Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread

HulkMansfield · Jul 10, 2018

I've never gotten into JRPG's before, with the exception of Cthuhlu Saves the World (because it was fast-paced for its genre and funny), South Park (funny), and Golden Sun because it was portable. I got hooked on the Octopath demo though, I think mainly because I liked the series of stories to follow along with but also because of the quick gameplay and ability to utilize the switch and play on the go.
But, that means I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of character builds. In my demo save, I started as Primrose, and picked up Alfyn and Therion before it ended. Am I already screwed for a team comp?

Deleted member 2145 · Jul 10, 2018

Pepin said:
I'm sure there are many reasons for the high download rates on the demo(es)!

Interesting to see if they translate to sales

yeah it'll be a good one to watch. I'm more interested in its legs tbh, that's been the thing with Switch so far. looking at a game like Xenoblade 2 which did fine at launch but impressed with its legs.

Octopath looks like a great fit for Switch though, it's an rpg for people who played rpgs decades ago. Switch does well with old gamer shit

Opa-Pa · Jul 10, 2018

Harald23 said:
Since when long games are bad? Most of the time is the opposite in JRPGs. LOL

More than that it gives you an indication where are you in the game.

If you play 30 hours of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you saw nothing. Even if you rush to finish the game, you are maybe at 50%, maybe.

Like i said, brace yourself for the usual "i played 20 hours of this game and now i'm going to review it and tell you how bad it is" lol

I was being sarcastic and referencing another post, haha, I like long-ass JRPGs myself.

GwyndolinCinder · Jul 10, 2018

SimplyGames are shipping for tomorrow folks. Whos biting?

I am even tho i think the storys gonna be shite and cheap. Gimmieee that OST,art and grind wombo combo

Casual · Jul 10, 2018

Harald23 said:
Like i said, brace yourself for the usual "i played 20 hours of this game and now i'm going to review it and tell you how bad it is" lol

If a game takes 20 hours to get good, it's not a good game. There's plenty of lengthy games that are good right away.

Not saying that this will be applicable to Octopath, but 20 hours is a long time to spend playing a bad game waiting for it to get good. That's dedicating like 2 weeks of your video game time if you're playing a moderate amount daily. There's tons of (immediately) great games these days and no where near enough time to play them all, no way I'm spending 20 hours on a bad experience.

Plum · Jul 10, 2018

Holy shit I just realised something. If you split the 'OCTOPATH' name anagram into 'OCTO' and 'PATH' the two letters in a respective position (so O and P, C and A, etc) are the two noble and rogue sides to one of the 4 types of field abilities:

Ophelia - Recruit - Noble | Primrose - Allure - Rogue
Cyrus - Scrutinise - Rogue | Alfyn - Inquire - Noble
Tressa - Purchase - Noble | Therion - Steal - Rogue
Olberic - Challenge - Noble | H'aanit - Provoke - Rogue

EDIT: And they're on opposite sides of the map as well what the fuck:

Tora · Jul 10, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
SimplyGames are shipping for tomorrow folks. Whos biting?

I am even tho i think the storys gonna be shite and cheap. Gimmieee that OST,art and grind wombo combo

They have Captain Toad in stock too, really on the fence about Octopath so I just ordered that instead lol

Tibarn · Jul 10, 2018

Plum said:
Holy shit I just realised something. If you split the 'OCTOPATH' name anagram into 'OCTO' and 'PATH' the two letters in a respective position (so O and P, C and A, etc) are the two noble and rogue sides to one of the 4 types of field abilities:

Ophelia - Recruit - Noble | Primrose - Allure - Rogue
Cyrus - Scrutinise - Rogue | Alfyn - Inquire - Noble
Tressa - Purchase - Noble | Therion - Steal - Rogue
Olberic - Challenge - Noble | H'aanit - Provoke - Rogue

EDIT: And they're on opposite sides of the map as well what the fuck:

Yep, IIRC Nintendo explained this, or some user noticed it a while ago and shared it.

It's surprising to see all these little details in the character placement in the world.

MelliiDragon · Jul 10, 2018

Plum said:
Holy shit I just realised something. If you split the 'OCTOPATH' name anagram into 'OCTO' and 'PATH' the two letters in a respective position (so O and P, C and A, etc) are the two noble and rogue sides to one of the 4 types of field abilities:

Ophelia - Recruit - Noble | Primrose - Allure - Rogue
Cyrus - Scrutinise - Rogue | Alfyn - Inquire - Noble
Tressa - Purchase - Noble | Therion - Steal - Rogue
Olberic - Challenge - Noble | H'aanit - Provoke - Rogue

EDIT: And they're on opposite sides of the map as well what the fuck:

The Reason for that is most likely so no matter where you start and which direction you will go, you should have all 4 types after getting your first 4 characters

Deleted member 4093 · Jul 10, 2018

Casual said:
If a game takes 20 hours to get good, it's not a good game. There's plenty of lengthy games that are good right away.

