Alec
Member
That's a bummer. So I'm playing eight different stories for the whole game that never intersect?
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TheShadowLord
Member
how's the voice acting?
They do intersect, in a post-game dungeon. Also, there is some character banter from Chapter 2 onwards that is done similarly as in Tales games.
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Bboy AJ
My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
The worst I've heard in a long time. I think it's really bad.
MisterBrimstone
Member
I'm playing it for 20+ hours and I kinda agree with the Kotaku review.
The good:
* Combat
* Music
* Unique graphic style. Charming and original although I would've used more vivid colors.
* Menu and the world map are awesome too. That's something that should be said.
* You can use skills/items out of combat. So many RPGs forget about this.
The bad:
* Dungeons. Some random encounters, some chests always hidden the same way, save point, the boss. Repeat ad nauseam.
* Story. It's writer guild strike tier. Every story is an uninspired cliche that makes no sense when you gather your party. Just terrible.
* The voice acting. You can't buy any of the characters performance, it's THAT bad.
A solid 6/10.
Honestly, I don't know why a RPG can get 9/10 everywhere with such a terrible story. It's mandatory for me.
The good:
* Combat
* Music
* Unique graphic style. Charming and original although I would've used more vivid colors.
* Menu and the world map are awesome too. That's something that should be said.
* You can use skills/items out of combat. So many RPGs forget about this.
The bad:
* Dungeons. Some random encounters, some chests always hidden the same way, save point, the boss. Repeat ad nauseam.
* Story. It's writer guild strike tier. Every story is an uninspired cliche that makes no sense when you gather your party. Just terrible.
* The voice acting. You can't buy any of the characters performance, it's THAT bad.
A solid 6/10.
Honestly, I don't know why a RPG can get 9/10 everywhere with such a terrible story. It's mandatory for me.
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Pejo
Member
Depends on the character. I think H'annit and Cyrus are pretty good, but some of them are less good.
Holy shit guys, this game is amazing. I already am at around 35 hours since Friday. Just the right level of freedom vs. story, and way more customization than I was expecting. I just figured out my go-to team's configuration, and am doing all of their Chapter 2 quests currently. I explored the whole map already though and unlocked all the towns, which was really exciting.
I think I'm going to go straight through with my main team and do all of their stories, then go back and finish all the characters I didn't use. I recruited everyone and completed all of their first chapters, to see which characters I liked the most.
Right now I'm doing:
Therion (Main Character) - Thief/Warrior, primary physical DD and SP battery. Decked with as much evasion as I can get. Really like thief characters, and he has potential to be a good one, though right now his motivation seem way too simple. Hope it gets better.
H'annit - Hunter/Dancer, secondary physical DD and buffer, duelist for town fights. Have her decked with evasion gear too, and the accessory that auto-fills HP and SP every round. I can literally mash A to win all those duels since the town NPCs seem to have really bad accuracy. Also, dancer buffs are way better than I expected.
Ophilia - Cleric/Apothecary - Healer with enough physical bulk to do a bit of damage when necessary. I'm not really happy that they split the only way to remove status effects to only one of the healer classes, which is pretty valuable in tougher encounters. I probably won't run this configuration forever since it's a fair amount of overlap.
Cyrus - Scholar/Merchant - Really he doesn't even need a support job since his Scholar skills absolutely destroy everything, so I went with Merchant for extra money and Wind elemental coverage, it's a shame even the higher level wind spell only hits once though. He's a super powerful and almost game-breaking character that also makes sure you at least know a weak point of every enemy you fight, which saves a lot of time.
A fight typically goes - Therion and Ophilia hit weaknesses to break as many enemies as possible, H'annit uses Peacock Strut on Cyrus, and Cyrus waveclears the entire enemy force. It's even easier if the monsters are weak to either Fire/Ice/Thunder. To be fair, I have Cyrus over 800 elemental attack at only level 38 due to some lucky steals of higher end equipment.
H'annit - Hunter/Dancer, secondary physical DD and buffer, duelist for town fights. Have her decked with evasion gear too, and the accessory that auto-fills HP and SP every round. I can literally mash A to win all those duels since the town NPCs seem to have really bad accuracy. Also, dancer buffs are way better than I expected.
Ophilia - Cleric/Apothecary - Healer with enough physical bulk to do a bit of damage when necessary. I'm not really happy that they split the only way to remove status effects to only one of the healer classes, which is pretty valuable in tougher encounters. I probably won't run this configuration forever since it's a fair amount of overlap.
