Octopath traveler (old style JRPG) on Sale

[lord_khaine]

As the thread title says, then i would just like to share this little bit of information.
So far my impression of the game is very positive, it feels like a love letter to old RPG's like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger.

And while the initial price were still a bit bonkers, then its now down to a reasonable 25 Euro.
In these times that feels like a worthwhile investment.

But hurry, offer ends April 2nd.

[KatsOfLoathing]

Bought this game a while back, played it about halfway through. Probably going to get back to it soon, what with the ongoing quarantine.

Overall it's enjoyable and tedious in equal measure. The battle system is a creative take on turn-based combat that gradually evolves in complexity as the game goes on, which is great for boss battles but kind of a grind for random encounters, in which inflicting meaningful damage to even the lowliest of mooks can take a lot of work by the midgame. That being said, when it works it really works, and there's definitely a triumphant feeling to breaking and stunning a difficult boss, then burying it under a bunch of boosted attacks.

On the less technical side of things it's still a mixed bag. The storytelling and character arcs are wildly uneven, almost like each main storyline had a totally different writing team on board. Olberic, Ophilia, Primrose, and H'aanit all have interesting, emotional story arcs, but Tressa and Alfyn's are bland, Therion's is a mountain of cliches, and Cyrus' is just painfully bad. The art direction, on the other hand, is consistently stunning, to the point that I'd sometimes put down my controller for a minute just to admire a piece of scenery or a particularly creative monster design. The music is also pretty good, though no tracks are as memorable as in Final Fantasy.

Somedy I'll get around to finishing the game. I think it was worth the money I paid for it, though maybe not as much as some others.

[Spore]

On the less technical side of things it's still a mixed bag. The storytelling and character arcs are wildly uneven, almost like each main storyline had a totally different writing team on board. Olberic, Ophilia, Primrose, and H'aanit all have interesting, emotional story arcs, but Tressa and Alfyn's are bland, Therion's is a mountain of cliches, and Cyrus' is just painfully bad.

I agree on principle but with the ranking of the stories I could disagree. I cannot STAND H'aanit's "ye olde English", to the point where she was the only character whose entire chapter I have skipped. Damn I have a distaste for her character.

Ophilia starts off great, is incredibly bland in the middle, and ends on a high note.

But one thing I have to tell you: all stories are painfully cliche. Starting with Olberic, a disgraced knight in exile? At this point I am sure there is a subgenre called "old warrior goes back to kick ass" or whatever. Alfyn speaks to me on a personal level. Aside from his moral dilemma, I feel he is just a guy trying to save the world, and just bites off too much. Plus every other character is incredible in their niche, but Alfyn is just a dedicated dude, but not even a very good apothecary.

And yes, while Cyrus plays like "Professor Layton for preschoolers" in the path action section, most story related path actions resort to "press Y in the place". I like how it portrays university politics, but most stories stretch a fair way to be connected to the (true) finale.

Overall it's enjoyable and tedious in equal measure.

Once you realize the true power is money, items and equipment rather than level, you won't try to outlevel the chapter bosses. Plus combat is very focussed on the offensive (with breaking stunning the enemies), so good weapons and attack power accessoires combined with a good strategy is the key to reducing level grind. If you want to see the true ending, I suggest you train all travellers equally however, since you will need all of them for the finale.

[Psyren]

It does trigger quite a bit of nostalgia for me... but I've come to realize that I've really outgrown menu-based combat and find it very tedious. So most likely I'm going to use a cheat program to skip the grind and just play for the story... when I get around to playing it again.

[tonberrian]

Octopath Traveler is exactly what I want to play right now. It is extremely good at being a pixel art jrpg with turn-based combat. It's certainly not for everyone - it is what it is, and nothing more. But I do like it because this is what I want.

[factotum]

I'm currently playing through myself, and my biggest gripe is that the actual difficulty of the storyline bosses doesn't seem to bear any relation to the level stated for the story mission. Tressa's level 2 boss (Omar) was unquestionably the most difficult chapter 2 boss for me, despite her level 2 story being one of the lowest level ones! Ran into another roadblock with Therion's chapter 3, so leaving him until last.

