I actually love H'annit's lines but whatevs. Another good example of incosistency amongst the party is Therion's whole deal about working alone. He snubs working with other thieves but then is bam, with the party.
I'm only playing the demo and after much anticipation, H'annit's lines is seriously making me reconsider my future purchase if I'm in for more voice-acting like this. So for me, it's bad. I wish it was more subtle.
As someone who started the game with Ophilia, I had a great time. Early on I gave her the warrior subclass so she could be like a Paladin, and I think it went well.
I started with Ophilia just because she looks the most like me. She ended up being my least favorite of the main characters, even though I still really like her. She was super OP after I made her a sorcerer
@@leahtheanimationfan40 I picked her up last and also made her sorcerer. Picking Ophelia and Cyrus up last saved some the best story moments for the end.
I loved Octopath. I think Octopath Traveler, and Bravely Default II are two of the best JRPG's in modern gaming. Though I still have to play Dragon Quest XI. Great breakdown and, review by the way. Obviously this wasn't your favourite game, but games are like art and music, they're subjective.
it's has already been announce 2 years ago that Octopath Traveler 2 (along with the mobile announcement) is in production. They just said to be patient as it takes time to make a good game. In the mean time we will have Bravely Default 2 comming out tomorrow and Project Triangle Strategy next year which i'm very excited about this one.
@@Grim_Bud you're probably referring to Project Triangle Strategy with its "SaltIron" war... I've played and tested the demo a lot already to understand how choices impact the game. There is still a lot to see from this game but so far it is very promising.
I've played this game through twice now, and I really like it. The combat and team-building aspects are more fun than most JRPG's, and I skip through the stories to get back to actual game. (So yes the story is middling) I don't have much trouble with "the numbers game" of Octopath, recommended levels have always felt more than balanced to me, to the point I often go into a boss a few levels under with the respective story's character. (Your starting character is likely over leveled anyway) That being said the combat and boss battles are the best parts of the game, to the point that its one of my favorite RPG's in recent years. The music and artsyle of course are incredible too. I don't have an issue at all with dungeon design, I prefer it to ladders or doors teleporting you to different boards which often happens in most dungeons in other games, because at least you have some idea of your progress in the level. Its the kinda game that warns you of what you're getting into with its presentation, and if that's what you want- a JRPG with emphasis on combat, and teambuilding. The era its trying to emulate clues most people in on the perceived difficulty. I love the game, a lot. Despite the obvious shortcomings, I return to it often because most RPG's make me miss this game's combat system.
A great example of a game in which I like the music more than the actual game. Great review, couldn't agree more. A JRPG without a story that pulls you in just feels like a game of numbers in the end, which results in just being boring and frustrating. Got through it in the end, but that was mostly because of the incredible music and overall design.
I strongly disagree with the grinding/difficulty/level up argument. Your struggle was a lack of imagination on your part. The game incentivize you to explore different areas to get chests and new reward as well as steal/purchase NPC to get incredible reward to make your journey easy. Also levels in this game is of no importance. When you said you needed to level up to get bigger numbers, that is actually not true at all. If you check any stats chart of the game you'll notice that gear in the game is around 3 times more powerful than what you get from levels. I even was able to beat the game Solo at level 12 with Tressa (something you can watch on my channel). Now about the argument of the same layout in each dungeon, yes it is true to some extent, but most RPG game uses the same resource for different things so it's not like Octopath is worst than the average RPG game on that. Also you need to remember that Square-Enix released a statement a while ago about the success of Octopath Traveler. They weren't expecting the kind of success it had. So what does this means? It means that the marketing team were not expecting to make that much money with the game, so you can kinda understand that Octopath Traveler didn't have a that big of a budget in the first place. Now with the over 2 millions copies sold of the first game you can bet some money that the second installment will improve a lot on that and other things.
I fucking *love* this game... I love it! And yet I haven't beaten it after... wow, it's bee 2 years. I'm just like you. There's so much I appreciate about this game but I just can't manage to get through it. The same issue I found with BDefault 1 - I just got overwhelmed or something. I'm gonna play through some of it when I get home because of your honest video.
Yeah I finally beat it myself yesterday. I think chapters 3 and 4 are much than the early chapters, so once I got there I enjoyed myself more. Plus you'll have a lot more options and be familiar with more interesting strategies by then.
Who said you have to spell "OCTOPATH" in your playthrough? I mean yeah they spell it but I never saw it as something ro adhere to, haha. I did start with Olberic, however. He appealed to me the most in the demo. On a subsequent playthrough I chose Therion to have the benefit of being able to open the chests without too much backtracking. Great video.
I started with Cyrus. His talent allows you to learn an unknown weakness at the start of battle for free. It’s so useful when you’re building your party early game. It saves time during boss fights too. He also gets a 1SP skill that teaches you another weakness. He’s really good.
I just wanna say that this was such a well written video essay, clear and concise, and your voice is very easy to listen to! Look forward to more of your content. (Funnily enough, I have no interest in Octopath, I just randomly clicked on your video to listen to something during work and it was very entertaining)
I have about 190 hours in Octopath. I started back in January of last year. However, I stopped playing because of Galdera. Don't get me wrong, I love One they call the witch/Daughter of the dark god playing while I'm fighting. But I don't wanna grind for soulstones just so I can use it for Galdera.