Cyrus - Scholar/Merchant - Really he doesn't even need a support job since his Scholar skills absolutely destroy everything, so I went with Merchant for extra money and Wind elemental coverage, it's a shame even the higher level wind spell only hits once though. He's a super powerful and almost game-breaking character that also makes sure you at least know a weak point of every enemy you fight, which saves a lot of time.
A fight typically goes - Therion and Ophilia hit weaknesses to break as many enemies as possible, H'annit uses Peacock Strut on Cyrus, and Cyrus waveclears the entire enemy force. It's even easier if the monsters are weak to either Fire/Ice/Thunder. To be fair, I have Cyrus over 800 elemental attack at only level 38 due to some lucky steals of higher end equipment.
Anyways, can't wait to get home and keep playing after work. I'm tempted to buy the CE just to keep and show SE that I support this type of game being released. This really scratched an itch I've had since SNES days. Also, the music is fantastic too, and really helps set the atmosphere like the best Final Fantasy games of old.
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.
I'll agree with you on the dungeon design, it's almost never interesting outside of a few places and it's definitely repetitive in it's twisty-path-that-goes-to-the-same-place kinda way. There is always a save point right before the boss, so you know exactly what to expect which removes a bit of need to be alert to your surroundings.
Personally though, I'm enjoying the story. The game is billed as a "Eight Adventurers, Eight Journeys" and the game delivers exactly that. I'm a bit relieved that it's not a trope filled, typical JRPG story - my characters aren't trying to save the world: they're trying to get the best treasure to sell at the merchant's fair, or trying to uncover the mystery of a lost tome, or trying to avenge the death of their father. Their motivations feel human to a large degree - and although they're not particularly grand in scope, it's kind of nice having an RPG that feels more intimate. The fate of the world isn't hanging in the balance, but the fate of this mining town being exploited by the local regent is up to me.
Voice acting: I think the voice acting is fine, especially for what this is. My only real gripe is that they have a canned set of reactions "Oh no...", "HAHAHA", "Yes, of course" that get attached to dialog windows that have a similar contextual meaning but not that exact phrase. It's pretty common in games like this that aren't fully voice acted (like Ni No Kuni II) but it always messes with my brain. I wish they would just leave those parts of the voice acting out completely or give me an option to turn them off.
MisterBrimstone
Member
That may be a nice change of pace from saving the world but none of those eight stories is interesting to me since I've seen every one of those tropes played hundreds of times. The story lacks in dialogue and personality. Every character is the exact stereotype you would've guessed before even turning the game on.
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Desmond Sultana
Member
So far I think this could be my favorite game of the last 5 years and I own all platforms
Chiggs
Gold Member
I absolutely kicked the ever-loving shit out of
and he's all like, "Well, I may have underestimated you, but I still managed to do this! Muahahahahaha"
*Handwaiving and plot justification ensue*
I grinded to level 10 in Ravus Mansion just to avoid this sort of nonsense.
Heathcote
*Handwaiving and plot justification ensue*
I grinded to level 10 in Ravus Mansion just to avoid this sort of nonsense.
Shouta
Member
I think my biggest complaint with the story is that the game doesn't offer enough banter between characters. There feels like 1 per party member per character chapter. It's pretty welcome when it shows up but it just leaves you wanting more.
The individual character story through Chapter 2 are good enough so far and I see a bit of stuff leading to potential things down the game but yeah, jury is still out for me.
The individual character story through Chapter 2 are good enough so far and I see a bit of stuff leading to potential things down the game but yeah, jury is still out for me.
6/8 Chapter 2s done and the more I play, the more I love this game. The Kotaku review was nonsense, there is plenty of variance between the chapters. All the stories are either good or great so far, except for one, looking at you Ophilia. The characters are charming and interesting and the banter was always funny and endearing, but there really should be more of it in the game, that's my biggest complaint so far.
As for my party, the most effective one I've found so far is
As for my party, the most effective one I've found so far is
Elemental DPS: Scholar/Alchemist - No good explanation for this one, Alchemist was the only job I didn't have on my characters so I threw it on Cyrus because he really doesn't need a secondary job anyway. Alch is pretty much only there for the occasional status heal or vivify.
Physical DPS: Warrior/Hunter - Perfect DPS combination, access to a lot of different weapons and skills, 50% chance to hit twice, 25% chance to act twice on any turn, this combination is just insane. You could also go with Warrior/Alchemist for the crazy Axe damage, but I prefer H'aanit over Olberic.
Buff/Debuff: Thief/Dancer - This has all the buffs and debuffs you'll ever need and the thief's crazy ability to recover SP and spread it around the party. And let's not forget Bewildering Grace(last night I got a x100 JP buff LUL, didn't even know that was in the game). And the class even does respectable damage, but you will be doing other stuff most of the time.
