point, I'll be disappointed. And despite some posts to the contrary, I think most of you will be too. It would be like having ASoIaF/Game of Thrones resolve all of its plot points individually. Maybe it can be done, but isn't more satisfying seeing how they all intertwine and eventually converge into one grand epic?
Of course, I'm still waiting for more details like everyone else, but given the option, yeah, I want meaningful interactions between these characters. That's like one of the main selling points of JRPGs.
Of course, I'm still waiting for more details like everyone else, but given the option, yeah, I want meaningful interactions between these characters. That's like one of the main selling points of JRPGs.
Do we really need to ask disingenuous questions like this? Come on now.
Folks here are almost making it sound like set, scripted stories are just played out, when it's how 99% of narratives play out for good reason.
I'm totally ok without the party being all chummy if it avoids the "we need the power of friendship and teamwork!!!" anime silliness of modern JRPGs.
...There are eight perfectly good set, scripted stories in Octopath, each with its own supporting casts, dramatic moments, and character development.
<-
Yeah, I figured as much after reading your preview, thanks.
In the time you've played has any overarching story cropped up? Like some big organisation that is trying to take over the area that ties into each character?
"Perfectly good"
The game isn't even out yet and some of the impressions indicate the stories are actually a little boring, which isn't that hard to believe even as someone that's enjoyed the demo.
It's cool if people don't mind this approach or even are excited about it, but there's no reason to pretend detractors are being so unreasonable. This is a divisive choice they've made.
That's a pretty good point, actually. It comes down to how well-written the individual stories are and the demo isn't giving me a lot of hope in that area.
Jason Schreier, the person whose impressions people have taken to be the most negative (even though they're mostly positive), literally just said that "some of the stories are really good."
Which preview said they were "boring"? Not any I've seen. I also never said anyone looking for a single main story was so unreasonable, but that expectation really doesn't align with any of the marketing. There's quite a lot of evidence to suggest an overarching narrative behind-the-scenes that'll connect things by the end, but we'll see.
The editors from GameSpot mention it in their video. Not terribly enthused about the plot.
I went Tressa for the 2nd demo which I'll stick with for the retail version. Can't say no to a merchant character. Cyrus was my second party member and I think he'll be a permanent fixture due to the combat passive and I like his path ability a lot.
It sounds like GE is wrong? The intro chapters are scaled, but the rest of the game has a steep level curve to encourage doing several main plots or a bunch of sidequests.
Oh is it the same demo as the first one? Or is it a different download? I tried searching and couldn't find it. Only the main game
Different demo. The first one is no longer available to download.
If searching "Octo" doesn't turn up anything, press search "Games with Demos."
Sidequests don't give experience AFAIK, just items and gold, which makes the level recs even more of a gate.
I had the demo downloaded for some time but just now getting around to trying it. Started with primrose. I like what they are going for graphics wise but I wish it were sharper. Maybe it is on TV, or it is just the scaling making things soft and smearey.
I may play a bit more because I want to know how he world fits together but nothing up to beating the first "boss" makes me want to preorder or pick up day one.
I may play a bit more because I want to know how he world fits together but nothing up to beating the first "boss" makes me want to preorder or pick up day one.
Leveling up seems a simple matter with the existence of multiple types of Caits, which give exponentially greater EXP than other enemies (the Metal Slimes of Octopath). There are people who've achieved level 45+ characters in the 3hr demo by fighting Caits with Primrose's random buff ability, which can increase EXP gained.
I've also heard the EXP scaling was forgiving enough that leveling benched members wasn't so tedious—is that true?
The Caits are good. Not sure how to find them reliably. I haven't tried leveling benched members a ton - been sticking with my main party as I clean up the Chapter 3s.
Tressa is by far the best.
Yea it seemed like recently everyone was saying they wanted to move away from this in jrpgs and to something different, now they are doing something different and people want save the world from villain back
As I understand it, you keep selecting new chapters for the individual characters. So each chapter will have your main + that chapter's character locked in, only giving you room to pick 2 others.
The music is so goood, I think it's time for media blackout now don't need to see anything else to know this will be great.
I just hooked my switch up to tv for the first time today, and this game looks wayyy better on the big screen.
I've already installed and uninstalled the demo 4 or 5 times. XD. Im on a media blackout but I still cant get enough.
People are concerned about the absence of a connective tissue, a narrative intent that glues the journey of the eight together.
I don't see many demanding THAT specific plotline. Different is fine, but what exactly is the narrative hook? There is presumptive posturing and similar questionable shrugs from all these previews, the demo didn't offer much answer either.
W-why? You don't have to reinstall the game to play another 3 hours. o_o Just start a New Game, or create a new profile if you want multiple saves.
man I skipped over this video at first but that music and aesthetic is just so damn good. So excited for this game
I dont wanna play the demo anymore so I can start fresh when the game launches. But Im a weak human being, so I end up just squeezing another in 10 mins before uninstalling again. :/
After three hours, you'll no longer trigger random encounters and the next time you transition to area that triggers an autosave, it boots you out of the game. At least that's what happened to me.
