Topic: Octopath Traveler

So I guess Digital Foundry wanted to cover Octopath Traveller, shame about the title though. I guess NintendoLife aren't the only people guilty of drawing in people with Fortnite

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2jKOJsoVcro

Now that I've watched the video I'm slightly disappointed, it seemed like it was only the last couple of minutes where they said anything new, the rest was obvious. But I had my suspicions about the resolution being below 720p out of the dock so at least that was confirmed.

Shame they didn't check why it drains the battery so much :/

I find the battery concerns interesting. I didn't notice any such issue with the first demo. So far the biggest battery drainers I've seen are Splatoon 2, XC2, BotW. We'll see if this full game has different results for me.

I've gotten into this game now. Played the full demo and went out and bought it. It's good so far.

Why is the soundtrack so goooood?!

Also, Tressa kinda feels OP with her ability to find money.

Cyrus: How shall I ever afford this new staff? I'm level 14 and it costs 45,000
Olberic: Not a problem. We shall slay 10,000 foes! With the rewards we shall buy the staff.
Cyrus: That sounds liek a lot of pain and effort...

the two stare at each other

Tressa: I just found 5000 just laying around!

Olberic drops sword in shock

Cyrus: Can you do that again?
Tressa: Sure, I've been picking up money since we started...I have like 250000 in the bank now...

If you have a US My Nintendo Account you can redeem 50 platinum points for eigth different covers for your physical copy of Octopath,

So you can have your favourite character on the front cover

Currently I am again trying to like Octopath Traveler enough to buy it. I love the art style and the music, but so far the game kind of bored me. I get that it takes patience to get into RPGs though. The main thing scaring me off is that this game is all about telling stories of different characters and the developers made Bravely Default, which is a beautiful well-made game that was ruined for me by the cheesy over-the-top-storytelling and characters.
I decided to play the demo first since progress would not be lost if I succeed. Started playing as H'aanit. Heard everyone loves Primrose's story, but hardly heard anything about everyone elses story. What are you favorite story archs except for hers?
In the first demo I played as Olberic and it was rather boring. My interest isn't piqued so far by H'aanits story, but admittedly I didn't play very far yet.
Do they bring up any interesting topics/concepts/problems/drama? Or do they keep being tame average middle-ages-fantasy-hero stories?

Covering weaknesses and shortcomings or reinforcing pre-existing strengths is better ?

@Tiefseemiez I really hate the diagloue of H'aanit. They are just making up stupid words to make it sound olde worlde and skipped through alot of the spoken dialogue.
I didn't play the three hour demo as i knew i would get it when it came out and would be annoyed after the three hours were used up.
I started with Therion's Story, and only have four of the characters so far (Therion, H'annit, Alfyn & Primrose) the starting storylines are a bit obvious, but I love this type of stuff.
JRPGs are grinding, which put off alot of people so I'm not telling you that it is the greatest as other people have other opinions, but for me it is great.

I've heard from a few places that the game is very difficult/grindy... Would you say this is the case? Really loved the look of the game, but I'm fairly allergic to tedious grinding in RPGs, so may have to withdraw my interest.

@Yorumi
Oh right, interesting, thanks.

To comment on the Grindy parts of the game.
Equipment effects stats much more than leveling. A few dozen levels will obviously make a difference, but less than 10 is negligible.

If someone is having an issue on a chapter they are a bit underleveled for, it's likely more than their levels that's actually a problem.

@Tiefseemiez Well I've finished chapter two for everyone's stories and Primrose is still my favourite, but I also like Alfyn and Ophilia's too. Cyrus had an interesting second chapter but it was really short . I think each story is good but some rely on classic storylines more than others. Each does manage to be interesting and different from one another but I guess that depends on personal opinions how much it will interest you. I think Olberic's story is the weakest so far, the second chapter had a lot of elements from other RPGs that I have played before.

@Bunkerneath I didn't like H'aanit's way of speaking when I played the demo but it doesn't annoy as much now. I understand that it's to show how her tribe of Hunters have a different culture and way of life but nothing about her looks Old English like her speech and the animals have German names so it's a weird mix. The second chapter is just weird though because H'aanit has her way of speaking and then everyone in the village has some strange fictional Scottish dialect which I couldn't fully understand (and I'm Scottish so I don't know how everyone else handles it! ).