@@tantheman0921 with the olberic fortitude 1 HP war master Divine skill combo it makes that fight way more bearable to fight. Without that I wouldn’t have been able to beat him, cheesing that boss doesn’t bother me given he Destroys you if you have no idea what you are doing strategy wise.
Ya I understand what you are saying but you really don't need to grind at all. Your main character will always be super overleveled. As long as you always bring a scholar you litteraly 1 shot minions before they attack. You can use passive skill to have pretty much infinite mana sustain. I found the game was hard for the first 2 hours but after I just destroyed everything until later bosses. Later boss you can beat them even if you are super weak. You just have to wait the boss big damage spell and break him just before. Rince and repeat. All that said, this game is a lot harder than most RPG. Especially if you don't test some ability/concoct etc.
@@captainthunderbolt7541 actually maybe the game couldn’t. The game obviously didn’t have the biggest budget in the world. They weren’t expecting it to sell that much. They would’ve had to create hundreds and hundreds of different character interactions because each scene would be different based off of who is in your party, and that’s different in almost every play through . That instantly adds a lot of time and money that the devs probably didn’t have.
@@bbpaulss Writing words down on paper is literally the least costly part of developing a video game. Moreover, the issue you mention is a problem that has already literally been solved by Squaresoft for the development of Chrono Cross. Also, this is Square Enix we are talking about. If they have the money to keep pouring into content for their failed Avengers game, then they've money enough to write a few extra lines of dialogue.
The Battle System is fantastic, The Visuals are amazing, The Music is arousing, The intersting ways the game goes with it's skills are very cool. The.... gameplay however feels.... repetitive at the start. The flow went like: New Char -> Town -> Dungeon -> Boss -> Repeat. The only thing that makes repetitive loop bearable is the fact that the combat is actually fantastic. The break from the loop are the sidequests, which aren't anything to write home about.
while its good I feel like it killed my enjoyment because I've stolen really good items and made the game a joke by the time I run into the same challenge I had before regarding bossfights it will take a while. trying to nerf my party by matching the gear stats with the one in the shop is annoying in the long run.
Man, whats with Square recruiting (a lot of, not all) the best composers? They have a lot of "this is x persons first game ost, and its excellent af". Very cool.
Square has always been just as famous for their games' masterpiece soundtracks as they've been for their actual games. The Final Fantasy series of course is legendary for its vast collection of grand unforgettable music featured in both the main series & the spinoffs as well as in additional albums such as FF4: Celtic Moon, FF7: Piano Collection, FF7: Reunion & the soundtracks to both FF7: Advent Children & FF7 Remake for example. There's also the music of the Dragon Quest & Kingdom Hearts & Mana series, Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, Radiata Stories and of course Octopath Traveler. Square has always consistently produced high quality game music✌
Great review. I liked most elements of this game and while there are a couple aspects I disliked the good far outweighed the bad for me. I have played through it twice now - first time 100% and second just completing all the story chapters. My second play through was actually triggered by listening to the soundtrack separately - the music is so good it made me need to play the game again. The art style, environments and most of the all the amazing soundtrack created such a strong and distinct sense of place for each area that it really gave me a sense of presence within the game that doesn’t happen too often for me. Additionally, so many of the areas, especially earlier in the game, have such a soothing feel between the art and music. It was relaxing and fun for me to just grind a little with the excellent combat system. I think my intermittent periods of grinding may have allowed me to avoid those skill curve spikes you ran into. The complaints I agree with you the most on are in regards to the repetitive story structure and the bland dungeon layouts/designs. For the story structure the game itself really does highlight how much better it could have been - Olberic’s chapter 2 was my favorite. I mitigated this a bit by not playing multiple chapters in a play session. I would do a chapter and if I wanted to play more go do an independent dungeon, a couple side quests or just a little bit of grinding and then would break for a day or two and come back for another session. Unlike you though, when I took a break I always wanted to come back in short order for the other strengths of the game. For the weak dungeon design, I think the strong sense of place mitigated the blandness of the design for me but I definitely hope they improve upon this with the Octopath sequel they are working on. As for stories, they are definitely uneven between characters, I really enjoyed several of them, some were mediocre and the one I really disliked was Ophelia’s story. However, I found eight unrelated stories varying from mundane to intriguing or exciting to be quite refreshing. Personally, I find the typical JRPG storyline of a chosen one who teams up with a powerful group of allies needing to save the world to be contrived and overused trope. These stories felt more natural and relaxed - I really enjoyed that aspect. I do think they could’ve invested more effort in making some inter-character relationship development within the party to make the group feel more cohesive. I get they cannot put in the immense effort needed to have unique development for every pair of characters but even a smattering of that would be way better than the tacked on “banter” bits in the inns. Overall, my hope for the sequel is that they keep the separate stories that aren’t necessarily epic in scope but remain a bit more down to earth. Improve the story structure to make them more varied and interesting and improve dungeon design with some fresh concepts. If they can do that while keeping/improving the great combat, art and soundtrack whether it’s with the same characters, new characters or a mix then I am going to be a super happy gamer.