Regarding equipment and money being more important than level--that's unquestionably true, but since the major way to get money is to grind through battles anyway, I'm not sure it's a meaningful distinction. Sure, you can go around the towns thieving everything that isn't nailed down with Therion and sell it all, but frankly that's even more tedious than grinding through combat--at least the combats have a bit of variety to them!

[lord_khaine]

Did find that the merchant girl can collect quite large amounts.
It certainly helped getting my economy up.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Octopath Traveler is exactly what I want to play right now.

Me too! It's great for playing during the lockdown. I bought it ages ago (aye, during a sale), but I'm glad I waited until now to play it.

My first stop in chapter 2 was Primrose's left-hand man: I went in about 3 levels light and got beat on the first attempt, but it was very close. Basically his 'pummel' ability caught me off gaurd at a crucial moment. After the rematch I went for Omar, 1 level below recommended, and he just slaughtered me. He's a monster! Doing Ophelia's chapter 2 after that was a walk in the park...

I cannot STAND H'aanit's "ye olde English", to the point where she was the only character whose entire chapter I have skipped. Damn I have a distaste for her character.

On this: are you playing with English or Japanese voices? I've got it on Japanese and I think Kaida Yuko does an excellent job of selling H'aanit's dialect. No accounting for taste though, I guess.


And maybe Tressa's story is bland, but I still love her. Capitalism ho!

[factotum]

Case in point about the complaint about boss levels I made earlier: I skipped the boss of Therion's level 36 Chapter 3 because he was way hard, did a few side missions to earn some money, then went and did Ophilia's level 38 chapter 3 story mission. I had exactly the same characters in place for both, yet the boss fight for the supposedly more difficult Ophilia story was almost insultingly easy! Difficulty curve of the game is just all over the place.

[KatsOfLoathing]

For the people who had trouble against Omar, you unquestionably have to target his flunkies first, otherwise they'll bury you under the constant barrage of AoE attacks. It's a damage race until that point, but once the mooks are dealt with Omar himself is a much easier challenge.

Overall, I don't think the boss difficulty really scales with level at all. Every boss is kind of like a puzzle with their own strategy that you have to figure out how to adapt against and counter appropriately. I could think of several bosses in Chapter 2 that gave me more trouble than those in Chapter 3 just because their gimmicks were more clever and/or I didn't catch on as fast.

[factotum]

That may be true, although bosses whose vulnerabilities change randomly after they recover from a break can die in a fire as far as I'm concerned...although they probably won't be vulnerable to it that time around . There's no way to mount a consistent strategy against bosses like that, and Therion's chapter 3 boss is one of them.

[lord_khaine]

Upon closer glance i found out what i were missing myself.
The party banter. The interaction between party members.
Without that it feels like a party of strangers.

[Ninja_Prawn]

The 'press L for travel banter' thing seems a bit weird to me. I think it would be better if they played automatically, without asking permission. Or at least less meta.

Also, with doing Primrose's chapter first, the first couple episodes that I triggered were hardly what I'd call banter...

[factotum]

It can be quite weird. Because the travel banter depends on who you have in the party at the time, but they haven't done options for *everyone*, you sometimes get nothing. On other occasions you'll get two or three in a row, or you might get travel banter intended for a previous chapter when you go back into that town with different characters to do the next part. I recall Yahtzee saying in his ZP review of this that the game felt like eight separate stories that don't really come together until the end, and I see exactly what he means. It's especially odd when the bad guy of the moment says something like "We'll show you it was a mistake to come here alone!" and then you go into battle where there are clearly four people on your team; even odder in the arena fights in Olberon's second chapter, where both you and the opponent bring along minions to help out in what you would have thought would be single combat!

[Spore]

Also, with doing Primrose's chapter first, the first couple episodes that I triggered were hardly what I'd call banter...

Yea, Primrose's story hits like a truck. And it doesn't pull punches either. Apparently the creators took their world building from Game of Thrones (yes, I am serious). Still, Primrose is my favorite story.

My personal gripe is - ignoring H'aanit's voice acting complaint from above - the wildly varying tone. Olberic is a classical knight's tale, then you have Primrose with her dark story, followed by Alfyn's rather idealistic "I'm gonna heal the world!"

