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Octopath Traveler II |OT| Can't We Talk This Over Like Normal Adults?

BlakeofT

Member
I love the look of these games and I'm interested in playing them. Wish you could adjust the depth of field blur though.
 

BlakeofT

Member
I think that you can remove it in the options menu, if I'm not wrong.
I researched this in the past and can't say for certain since I don't own either game. But I did find this page about how to do it Octopath Traveler II. It seems to ruin some of the lighting effects, but I'd personally take it over the blurriness.


Before:

unnamed-file-665.jpg


After:

unnamed-file-666.jpg
 

Pejo

Member
Definitely looks cleaner in screenshots, but I actually like the shallow DoF in motion because of the diorama effect.

Man, Merchant is OP just from "rest" skill. Basically anything that can't 1hko you can be outlasted. If I put Warrior's counter on with that, seems like a (boring) but easy guaranteed win.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Man, Merchant is OP just from "rest" skill. Basically anything that can't 1hko you can be outlasted. If I put Warrior's counter on with that, seems like a (boring) but easy guaranteed win.
I think Partitio is my favorite character and class so far. You're right, Rest is crazy good. I've only done a few character's chapter 1 stories so far. Work has been crazy, but this weekend I'm planning on putting in a lot of hours on this.
 

Pejo

Member
Just finished Osvald Chp3. Anyone else get the vibes that Harvey is just an alter ego and he's lost his marbles while trying to figure out "supermagic" or whatever? I mean his assistant and the guard both just kinda go silent when he brings up Harvey's name, and there's this big elaborate scheme by Harvey to make him go through all of these roundabout methods to find him. Part of me also wonders if his wife IS the assistant and she's playing the part since he's clearly lost it. I'm probably overthinking it, but that's the vibe I got after the chapter played out. Would be a nice little Shyamalan Twist™.

Also really enjoying Ochette as a character. She just doesn't give a fuck most of the time.

Like when she found out that the sea god snake thing was killed, that woman goes off on this big sad "humans bad" rant. Then Ochette's like, "Oh that sucks, well anyways I'm gonna eat this fish and then I'm out, see ya."

It's nice to see a JRPG with some actual personality in their characters beyond melodrama. Agnea dancing for married men and then the dudes commenting about their wife getting mad for giving away their stuff made me laugh too.

The character skits are a welcome addition, but they're too few and kinda stiff. Everything else I really am enjoying about the game. Can't wait to have some time to really dig in and play this weekend. Also want to start unlocking some subjobs. I hope there's a lot of "bonus" jobs this time around, they were some of my favorite parts of Octopath 1.
 

Graciaus

Member
I researched this in the past and can't say for certain since I don't own either game. But I did find this page about how to do it Octopath Traveler II. It seems to ruin some of the lighting effects, but I'd personally take it over the blurriness.


Before:


After:
The lighting difference is probably because they turned off the bloom too. I did the same thing when I played Triangle Strategy since I hated the look.
 

ssringo

Member
Just finished Osvald Chp3. Anyone else get the vibes that Harvey is just an alter ego and he's lost his marbles while trying to figure out "supermagic" or whatever? I mean his assistant and the guard both just kinda go silent when he brings up Harvey's name, and there's this big elaborate scheme by Harvey to make him go through all of these roundabout methods to find him. Part of me also wonders if his wife IS the assistant and she's playing the part since he's clearly lost it. I'm probably overthinking it, but that's the vibe I got after the chapter played out. Would be a nice little Shyamalan Twist™.
I very much get a
Fight Club feeling
with Osvald. I actually get a similar vibe from
Castti
as well with regards to
Malaya
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Bought the full game on steam. I played the demo prior.

Do I need to keep the demo installed to keep the safe file until I beat the game, or only until I start up the full game, then I can delete the demo ?
 

Labadal

Member
Bought the full game on steam. I played the demo prior.

Do I need to keep the demo installed to keep the safe file until I beat the game, or only until I start up the full game, then I can delete the demo ?
Start the full game, save your demo save once in the full game. Delete demo.
 

Pejo

Member
Bought the full game on steam. I played the demo prior.

Do I need to keep the demo installed to keep the safe file until I beat the game, or only until I start up the full game, then I can delete the demo ?
I didn't do it for Octopath, but other games work that you can delete the demo after loading the main game.