OCTOPATH was my first proper JRPG, and I very much enjoyed it. It did certainly have it's shortcomings, but overall it was an excellent experience with great music, visuals, gameplay, and world building. I can certainly look forwards to replaying it at some point down the line, if only to hear Daughter of the Dark God again.
I came across this review after picking up octopath and trying to finish it. I feel the exact same way about this game and really am struggling to finish it. There are so many great parts of the game, but many that I think are lacking. Excellent review, thank you for all the time you put into this. Very thorough and sincere.
I recommend octopath traveler to any fan of classic jrpgs. I got it at launch and finished it within around a week or so along with every side quest and was absolutely captivated by everything about it. Aside from the wonderful music and nice artwork and sprite work. After playing all of the characters stories you get the subtle hints about the true lore of the world almost like getting all of the puzzle pieces and then constructing in your head and having ah ha moments as to how everything connects and the implications in the lore and story is and what the real enemy is working behind the scenes and it’s all in between the lines like you may learn something in olberics story that ties to cyrus’s story for example and what Cyrus discovers ties to so on and so forth. All of the characters connect together in such a way that you have to read between the lines. Reading the party banter is essential every time it pops up too to get the most out of the story for their personalities and depending on who you have with you I’m pretty sure it probably changes because different characters might say different things at different moments of each others stories. Then there’s a whole lot of lore that gets dropped right at the end of the game right before the true final boss and it’s absolutely wild from other characters perspective. On paper it might seem generic what each character sets out to do but there’s a lot of stuff going on in the background. It’s mental.
I'm in the minority. I'm not in love with this game. Halfway through party's 3rd chapters. Art is gorgeous. But you can't have long drawn out tactical battles AND be grundy. Story is also weak and inconsistent for me
Octopath is my favorite switch game currently. Love the review subscribing for sure! The music, gameplay, everything is so awesome about this game. Are you looking forward to triangle strategy?
Definitely appreciate an in-depth review like this. Got a Nintendo gift card and was debating between bravely II and octopath as I’ve been on a j/rpg tear. I’m playing the bravely demo now and this review definitely helps
Bravely default is more of a classic homage to old final fantasy, which is also what octopath went for, I would say with an emphasis on the style and aesthetic of FF6 (the best one imo); but fails to pull it off anywhere near as well as Bravely Default. My personal favourite part of Octopath was the soundtrack. It was fantastic (as was the art direction), but the story elements just didn’t work for me at all, and the game was all over the place with regards to difficulty to a point that it just didn’t make sense; not because it was poorly balanced, but because you never knew where you should be at what time and there really was no easy way to figure it out. Bravely default was more of a linear adventure with elements built in to help streamline some of the more questionable attributes of the traditional JRPG (fast forwarding through grindy battles for example). I also think the soundtrack was better than Octopaths (which is a point of personal taste, they were both fantastic), with the original composer REVO coming back to Bravely 2, that alone is all I need to make it a day one purchase. Good luck making a choice :).
I actually feel highly defensive and disrespected listening to this haha... I respect your opinion and you made a good video, but I just disagree with so much you said. It does have some flaws, but I still think it’s a fantastic game. Is it a 10/10 game... no, however, I think they made an awesome game/throwback love letter to the best JRPG era ever of the SNES/PS1 days. I wish they’d make this a series, and BUILD off of this game/starting point. I think there were so many great ideas, and they gained so many fans, that if they did this series like FF, where each game was its own story and not linked, I think they could do SO much. I think it would be amazing to have a series for all the old school turn based, 2D JRPG fans. I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to. This game made them SO much money, sold SO many copies (they couldn’t keep it in stock) AND they didn’t have to pour tons and tons of money into it like you would a new age RPG. Bravely series is ok, it just doesn’t “hit” like OctoPath does, nostalgia wise. I say keep both Bravely and Octo series. There’s more than enough rpg lovers that would love and play/adore both.
as someone who just completed this game 100% a month or 2 ago, i agree with 90% of what you're saying here. this game is a mixed bag that i have trouble recommending to jrpg fans for a lot of these reasons, especially plot, pacing (it's boring sometimes), + dungeon design. but i disagree with a lot of your comments about difficulty + combat. for example, i didn't have to outlevel Miguel to beat him. instead i just needed to try a few strategies to get some different party combo to work. i wish the game would advise you "pick 2 characters + keep them in your party the whole time" b/c it made my playthru extremely enjoyable having a strong anchor to every team. but otherwise, i really appreciated this review + a lot of it reflected my own feelings while playing.
Honestly how I see the game too. Bought day one and regretted it. I've finished Tressa (main) and Primrose paths. Have just finished a "burst" since first picking up the game and finishing those two paths. But gosh momentum has waned...
Played this game for like an hour and was so bored combat was basic persona and final fantasy, and all the story characters felt extremely boring and basic.
I have played through the whole thing attempting to complete ALL side quests and yes... I have beaten the game. It took me weeks to finally beat it and strategizing different attempts for days. I would grab that switch and for hours be defeated and it was probably the most thrilling and aggravating boss battle of my life. So glad I played this game! One of my favourites. Your arguments are definitely valid however... but perhaps they didn’t bother me to the same extent as you. I absolutely agree about Tressa and Alfin being stale stories. They were my least favourite. I was also unaware you had to choose the names in the order of the title OCTOPATH... as I started with Haanit.
