Board 8 > Initial Octopath Traveler thoughts [playthrough topic I guess]

(+) Yeah! (+)

A few initial impressions and some questions:

1. Stunning presentation, from the graphics to the music to the sound design. But I already knew this from the trailers.

2. The voiceover work is pretty horrendous, especially for the non-cutscene dialogue (the grunting, laughing, etc.). I found it so distracting that I turned it off after 10 minutes.

3. The dialogue is pretty damn bad, even by JRPG standards.

4. The setting is fairly bland and sort of just lacking anything unique. Hopefully that changes as I get into other regions.

5. On a positive note, I really love the battle system and it's actually very satisfying to play so far.

Now some questions:

1. Does the story get... better? I started with Olberic and finished recruiting Primrose, but neither plot is encouraging me to spend 80 hours on this.

2. How should I go about getting all the characters? Does it make sense to complete a few more chapters for the ones I have first or just power forward and recruit new people? The game seems to leave it pretty open ended.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

1. Does the story get... better?

No
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tag
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skullbone posted...

Nelson_Mandela posted...

1. Does the story get... better?

No

Cool. Lucky for this game that it seems like it can get by on its charm and mechanics.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

2. How should I go about getting all the characters? Does it make sense to complete a few more chapters for the ones I have first or just power forward and recruit new people? The game seems to leave it pretty open ended

Fairly certain chapters have set difficulties that don't scale based on anything. If you wait to do chapter 1s, you'll be fairly under leveled for the later chapters you do, and vastly overleveled when you come back to chapter 1s
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I don't know if I just missed it or it was purposely vague, but I didn't get a clear direction that I should be taking after the first boss fights for Olberic and Primrose.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

I don't know if I just missed it or it was purposely vague, but I didn't get a clear direction that I should be taking after the first boss fights for Olberic and Primrose.

Aren't the towns the other chapter 1s are in marked on your map?
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hombad46 posted...

Nelson_Mandela posted...

I don't know if I just missed it or it was purposely vague, but I didn't get a clear direction that I should be taking after the first boss fights for Olberic and Primrose.

Aren't the towns the other chapter 1s are in marked on your map?

Are they? I'm pretty sure the only towns marked are the ones with the other characters in them. I'll check again.
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*chapter 2

Okay, I actually understand how this works now. It's just hard for me to headcanon if the characters need to go in opposite directions, but luckily Olberic and Primrose both need to go to the same region.
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Bumpo
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

Now some questions:

1. Does the story get... better? I started with Olberic and finished recruiting Primrose, but neither plot is encouraging me to spend 80 hours on this.

2. How should I go about getting all the characters? Does it make sense to complete a few more chapters for the ones I have first or just power forward and recruit new people? The game seems to leave it pretty open ended.

1. Haha, definitely not.

2. I pretty much just did a loop and grabbed everyone, but it's pretty tedious.
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This is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. Not because I was hyped, but because it's SUCH waste of potential to have this concept, the art style, and these mechanics paired with THIS story, dialogue, and characters. Would it have killed them to be even a little unique or weird with these stories? It's like they just pulled out the most boring medieval JRPG tropes and put zero twist on any of them.
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Yeah I played the game for about 15 hours and then dropped it. It was fine, but generic.
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Yeah I made it to about 20 hours before giving up. I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did
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Well thankfully the game was successfully hopefully they can take what works, while expanding on new plot and characters for a sequel.
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I'm sorry but this topic was funny to keep up with

"This game is cool! does it get better tho?"

"lawl no"

"Well thats okay, I think it'll get by on it's own merits"

*time passes*

"MOST DISAPPOINTING GAEM EVAR"
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It feels as if both the Bravely games and this suffer from the same problem of being a hit or miss
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For what it's worth I do think that several of the individual character stories get better as they go along. Nothing big and epic, but they raise some interesting issues IMO.

But yeah overall it's mostly a game I played for an excellent battle system and being decent enough otherwise.
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Nelson_Mandela posted...

This is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. Not because I was hyped, but because it's SUCH waste of potential to have this concept, the art style, and these mechanics paired with THIS story, dialogue, and characters. Would it have killed them to be even a little unique or weird with these stories? It's like they just pulled out the most boring medieval JRPG tropes and put zero twist on any of them.

I warned you bro

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the story is fine. old school gonna old school

Punnyz posted...

I'm sorry but this topic was funny to keep up with

"This game is cool! does it get better tho?"

"lawl no"

"Well thats okay, I think it'll get by on it's own merits"

*time passes*

"MOST DISAPPOINTING GAEM EVAR"

I still don't even hate it, but I got to Tressa's story and it was just embarrassing. My wife actually started mocking me after reading the dialogue in that scenario.
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colliding posted...

the story is fine. old school gonna old school

This is supposed to be a throwback to the SNES/PSX era. Games that include Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc. Hell, FFT proved that you can have have interesting spins on a medieval fantasy story.
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I mean yes, I admit the story isn't as good as any of those

but I also think it's not trying for that

colliding posted...

I also think it's not trying

Agreed
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They really messed up by forcing each story to have the exact same structure. It makes it so even the slightly interesting stories feel paint-by-numbers

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Yeah I think I have to drop this game. I simply don't have the time anymore to waste on something that isn't going to absorb me.

How is Rayman Legends? Do I need another human to play co-op or is it like DKC?
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I am glad you made this topic

I was considering getting it because it doesn't seem like its gonna go down in price, its getting the first party treatment

and a b2g1 free deal is coming up

buuuuut yea, feedback is less than stellar

what a shame
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I mean if you can live with beautiful presentation and interesting gameplay but a genuinely bad story, then get it. I just can't feel motivated to sink 80 hours into an RPG where the characters don't interest me.
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