*edit*

I was up too late last night, going around and unlocking all of the towns I could safely get to for fast travel, and finding a bunch of the subjob unlock guilds. I don't have all of them yet, but it just struck me that I don't think any one character can have all magic elements in this one like they could in the first octopath, unless it's one of the advanced jobs. It's not a huge deal but it seems you have to pick between wind/dark/light this time for your mage, and I don't think dark/wind have natural AoEs. Might able to do it with Ochette with scholar subjob if you can catch the right monsters, actually, now that I'm thinking about it.
 
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Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Start the full game, save your demo save once in the full game. Delete demo.

Thank you! Turns out when you load up the full game and do the file transfer thing it also deletes the demo on its own out of the steam library. Super slick.

Just did Partitio chapter 1. HIs abilities are SO fucking cool.

I can tell this game is something really special just from a few hours. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of entry. Incredible work by the composer.
 
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Just want to chime in. I absolutely love this game, so much better than the original, the characters, the world, NOT THE MUSIC - it's just not as good this is a 7.5 out of 10, the original to me was a 10, the jobs and depth. Really incredible game.
 
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Just want to chime in. I absolutely love this game, so much better than the original, the characters, the world, NOT THE MUSIC - it's just not as good this is a 7.5 out of 10, the original to me was a 10, the jobs and depth. Really incredible game.
Weird. I feel it's the exact same game almost. They just swapped out new characters into the same roles and started over.

I still like the game, but to me, it's way too similar to the first. It doesn't have its own identity.
 

Pejo

Member
Just want to chime in. I absolutely love this game, so much better than the original, the characters, the world, NOT THE MUSIC - it's just not as good this is a 7.5 out of 10, the original to me was a 10, the jobs and depth. Really incredible game.
I agree that the music hasn't been AS good as the first one, but there are plenty of noteworthy tracks, and they all create the proper ambiance for the area they're played.

When the shouting match with the theater owner gracefully transitioned into the decisive boss music when the fight started, I smiled big in real life.

Fuck I love when games do that.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I can agree that character stories in 2nd is much more compelling that first game, some people not english voice acting but I personally enjoying them.
 

Pejo

Member
So I finished my "main" party's chapter 3 stories tonight. I really like Ochette, she's a very refreshing personality and it adds an appropriate amount of levity to the otherwise heavy/dramatic stories of the other characters. I actually haven't seen a chapter in the game that I don't like yet. It's not overly complex, story-wise, but damn it's kinda refreshing to have nice simple stories with clear motivations after years of Nomura's horseshit.

I thought I was growing out of liking turn based JRPGs, but it turns out it just took the right mix to the formula to make me appreciate them all over again. And man, I don't care if people don't particularly like it, but grinding on random encounters is just so therapeutic for me. Especially in Octopath where 1-rounding the group is like a mini puzzle game for each enemy layout. I hope this series continues to do well and expand on their strengths, they've got a great base here.

I'd still like to see more character interaction with each other though, the skits are fun, but it's only ever 2 characters at a time and there's no acknowledgement of each other in the proper story chapters (yet at least). I've been enjoying the english VA work, but I'd be willing to give it up and keep it text only if the interactions became much more involved with different more frequent events and banter and stuff. I also like the "Tales of" skit interface better. Maybe also do group discussions/events when you stay at an inn, like another JRPG I played but can't remember which one right now. It still feels like you're playing 1 person's quest at a time and everyone else is completely invisible, which was a complaint I had with the first one.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I really like Ochette, she's a very refreshing personality and it adds an appropriate amount of levity to the otherwise heavy/dramatic stories of the other characters.
I couldn't agree more, I absolutely love her and her story. She is very straight forward but in very charming way, I like her personality same reason I like Luffy.
 

sigmaZ

Member
Thank you! Turns out when you load up the full game and do the file transfer thing it also deletes the demo on its own out of the steam library. Super slick.

Just did Partitio chapter 1. HIs abilities are SO fucking cool.

I can tell this game is something really special just from a few hours. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of entry. Incredible work by the composer.
Yes. Some of the music has blown me away. It's really well mixed as well.
 

Rran

Member
Does the game's curve get tougher after Ch 2? Some of these bosses have been a breeze, especially with the new classes and stuff.

Otherwise having a blast. The soundtrack is distractingly good.
 
Does the game's curve get tougher after Ch 2? Some of these bosses have been a breeze, especially with the new classes and stuff.

Otherwise having a blast. The soundtrack is distractingly good.
It seems to be completely dependent on your level. It's like old-school JRPGs where 90% of the "challenge" is being a high enough level or not.

I don't necessarily mean that as a criticism. Sometimes that is fun. It was what made the original Dragon Quest/Warrior games rewarding.
 