I was in the exact same boat. Obsessed with Bravely Default, bought Octopath at launch, and had thoroughly mixed feelings. It ended up being a nearly 80 hour campaign - so its not surprising it took so long to get through, but I finally finished it over Christmas. I basically agree with all your points (although, in addition, I found the towns boring and repetitive and I wasnt really a fan or Olberic or Primrose's stories either)
My experiencing is a perfect mirror to your own although I thought Primrose had the best story in the game, simply because it was gritty. Still a huge fan of the developer and loved the style of octopath (although bravely is still MVP), and am very much looking forward to triangle strategy, which I think shows that the devs learned a lot from octopath. They actually gave the game a defined story to go along with it’s stellar artstyle and beautiful soundtrack, phenomenal.
I LOVED Octopath Traveler and I'm incredibly excited for the sequel that was announced recently. Yet I find myself agreeing with a lot of your criticism all the same. That was an excellent review! Sometimes I wonder why I stuck with the game because I definitely agree with the dungeons being bland, the chapter set-up getting really old really fast, the overall narrative being fragmented and poorly intertwined, party interactions being limited to tavern talk (and too rare in the first place), etc. Despite all that, there was something I can't quite explain that I just found addictive about this game, and I wasn't able to put it down until I'd completed it. I never once tired of the combat, not even with the game's admittedly VERY high encounter rate. I guess I'm the sort of player who can forgive a lackluster story if the mechanics and presentation are satisfying (which they were to me at least). If Octopath II is just 'more of the same', I know I'll enjoy it probably just as much. That said, I do hope they improve on some of the glaring flaws the first game had. At least they said they were gonna give us more party member interaction (please don't be limited to tavern talk again...). A bit more variety in the dungeons would be nice. At least more than just 'cave', 'forest' and 'creepy mansion'. But I'm gonna keep my expectations in check and I'm assuming it'll mostly be similar with a few minor tweaks. Anything more than that will be a nice surprise.
This game is absolutely amazing to be honest. It really does not bother me that the story is not connected. Sure it would be cool to have a story that brought all the characters together. But...It just feels like an engrossing adventure that makes you want to explore more and more. This is a JRPG done right.
I never beat Octo because I had my party of four based on their path actions, so I didn't miss anything. But then the others were so weak for their own missions, and you need Google Maps to find the actual ending. Also the shot at BD2 about the menus is exquisite. SAY IT LOUDER KING! edit - 2 of my four favourites had the same path action so that sucked
I like this game. We agree in most points. It was a mixed bag. Sadly most stuff in the bag is negative. The individual stories were aweful. Occasional they had good moments and how they are intertwined is actually really good. But the 30-45 minute long cutscenes were so boring. I did not really care about any of the characters. Tressa was ok. But even if they would all have been killed in their stories I would not care. Maybe it would make the stories good somehow. There was one part that really blew me away tho. The stories told by the antanogists you can read when you beat them at the end were really, really good compared to the rest of the game. Each time I watched a streamer (only 3-4) they skipped "the wall of text". The writers could do great word, but somehow they didn´t. I read like 95% of the dialog in cities and what you could read about them with Alfyns skill. It was not worth it. While each character got a backstory, a daily routine or something, none of it made the world more interesting. With some sidequests they tried to give some places meaning, like when you bring an archeologist to a digging side of an old kingdom. This was ok, but nothing came of it. I liked to travel the world and like you said, it was diverse. Unlike the dungeons. I explored most of it. What was really annoying for me, was the decision to blur anything out that was 5 meter away from you. The view in Ophilias starting town from the hill to the cathedral could have been beatiful, but it was just a blurry mess. The combat and the story about the gods was what kept me going. I defeated the first phase of the final boss barly. It was one of the closest fights I had in a videogame ever and that will stick with more than anything other in this game. Yeah, for some this fight is easy. While I like the classcombos and play around with it, I am not skilled enough to figure out broken combos. It is an ok game, but with not much time on your hand you either skip the cutscenes or skip the game. Great review, it sure was a lot of work.
I actually disagree so much with you. For me this game is a masterpiece in all aspects. It never felt grindy. I also liked the variety in the stories told.
@@Tengokuchi I literally finished all the individual storylines without any grinding. I would just go along naturally and my characters would earn enough XP.
@@pinguman13 I don't see how that's possible. After doing chapter 1 for each, all my characters were far under leveled for any chapter 2. Had to grind for cash just as much as exp.