Healer/Support: Cleric/Merchant - Best combo I've found in the game yet. Naturally high Elem defense so you don't care about spells, Sidestep makes you don't care about physical attacks so you're pretty much invulnerable and capable of healing the party at whim for stupid amounts. And it's a BP battery. And it has 3 weapon and 2 element coverage. Oh no, you ran out of SP? Rest. Need money? Collect. Have too much money? Hired Help. You're entire party is dead? Revive. It's insane, the amount of support it can provide is absurd and it's nearly unkillable. My favorite combination so far.
Physical DPS: Warrior/Hunter - Perfect DPS combination, access to a lot of different weapons and skills, 50% chance to hit twice, 25% chance to act twice on any turn, this combination is just insane. You could also go with Warrior/Alchemist for the crazy Axe damage, but I prefer H'aanit over Olberic.
Buff/Debuff: Thief/Dancer - This has all the buffs and debuffs you'll ever need and the thief's crazy ability to recover SP and spread it around the party. And let's not forget Bewildering Grace(last night I got a x100 JP buff LUL, didn't even know that was in the game). And the class even does respectable damage, but you will be doing other stuff most of the time.
Healer/Support: Cleric/Merchant - Best combo I've found in the game yet. Naturally high Elem defense so you don't care about spells, Sidestep makes you don't care about physical attacks so you're pretty much invulnerable and capable of healing the party at whim for stupid amounts. And it's a BP battery. And it has 3 weapon and 2 element coverage. Oh no, you ran out of SP? Rest. Need money? Collect. Have too much money? Hired Help. You're entire party is dead? Revive. It's insane, the amount of support it can provide is absurd and it's nearly unkillable. My favorite combination so far.
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Andyliini
Member
I began the game as H'aanit, but I got distracted by Captain Toad, totally against my intentions. I'm almost done with it though, so I will be coming back to this game soon, this time for reals. I have read much positive from this game, and it seems to be selling well, even better than Bravely Default sold in 2013. I'm usually way off with my predictions, but this shoul exceed 1 million sold relatively quickly.
TannerDemoz
Member
I ameth callingeth bullshiteth on thou statementeth becauseth the writer's poor understandingith of olde English is literally thith bad.
MisterBrimstone
Member
Was watching my brother in law play the game (he is level 40+ on his main party) and he was going from story chapter to story chapter so I told him to please stop since it was boring and "go explore that path you haven't uncovered on the map". He went and we found
. After that failed attempt we concluded that THAT was the most fun the game offered so far.
What I want to say is that I love exploring aimlessly and not following boring stories with the same dungeon layout everytime.
a cave/shrine that had a weird rune and was danger level 50, I was helping him with strategy since he was 10 levels under and we got to a floating sword wielding boss that was guarding the rune. Since we almost dealt no damage we played defensively poisoning him and stunning whenever we could. 197k HP, it was great even though at 50% he went full crazy AOE mode and wiped us out.
What I want to say is that I love exploring aimlessly and not following boring stories with the same dungeon layout everytime.
Daymos
Member
I really don't understand the "amazing" appeal of this game. I'm a big JRPG fan and in playing the demos of Octopath, it seemed ok.. but nothing special. I'd consider picking it up on sale maybe, it just seems like a $15 indie game to me. It's just crazy to me that the average gamer seems to be into this. I have a huge jrpg collection. I'm currently playing through dragon quest 7 and liking it alot. I can sit and play final fantasy 1 and still get enjoyment out of it to this day.. but damn I don't really care too much about octopath. I just don't really understand what's happening here.
I guess I shouldn't complain, more $$$ towards a genre I love is great, but damn gamers are so llogical when it comes to hype. Moths to the flame.
I guess I shouldn't complain, more $$$ towards a genre I love is great, but damn gamers are so llogical when it comes to hype. Moths to the flame.
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Terce
Member
I'd consider myself the average gamer and I'm into this because of how the stories are laid out. With each chapter being just that, it's almost like reading a book. I can pick up the game, play a chapter 2 for one character, and then put it back down without having to play through multiple sections as it naturally reaches a break point. With the way that I use the switch, this works our perfectly and it helps that I enjoy the different stories and especially the music. I'm not a big fan of pixel art for the sake of being pixel art but this is done very tastefully and seems to be more of a throw back to the older jrps that I played when I was a kid.
I haven't hit any grind sections yet so we'll see if that changes my opinion at all, but for now I'm just going through the map like a clock and doing whatever chapter happens to be closest.