Power Pro

Member
I've been playing this slowly over the past week...putting in a few hours a night...Finally got through all the first chapters for each character, and ehh..

I hate to say it, but this game suffers the same damn problems the first game did for me. They learned literally nothing, and just made another one. I mean look, the gameplay is not interesting enough to stand on it's own, and so you gotta balance that with good story or interesting characters. They get like 1/3 of the way there, but that's it. Where's the charm? Where's the aspect that is supposed endear me to these characters, because nothing does! The writing is so flat, and predicable. The structure is so rigid, and beyond the pretty 2D/HD look, the game is so boring to look at. Older 16 bit RPGs didn't just get by on their pixel art alone, the writing was interesting, there was wit and charm to the dialogue. Every thing about this feels so sterile, and lacking charm, and it was something I desperately hoped they would have learned to fix after the first game got so many complaints about it's writing.

I am sorry to come in this thread and just complain about something that you all may be enjoying, but I just needed to vent. I have been trying so so so hard to enjoy the game, and wanted to like it. I'm sad that I'm not :messenger_persevering:
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
I've been playing this slowly over the past week...putting in a few hours a night...Finally got through all the first chapters for each character, and ehh..

I hate to say it, but this game suffers the same damn problems the first game did for me. They learned literally nothing, and just made another one. I mean look, the gameplay is not interesting enough to stand on it's own, and so you gotta balance that with good story or interesting characters. They get like 1/3 of the way there, but that's it. Where's the charm? Where's the aspect that is supposed endear me to these characters, because nothing does! The writing is so flat, and predicable. The structure is so rigid, and beyond the pretty 2D/HD look, the game is so boring to look at. Older 16 bit RPGs didn't just get by on their pixel art alone, the writing was interesting, there was wit and charm to the dialogue. Every thing about this feels so sterile, and lacking charm, and it was something I desperately hoped they would have learned to fix after the first game got so many complaints about it's writing.

I am sorry to come in this thread and just complain about something that you all may be enjoying, but I just needed to vent. I have been trying so so so hard to enjoy the game, and wanted to like it. I'm sad that I'm not :messenger_persevering:
I 100% agree with this post.
 

Pejo

Member
I've been playing this slowly over the past week...putting in a few hours a night...Finally got through all the first chapters for each character, and ehh..

I hate to say it, but this game suffers the same damn problems the first game did for me. They learned literally nothing, and just made another one. I mean look, the gameplay is not interesting enough to stand on it's own, and so you gotta balance that with good story or interesting characters. They get like 1/3 of the way there, but that's it. Where's the charm? Where's the aspect that is supposed endear me to these characters, because nothing does! The writing is so flat, and predicable. The structure is so rigid, and beyond the pretty 2D/HD look, the game is so boring to look at. Older 16 bit RPGs didn't just get by on their pixel art alone, the writing was interesting, there was wit and charm to the dialogue. Every thing about this feels so sterile, and lacking charm, and it was something I desperately hoped they would have learned to fix after the first game got so many complaints about it's writing.

I am sorry to come in this thread and just complain about something that you all may be enjoying, but I just needed to vent. I have been trying so so so hard to enjoy the game, and wanted to like it. I'm sad that I'm not :messenger_persevering:
Understood and I agree with some of what you're saying, but after trying to make sense of bullshit like Kingdom Hearts 3, I think it's a breath of fresh air to have more smaller scale, simplistic stories. If you look at FFIV for instance, the story was mostly just about love, betrayal, becoming a better person until the last dungeon where it kinda flew off the handle. FFVI had a lot of individual stories but they were all fairly simple in their execution too, and it's always in talks for one of the best JRPGs of all time. I don't think the stories are bad, there just plain isn't enough interaction with party members. Everything feels very hollow, which is not something you should feel in a game with up to 8 party members.

I don't really see any point to the "it's optional to recruit the characters" as a mechanic. I'm sure 90% of the players get them all anyways, so maybe in the future they should do the recruiting chapters all as a linear part of the story so that they all have to exist and you can build events around that. Then open it up in chapter 2 and beyond to tackle their stories in whatever way you want, but working with the assumption that they're all in your party.
 

Power Pro

Member
Understood and I agree with some of what you're saying, but after trying to make sense of bullshit like Kingdom Hearts 3, I think it's a breath of fresh air to have more smaller scale, simplistic stories. If you look at FFIV for instance, the story was mostly just about love, betrayal, becoming a better person until the last dungeon where it kinda flew off the handle. FFVI had a lot of individual stories but they were all fairly simple in their execution too, and it's always in talks for one of the best JRPGs of all time. I don't think the stories are bad, there just plain isn't enough interaction with party members. Everything feels very hollow, which is not something you should feel in a game with up to 8 party members.

