S
SLoWMoTIoN
Unconfirmed Member
I..um haven't done a single side quest.
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DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Would probably be good to use the Cleric's Divine skill for double-cast + Dancer's Divine skill for targeting All instead of just one.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Yap. You need to take out those small wolfs as fast as possible because once he summon three of them it blocks out all his weakness.
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Seems like yet another exploitable aspect of the game. I love it!
Kind of reminds me of Disgaea. Not in terms of gameplay, of course, but in terms of the game daring you to break it by giving you all these fun puzzle pieces.
mindatlarge
Member
For me, I got a lot of the side quests done just by playing the game. I just checked back with quest givers each time I visited a town to see if I completed their quest or not. Loved the game, spent close to 100 hours with it, but I found the side quests as a low point.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I don't know, I personally like some of the quests especially the one gives unique bosses to fight like Dire Wolf and Devourer of Men.
mindatlarge
Member
Yeah, those were cool and I wish there were more like them in the game. I was referring more to the side quests that you finish simply by using the correct path action.
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Just crossed the 100 hour mark. Finished Tressa's Ch.4. Seven more to go, plus post-game content.
I do have a genuine complaint so far: the equipment doesn't feel sufficiently powerful at this stage of the game, with the huge caveat that I have not chased down all the Purple chests. As such, money has become trivial since you can't buy the things you really want (like good weapons or Pomegranates for BP) and the things you can buy are not much better than what I already have. Maybe I'll just start abusing the Merchant's summoning ability. I do like how a MAX charge Merchant summon will bring out 4 copies of that person.
I've finished off a big chunk of the sidequests and I'm looking forward to the post-game dungeon and boss.
I do have a genuine complaint so far: the equipment doesn't feel sufficiently powerful at this stage of the game, with the huge caveat that I have not chased down all the Purple chests. As such, money has become trivial since you can't buy the things you really want (like good weapons or Pomegranates for BP) and the things you can buy are not much better than what I already have. Maybe I'll just start abusing the Merchant's summoning ability. I do like how a MAX charge Merchant summon will bring out 4 copies of that person.
I've finished off a big chunk of the sidequests and I'm looking forward to the post-game dungeon and boss.
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.
Have you been using the Purchase or Steal abilities in towns? Most of the best equipment in the game seems to be obtained in this manor, with the cost / percentage of success tailored specifically on either how powerful it is or how high a level thief you are.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I recently got an Axe that can attack twice in regular attacks so give it to H'aanit or someone with hunter job that has 50% chance attacking twice is great for breaking some enemies shield.
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DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Yes, that's where some of my best equipment comes from. Good to know that's the route I should focus on, at least.
Mind you, I'm not expecting to buy The Best Lance in Haanit's home village or something, but I've bought almost no decent equipment from the Lvl45 towns. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with Purchasing or Stealing from the townsfolk. Thanks for the heads up!
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.
End-game equipment is definitely a gripe I can understand though because I feel exactly the same way. Now that my guys are mid-80s level, they're still using the same gear they had when they were level 50(?) so that's kind of a problem for a game like that that has quite a bit of "post-game content".
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
At least the 4 secret classes make up for it. I've transcended from merely puzzling out good Character-subclass combos to scrutinizing every character in the party and how they contribute to my overall battle plan. It's great!
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
That's legit. You're definitely farther in the game than I am. I'll keep that in mind when facing off against some of these side-quest bosses. The only full-star creature I've captured did a Light-dmg attack against All. It was pretty powerful and I think I still have 2 or 3 uses leftover.Hannit just caught a Devourer of Dreams. Missed on a 24% chance, but caught later on a 10% chance.
and the Deathly Blade
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Man, it seems this last true boss could be SMT level hard. I'm both excited but also scared.
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DunDunDunpachi
Banned
So, I've been fiddling and I wanted some feedback on another 'exploit'. It uses an unassuming passive skill called 'Stat Swap' (Runelord). I assigned it to Haanit who had a Phys. Atk of 390. Which -- when swapped over to Elem. Atk using this passive skill -- then became the highest Elem. Atk out of all my party members.
Before, I hated giving Haanit and Olberic "magic" classes like Scholar or Cleric because it felt like it didn't mesh well with their native classes. And conversely, I hated assigning "physical" classes to Ophelia and Cyrus because their low physical stats made them lousy fighters.