@Haywired I haven't needed to grind and I'm almost 30 hours into the game. I keep the same three characters most of the time (Tressa, Cyrus and Ophilia) and then the fourth character is whoever's chapter it is. The stronger characters can pull through the weaker ones though so they always catch up. If they're struggling you can always give them stronger weapons and equipment that increases HP and SP

@Kimyonaakuma
Thanks for the response! Sounds alright. I'll try some of the ones. Ophilia would probably have been my second pick aswell to try out.
I think the language of H'aanit bothers those who speak English as a first language more than others. But I can totally see that being annoying then.
I like her voice a lot though! It is really warm and strong somehow.
And I like her ability (gotta catch'em all!) though at the moment it feels a little....overpowered?
But that might change when the game gets harder.

I'm not sure why some reviews talked about grinding. I've had the skill that reduces random encounters on since I got it in the first hour or so (started with Cyrus) and I haven't had any reason to grind. I've only battled every battle that comes up naturally and one or two extra battles if I've been really close to a level up before a boss battle. Sure, I tried to battle against a second chapter boss when I was below the recommended level and lost. But then I simply played another character's chapter, returned to the previous battle and beat the boss easily.

There's always something to do. If you can't beat a boss, you can buy better equipment, try different team combination, beat another chapter or discover new areas. The game has a fast travel option so you can warp to any visited town whenever you want. No reason to stay in one place battling the same monsters over and over.

I've recruited 6/8 characters and beaten 3/8 2nd chapters. Going to get Ophelia next. I'm guessing she can use light magic which is something I haven't had access to yet.

@Tiefseemiez You're welcome!

I think the main reason I find H'aanit's voice annoying sometimes is because some of the words are ridiculous, she would sound fine if she didn't change every word. I'll agree that her voice is really nice, even though I knew I recognised it from somewhere! (It was Shin Megami Tensei Apocalypse). Turns out she actually does a lot of voices for Fire Emblem and Persona games.
I think her capture ability could be overpowered if you could control which enemy it attacks but it seems to be random, I guess it depends how much time you put into catching lots of animals.

@Late That ability that Cyrus has is very useful! I only use it for running through low level areas low to save time. He does seem to be a little overpowered in my opinion though, he can find weaknesses easily and his spells are very strong....if only he had unlimited SP...

Anyway it's time for me to start my first chapter three! I'll start with Olberic because if he's still boring he'll at least be out of the way

@Kimyonaakuma Speaking of unlimited SP. My Primrose currently has the ability to recover 6 SP when it's her turn and she also has the ability that grants her SP when she hits enemies normally. Her max. SP is ~115 but I rarely see it go under 100. Her abilities don't require much SP so it could as well be unlimited.

@Late I had no idea that Primrose has that skill! That makes her even better

@Yorumi I've combined several support skills and it makes things much more manageable in battles. If you use the skill that Late mentioned Cyrus is able to recover 11SP per turn, and the Merchant job has a skill which halves the amount of SP needed for spells, so you're pretty much using the spell for free! I completed the third chapter for Olberic with these skills and his SP didn't drop below 150, and he used his strongest spells almost every turn

You can also use Therion to give Cyrus more SP. Therion has a move that can steal SP and another skill that can give SP to other party member. When I run low on SP, I can just give Cyrus half or more of Therion's SP if needed. I don't usually use the double spells that cost 22 SP unless I need to get a quick break or I'm using a 4x boost. I have collected over 40 Inspiriting Plums while exploring as well which I haven't had a need to use for a while now. I've found SP to be something you don't need to use much unless you're battling a boss.

I save my SP for bosses or if I want to finish a battle quickly and level up.

I usually have Cyrus for magic damage, Ophilia for healing/light magic and Tressa for weapons as well as extra BP/SP. The last slot is for whoever's chapter it is but they usually fit in quite well

This is the first rpg where so far I haven't really needed a healer. If I'm running low I just use a potion or they will be close to leveling anyways. Boss fights are even manageable without one so far. That will probably change once I get into chapter 2's.