I don't really see any point to the "it's optional to recruit the characters" as a mechanic. I'm sure 90% of the players get them all anyways, so maybe in the future they should do the recruiting chapters all as a linear part of the story so that they all have to exist and you can build events around that. Then open it up in chapter 2 and beyond to tackle their stories in whatever way you want, but working with the assumption that they're all in your party.
One example I keep coming back to is Live A Live. It's a remake of a Super Famicom game I never heard of before, but after playing the remake, it feels like a similar concept to Octopath Traveler, just done much much better. It's not like I don't like these type of games, because I legit think Live A Live might be my GOTY of 2022. It's did the whole multiple characters and narratives thing right. I loved how it all came together by the end of the game too, and it was so satisfying.

I remember the first Octopath Traveler had some kind of final chapter type thing once you saw every one's story, but even that wasn't very interesting. Just think it's a fault of the writers not being as talented as they were in the 1990s. Even if games like Final Fantasy IV had a very by the numbers plot, it was told in an interesting way. The pacing didn't feel so jarring with how they break up these characters stories. That was another thing that worked so well about Live A Live. You had 7 characters, but you had to play their individual stories all at once, which helped not break up the pace of each story. I suppose you COULD play one characters story all the way through at a time in Octopath, but you want to be proper level, and each chapter scales higher and higher, so you might as well do each characters early chapters one after another.
 

Exentryk

Member
It seems to be completely dependent on your level. It's like old-school JRPGs where 90% of the "challenge" is being a high enough level or not.

I don't necessarily mean that as a criticism. Sometimes that is fun. It was what made the original Dragon Quest/Warrior games rewarding.
Not really. Your equipment and strategy matter more in these games. You can beat level 50 dungeons at level 20 for example.
 

sigmaZ

Member
I've been playing this slowly over the past week...putting in a few hours a night...Finally got through all the first chapters for each character, and ehh..

I hate to say it, but this game suffers the same damn problems the first game did for me. They learned literally nothing, and just made another one. I mean look, the gameplay is not interesting enough to stand on it's own, and so you gotta balance that with good story or interesting characters. They get like 1/3 of the way there, but that's it. Where's the charm? Where's the aspect that is supposed endear me to these characters, because nothing does! The writing is so flat, and predicable. The structure is so rigid, and beyond the pretty 2D/HD look, the game is so boring to look at. Older 16 bit RPGs didn't just get by on their pixel art alone, the writing was interesting, there was wit and charm to the dialogue. Every thing about this feels so sterile, and lacking charm, and it was something I desperately hoped they would have learned to fix after the first game got so many complaints about it's writing.

I am sorry to come in this thread and just complain about something that you all may be enjoying, but I just needed to vent. I have been trying so so so hard to enjoy the game, and wanted to like it. I'm sad that I'm not :messenger_persevering:
I mean I agree with your sentiments about what made the classics great, but I feel this does quite a good job managing the formula set by the first. I've loved the character interactions I've seen so far and there has been a lot more going on with NPCs and such. The dialogue is simple and much better than the first IMO. And the soundtrack really adds a lot. Shame it's not clicking with you, because I find it far superior to the first.
 

Oberstein

Member
I've been playing this slowly over the past week...putting in a few hours a night...Finally got through all the first chapters for each character, and ehh..

I hate to say it, but this game suffers the same damn problems the first game did for me. They learned literally nothing, and just made another one. I mean look, the gameplay is not interesting enough to stand on it's own, and so you gotta balance that with good story or interesting characters. They get like 1/3 of the way there, but that's it. Where's the charm? Where's the aspect that is supposed endear me to these characters, because nothing does! The writing is so flat, and predicable. The structure is so rigid, and beyond the pretty 2D/HD look, the game is so boring to look at. Older 16 bit RPGs didn't just get by on their pixel art alone, the writing was interesting, there was wit and charm to the dialogue. Every thing about this feels so sterile, and lacking charm, and it was something I desperately hoped they would have learned to fix after the first game got so many complaints about it's writing.

It's very surprising to hear this opinion, because I have the impression that it's the opposite: they changed the repetitive rhythm of progression (some chapters are short, some are long, some have fights, some don't), there are real interactions (in addition to banter) between the characters and overall the universe is teeming with life. It's clearly not a rush job: there's a lot of detail everywhere and not just aesthetically.

