Also, my Cyrus has maxed out both Scholar and Merchant. Currently doing Warrior so I can break the 9999 damage limit (which is very easy to hit with his divine scholar skill).
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OT | Octopath Traveler | Octopus Thread [Now on Steam!]
- Thread starter kuroneko0509
- Start date
One more thought regarding Cyrus prologue:
I wonder if the person in black is principal's secretary. There are only three people who know Cyrus is going after the book, namely librarian, academy principal and his secretary. Assuming that the person in black doesn't want Cyrus to find the book, librarian can be immediately ruled out as she is the one telling Cyrus about it. Principal seems to has no interest in books so he is probably not the one. So that leaves secretary. She is mysterious and reasonably clever (suggested to exile Cyrus for the gossip). Therefore, she seems to fit a villain role.
Now gets to the bold guessing. I wonder if she is in connection to the party who worships the evil god, as mentioned by a NPC in Ophillia's starting location. Maybe she wants to resurrect the god through ancient rituals?
Now gets to the bold guessing. I wonder if she is in connection to the party who worships the evil god, as mentioned by a NPC in Ophillia's starting location. Maybe she wants to resurrect the god through ancient rituals?
Oh, so the purple chests are basically just a replacement for all of the gold that Tressa regularly picks up? That's good to know, since in that case, it's not really worth my time to backtrack all over the place for those chests in most cases.
OK folks, here's the final, final, final answer to the question "do the characters all interact and have some sort of emotional payoff, as this guy claimed?"
No. As I've said I don't know how many times now, this is a game about eight standalone stories. There's a post-credits boss gauntlet and super-powerful final boss with two phases that one player has finally defeated, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMf0SNNyxU
Throughout these bosses, none of the characters interact or say anything. It ends with you defeating darkness, etc. And a character who's referenced in some of the stories appears in ghost form and wishes you well.
The characters never interact with one another outside of the party banter vignettes, and there is no "ensemble payoff." This is a game about eight stories. It really bugs me that ShadowForks misled so many people here and on Reddit into thinking it was something else.
Throughout these bosses, none of the characters interact or say anything. It ends with you defeating darkness, etc. And a character who's referenced in some of the stories appears in ghost form and wishes you well.
The characters never interact with one another outside of the party banter vignettes, and there is no "ensemble payoff." This is a game about eight stories. It really bugs me that ShadowForks misled so many people here and on Reddit into thinking it was something else.
Thanks for looking into it Jason!
I'm satisfied with the game as it is, but you're right that misleading people is no bueno.
Is it possible to level up individual party members? I really don't like having all my party members at different levels.
Right!? I had her subclassed to thief for a couple of battles and it just feels wrong. When you make her steal from your enemies, she legitimately sounds apologetic.
Also, I'll throw my hat into the ring as far what my favorite prologues have been.
Number #1 is Primrose. Her voice actress does an amazing job and the payoff of beating her final boss was so satisfying. Her chapter 2 is really good, too, and she feels like the most complex and engaging character in the game, so far.
I also enjoyed the prologues for Olberic, Alfyn, and Ophelia quite a bit. None of them are totally amazing or original or anything, but they were done charmingly enough. H'aanit's also grew on me to become one of my favs (even if her philosophy on life reminds me of the Lion King).
I've played two of Tressa's chapters and both have left me a little wanting. I find her pluck and joyous capitalism very charming, though, so that makes up for them a bit.
I feel like Cyrus is the most shallow character in the game, even though I like him, and his prologue was the least satisfying for me. Also, the way the game keeps trying to play his obliviousness to women as comedy falls kind of flat. Out of everyone, he feels the most like a cartoon character. But like I said, I still like him and he rocks in battle.
As for Therion, his prologue story eventually got interesting, but the witty rogue loner archetype just doesn't do anything for me, and his backstory isn't engaging enough to help me think otherwise. I hate how the game punishes you for not using him by keeping all those purple chests around in the various dungeons, too. They should have really let you change your party at save points.