Not saying that this will be applicable to Octopath, but 20 hours is a long time to spend playing a bad game waiting for it to get good. That's dedicating like 2 weeks of your video game time if you're playing a moderate amount daily. There's tons of (immediately) great games these days and no where near enough time to play them all, no way I'm spending 20 hours on a bad experience.

Not true at all.

Someone into story who played 20 hours and then say, "The story doesnt make sense"

Well you didnt finish the game so how do you know? Yet goes ahead and review the game poorly due to lack of story.

GwyndolinCinder · Jul 10, 2018

MelliiDragon said:
The Reason for that is most likely so no matter where you start and which direction you will go, you should have all 4 types after getting your first 4 characters

2 hour long videos from "Video game analysis" youtubers incoming. "How Project Octopath masterfully places its companions".

Deleted member 36622 · Jul 10, 2018

Pepin said:
From what I can say so far, if you built a crew of - say - 5 characters and went and did their stories, you'd find the levels you'd need to be before progressing to be kinda out of reach without some PROPER grinding. Like, hardcore, unfun, re-running the same areas for an hour at a time levels of grinding.

It'd be more fun and you'd get more out of your time just by doing another character's branch. That make sense?

It's just if you want to avoid the parade of characters for the first 10-20 hours, some reviewer found it annoying.

I'm fine on re-running the same areas for an hour (isn't that what you do with pretty much all JRPGs?)

Plum · Jul 10, 2018

GwyndolinCinder said:
2 hour long videos from "Video game analysis" youtubers incoming. "How Project Octopath masterfully places its companions".

Ha, that's hopeful. We'll be getting videos like "Octopath Traveler - Not a Masterpiece" that last 3 hours, make copious references to "fake news" game journalist and then seriously criticise how long the level up screen takes.

Saint-14 · Jul 10, 2018

Well, just bought the game even though I said I'll wait for review, hoping for the best.

Batatina · Jul 10, 2018

I think it's fair to drop a game and review it for that they played. As long as the review reflects this " I played 20 hours and I just couln't go on". The problem of course is that Metacritic ignores this nuance. But still, if it didn't grab one person I'm sure the same will happen to a lot more people, and that's why different people should look at reviews from sources they trust will reflect them best. Me for example I know EZA will have the views I trust on a JRPG of this calibre, and if they drop the game before they finish I'll know that I probably won't be into it either.

Pepin · Jul 10, 2018

Harald23 said:
It's just if you want to avoid the parade of characters for the first 10-20 hours, some reviewer found it annoying.

I'm fine on re-running the same areas for an hour (isn't that what you do with pretty much all JRPGs?)

I mean, to a degree, you do grind like that. But at least in going for all chars, you can level your main party pretty easily whilst mopping up and getting a better idea about the world etc

If you do just wanna ignore half the cast, you're making more of a rod for your own back, I think. The game is clearly made for you to be able to recruit/progress as you want, but 'RECOMMENDED LEVEL' prompts popping up all over the map as you unlock more regions seem to push you into circling around, 'mopping up' you know?

Casual · Jul 10, 2018

MELLO said:
Not true at all.

Someone into story who played 20 hours and then say, "The story doesnt make sense"

Well you didnt finish the game so how do you know? Yet goes ahead and review the game poorly due to lack of story.

Sure, but that's a very specific thing. Obviously saying the story doesn't make sense when you're that far into it is pretty ignorant.

Now, if you were to say the story is boring? That's a legitimate criticism at 20 hours...it might take more than that to make sense, but it shouldn't take that long to be interesting.
Gameplay is a grind/simplistic/etc. Again, for me that's a legitimate criticism. Maybe you gain more complex skills and the encounters become better at some point after that, but no excuse for the first 20 hours.