I agree that the formula is the same overall, but no one is complaining that you're still doing city management in a Sim City. Yes, it's a JRPG with its tropes, its childish, even outdated side, but it's not just an homage: the first one seems almost like an amateur work in comparison.

But I understand that you may not like it or get tired of it halfway through. It was like that in the 90s too.
 

Pejo

Member
Man, Mother was the first challenge I had in the game as far as bosses go. It's funny, I noticed that on the way to her, there are 2 equipment chests that have Terror immunity gear in them, and I remember thinking, "oh so she probably uses Terror". Then I thought, meh I've been knocking these bosses over without much trouble at all, it'll be fine. I didn't expect max of 12 break on her, and with Terror you can't use any BP to enhance/multiply attacks. I basically skated by thanks to Ochette's beasts to bring down her break bar with Double _____ and then put the hurt on with the single target mega dps latent move. Hit 9999 for the first time at level 36. Damn Ochette is the MVP. Oh and a lot of the healing grape bunch items. I think for harder content I'm going to switch out Agnea for Castti. I don't find most of the dancer skills very useful.

Anyways, after barely scraping by that fight, it got the ol' noggin and blood pumping.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Finished Osvald chapter 2 and nearly done with Temenos chapter 1. I absolutely love Temenos' character. What an original guy lol. His combination of character traits is immediately memorable.

Love the game so far but it can very slow and mellow with a lot of story. I can't imagine playing this on anything but Switch. Feels like it was made for handheld.
 

Pejo

Member
Finished Osvald chapter 2 and nearly done with Temenos chapter 1. I absolutely love Temenos' character. What an original guy lol. His combination of character traits is immediately memorable.

Love the game so far but it can very slow and mellow with a lot of story. I can't imagine playing this on anything but Switch. Feels like it was made for handheld.
I've been actually playing it on the Deck quite a bit too, it is a perfect handheld game.
 

ssringo

Member
Closing in on the final individual chapters. Kinda glad my earlier impression of what was going on with Osvald was wrong. No, they went
Fullmetal Alchemist "EdWaRd..."
with it.

I like most of their stories but Agnea's is still the weakest. Barring some last chapter amazingness that is. Throne's is probably my favorite simply for her final "father's route" chapter though the rest is pretty good too.
Father's mask of calmness coming off was great

Castti's reveal is a bit of a letdown and doesn't really jive with her intro chapter where
everybody is aware of some horrible stuff Eir's Apothecaries apparently did but it literally just happened during her intro and news beat her to the town she rode a ship to? Did they take a lap around the world before dropping her off? Have i overlooked that there are telephones?
Looking forward to her finale though. Interested in what set off her story's bad guy.
 

kondorBonk

Member
I totally understand the critique that this game isn't a large epic like some old school JRPGs but it does scratch a more digestible itch. I know I can knock out a chapter or two in a set time frame which each have their own beginning middle and end.

During a busy week, I don't feel daunted in returning for a quick session since it will be fresh, and the underlying snowball progression makes it something to look forward to. I've certainly fallen off JRPGs for that reason. Coming back after a vacation not knowing where I was and not willing to invest a couple hours of grinding without any story progression.

There are plenty in the epic category so I'm happy they stuck to this more compact style with this series.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I totally understand the critique that this game isn't a large epic like some old school JRPGs but it does scratch a more digestible itch. I know I can knock out a chapter or two in a set time frame which each have their own beginning middle and end.

During a busy week, I don't feel daunted in returning for a quick session since it will be fresh, and the underlying snowball progression makes it something to look forward to. I've certainly fallen off JRPGs for that reason. Coming back after a vacation not knowing where I was and not willing to invest a couple hours of grinding without any story progression.

There are plenty in the epic category so I'm happy they stuck to this more compact style with this series.
Yeah exactly. The episodic format is the best part. The anti-thesis of the overly long JRPG that's too time consuming to play.
 

BlakeofT

Member
ryan reynolds hd GIF


It's those features and artistic expressions that help to make these games so beautiful. The depth blurs back like it would in reality. It mixes the two.

Eh, to each their own, of course.
Because the blurriness gives me a headache just looking at it. At the very least, I would want to tone it down.

I don't own either game so I can't test it, but if I ever do, I'll try it with the bloom variable left alone.
 

Graciaus

Member
Decided to play with 4 characters and then the other 4. Played the first game only using 4 and ignoring the others unless it was their chapter.

Picked Throne, Osvald, Themenos and Ochette to start with. The starting stories have been interesting so far. Only 11 hours in.
 
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