I can't agree with this at all. Towns feel almost copy/pasted so far. I've been to about 5 now and they all have the same feel. There is no real difference in houses, it's always the same ones. The NPC's (the handful you can actually interact with) have generic backgrounds in the form of some flavor text, but hardly anything special. Compared to actual 16-bit rpg's this feels like a cheap kock-off.
Well the first character you choose is locked into the party until you complete their story so unforutnately not for a long time. Even then I'm not sure you can remove people from the party without replacing them.
Is there any concensus on best subjobs yet? Can't you change subjob or are you locked in once you choose one?
Game is great so far.
One thing that is bothering me - is anyone else getting reddish-looking shadows in H'annit's area or is it just my TV?
One thing that is bothering me - is anyone else getting reddish-looking shadows in H'annit's area or is it just my TV?
You can change them as you see fit. No worries on locking anything in.
Ah great. I was worried I'd be stuck with bad subjobs. That makes it even better I can chop and change. Might try Cyrus with Warrior.
I don't think it matters that much how quickly you're playing - either you don't mind the repetition or you do. By the sixth or seventh Chapter 1 I was already mad at the game for making me do the same thing over and over again. I would've been just as mad whether or not I was reviewing it. When I started playing through the Chapter 2s and realized that the whole game was just going to follow the same exact pattern, I got this sinking feeling in my gut - I had been waiting a year and a half for this game, and was so damn excited to play it, and it was just letting me down so much. Still extremely bummed out about it, especially since the combat is so good.
Everyone has their own opinion, but to say that they almost feel copy and pasted sounds so far removed from my experience with them. Everything from the environments that surround the towns, to the music, to the flavor of the various townsfolk who inhabit them has helped make each town I visit feel unique. Each one also has their own culture and importance in the world, which helps inform the various npcs and side quests contained within them. If the assets for the houses are being reused, I haven't even noticed because each place feels so distinct.
I still don't feel the repetition is that big of a deal. Sure, the structure of the game has repetition, but the actual content is unique everytime. So basically, sorry you felt that way but personally I've not been bothered at all 25h in.
Well it does matter. That you beat all 8 stories in around 35 hours shows that you were rushing a bit, and doing so you couldn't just spend a few hours simply exploring, finding shrines, scrutinising/inquiring NPCs and doing side quests in between chapters as many people are. Not rushing things also means you can spread your playtime out in the real world so you aren't playing this 50+ hour long game over the span of a week. That and, since this is a Switch game you have the ability to play for a little bit at a time whenever you want instead of needing to sit down for multi-hour long sessions. The hardware does alleviate the repetition, especially if you don't have to rush things.
I understand you don't like the game and your reasoning why but applying your criticisms to other perspectives you haven't experienced as if they were gospel is quite close-minded to me. You don't have the 100% unique knowledge that you had prior to release because people are playing it and they know that the context of playing it at a leisurely pace means they personally find the game less repetitive overall.
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Yeah it's a good way to let you try things out and also unlock useful support skills. Since you have to equip those I imagine it's good to grind subjobs just to get useful ones.
Yeah it follows a pattern but I really don't feel that's a bad thing, at least not yet having gotten through all of the first chapters and half of the second I haven't been bothered by it at all, especially not with some side quests thrown in here and there. If having a pattern that is followed throughout the game was a bad thing Persona 5 would not be looked at anywhere near as fondly as it is.
16 hours in the game, unlocked 1 subjob so far and recruited 7 out of 8 characters.
LOVING the game, been exploring heavily the last few hours and went into way too high level areas but managed to get out with some nice loot.
Also decided to not save scum stuff path actions ... had to pay to restore my reputation 3 times so far but Tressa is bringing in enough money to compensate.
LOVING the game, been exploring heavily the last few hours and went into way too high level areas but managed to get out with some nice loot.
Also decided to not save scum stuff path actions ... had to pay to restore my reputation 3 times so far but Tressa is bringing in enough money to compensate.
I wouldn't say I rushed -- I found all of the shrines and did plenty of side quests. (I have been reviewing games long enough to have some idea of what I'm doing.) But of course playing the whole game over two weeks is a different experience than playing it leisurely over the course of a few months. I'm not arguing that. My point is that the repetition of the game bothered me from the getgo, and that it would have bothered me in the same ways whether or not I was reviewing it.