But Therion next to Primrose feels incredibly edgy. "I'm my own spirit, following my own rules, alone." Dude, you travel with SEVEN other guys. The girl next to you suffered traumatic loss in her backstory thrice. Sure, your issues are acceptable but it really feels like hollow bravado when you compare some of the stories. And that is what you should not do to enjoy the game. Compare the stories. For all intents and purposes, the travellers finish their personal stories on their own, and meet at the end of their fourth chapters.

[factotum]

OK, I'm beginning to get a bit annoyed as I move into the late game. Just had a go at Redeye. First attempt I had him literally down to a few thousand health when he did a double-Sweep and TPKed me. Second attempt, I must have got him below half life because he started his three attacks per turn thing, but he wiped me out much earlier that time. Fights in this game really start to be more about how lucky you are on the RNG than any amount of skill or strategy at the higher levels--I mean, I have a level 58 H'aanit with pretty high defence and Evasion, yet she can get taken out by Redeye in a single turn; the other guys who are down around level 45 ain't got much chance.

The only slight glimmer of light here is that this is literally the first chapter 4 boss I've tried, so I've only visited Marsalim among the top-level towns--I'll have to see if there's any good gear to be found in the others.

[tonberrian]

OK, I'm beginning to get a bit annoyed as I move into the late game. Just had a go at Redeye. First attempt I had him literally down to a few thousand health when he did a double-Sweep and TPKed me. Second attempt, I must have got him below half life because he started his three attacks per turn thing, but he wiped me out much earlier that time. Fights in this game really start to be more about how lucky you are on the RNG than any amount of skill or strategy at the higher levels--I mean, I have a level 58 H'aanit with pretty high defence and Evasion, yet she can get taken out by Redeye in a single turn; the other guys who are down around level 45 ain't got much chance.

The only slight glimmer of light here is that this is literally the first chapter 4 boss I've tried, so I've only visited Marsalim among the top-level towns--I'll have to see if there's any good gear to be found in the others.

You definitely want to visit all the top-level towns before doing any of the act 4 bosses. And I'd say Redeye is one of the harder ones, with its shifting weaknesses, unconsciousness, and 3rd highest HP values, but I haven't tried any others than Darius, and he's got nasty gimmicks too.

[factotum]

I guess I'm particularly annoyed because I was *that* close to killing him on my first attempt-- I analysed him with Cyrus a few turns before he killed me and he was at 15k life at that point; I'm sure he was close to defeat at the point he RNGed me to death.

[KatsOfLoathing]

OK, I'm beginning to get a bit annoyed as I move into the late game. Just had a go at Redeye. First attempt I had him literally down to a few thousand health when he did a double-Sweep and TPKed me. Second attempt, I must have got him below half life because he started his three attacks per turn thing, but he wiped me out much earlier that time. Fights in this game really start to be more about how lucky you are on the RNG than any amount of skill or strategy at the higher levels--I mean, I have a level 58 H'aanit with pretty high defence and Evasion, yet she can get taken out by Redeye in a single turn; the other guys who are down around level 45 ain't got much chance.

The only slight glimmer of light here is that this is literally the first chapter 4 boss I've tried, so I've only visited Marsalim among the top-level towns--I'll have to see if there's any good gear to be found in the others.

Just beat Redeye for the first time this morning, it took me five attempts before it worked out, and it really mostly came down to RNG. The second attempt was over in three combat rounds, when it chained three AOE attacks in a row and wiped out the entire party before I could even do anything. The last time, when I won, it maybe used Rampage (its strongest AOE) once, and didn't use its petrification attack at all. The battle can really turn around in a second depending on how aggressive the AI decides to be.

Some recommendations I can manage: you'll want a Conscious Stone (I think that's the name, it's the accessory that blocks Unconscious) on your primary healer, and maybe bring multiple healers. I had both Ophilia and Alfyn on my team, the former for HP and the latter for status effects (Concoct - Soothing Dust + Curious Bloom will clear Blind and Unconscious from the entire party at once). Give H'aanit an anti-Blind accessory and as many defense-boosting items as you can; she'll be your linchpin for breaking its guard. And I might recommend holding off on breaking Redeye as long as possible - its aggressiveness increases as its HP falls, so you can identify when it's about to go nuts and break it then.