So in a sense I agree with you, there's certain elements that you can't really critique at that point, but I feel like there's overwhelmingly more that you can critique by 20 hours. JRPGs get a bit more of a grace period in general, but 20 hours is excessive. 5 hours should be plenty time to ramp up, especially for a retro style JRPG. Even cutscene heavy modern JRPGs like P5 have hit their stride after 5 hours.

mob21 · Jul 10, 2018

how the fuck do we still not know for certain about the stories lol this is killing me

Zedark · Jul 10, 2018

mob21 said:
how the fuck do we still not know for certain about the stories lol this is killing me

We'll know when the reviews drop on Thursday.

jschreier · Jul 10, 2018

mob21 said:
how the fuck do we still not know for certain about the stories lol this is killing me

I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Batatina · Jul 10, 2018

mob21 said:
how the fuck do we still not know for certain about the stories lol this is killing me

There must be a serious embargo on this, but I find it really strange that a such a crucial aspect is being kept a secret. It's not a spoiler to at least reveal the story structure.

Edit: Oh I thought it was still a bit unknown, thanks for confirming. I'm not sure I will love this game as much as I hoped to then, but I'll keep the pre-order.

Plum · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Well fuck...

peach_loaf · Jul 10, 2018

mob21 said:
how the fuck do we still not know for certain about the stories lol this is killing me

Nah, people already know, just refuse to take that as truth.

Deleted member 4093 · Jul 10, 2018

Casual said:
Sure, but that's a very specific thing. Obviously saying the story doesn't make sense when you're that far into it is pretty ignorant.

Now, if you were to say the story is boring? That's a legitimate criticism at 20 hours...it might take more than that to make sense, but it shouldn't take that long to be interesting.
Gameplay is a grind/simplistic/etc. Again, for me that's a legitimate criticism. Maybe you gain more complex skills and the encounters become better at some point after that, but no excuse for the first 20 hours.

So in a sense I agree with you, there's certain elements that you can't really critique at that point, but I feel like there's overwhelmingly more that you can critique by 20 hours. JRPGs get a bit more of a grace period in general, but 20 hours is excessive. 5 hours should be plenty time to ramp up, especially for a retro style JRPG. Even cutscene heavy modern JRPGs like P5 have hit their stride after 5 hours.

For sure. Nothing to disagree here. I still think everyone takes game at different paces. BOTW suffered alot of that criticism as well. Some people it clicked right away, some people never, some people they left and came back, some after 20 hours. Can't really judge.

The perfect Dark · Jul 10, 2018

Wait...can you play the demo for more than 3 hours as long as you don't turn it off?

Opa-Pa · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Well there it is!

Lucentto · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

So you've managed to beat everyone's story?

Andi · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Thank you for clarifying.
I am still looking Forward to the game.
Did you ad least enjoy the stories?

mob21 · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Yeah lol I know it's pretty clear already but I've never really seen conflicting reports on a games story to this extent two/three days before launch.

I'm kind of enjoying the discourse though

WadiumArcadium · Jul 10, 2018

The perfect Dark said:
Wait...can you play the demo for more than 3 hours as long as you don't turn it off?

I haven't tried it but I thought you could start a new save and play for another three hours.

Braaier · Jul 10, 2018

FINALLY!!! Clarification. Thanks jschreier

FF Seraphim · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I thought I'd made it pretty clear - they are standalone stories. This tweet is not true. It's possible there's post-credits stuff that I haven't seen yet (credits rolled for me late last night), but it is accurate to say that this is a game about eight people who are all on entirely different journeys.

Oh man please tell me there are at least decent character interactions for each one. I would not be happy if I have a party and they literally didn't interact with the person's main storyline that would feel so damn odd.

Grailly · Jul 10, 2018

Batatina said:
There must be a serious embargo on this, but I find it really strange that a such a crucial aspect is being kept a secret. It's not a spoiler to at least reveal the story structure.

Edit: Oh I thought it was still a bit unknown, thanks for confirming. I'm not sure I will love this game as much as I hoped to then, but I'll keep the pre-order.

I think it's more that we refuse to believe it, it seems nuts. I'm closing in on the end of the game and I still kind of refuse to believe there'll be no main quest

Noppie · Jul 10, 2018

FF Seraphim said:
Oh man please tell me there are at least decent character interactions for each one. I would not be happy if I have a party and they literally didn't interact with the person's main storyline that would feel so damn odd.

There's the banter scenes where party members respond after certain events. But cutscenes and dialogue with NPC's is very much the person's own.

jschreier · Jul 10, 2018

Lucentto said:
So you've managed to beat everyone's story?

I've finished my four main characters' stories and am working on mopping up the rest today, just in case there's some sort of bonus or extra scene when you complete all eight. I'm not going to break embargo by offering any opinions or answering any specific story questions (plus I have to go do that whole "write a review" thing) but I hate misinformation.

Opa-Pa · Jul 10, 2018

Chapter 9: Peace.