Though I didn't have as much of a problem with dungeon design -- I think I was usually slightly above recommended and I never felt the need to grind until the final boss -- I 100% agree some spice would have made the dungeons much more memorable. I actually liked most of the travelers' stories. Although I understand Primrose's story might be many people's favorite, to me it got a bit avant garde by the end and I half suspected Mr. Theater Kid to be head based on his clothes alone, so it was kinda like "*sigh,* ok" at the reveal. Ha'anit was... there, most of her personality other than being stoic was shown in the kinda missable travel banters. I liked how her lack of understanding of Redeye hints to the monster's origins, they could have leaned into Ha'anit's lack of social skills mixed with her stoic front and have her get into trouble _because_ of how unshifting she is, which would perfectly mirror how her master's lax personality does the same for him. Ophelia, the grand conclusion and focus of her story: alive things die, feat. birb. Like a few weeks before I finished her story, I had to sit with one of my cats as he died in my arms, they don't give the pastor's death the focus it needed and *that's* all they had to say about it? I only now made that connection and it is insulting
Thank you for this! I was feeling a lot of the same things. I'm 20 hours in and just realized that it's really not doing much for me, and I'm disappointed because it made me much less excited for Bravely Default 2. Do I force myself through another 40+ hours just for some good music and good but repetitive combat? I really don't know the answer.
I agree. For me it's one of those "get back to it" games, where I play it for a little bit, got annoyed at the grind, went to something else, then came back to it.
Liked the video, but a couple things: The Chapter 1s actually do increase difficulty based on how far you are. In fact, the whole game scales enemies up based on your level. Also, the monsters in each region are always weak to the character from that region. So spelling Octopath doesn’t really put you at a disadvantage there.
This game had so much charm, except the actual storis. I was bored for most of it and had to convince myself I liked it just to get through it. The stories were too simple and shallow. There was a ton of potential but the stories never go any deeper. Also didn't like the English voice acting. But the visuals, gameplay, and music is top notch.
This is one of my most played games on the switch. I played this longer than ai played breath of the wild... and I still don't know anything about 50% of the characters stories. Even after like 7 playthroughs I've always skipped them. The combat, visuals and music are fantastic but the game has a lot to work on if they're planning a sequal. Which actually makes me really excited. Considering this is one of my favorite games on the switch and I know it's only using a fraction of it's potential I can almost certainly say that a gme with the same style and combat alongside a top tier story would be my favorite game of all time.
I can sorta related to this. I really wanted to try this game out. But I just couldn't. And when I watch other people play the game and seeing how the gameplay is holding up, it didn't really impresses me. Which is sad. Because I do like this sort of approach of the game. I love the artstyle, battle combat looks really good, the music is outstanding & the game brought the creators of classical JRPG'S to make it like an good old days. But it was so aggressively slow & boring. The story didn't go anywhere, the characters aren't that memorable to me, the dungeons design are really bad IMO ( especially the boss gauntlet dungeon near the end ), battles take forever cause they go down so frickin slow and worst of all, it goes on way too long. I hate playing RPG'S that goes over 80+ hrs. long. It's one of the reasons why I couldn't get into modern RPG'S these days cause they can go for far too long. Octopath Traveler has great concepts. But excuted really poorly IMO.
How to make the game a complete joke : start with alfyn (concot is op), get therion (steal in towns are extremely important), then get primrose (bewildering grace), olberic (challenge for item drops), tressa (money), cyrus (enemy weakness), ophellia (ulti), haanit (the most useless party member of the game). I finished all chapter 1 to 3 without buying equipments at all. Havent continue chapter 4 yet.
Thorough and insightful review! Ever since this games release I kept going back and forth between whether or not it felt worth buying for me. When I can technically get it I just didn’t despite liking many aspects from the demo, mostly Battles and Graphics. I still don’t know if I’ll end up getting this game, but for some reason I am more interested in waiting for it’s sequel. Again great review!
Octopath Travler was not for me. I completed Therions story and got to the final chapter of Cyruses story, and I genuinely hated every minute of it. Not hating on anybody who loves or likes this game. If you love this game, I’m happy you do. Again, it’s just not for me, and I don’t think I can play another JRPG for a llllllllllloooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg time.
I know i will be called a weeb here, but i disagree a lot with your point regarding the dialogue and voice acting. If you play the game in english, sure, you can criticize a lot, but that is not a problem on the writers, it is a problem on the localization. For example, H'aanit in english does speak this weird amalgamation of modern and old english, but if you play it in japanese, the way she speaks is more like a mannerism of extreme politeness, which certainly can be lost in translation. Also, if you review the voice cast for both languajes, there are far more actors that did the additional voices in japanese than in english, which leads me to believe that the localization team was smaller and had to cut corners. EDIT: Also while i think your review is nice, the difficulty curve is not really felt if you adapt your party for each boss, an example, as much as you might dislike Ophelia, when you have a boss that forces you to turtle and endure, Ophelia is pretty good at it, in that fight you were having trouble, instead of grinding levels, you could bring a double cleric, apothecary, and a heavy dps, and then just top up the dps person. I know, it doesant sound as exciting as having big numbers on the screen, but sometimes making an unkillable party feels just as rewarding. this applies backwards for some bosses too, where regenerating/healing is not as important as keeping them stunned with many shield breaks.
As someone who maxed out Bravely Default 2, this review was greatly appreciated. You’ve got me 100% sold based on how you descibed the music, visuals and art alone.