Pejo
Member
While I agree with you about the writing, voice acting ≠ writing.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Is it THAT hard to believe people enjoying Octopath more than you do? You acting as it's impossible for people enjoy this game just because YOU yourself don't like the game.
Kamina
Golden Boy
Use Japanese
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
I just found out that EU version of the Collector's Edition is lacking soundtrack and a map made of cloth. Well, FUCK YOU SQE! Canceled my order and bought standard version for 2000K RUB instead.
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Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
hahaha no joke this is a classic move all the power to you vote with your wallet
SutekhTheDestroyer
Banned
Oh look who's come out of the woodwork to shit all over the game for no reason.
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.
Nobody is going to take that dumb Kotaku reviewer seriously tbh, the same Jason who'd spout the same crap about other JRPG in the past and he loves FF XV
I was getting a bit worried for the game after seeing the headlines for the Kotaku pieces, until I saw it was Schreier and realized it was his usual clickbait nonsense.
The game has been great fun so far, I'm really enjoying it.
Dr. Claus
Banned
Nobody is going to take that dumb Kotaku reviewer seriously tbh, the same Jason who'd spout the same crap about other JRPG in the past and he loves FF XV
I love FFXV, but I also love Octopath. The issue with Jason's review (besides the usual poor grammar/pacing/structure) was that he rushed through the game, didn't pay much attention to side content, and completely failed to actually *beat* the game. Given what I have read about how to reach that point of the game (with the least amount of spoilers possible), you have to be incredibly daft/blind to miss it.
I only just started recently and chose Cyrus. So far I am enjoying the game and its artstyle, though I do wish the blurryness of objects were just a little less pronounced on the big screen. Not nearly as much of an issue when playing handheld.
woigemok
Banned
He was bombarded by criticisms after his confusion when it comes to game-play mechanics and story structure and he decided to run away after that. He loves two of the most boring RPG this generation and those are NNK2 and FFXV.
That was a biggest hint that he's pretty much clueless when judging the game especially JRPG.
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Hotel Security
Member
There's nothing illogical about it. It's an old school RPG that got some amounts of advertising and good reviews behind it in a landscape of games that have very little old school RPGs. So fans of old school RPGs flock to it regardless of quality. This occurs on a monthly basis in the gaming world with one game or another. nuGoW gets hype. Folks buy it. Become Human is next to get hype. Folks buy it. This isn't that hard to figure out, bud.
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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.
Cyrus is probably the most "broken" character with the highest damage output in the game, especially in the beginning. Ophilia is a cleric so she'll come with healing moves and light-based magic attacks.
Of course, one of my favorite parts about this game is that it's really up to you which team you choose and to find the combos that work best for you.
Dr. Claus
Banned
I enjoy Cyrus. He is a mage, through and through and his action is pretty cool to understand some lore behind certain characters and the towns people. It definitely scratches my "lore" itch.
Agent_4Seven
Tears of Nintendo
I mean, what in the actual? The same box, the same blister, yet US version has soundtrack and cloth map and the EU one has only.... paper map and the coin?! The fuck? What is it if not a huge "Fuck you!" to EU and its gaming audience?! Why?! Why the goddamn price is not reduced cuz of this and who even needs such Collector's Edition if you can even call it that?
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To be fair, the value of collectors editions in eu has been lowered since fire emblem fates collectors edition, like the price doubled from preorder first day to release day, and now all collectors editions is like twice the price compared to then (or the higher level of fire emblem ce day -1 preorder price).
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
I mean, what in the actual? The same box, the same blister, yet US version has soundtrack and cloth map and the EU one has only.... paper map and the coin?! The fuck? What is it if not a huge "Fuck you!" to EU and its gaming audience?! Why?! Why the goddamn price is not reduced cuz of this and who even needs such Collector's Edition if you can even call it that?
that is what you get for getting a better collectors edition for metroid samus returns you filthy eurotrash
i own that one also eurotrash myself
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
I played the demo and bought the game. I played a bunch of JRPG's over the years so I am familiar with the games and systems....but my god.....haven't games evolved past random encounters? One reason why I stopped playing Dragon Quest 8 about 14 years ago was that I could take 10 steps without engaging in a plodding battle. So far, even though I love the look and layout of Octopath, I groan EVERY time the screen switches to a random battle. I cannot take 10 steps without a battle. Some are long. I hope this gets better because it's 2018 and these JRPG's should have evolved by now. This is why many JRPG series have moved towards other battle systems like Final Fantasy and Xenoblade (not sure about the others recently). But geeez! I know it's a throwback but something else could have been done to make it fun. It should be fun right?