No more! Haanit is murdering foes as the party Sorcerer. Her Phys. atk Hunter skills are now noticeably weaker, but that's the trade off. I wonder if Cyrus could be turned into a badass warrior by swapping his Elem. Atk over to Phys. Atk.
EDIT: I have been using 'Stat Swap' with Cyrus, whose 490 Elem.Atk has now been turned into his Phys.Atk. Trying to figure out if it swaps the stat after equipment is calculated or before. Hoping to turn Cyrus into a physical powerhouse just for kicks.
Before, I hated giving Haanit and Olberic "magic" classes like Scholar or Cleric because it felt like it didn't mesh well with their native classes. And conversely, I hated assigning "physical" classes to Ophelia and Cyrus because their low physical stats made them lousy fighters.
No more! Haanit is murdering foes as the party Sorcerer. Her Phys. atk Hunter skills are now noticeably weaker, but that's the trade off. I wonder if Cyrus could be turned into a badass warrior by swapping his Elem. Atk over to Phys. Atk.
EDIT: I have been using 'Stat Swap' with Cyrus, whose 490 Elem.Atk has now been turned into his Phys.Atk. Trying to figure out if it swaps the stat after equipment is calculated or before. Hoping to turn Cyrus into a physical powerhouse just for kicks.
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Rock And Roll
Member
Well I just finished the first story with my main character (Tressa) so I feel like I can finally give some insight into the game as I've only got 7 more chapters to go now.
I really enjoyed this game. I understand some of the complaints against it but a few others I'm scratching my head over. I get the common criticism of there not being an overarching narrative to tie the characters together but that really doesn't bug me. I liked how everyone's chapters were set up because it made me be able to play the game in short hour sessions while chipping away at a resolution for every character. I don't have a lot of time to game anymore (it took me 2 months just to see the end credits!) but I find games like this perfect for me. Also I'm a bit of an ass but I never found jrpg stories to be anything truly worthwhile. They can be enjoyable but at the end of the day, it's pretty standard stuff. It's not literature so the way it was written doesn't really bother me. The next game they make could be interesting with 8 different characters and the narrative all comes together but I really don't think that will make a huge difference on how much I'd enjoy the game.
Another thing I have a hard time understanding is the alleged amount of grinding involved with this game. Personally, I had to grind a bit at the start (don't remember what chapter) because Primrose was pretty weak and getting killed by a boss. All I had to do was boost her level by 2. Took about 10 minutes of wandering around the dungeon. That's the extent of grind I had to do in this game. So far, I have died twice in the game. Once to the boss at the start (really can't remember the details) and once to that guy in the sand dune cave with his serpent (I killed him first and the snake went apeshit and wiped my party). I just went back and took care of the snake the next time no problem. Yet all the reviews and criticisms seem to say there's a substantial amount of grinding to progress the story (there was even that thing where you have to abuse Primroses ability to get double the experience, I tried it once and thought it wasn't worth the effort). Personally, what I did was do a chapter from each character at a time (so I did everyone's first chapter, then everyone's second chapter, third now fourth etc...) and switch out party members as needed. For example, if I saw Ophelia had a higher required level for her next chapter, I'd use her for my party until she got close to the level for her chapter. I just did this with every character and switched them out each chapter. All I had to do was look at the map and do a bit of planning ahead to get the character prepared for the next part. It wasn't hard or time consuming. I can't imagine how you would have to grind for hours in this game unless you just stuck to a static party all the time. I guess everyone can play using their own style but to say the game required grinding is a bit ridiculous to me.
I think my main complaint with this game would have to be sometimes the "star" of each chapter wouldn't have abilities to break enemies/the boss in their section. That could be annoying because I'd have to go back to town and switch out the member for someone else. It only happened a few times, but still it didn't make much sense to have the main character not equipped with the proper tools to tackle their chapter. There was no way of knowing what you would need going in so it was either get lucky with team comp or head back to town to get someone else to help. I guess it would have made the game easier by doing this but it hasn't been much of a challenge up to this point. If you can keep track of the battle system and which characters/enemies are going to attack in which order, you can make some educated moves to break enemies or bosses, especially when they're about to use one of their more powerful skills.
So yeah tl;dr loved Octopath, don't understand some of the criticism. I do think it's probably a solid 8/10 but for different reasons than what a lot of reviewers/gamers listed.