I have been playing this game since launch, at least 2 hours every single day and usually at least four. I am stuck on chapter 1 Ophelia but I **WILL** finish this game
Don't play an jrpg every single day, breaks are good... i.got half the characters on my 1st jrpg playthrough ever.... got this to play as it was on sale, how much i like it will determine on if i get bd2
Well this is the 2nd time playing octopath traveler and both times i started with olberic and grinded him for hours.. Got him to level 24 before beating the first boss by dueling the 4 star dude in town who hands out like 80 exp each time.. But.. Just like the first time i go to get primrose and when taking over her and starting at level 1 kinda takes the wind out of my sails
It pains me to say that this was my 1st Switch video game. This, along with Bravely Default 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 were all what made me want to buy a Nintendo Switch, all 3 disappointed me in different ways, there was also Shin Megami Tensei V, but i decided not to since I wasn't going to wade through another disappointing sequel again, so I bought Blue Reflection 2nd Light instead and started to regain my faith in Switch RPGs as well as my sanity. Since then I only bought Switch games that I legitimately enjoyed, whether or not they are JRPGs.
Ive tried playing this game like 4 to 5 times since launch. Get about 15hrs in a drop it. It feels unbalanced to me and i dont like the fact its not just one narrative. Feels like a bunch of sidequests stuck together. Beautiful game though.
The first playrun I did I select ophilia because memes, And yes the game was a bit boring only using magic till tressa join the party, but I didn't feel the game was harder because of that. Yea having ophilia stuck on my team suck, but it wasn't harder or anything Maybe boring at parts xd
Your section on Chapter Formatting is SPOT on. I LOVED this game hours 1-12 and then after starting the 2nd character’s 2nd chapter it became clear it was all the same...for the rest of the game. I couldn’t do it. Side question: Where did you hear you should go through the game in OCTOPATH order?
I figured it was suggested by the fact that the characters were able to spell it out in the first place, and that they were organized in a clockwise circle to do so. It wasn’t necessary per se, but it felt suggestive of it
I still haven't beaten Octopath either. I don't think I have ever played past finishing the first part of everyone's story. Compared to BD, that I beat three times, and BS that I beat once and played to the half point again, but stopped because of a 3DS malfunction that stopped me from using it for a couple months.
I loved this game I started with Ophilia and was fine with it. Thanks for the honest review but I don't really agree with all your points. Good video though. Just subscribed to your channel.
Hei man. Great review. It's been 4 years since I touched octopath sadly. I could never understand why I didn't like it. I knew why I loved it but it was just so hard to pick it up. I always pick up XCOM or even final fantasy 10 on my vita. But never octopath. Ur video put in words what my heart felt. Thanks man.
I am almost done with the final chapters of the characters. I've been playing since it came out as well. Grinding has never made me put a game down like this has.
I would mostly agree. I really want to love it. But the feeling of it being impossible to want to pick it up and play it hits home. I love all the characters (even H'aanit's stupid way of speaking) but I think it's telling that my favorite parts are the mid-chapter dialogues and fan depictions of the eight together at a tavern etc., and not the actual game 'interactions'. It's combat is a little slow and could probably use some tweaks to keep it exciting and some leveling up and encounter rate modernizations like they do for FF ports. But I really WANT to like it, so it is only harder.
I had the same problem with Final Fantasy The Four Heroes of Light... and I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago. After I finish Bravely Default 2 I will try again to get into Octopath, wish me luck xD...
I feel this is the mistake everyone does not just for Octopath but other JRPG as well, but especially for Octopath because it gives you a recommended LV, and I'm gonna be blunt the Recommanded don't mean shit past Chapter 1 I was always lower than the recommended LV with first Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and 4 being like 10 LV lower and I died... only to 2 bosses in the game (excluding the true Final Boss where I died a lot obviously), strategy, build and equipment are much MUCH more important than LV in Octopath Traveler, to anyone who want to play this game and haven't don't give a damn about the recommended LV ignore it, if you struggle against a boss analys his patterns, his weaknesses and Christ sake use buffs and debuffs in this game as they work very well try changing approach before thinking grinding is the only way, and really I want to say that for every RPG. I feel a lot of people when they have struggle in a RPG jumps to the conclusion that they have to grind, instead of thinking their tactic and for some reasons I think this is especially the case with Octopath, no joke even the seller from the Store I bough the game told me "I warn you, you need to grind a lot in this game", while this simply isn't true with the exception of the True Final Boss which does require some grinding (and even then I beat him LV55-59, the grinding was more to get the right equipment and abilities), everything else in this game can be beaten by simply using the game mechanic and strategize. And I think this hurt enjoyment of the game cause obviously grinding is boring and nobody is enjoying grinding, but for Octopath I was really schocked I'm not a Low Level expert or anything yet never in my entire I had so many people claiming to me that a game is a grind fest, only for me to beat it with almost no grinding at all with a Difficulty Curve that I honnestly very well tuned, I'm really confuse and legitimately wonder what the hell happened here.
I share the same point of view that you have about this game. The graphic style is very nice, a good mix of 2D/3D pixel art/3Dscenario that is very interesting to carry on next games. But the designs for the dungeons are too repetitive. The Sountrack is a 10/10 Perfect, very few games have a sountrack so good. I played the game with the voices in Japanese and the acting is way better than in English. The combat is great, very interesting and very tactical, i love it. There´s a lot of posibilities on mixing a first class and a sub class, that´s nice. But the worse about this game is how the story is told. Tressa´s Story is very Meh, Also Alfyn. There are to many "meh" plots between the interesting ones, and that is what disconnect yourself from the game. Still a fair jrpg, try it.