Yeah, a game can mask repetition in a lot of ways, first and foremost by providing an over-arching story and characters who get you emotionally invested enough that you don't mind repeating some activities. For me, Octopath Traveler doesn't do that. YMMV.
I've done 3 chapter 2 so far and currently doing my 4th. I feel heavily invested in all of them so far. The party interactions we get during them have been way beyond what I was expecting. Most of them have been brilliant commentary on what just happened during the story.
When you approach them they talk about their current situation before allowing you to view their story. From there it plays their Chapter 1 as if you started with them, they join your party once you it's time to do their first dungeon. None of your party members are featured in the scenes, it's just the character from that story.
Wondering about this as well. How different is chapter 1 when recruiting someone vs starting off as them as the initial character? Cause I feel like something might be being left out. Or could it just be the removal of the tutorials and the initial getting a feeling of the game just speeds up chapter 1s that much.
Just stole a Golden Axe from some old guy in Alfyn's starting town (3% change, took a good 40 tries before I got it) and, my god, this thing is so OP. I have it on Olberic with the Apothecary subjob. Any creatures with a weakness to axes and even those that don't can have hundreds or even thousands in damage done from the more powerful attacks.
Frankly I'm worried that I'm making myself a little too OP currently. My OCTO party is in the mid-to-high 20s in levels and they all have pretty good equipment (not all have the OP 3% chance equipment, but good stuff anyway). I need to start doing their Chapter 2s so I don't get too powerful too early.
Frankly I'm worried that I'm making myself a little too OP currently. My OCTO party is in the mid-to-high 20s in levels and they all have pretty good equipment (not all have the OP 3% chance equipment, but good stuff anyway). I need to start doing their Chapter 2s so I don't get too powerful too early.
Yeah, the formulaic nature and repetitiveness are probably going to be fairly widely acknowledged as things to be improved for the (probably inevitable?) sequel/follow-up. I know you're a fan of the SaGa series, and having different progression structures/mechanics for each character is one of the things that SaGa Frontier & Unlimited SaGa did very well that could easily be taken as inspiration going forward. The developers really relied on the Path mechanics to vary the character chapters, but outside of Olberic dueling, it doesn't really FEEL that different. Running up to quest NPCs to Inquire is not functionally any different than running up to them to Steal an item.
Had an idea that I think I'm going to try out when I get back on later, but wanted to ask if anyone has tried it:
Therion using a Warrior subclass. Stack evade like crazy and then use Incite to make him the target. Dodge physical attacks. Victory.
Does it work?
Therion using a Warrior subclass. Stack evade like crazy and then use Incite to make him the target. Dodge physical attacks. Victory.
Does it work?
...Have you played "actual 16-bit RPGs" lately? Octopath's NPCs utterly eclipse them both in writing quantity and quality. You'll find that the number of the "handful of you can actually interact with" actually equals or exceeds many JRPGs, too, and the ones you can't interact with are there for background, to make the towns feel more lived in.
When a game's writing can actually make me feel guilty or think twice about stealing from an NPC, that's good stuff. When would-be generic guards have home lives, or hilarious philosophical proclivities, that's characterizing. When there's realistic drama, petty squabbles, humanitarian efforts, etc. within town NPCs' social circles, how does that not differentiate the towns?
Did you mean
Chapter 2? Because I just played that, and it had no dungeon. A dueling festival topped off by a boss gauntlet is pretty differentiating.
If you didn't mean that, I have to say, I find that conclusion reductive.
Yep. You can do that with Olberic—or anyone else—too, but Olberic's unique Defend command makes him best at it.
Games great so far. finished all the first chapters and Therion's second. Music is beautiful, it has a bit of the bravely default soundtrack about it along with some other aspects of the game. Know it was a different team but seems like a lot of nuances of that game were brought up in its development. It looks incredible both how they have achieved the graphical approach and the general presentation, would be interesting to see how that graphical style rolled out through the development. Enjoying the path action options you have in towns with the different characters, not that I've used it an extensive amount but it's a nice addition. Interested to see where it goes further in with being able to challenge npcs and victory leading to new areas etc or at least that would be cool if it became more of a thing.
