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Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread
- Thread starter Meelow
- Start date
They shit the bed because they are not doing the type of story you want them to do? Ridiculous. It's a different type of storytelling, which is just as valid as other types of storytelling. A grand overarching epic story is not better or worse than small scale personal stories. People confuse that with good writing, when that is not the case. It is not better or worse, it's just different ways of telling a story that have been valid in all forms of media for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Honestly, to say they shit the bed because they are choosing to tell a type a story you don't like sounds a bit insulting. It's one thing to say you are not interested in those type of stories, which is fair and more than fine. There are genres and types of stories I don't care for. But to say they shit the bed is like saying that by default certain genres or types of storytelling are bad except the ones you like.
There are definitely small connections between the stories. I don't think anyone's disputed that. All I've said is that this tweet is bullshit. I'll avoid saying much more until my review is up - I just hate seeing misinformation get spread (especially by someone who wants to be a journalist).
I saw the SaGa games came up again last night and I still don't understand the point of invoking them as if they're comparable modern games.
Romancing SaGa 3 came out over 22 years ago. Unlimited Saga came out over 15 years ago.
I expect games to have improved their storytelling over that time. Especially as other games have tackled the problem of having different combinations of party members exchange dialogue.
I just hope the "Hear A Tale" framing actually is clear enough to cover the story scenes ndespite how weirdly that ties into the combat and stuff out in the world, but meanwhile...
Oof, this sounds maybe even more jarring than not having the party interact. They couldn't even just check who's in the active party and change the dialogue a bit...?
I still think the path actions being used to solve quests in different ways aspect is very neat, but this puts a bit of a damper on that.
Romancing SaGa 3 came out over 22 years ago. Unlimited Saga came out over 15 years ago.
I expect games to have improved their storytelling over that time. Especially as other games have tackled the problem of having different combinations of party members exchange dialogue.
I just hope the "Hear A Tale" framing actually is clear enough to cover the story scenes ndespite how weirdly that ties into the combat and stuff out in the world, but meanwhile...
Oof, this sounds maybe even more jarring than not having the party interact. They couldn't even just check who's in the active party and change the dialogue a bit...?
I still think the path actions being used to solve quests in different ways aspect is very neat, but this puts a bit of a damper on that.
Well the developer themselves are spreading the misinformation today then lol
Tbh it's kinda funny to hear this sort of writing is shit because lots of people love individual stories in a bigger picture - has any of you heard of A Song of Ice and Fire?
I've been out of the loop on this for a few days waiting for reviews - so are people souring on the game now that some new impressions came out? The story (which is why I'd be buying it) isn't as good as initially expected? Or is that just the last few pages of this thread and I should maintain my hype?
Scarlet Grace came out like 2 years ago.
And older game does not mean worse narrative.
I actually enjoy narrative in SaGa more than most modern JRPG that tries to tell too much but ultimately falls flat.
Chrono Trigger and FF6 are also still touted as some of the best storytelling in JRPG. And the best narrative in JRPG came out 20 years ago in Xenogears, still unmatched until today,
Dunno about that one, but Game of Thrones also does something like Octopath, telling a multitude of different stories most of which do not intertwine, and it's great.
;)
Seems like there won't be any significant story after you've played all the individual storylines, which is disappointing a lot of people. I think it's still safe to be hyped, as long as you adjust your expectations on what the game is going to be.
But it looks like Scarlet Grace has 4 protagonists each with their own party members, no? Instead of having you pretend the other characters in each fight weren't really there?
So I don't think that really helps.
Impressions have been very positive overall. No one has commented negatively on the quality of the story. In fact, Jason Schreier said he liked some of them very much.
Some people were expecting something different than was marketed: eight protagonists with eight stories.
The most probable answer is that there are connections between them, but they do not culminate in some grandiose final chapter. There will, however, be plenty of endgame content that exceeds the suggested level of the story.
Keen-eyed players have already found lots of lore connections between the prologues, and I suspect that will continue to be the case as we advance in the game.
There were even a lot of misinformations coming from Kotaku all the way back. The safest way is still to experience it itself. There are so many weird quotes revolving around this game coming from the developers, journalists and so called journalists. This means, I trust all of them equally with a huge grain of salt.
probably not lying, probably just playing up the connections between the stories
So theres probably little meaningless intertwining then?