I really enjoyed this game. I understand some of the complaints against it but a few others I'm scratching my head over. I get the common criticism of there not being an overarching narrative to tie the characters together but that really doesn't bug me. I liked how everyone's chapters were set up because it made me be able to play the game in short hour sessions while chipping away at a resolution for every character. I don't have a lot of time to game anymore (it took me 2 months just to see the end credits!) but I find games like this perfect for me. Also I'm a bit of an ass but I never found jrpg stories to be anything truly worthwhile. They can be enjoyable but at the end of the day, it's pretty standard stuff. It's not literature so the way it was written doesn't really bother me. The next game they make could be interesting with 8 different characters and the narrative all comes together but I really don't think that will make a huge difference on how much I'd enjoy the game.
Another thing I have a hard time understanding is the alleged amount of grinding involved with this game. Personally, I had to grind a bit at the start (don't remember what chapter) because Primrose was pretty weak and getting killed by a boss. All I had to do was boost her level by 2. Took about 10 minutes of wandering around the dungeon. That's the extent of grind I had to do in this game. So far, I have died twice in the game. Once to the boss at the start (really can't remember the details) and once to that guy in the sand dune cave with his serpent (I killed him first and the snake went apeshit and wiped my party). I just went back and took care of the snake the next time no problem. Yet all the reviews and criticisms seem to say there's a substantial amount of grinding to progress the story (there was even that thing where you have to abuse Primroses ability to get double the experience, I tried it once and thought it wasn't worth the effort). Personally, what I did was do a chapter from each character at a time (so I did everyone's first chapter, then everyone's second chapter, third now fourth etc...) and switch out party members as needed. For example, if I saw Ophelia had a higher required level for her next chapter, I'd use her for my party until she got close to the level for her chapter. I just did this with every character and switched them out each chapter. All I had to do was look at the map and do a bit of planning ahead to get the character prepared for the next part. It wasn't hard or time consuming. I can't imagine how you would have to grind for hours in this game unless you just stuck to a static party all the time. I guess everyone can play using their own style but to say the game required grinding is a bit ridiculous to me.
I think my main complaint with this game would have to be sometimes the "star" of each chapter wouldn't have abilities to break enemies/the boss in their section. That could be annoying because I'd have to go back to town and switch out the member for someone else. It only happened a few times, but still it didn't make much sense to have the main character not equipped with the proper tools to tackle their chapter. There was no way of knowing what you would need going in so it was either get lucky with team comp or head back to town to get someone else to help. I guess it would have made the game easier by doing this but it hasn't been much of a challenge up to this point. If you can keep track of the battle system and which characters/enemies are going to attack in which order, you can make some educated moves to break enemies or bosses, especially when they're about to use one of their more powerful skills.
So yeah tl;dr loved Octopath, don't understand some of the criticism. I do think it's probably a solid 8/10 but for different reasons than what a lot of reviewers/gamers listed.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
If you really take advantage of the job system and you know what your doing then you dont really need to grind. unfortunately lot of reviewers trying play this game like normal adventure game and rush through it without engaging with game's combat system. Another thing is, reviewers really exaggerated about characters having zero interaction with each other. Sure its not in traditional way like you see in other games but it has them and they pretty damn good.
DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Agreed. Reviewers rushed through a game, and joke's on them because it is a masterpiece.
Something I've noticed -- and this is to Octopath's credit -- is that I am still getting Banter prompts 110 hours into the game. Most JRPGs would have been emptied of all their NPC and Party interaction/dialogue at the 100 hour mark. By the time you're this late into a typical JRPG, you've run out of new NPCs to talk to, new quests to find, and new "sidestory" conversations between characters. Octopath is not that way. Perhaps "professional" reviewers expected all the dialog between characters to be frontloaded, but instead the developers (smartly) spread it evenly throughout the game. I have only four more Ch.4 stories to go.
The pacing of the whole game is impeccable. It's easy to miss this fact if you're not looking for it (or if you're a game journalist), but it's balanced in such a way that whenever you're sick of story, there are multiple avenues for grinding. Whenever you get tired of grinding and side-quests, there's another Main story segment just a button-press away. It keeps the flow of the game moving forward without ever bogging down. Main Story segments are only 60-90 minutes and almost always follow the same "use power -> explore dungeon -> kill boss" formula. Banter segments are just a minute or two. Sidequests are short and well-written. Towns and maps are quite compact, cutting down on extraneous exploration. Fast-travel is unlocked from the start. Everything is bite-sized and manageable and feels like it belongs in the world instead of being fluff to pad the game's hours.
There are only a few other JRPGs in existence that pull this off quite as well, Chrono Trigger being one of them.