Like the individual story narratives so far. More interesting at the moment seeing how these stories play out in this manner, some intergration of them all further in would be interesting but I don't have any qualms with it at the moment.
The battle system is a lot of fun especially in figuring out the most efficient way to deal with a group of enimies, similar again to bravely default but and this being my only main gripe with the game so far is that bravely done it better. I haven't felt I would loose a battle yet where as in bravely there just seemed like more ways battles could screw you up if you didn't approach it appropriately, especially the boss battles but I guess I'm still early. The boss at the end of therion's second chapter was a bit more fun and challenging in this regard so could just start getting more involved now.
As of where I'm at right now it seems like an amalgamation of different rpgs, final fantasy presentation, dragon quest town vignettes, bravely default battle system, four heroes of light etc but with new ideas and variations blended in. Seems huge as well with the different areas and side dungeons. Enjoying it a lot at this early point.
Like the individual story narratives so far. More interesting at the moment seeing how these stories play out in this manner, some intergration of them all further in would be interesting but I don't have any qualms with it at the moment.
The battle system is a lot of fun especially in figuring out the most efficient way to deal with a group of enimies, similar again to bravely default but and this being my only main gripe with the game so far is that bravely done it better. I haven't felt I would loose a battle yet where as in bravely there just seemed like more ways battles could screw you up if you didn't approach it appropriately, especially the boss battles but I guess I'm still early. The boss at the end of therion's second chapter was a bit more fun and challenging in this regard so could just start getting more involved now.
As of where I'm at right now it seems like an amalgamation of different rpgs, final fantasy presentation, dragon quest town vignettes, bravely default battle system, four heroes of light etc but with new ideas and variations blended in. Seems huge as well with the different areas and side dungeons. Enjoying it a lot at this early point.
I have to strongly disagree with this. The towns are far less copy-paste than nearly an of the 16-bit RPGs from Square, Enix, or other developers. Towns are larger, with more in depth NPCs, and there's generally more towns? And with more unique music (17 tracks for 24-ish towns?)
First, what is that comment in the brackets supposed to mean? Second, finding the shrines (which are literally just rooms off the beaten path) and doing some side quests can still be 'rushed'. Despite not being a reviewer I've had little in the way of challenge throughout the game yet it's taken me 15 hours to complete all 8 Prologues, and that's because I explored the maps thoroughly, spoke to most-if-not-all NPCs I could and did all the side quests I could find.
Except you literally said:
Yes, you didn't like the game from the get-go; I wasn't that enthused with the Prologues either. However, that still doesn't mean that having to play the game for many hours each day is somehow not a factor in whether you absolutely hate the game's structure (as you do) or are fine with it. It's hypocritical to say you understand the different experiences yet argue that, in this one specific case, those different experiences don't matter at all. That's not to mention the original poster didn't even mention the game's structure or repetition; they seemingly just wanted to say that they personally felt rushing through the game as you did would do it an injustice.
Yeah, I continued playing because save carries over, but I was convinced. Game is coming in the mail today. It's great.
Boost Points, so the yellow dots that appear after every turn allowing you to boost your attacks/abilities.
Im at my 6th character in chapter1 and i dont feel that way at all.
Its a shame that you did and i respect your review.
Personally i understand your thoughts.
So far i just dont agree with them
It's pretty obvious when you know (boost point) but one of the things I feel this game isn't great at, is it telling you much of anything.
You probably have to kill the strongest before the end of the battle for solo experience.
Just to say, lvls are just about a few more HP and barely any stat added.
If ever that was a problem for you.
Tbh, I'm not far in at all (did two chapter ones) but I'm finding daunting the idea of returning to do another character'a chapter one. I just find these story setups very boring so far (thief and apothecary).
The systems are good but I'm not enjoying the story and characters at all and this seems a massive problem with this type of game. Maybe I got unlucky with my first two picks.
The systems are good but I'm not enjoying the story and characters at all and this seems a massive problem with this type of game. Maybe I got unlucky with my first two picks.