Pejo
Member
That's a valid opinion to have, but some of us (me included) enjoy the old school feel of the game, random encounters included. I wouldn't say it's a sign of being behind the times on RPG development, it was a design decision purposely made - just like the pixel graphics and turn-based battles. there's plenty of ARPGs out there without random battles if that's your thing, not everything has to be created the same way.
Dr. Claus
Banned
Also it isn't like turn-based battles don't evolve. Between the semi-unique actions of each of jobs the cast has, the boost mechanic, and the break mechanic - it does enough differently to keep you engaged. Similar to how Bravely Default/Second has the Default/Brave features for its combat.
Dev1lXYZ
Member
I just got my 4th character, Ophelia. My party is fighter-alchemist-thief-cleric. Playing this game feels very repetitive and it's starting to worry me that I have four more ch1's to trudge through. So far, Therion has had the best story, but have heard Primrose's is even better.
How are the chapter 2-3 stories? Do the dungeons get better?
How are the chapter 2-3 stories? Do the dungeons get better?
CloudStrife_ca
Member
Here's the CE we got in Canada incase anyone wants to take a looksee. It does come with the soundtrack too as I noticed above someone from the EU mentioned their version did not. To be fair though, North America is frequently forgotten for CE's in general next to EU and Japan.
Dr. Claus
Banned
Here's the CE we got in Canada incase anyone wants to take a looksee. It does come with the soundtrack too as I noticed above someone from the EU mentioned their version did not. To be fair though, North America is frequently forgotten for CE's in general next to EU and Japan.
I have that as well. I absolutely love it. Such a unique piece with its pop-up book featuring all 8 of the characters and the gorgeous cloth art. I may have to frame it.
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.
I've finished 6/8 of the chapter 2 stories now and am currently doing my first chapter 3 so I feel I'm qualified to answer this.
The chapter one stories were a lot more formulaic than the later chapters, I assume this is because they wanted the experience to be "similar" regardless of which character you start with and also by somewhat virtue of necessity since you'll inevitably be lower levels when doing them. They definitely get to feeling repetitive, but they can also be done later (at an inn in the town where you get the character) if you prefer. I'd probably recommend skipping the other chapter 1 stories unless they're for a character you're super-interested in. Starting a character's chapter 2 will also give you a "The story so far..." briefing that will essentially give you the story rundown so you won't be totally lost in that regard either.
The character's chapter 2 (and beyond) stories diverge quite a bit more and will typically focus more on that character's strengths / weaknesses either in their battle skill or field abilities. For example, the fighter's chapter 2 story takes place
in an arena town, where you must win several tough boss battles in a row to rise up in the ranks
and the merchant's chapter 2 involves
going to a mining town and using the purchase field skill to buy goods to sell at market
And from what I've seen of the chapter 3 stories, they expand on that formula. By then you'll probably have unlocked the job and sub-job selection which honestly adds a huge amount of variety to the game.
Dev1lXYZ
Member
Thank you for your detailed response! I now know that things get much more interesting in the later chapters! I was expecting those types of quests in the first chapters and was taken aback by it when everyone basically has a similar type beginning chapter gameplay wise.
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Vawn
Banned
I'm glad they made this game the way they did instead of confirming to modernize aspects of it. The old-school turn-based combat and random battles works beautifully.
The job system allows you to use skills to limit the number of random encounters when you wish. The small area maps keeps you from getting lost and frustrated, but enough to explore to find slightly hidden treasures.
I didn't expect God of War to be topped this year, but judging games solely on how much fun I'm having playing it, Octopath Traveler is my clear GOTY.
The job system allows you to use skills to limit the number of random encounters when you wish. The small area maps keeps you from getting lost and frustrated, but enough to explore to find slightly hidden treasures.
I didn't expect God of War to be topped this year, but judging games solely on how much fun I'm having playing it, Octopath Traveler is my clear GOTY.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I'm also really enjoying Octopath Traveler but its way too soon to decide which game is GOTY. We still have Dragon Quest XI and Valkyria Chronicles 4 coming out this year.
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cubicle47b
Member
I love it. I've spent almost all my free time playing it since Sunday. I have a few minor complaints, of course. The writing (or translation) is mediocre even though I like the stories for the most part. The voice acting on a couple characters is bad (and Therion is super annoying post-battle, I turned the VA volume down because of him). I wish the party members interacted outside of side conversations. And it can feel too formulaic. Everything else is pretty great. The characters and their stories, the battle system, the job system, path actions mixed with side quests, graphics, music.
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