Topic: Octopath Traveler

@Mii_duck
Hrm… that does sound a bit off. I never really had an issue with my party being underleveled. I honestly never had to go out and grind or anything. Are you popping into a few of the random caves and mini dungeons as you're exploring? Do you have Cyrus' ability for fewer random battles turned on? If so, you may want to turn it off for a bit.

@rallydefault - thank you for the reply.

I turn off Cyrus' ability occasionally but I must admit I skipped the random caves and mini dungeons, thinking they were maybe for later to advance the stories.
I shall go back and explore, maybe visit all the chapter two towns to grind for a bit and so I can fast travel in future. Not a major problem, I'm enjoying the game.

@Mii_duck I had exactly the same problem, my main character was level 20+ but all the others were really low, and can't level up these lower characters without them being in my group, so would level up my main and the level difference made it annoying.

@Bunkerneath - yes, I know what you mean. While I'm leveling up four characters I keep thinking "there is a long way to go again to bring the other four up to snuff".

Of course there is a rubber band effect though, as the higher your level the more XP you need to go up, so the lower characters can catch up your main somewhat.

Have you got any secondary shrines yet?

@Mii_duck Yes, but even the normal enemies are getting too hard for some of my characters to beat, one hit and they are almost dying. That is why I gave up on it, even though I was so excited about it after playing the demo.

@AndyRogan - I haven't yet, must admit. But after a bit of Googling - yep, the game gives you the tools you need.

I've been, if not exactly rushing through, not relaxing either.

@Mii_duck I'm at a similar place, I think chapter 1 is complete for all 8, trying to level up before moving on, looking up shrines so I have access to more weapon types and moves at any one time.
Started as Cyrus, he's level 21, then got 2 @ level 20 and 1 @ level 16. The other 4 not used are around level 14

I've gotten into this again, and have beaten the second chapter for Tressa, Ophilia and Cyrus - along with Olberic, they make a pretty fun team. But now, I've swapped out Tressa, Ophilia and Cyrus for Therion, H'annit and Alfyn, and it's become a bit less fun. Granted, they're around 15 levels behind, underequipped and lacking in their specialised skills, but it's going to take a bit of grinding to get them viable - even for their second chapters,
It's a bit tricky, because I have an odd one out in Primrose, so while after this next round, everyone will be around level 30, I'll then have to babysit Primrose.

I find it weird how often people talk about grinding in Octopath Traveler. I had the enemy encounter minimiser active, and still struggled to avoid feeling overlevelled. I also rotated my team members for every chapter so, apart from my first pick (whom I switched out after completing his chapter 8), everyone was the same level. Never stuck with the same four all the time. Every character is useful, especially once you can add second jobs.

Final, final boss was my favourite bit of the game. It kicked my ass the first few times, but with the right strategy it is beatable without grinding - provided you haven’t dumped all your JP in the wrong places.

@Krull I'm with you and never had to grind once. Even when I was a bit underleveled my main carried the team. I also switched out quite regularly.

The boss rush is easy if you abuse the Weapon Master's Winnehild's Battle Cry ability while equipping some of the best weapons in the game.

The final boss is actually very similar to the 4 secret class bosses in the way that you need to work out the right way to beat them. It's a puzzle, not brute force and high levels. Also I highly recommend not to use any of your jams and save them for the final boss as they make it actually relatively doable.

Actually the game is really set up well to overlevel yourself if you want to. The overworld enemies are split into low level areas, medium level areas and high level areas. I just grinded in forests in each area to level up. The last forest in the north east of the map had some of hte highest level enemies in the game. Around level 55 I think. I did everyone's chapeter 1 then worked my way up to that top end forest and grinded there a little. Did not take that long to overlevel everyone. So much so that even everyone's chapter 4 boss was a joke. But I still found it really fun.

Also using your job points wrongly doesn't matter. You can grind more very quickly. For the final boss you need a decent amount of job points for all 8 characters anyway. All that really matters is that you didn't use up all your jams and revatilising jams as when used correctly really help in the final boss battle.

That really doesn't matter. 2 - 3 overlevelled characters just walks all over the game in everything except the 4 secret job bosses and the final boss. I did all chapter 2 - 4 bosses with 3 of the same characters I just swapped out the 4th when I needed to have a different character in the team. Doesn't matter what level the 4th character is. The other 3 can carry.

I only bought it recently. I planned to buy it shortly after release (I enjoyed the demo), but waited because of shortages. Then recently I pondered: "Should I still buy it? I am not a gigantic rpg fan. But If I wait to long, it goes out of print"

Well, I made the jump recently...and I am very happy that I did! Nice, complex gameplay. Awesome graphics and music. Fun characters and voice acting. Interesting stories. Lenghty and challenging bosses. I am 11 hours in and don't know if I'll see it through to the end, but so far I am enjoying it a lot. But I am just tipping the surface, I have done the first chapters of 6 characters and just started the first chapter of character number 7. But so far, really impressed!

I enjoyed the game. Wished it had more plot overall, but am excited for another game.

@Krull @Spoony_Tech

I had the same experience. I never had to grind. Could it be because in order to do one character's quest all at once you would have to grind and that's what people are doing?

The way I played I got all eight characters, switched out constantly, and wouldn't move to a new chapter until all the characters had completed the chapter.

But that might not be the most ideal way to play as it made the game ridiculously easy in the last few stories of each chapter.

@Purgatorium You can play the game anyways you want. I played exactly the way you described and I worked out in my favor. Grinding sucks if you can avoid it but I found that if you picked the right starting character they could carry weaker characters for quite a while.

For sure, I chose Cyrus as my starting character and he was just a wrecking ball. Other characters managed to keep their levels on par with suggest levels by just being swapped in often enough.

The game is good in that way, actually. Characters gained levels pretty fast so even if they were behind, bringing them along with a higher party caught them up quick.

Heard about the 'next console game' alongside the mobile spin-off announcement.

There are only two major things I would want from a sequel. More character interactions outside of banners with more influence over each other's plot would be great, as everyone basically makes sure everyone is recruited before starting a chapter 2 anyways.

The other bigger thing is that I would rather have no final boss over a forced one. I know this would be hard to do from a gameplay perspective, but it means a lot to me from a story and worldbuilding one. What I personally loved about this game was that there was no evil god breaking a thousand-year seal or an evil emperor from the more advanced nation. Everyone's story was personal. It felt like the playable characters could have been NPCs from a more traditional RPG.

They are Travelers, not heroes.

But it was missable, so many players probably finished the 8 characters story and were like okay, now what....no climax>? There are still areas I haven't been too....