Who says they want you to start in title order? You just invented that. The whole point of the game is that YOU choose where to start and which quests/chapters to do. It's fine to criticize the game, but you're mostly just critiquing your own self imposed rules.
I did state that you are able to start in whatever order you wish. However, the fact that the character names spell out OCTOPATH and their first chapter locations make a clockwise circle suggested to me that it was a recommended or suggested pattern to play in.
@@RedNovaTyrant The trailer for the game literally opens with "...you may embark on any of their journeys which all start in a different land." I know a lot of people who've played this game and I've read countless reviews and never once did a single one of them think there was a route or order you're "supposed to take." Pretty sure it's just you. It's a bit silly to include a critique on something that isn't mandatory or ever openly suggested by game developers and makes me question an otherwise solid review, even if there are some personal points I disagree with.
My experience with Octopath was very...unique, I wanted to unlock all the characters first before moving on to the second chapter for each, but anyways here's what happened: I had Therion, Primrose, Alfyn and H'annit on my team and I fought a battle with a cait in it...and at the same time Primrose's Bewildering dance I believe it was called gave me a 100x exp multiplier and leveled all the characters up to level 60. Due to the increased level Therion could now steal extremely strong items from every town further destroying any sense of difficulty at the time, there was a 50 level deficit between half of my characters, the battles easily got repetitive when I was so overleveled they gave me negligible exp in combination with the rather linear dungeon design...all those factors blended together and my interest in the game gradually died completely...all set in motion due to a 3/100 chance of finding a cait in combination with a 1/1000 chance of an 100x exp multiplier. I do love the art style, the music, and the combat mechanics, but I still can't bring myself to play the game
Formulaic is what came to my mind as I played Octopath. Too formulaic. It could have been so much more. Just curious, what bad aspects of Octopath do you think carried over to Bravely Default 2? Thank you for the review
This game is good. But too damn long. After putting in 40 hours into the game and I'm still only 2 chapters done with all the characters I eventually stopped. Plus the story got too formulaic for me.
I just recently decided if I was gonna pick this game up or not so was looking for reviews and found this recent review amazing video btw I managed to sit through a 41 minute video without feeling bored the only thing I'm disappointed is it's not the video but the fact the game is lacking in story I'm the type of person who plays for stories no matter if the gameplay and graphics are trash if it has an amazing story I'll still play it so hearing the story is meh makes me feel like not picking it up
I Like the game mostly for the fights, the Class System , Music, Breaks, BP system , Art Style , Character Actions , Choose a Character in the beginning are major bonuses for me. The story is Meh, some got My interest , but wish it was abit better though, and not many Character interactions.
It’s such a shame I really wanted to love this game and I’ve tried so many times. Sadly it falls into the same traps that so many modern jrpgs fall. It’s just...boring
Last game i completed fully was digimon hackers memory. Now all the trails series, bravely default, second, fire emblem three houses, one piece warriors, naruto storms all getting dust omg. Currently hook up with sd gundam cross rays lol
Loved the game, the difficulty, the combat system, and the grinding. The isolated, cookie cutter story telling formula was a miss for me. I'd have preferred a traditional story (but I thought the Primrose chapters were awesome). And the final boss and character tie-ins shouldn't have been buried... kind of important, I'd say.
Thank you for the great review, Red! 100% agree with your opinions here. One of the things I enjoyed the most in Octopath was picking up all the delicious breadcrumbs about the overarching/connecting Galdera plotline (sadly these were just breadcrumbs and not a whole Caldislan emperor trout sandwich... oh well). In the end I could not beat phase 2 of the final boss either... I wonder if most of the players even got to the final boss at all?
I have just picked it back up . I haven’t played since 2019 lol I have tried many times but last night I finally got thru another hour. I last left off at level 45 and 49 hours in. I think it’s the story that doesn’t get me riled up and then the fact you hop around so much. I didn’t watch the rest of your review due to possible spoilers. But most of the review I agree with totally , music visuals and job animations are sweet! Every boss fight is fun!
Music is sonething this game, Octopath and Final Fantasy get the power of. In Bravely Default, Wicked Flight, Serpent Eating the Ground and the boss fights associated with them, made the draggy section worth it and I think it's interesting it appears to be the same here, I still haven't finished Octopath either and it very much is something I enjoy but somehow don't feel pulled to play weirdly. But the comparison to Bravely's epic final boss actually makes me want to finish it. But yes to all of this, the difficulty spikes were very annoying.
I like the battle system, it's an improvement to the 3ds Bravely Default's and the job system is a banger (BD serie is a good student to the FFs), but the characters and story development are so generic (like they just put the archetypes on them...), and I'm afraid the BD 2 story is going to be like that too. For a game with multiple POVs and a huge plot twist, Square's Live a Life did it much better. (And FF 6 too!)
I totally agree with you in ALL points! and it also took 2.5 years to finish it! lol I am actually just grinding some levels (sigh) so I can make the fight against Galdera a little more bearable, and as soon I wrap up this game I'm buying Bravely Default II. Great review! it's basically 1:1 with how I feel with the game.
