LogFAQs > #905189894

You guys, especially TC, are bloating the fact that the stories are cliches but... literally almost every story is a cliche. Reading a story is never about identifying the cliche because your favorite story was probably done much better in some other literature that you've never heard of. It's sorta the "we can't disprove it unless we comb the entire world" deal that stories like Life of Pi liked to illustrate. How do we know if a Rhyno (aside from a Zoo) isn't living in our city unless we rigorously comb and monitor every square inch?

It's also funny because you guys talk a lot about the FFs, which every single one of the FF stories are based off of classic medieval fantasy novels and have been done before, maybe even better.

What you guys have to actually look for in a story is how they're woven together. Ultimately, along with all the stories in the side quests, people having lives of their own, etc, Octopath paints a pretty convincing picture that this is a world with a lot of people living their own lives (aka even the 8 protagonists are just people with their own problems or ambitions going about their own lives with the help of various people who happen to be special in their own way). The writing is great and the dialogues are well written. They usually talk as though they've been together for a long time if they were a family or maybe a guy has a reputation but nobody knows who that reputation belongs to, or maybe a character stood abuse for a while and interacts with their abuser in a certain way. It's all written very well and is interesting. If you felt nothing with stories like Primrose or even Ophilia who goes on a massive journey all across the world just so her sister can stay with her dad, I dunno what to tell you. If you were just reading the dialogue and thinking maaaan I've seen this before, you've placed yourself in a mindset that you weren't gonna enjoy it no matter how well it was written.

To me, crying about cliches just sounds childish. Because people who read a lot know cliches are a necessary evil, and the execution of the story is where it matters. It's like a guy going to the movie theaters for the third time, thinking everything is now so typical and bland, where there's another guy going to the movies for the 100th time, thinking it's a great hobby and a personal tradition.
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