The perfect Dark · Jul 10, 2018

WadiumArcadium said:
I haven't tried it but I thought you could start a new save and play for another three hours.

Yeah, the game just told me it's over :(
What a beautiful and amazing game. I wouldn't have tried it without the demo. Day 1.

Plum · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I've finished my four main characters' stories and am working on mopping up the rest today, just in case there's some sort of bonus or extra scene when you complete all eight. I'm not going to break embargo by offering any opinions or answering any specific story questions (plus I have to go do that whole "write a review" thing) but I hate misinformation.

Was anyone saying that there'd be something after you beat 4 stories? Seems like the prevailing thought was that you'd need to beat all 8 stories (and thus have a 'full' party) to see everything come together.

FF Seraphim · Jul 10, 2018

Noppie said:
There's the banter scenes where party members respond after certain events. But cutscenes and dialogue with NPC's is very much the person's own.

This makes picking a main character that much harder since I heard you cannot change out your main...

Deleted member 4090 · Jul 10, 2018

So you get a credit roll after your "main" character's story is done. Are they still locked into the party?

Bunkles · Jul 10, 2018

Chapter 9 is the true ending to MGS5. Dat Kojima.

duckroll · Jul 10, 2018

Grailly said:
I think it's more that we refuse to believe it, it seems nuts. I'm closing in on the end of the game and I still kind of refuse to believe there'll be no main quest

I don't understand what this means. From the start this game looked like a SaGa homage. I expected it to be a game where different character stories took place on the same world map and characters would run into each other if they explored the world, but the character you pick determines the specific story you see. Is that not the case?

Antitype · Jul 10, 2018

Not surprised that tweet was BS, the french guy who sort of "reviewed" the game had no reason to lie, no fame to be gained on some small corner of the internet and it's not like he was overly critical of the game, always repeating "it's still a good game" and all, just warning people to temper their expectations regarding the story.

Personally I'd have preferred an intertwined story format with plenty party interactions etc, but I'm still fine with the stand alone structure they went with. I liked everything else about the game, so I should still have a good time with it I believe.

BlueTsunami · Jul 10, 2018

Man, hope Springs eternal. Are people holding to the belief that after 70hrs of playing through eight scenarios a new title card will show up and give you another game?

Maybe this game is the prequel to the grand adventure in Octopath 2

mob21 · Jul 10, 2018

I mean the reasonable thing to expect is 8 separate stories as Jason said. But I fucking love "mystery" like this lol it's always a good time.

Glio · Jul 10, 2018

Honestly, I would have been disappointed that in the end everything would come together in a single plot. Finally something different in the narrative of a JRPG

Lucentto · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I've finished my four main characters' stories and am working on mopping up the rest today, just in case there's some sort of bonus or extra scene when you complete all eight. I'm not going to break embargo by offering any opinions or answering any specific story questions (plus I have to go do that whole "write a review" thing) but I hate misinformation.

I don't mean to offend but it seems strange to me you'll call that guy a liar when you haven't seen all the game has to offer yet. I know you can't confirm or deny this but it was expected that you need to beat all 8 character's story to see whatever is at the end.

Disclaimer · Jul 10, 2018

duckroll said:
I don't understand what this means. From the start this game looked like a SaGa homage. I expected it to be a game where different character stories took place on the same world map and characters would run into each other if they explored the world, but the character you pick determines the specific story you see. Is that not the case?

You can see everyone's story in one playthrough. They're all in the same party for gameplay-purposes (if you recruit them), but you can always change whose story you're following at a Tavern. Who you pick first determines your main character, who's locked in your party.

jakoo · Jul 10, 2018

Reading this thread, I personally think I am OK if there is no main quest line. I am fine with the game being a series of short stories that are tied together solely at the gameplay level, because that somewhat more unique to me in gaming compared to another "save the world" main quest.

However, for those who have preview copies of the game, is there a sense if the eight individual stories themselves are interesting and engaging? From the demo (at least for the Priestess and the Scholar) characters, the opening chapters seemed fairly benign and average, but I could see potential. Does any of that potential pay off from a storytelling perspective?

BlueManifest · Jul 10, 2018

jschreier said:
I've finished my four main characters' stories and am working on mopping up the rest today, just in case there's some sort of bonus or extra scene when you complete all eight. I'm not going to break embargo by offering any opinions or answering any specific story questions (plus I have to go do that whole "write a review" thing) but I hate misinformation.

There's 4 main characters? I thought all 8 were main characters? And yea I wouldn't be certain until you finish all 8

Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread

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