Rock And Roll
Member
Definitely agree on the interaction. Its there and it is really well done. It just doesn't have lengthy interactions between multiple characters at the same time, which is fine by me because that is usually tied to cutscenes and what not. I've never really been too thrilled with cutscenes because I want to spend the time playing the game, not listening to lengthy, poorly voice acted segments.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
This just shows, for JRPGs you better off judging the game yourself rather than looking at the reviews. Thankfully that didn't stop the game from selling well.
Rock And Roll
Member
Just want to say the music for Primrose's boss music was awesome, such a nice change from the usual theme.
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.
The game's entire soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The subtle audio transitions were easily one of the game's most pleasant surprises for me personally.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I would say the music in Octopath is as good as NieR Automata. If Octopath doesn't win or at very least get nominated as best soundtrack of the year I would be really sad.
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DigitalScrap
Member
Poor Octopath - I've neglected it ever since DQXI came out. I'm definitely coming back to it to finish it once I'm done with DQXI though. I really hope Square Enix is preparing more games like Octopath.
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D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
I finally bailed on this and sold it off. I put in 32 hours and did most of the character's chapter 2's and was just bored of it. The stories just weren't sucking me in and the turn based battles were boring me to death. It's a great game for what it is, just not my cup of tea.
I'm adding turn-based games to the list of genres I used to enjoy that I just don't anymore as I've bailed on the past 3 or 4 I've started as they just don't hold my interest.
I'm adding turn-based games to the list of genres I used to enjoy that I just don't anymore as I've bailed on the past 3 or 4 I've started as they just don't hold my interest.
mcz117chief
Member
Hi, guys. I just bought the game and I am having some trouble. I picked Ophellia and I am supposed to go to Saintsbridge. I am very close to the city but I cant get in because the monsters around the city are super powerful. I have no idea what to do. Am I supposed to farm those low level monsters until I reach like lvl 20? That is just insane, since I am at lvl 9 now.
Vawn
Banned
I'm not sure exactly which part you refer to, as it's been a while. Do you have your other party members yet?
You should be doing their missions round-robin. Do all the first tier missions for each character before moving to the second tier missions.
I don't remember ever really needing to grind until after you beat each character's story. Then you'll hear up for the true, secret end boss and you will grind A LOT.
Nattan
Member
Are you trying to proceed only on Ophilia's questline? The chapter level recommendations jump in fairly big steps, so you are encouraged to explore different areas where the enemy levels are more suitable. You can also find more party members to aid you on your journey.
Shaqazooloo
Member
How many characters you have? You might want to recruit 6-8 characters before taking on any Chapter 2's
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Exentryk
Member
You are meant to go to the neighbouring city rather than directly to Saintsbridge. In each city you will gain a character which will make your party stronger. So go collect all 8 characters before starting chapter 2 of Ophelia or others.
mcz117chief
Member
The journal says that my next step is to go to the city. It doesnt mention anything about recruiting. Is there any area between lvl 1 and 15 where I can lvl up or do I have to get more allies? I got a pretty strong guy to follow me but it is only for like 8 battles.
Pejo
Member
Generally the game expects you to play it in "layers" The first layer is to go around to all of the various starting towns and pick up all 8 party members. If you do this, the levels you gain should naturally make you ready for the second "layer" of towns and quests. You optionally can skip recruiting the other party members and grind out levels, but I haven't tried that yet so I'm not sure how long it takes. You're gong to miss a ton of content in the game if you don't get at least 1 party member for each field skill (4 different types). Just look at the map and you can see the character portraits next to the towns that they're from.
When you said you got a guy to follow you, that's a field skill of Ophelia. She can recruit NPCs based on her and their levels, then call on them in battle. That skill is used for battles and for quests. You can always go and re-recruit the same person if you liked them after they leave.
mcz117chief
Member
Great, thanks for the explanation, the game is a bit unclear on telling you what to do. Also, two more questions. Can you see the area's lvl on the map and can you see enemy's hp or is there some kind of bestiary?
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Yeah, I LOVE this game but it very vague about that, especially when it comes to side quests.
Shaqazooloo
Member
I'm pretty sure the game tells you to go and recruit other characters after you beat the first chapter, although it's been a while so I might be misremembering?
Generally no, it does tell you recommended levels at certain points when you reach those spots and you can use a characters chapter 2 as a warning on the level of an area (You'll know what I mean when you get more characters). Overall it would kind of be superfluous anyway since the game scales with every chapter you complete.
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