Overall it's a damage race, and one of the more punishing ones in the game. I wish you a kind AI, you'll need it.

[factotum]

I've actually been wandering around a bit. Got some nice gear from the Everhold Tunnels, and I've hit on a near-perfect strategy for winning all the chump fights in the wilderness--just get a Merchant to donate a BP to H'aanit on turn 1, then H'aanit uses the thief divine on turn 2 which deals upwards of 7,000 damage to all opponents, generally killing them all instantly. Haven't unlocked any of the advanced jobs yet, but have visited Everhold and Orewell and picked up some additional kit, and ground up a few more levels for my characters.

[tonberrian]

Wow okay. Just absolutely WRECKED Ophilia's chapter 4 boss. Apparently, at certain health thresholds he summons help, and locks magic. This would have been a pain, but. It turns out using Brand's Thunder with the damage limit removed and both an attack buff and a defense debuff applied where they should be against a broken target deals like, a third of his health. And I did manage to have three of them go off, so...

[factotum]

I'm going to have to go for the advanced jobs at some point because they sound hella broken. Tressa/Runelord, for instance...apparently you use the rune that transfers any ability she uses to the entire team, and then Rest will heal everyone of ailments and recover some SP and HP for them, and Sidestep will make the entire team effectively immune to physical attacks. Pretty sure Redeye's AOE slash attack is physical, so that ought to make him a breeze.

[Eurus]

Definitely have to agree that bosses are fun and challenging, random encounters are a serious slog. Pretty sure I haven't taken the "less random encounters" ability off since I got it. I'm sure I could bust out a crazy combo to one-shot most of them, but I like messing around with lots of different combos and keeping my characters rotated to be similar level.

[tonberrian]

The secret jobs bosses are real tough. I'm getting bodied by the Warmaster boss repeatedly, and I'm not sure what to do aside from levelling up the other characters and using a lineup based on them.

Edit: okay, the secret to brute forcing this fight was JUDICIAL use of debuffs and buffs.

[factotum]

See, I know the Warmaster boss uses exclusively physical attacks, so I want to get the Tressa/Runelord combo set up before I face that one--Sidestep for all your party members pretty much entirely shuts down physical attacks. Problem is, Balogar is an absolute sod to beat. The Starseer and Sorcerer bosses are really easy to cheese, because it's a matter of getting Dancer divine cast on the cleric, Reflective Veil on everyone, and then laugh as the boss pretty much kills themself, but Balogar's elemental attacks aren't affected by Reflective Veil and also have a significant chance of applying a status effect. The wiki claims that his attacks can also miss, but as far as I'm concerned it lies, because I've faced him three times and never seen him miss those attacks once. Once he starts using Runestorm to hit all your party members simultaneously it's only a matter of time before you end up with your entire party either dead or incapacitated at once.

One thing I haven't tried yet is including Alfyn on the team, since he's the only character who has a natural ability to remove status effects that can apply to your entire party at once, but at the moment I'm wandering around trying to find the best gear available to boost the defences of my team.

[factotum]

OK, I finally got Balogar. Only way I could do it was to include Tressa on the team, because all his attacks count as physical and her Sidestep shuts them down hard--unfortunately she can't transfer that to anyone else until she actually has the Runelord job, but so long as she's alive and in good shape she can get the rest of the party on their feet.

And, well, that was a bit odd. Most games play you the end credits when, y'know, you've actually *finished* them, but Octopath Traveler spits on your tired "traditions". It has its ten-minute-long unskippable credit sequence when you finish the final chapter of the story of the character you started the game with--and it doesn't even wait for the story to *properly* end with the Fin end card, it just plays as soon as you step out of town! Oh, and it turns out that once you've finished that character's story the game will allow you to swap them out, so I really don't understand why it just didn't let you do that all the way through. If it had, I wouldn't have a H'aanit 10 levels higher than anyone else on the team...