Kinda hard to do with how open ended the game is, it would kind of be like giving a negative to elder scrolls for not having party members to interact with
Linear games are better at some story elements than open games, and octopath definitely leans towards open and that comes with some story sacrifice
People that want more interactions between party members are really asking to not be able to choose their character at the beginning so the developer can make specific encounters in the game that everyone will see, but everyone should know from the demo from a year ago that this wasn't their plan or design
But now if there's no interaction between characters towards the end of game after you have finished their personal stories then I would say that's a negative
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Someone made an impression topic on GameFAQs, and they've uploaded a couple videos.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/204212-octopath-traveler/76783666
I haven't watched/read many of the previews so I dunno if what he said was mentioned in other places, but he talks about unlocking the sub-classes by visiting shrines dotted across the map, with the bonus four jobs being guarded by tough bosses. The first video also shows a nice chunk of the world map, and there are really a lot of places. I haven't been able to listen to his videos, so I dunno what else he may have revealed.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/204212-octopath-traveler/76783666
I haven't watched/read many of the previews so I dunno if what he said was mentioned in other places, but he talks about unlocking the sub-classes by visiting shrines dotted across the map, with the bonus four jobs being guarded by tough bosses. The first video also shows a nice chunk of the world map, and there are really a lot of places. I haven't been able to listen to his videos, so I dunno what else he may have revealed.
I think this is true: the way they have chosen to structure the game would make it much more work for less-viewed content to produce the same result a largely linear game would have. Honestly, the easiest way to make it work is scenes that operate outside the storylines, which is what they apparently are doing.
At the same time, that doesn't erase the issue. Things can naturally flow from design decisions, even exciting ones, that are disappointing.
Personally, I never really thought about this. I want a better world, stories, and characters in this game than I found in BD (I didn't like these things in that game), but I'm mostly there for the gameplay, as I was there for BD. So this lack of strong party dynamics and relationships does sound less-than-ideal, but at the same time the world, stories, and characters are still being praised in some respects as is the combat and class system, which, if I agree, would be a good result from the game for me.
I mean if you say your game is like FFVI, I'm gonna expect that it too involves many characters whose stories come together for one big epic adventure.
Maybe, just maybe this will be the Magnolia of videogames: Seemingly disparate tales of an ensemble cast that in fact
I don't think there's a PTA equivalent in the videogame industry though.
influence one another with powerful and rare moments of direct interaction.
All followed by frogs raining from the sky.
All followed by frogs raining from the sky.
I don't think there's a PTA equivalent in the videogame industry though.
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Sounds like this is the BotW of JRPGs from his video impression.
... I can do that right?
Seems like the good points is that it's strongly gameplay focused with a good degree of freedom on the order you want to do things... without a strong singular epic story to drive your progress onward.
No signs of it yet, best to just not expect it doesn't until someone has actual evidence.
For the millionth time, he mentioned it explicitly in terms of mechanics.
Google translate can be shoddy, but in this instance it's pretty clear.
I can picture myself falling asleep to this game. In a good way. If I play this game in bed I might get so comfortable that I just fall asleep and put tons of hours on my in game clock.
This thread is honestly shocking to me.
Literally every Octopath trailer is littered with the phrase "eight characters, eight different stories to be told" - clearly advertising it as one of its biggest appealing aspects and differentiators compared to other RPGs. That's also why I'm actually interested in this as the exploration aspect of the game is pretty unpredecent for a 2D JRPG as a result. They couldn't be more clear about there being literally eight independent stories about each character.
Yeah, at first I was also dumb-founded why the producer said that but it was corrected by people here that he only compared the gameplay aspect an evolution of FFVI. That misleading thread title and simple misinformation really did a number on people.
Literally every Octopath trailer is littered with the phrase "eight characters, eight different stories to be told" - clearly advertising it as one of its biggest appealing aspects and differentiators compared to other RPGs. That's also why I'm actually interested in this as the exploration aspect of the game is pretty unpredecent for a 2D JRPG as a result. They couldn't be more clear about there being literally eight independent stories about each character.
Yeah, at first I was also dumb-founded why the producer said that but it was corrected by people here that he only compared the gameplay aspect an evolution of FFVI. That misleading thread title and simple misinformation really did a number on people.
My friend doesn't own a Switch but has been a huge FFVI fan since it launched. I showed him previews of Octopath and he is scrambling to get a system before it launches.
For the millionth time, he mentioned it explicitly in terms of mechanics.
Google translate can be shoddy, but in this instance it's pretty clear.
Instances like this one reminds me why many devs are interview shy and secretive. You have no idea how many headlines I've seen were "SE: Octopath Traveler is a spiritual successor to FFVI" It's shame that outlets have used these titles misrepresenting the dev meaning.
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Xenoblade 2 is Unuspath Travelers like the others 95% of JRPGs. Very much easier to make interactions between pjs. This one has many ramifications depending which it's your main character, partners and paths you're chosen. Not everyone is going to play each path and character.
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