I'm somebody that dont care about a end boss and not too picky on this subject but for the sake of understanding, I'd like to understand what that means exactly. Which I guess will find out tomorrow.
Funny part is that when they are linking characters together it's shit (Season 5 and 7).
But hey it's not GRRM work
GoT is a bad show.
In fire emblem yes
Which is why it will always be superior to Advance Wars
Par the course with SaGa series, you can recruit other main protagonists, but they will just be there.
Also the party member in any SaGa games tend to have very minor effect on the plot.
I actually think U:SaGa is the game with this kind of structure and somewhat has relatively more interaction with other party member (e.g. Henry plays a rather important role in Laura's story) and even that is still rather minimal.
If you play SaGa, you'd have known that party interaction is never the main selling point. The focus has always been on the world, scenarios, character personal story and gameplay.
I will just say they have different narrative design than most other JRPG and that doesn't make them automatically less than others.
I mean it's ok if you don't like it, but my gripe is people writing it off as factually inferior. I actually prefer the structure in SaGa than lets say game like Tales which at times I hope they would've just written less dialogues.
SaGa structure leave a lot of holes that I can always fill with my imagination, or other times I just don't need to care and play the game.
"Meaningless" is maybe a little extreme, but we'll see. There seem to be some intriguing connections in the prologue. For instance:
Primrose is seeking vengeance against the three Crow Men, one of whom is keeping tabs on Cyrus' investigation into the dark magic tome From the Depths of Hell.
What this means is that if we're observant, we might be able to glean behind-the-scenes happenings in Orsterra touched on in each storyline, whether resolved in individual ones or some form of optional content. Is that an "overarching plot"? Probably not in the sense that it's ever a singular goal for the protagonists, but maybe there'll be a background plot to piece together like a puzzle.
Slightly off topic - anyone else wish they did Golden Sun TLA fighting style of 4x2 Parties? Seemed like a great game to do it. In fact, are there any other games that have system?
Yes, but they don't partake in each other's personal story cutscenes.
I played the demo, and I found it very jarring how there is almost no character interaction when the characters first team up. No justification as to why they are teaming up. Just dialogue 'oh, you want to team up? Let's go!'. Makes me feel that the rest of the game is going to be that way.
I'd be tempted at a 30 dollar price point, but from playing the demo it does not feel like a 60 dollar game.
I'd be tempted at a 30 dollar price point, but from playing the demo it does not feel like a 60 dollar game.
lol at your second point, but maybe this will allay your fears about interaction:
I kinda wish there was a secret final chapter that was just a giant mustachioed evil king boss who sits on a throne of eight elemental crystals, and you only get a 3 minute cutscene with all eight characters together before you fight him. Just to see the tears.
Well, according to some people with the game:
the four optional jobs we learned about from the French expo have a recommended level of 50(+) to try to obtain, which is higher than the Chapter 4s, and there are optional areas with recommended levels 60+ that open up after the eight stories conclude, so there is going to be a very large amount of post-game content at the very least.
Perhaps some will further aspects of the story? There has to be quite a lot—why else relegate the optional jobs to that part of the game? Is this the second part of the game developers referred to, or were they simply talking about post-prologue? Questions! Questions that need answers!
Perhaps some will further aspects of the story? There has to be quite a lot—why else relegate the optional jobs to that part of the game? Is this the second part of the game developers referred to, or were they simply talking about post-prologue? Questions! Questions that need answers!
Mind, that's all thirdhand information, so grain of salt.
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I haven't really been keeping up with the thread because I wanted to go in blind. But some of these Metacritic predictions seem low based off what I had assumed after playing the demo.
Did I miss something?
Did I miss something?
Bravely Default got an 85, lol. Hell, I Am Setsuna got 74 and that game was... far worse than this one is looking like.
Some people on Era can be negative nancies and somehow forgot that all of the previews were glowing
People are fretting because it has a non-traditional structure and previewers seem divided on certain aspects, though most were glowing.
It'll be higher MC than Bravely, almost for certain. Upper-80s, IMO.
That was actually pretty weird, I liked the game, but god those last 4. Hapters we're terrible, at least the combat system carried the game, and the customizatión in random encounters was a neat system
And Bravely Second got an 81. It's not being negative to strike a realistic estimate of what you think review scores will be, and blind optimism doesn't improve an end product whose inattentiveness is glaring among character interaction in a game whose title references its eight characters.
I'm buying it regardless because of its art style.