While I disagree on some small points (I thought Ha'anit had excellent voice acting), I definitely agree on most points and overall. Especially the tedium -- while I enjoyed the gameplay loop immensely, I always felt let down by exactly what you said -- it was always the same thing over and over. And lol I love how you get mad about Ophelia helping those kids. Definitely a waste of a chapter.
Yeah, for Galdera I grinded side quests and levels for like ten hours, then returned for the kill. A lot of that time was working through every side quest in the game for high level gear. The actual levels weren't as important and the gear and JP for the best support skills. Also some powerful healing items. The post game side quests are also much better than a lot of the pointless early game ones.
As someone who loved Octopath, I feel like you captured all the good and bad. I thought the stories were a little dry because they were separated and stretched thin between 8 tales but I loved this game and the adventure and the customization and the grind. I believe what you said that losing to tough characters (when you weren’t high enough level) it made me want to go back into the world and train to overcome it. Having played and finished bravely default and many JRPGs I feel like the grind and growth is almost part of it and I feel like most every rpg gets tiring in that aspect but this game was just lovely. A nice world to dip into for a long time and get lost. Dungeon design was spot on though... A to B dungeons that were just keep walking till you see the boss. LOL
I actually love H'annit's lines but whatevs. Another good example of incosistency amongst the party is Therion's whole deal about working alone. He snubs working with other thieves but then is bam, with the party.
Technically, if he's your first character you can solo main him through his chapters but yep... That inconsistency.
I'm only playing the demo and after much anticipation, H'annit's lines is seriously making me reconsider my future purchase if I'm in for more voice-acting like this. So for me, it's bad. I wish it was more subtle.
@@dumdumchord she's easily one of the best characters
@@likealaddertothesun I look forward to that, just not her grating accent. Luckily I found out I can turn down the dialogue volume.
@@dumdumchord can't you also just switch it to Japanese if you want?
I can't help but say this honestly the best review I've ever sat through, because it was so genuine
Thank you very kindly, Adam, this really makes me happy to hear ^-^
8⁸8
As someone who started the game with Ophilia, I had a great time. Early on I gave her the warrior subclass so she could be like a Paladin, and I think it went well.
I did the same and Fili is a beast. Her Divine skills are awesome too!
I mean you get by pretty well with most combos, it's not too punishing in that respect
I started with Ophilia just because she looks the most like me. She ended up being my least favorite of the main characters, even though I still really like her. She was super OP after I made her a sorcerer
@@leahtheanimationfan40 I picked her up last and also made her sorcerer. Picking Ophelia and Cyrus up last saved some the best story moments for the end.
I loved Octopath. I think Octopath Traveler, and Bravely Default II are two of the best JRPG's in modern gaming. Though I still have to play Dragon Quest XI. Great breakdown and, review by the way. Obviously this wasn't your favourite game, but games are like art and music, they're subjective.
This game was an absolute treat. I hope they make another one..
plus, Therion is best boi.
it's has already been announce 2 years ago that Octopath Traveler 2 (along with the mobile announcement) is in production. They just said to be patient as it takes time to make a good game. In the mean time we will have Bravely Default 2 comming out tomorrow and Project Triangle Strategy next year which i'm very excited about this one.
we already had a trailer during a recent nintendo stream, it was called Salt something with a balance as a symbol
@@Grim_Bud you're probably referring to Project Triangle Strategy with its "SaltIron" war... I've played and tested the demo a lot already to understand how choices impact the game. There is still a lot to see from this game but so far it is very promising.
I've played this game through twice now, and I really like it. The combat and team-building aspects are more fun than most JRPG's, and I skip through the stories to get back to actual game. (So yes the story is middling) I don't have much trouble with "the numbers game" of Octopath, recommended levels have always felt more than balanced to me, to the point I often go into a boss a few levels under with the respective story's character. (Your starting character is likely over leveled anyway)
That being said the combat and boss battles are the best parts of the game, to the point that its one of my favorite RPG's in recent years. The music and artsyle of course are incredible too. I don't have an issue at all with dungeon design, I prefer it to ladders or doors teleporting you to different boards which often happens in most dungeons in other games, because at least you have some idea of your progress in the level.
Its the kinda game that warns you of what you're getting into with its presentation, and if that's what you want- a JRPG with emphasis on combat, and teambuilding. The era its trying to emulate clues most people in on the perceived difficulty. I love the game, a lot. Despite the obvious shortcomings, I return to it often because most RPG's make me miss this game's combat system.
A great example of a game in which I like the music more than the actual game. Great review, couldn't agree more. A JRPG without a story that pulls you in just feels like a game of numbers in the end, which results in just being boring and frustrating. Got through it in the end, but that was mostly because of the incredible music and overall design.
I strongly disagree with the grinding/difficulty/level up argument. Your struggle was a lack of imagination on your part. The game incentivize you to explore different areas to get chests and new reward as well as steal/purchase NPC to get incredible reward to make your journey easy. Also levels in this game is of no importance. When you said you needed to level up to get bigger numbers, that is actually not true at all. If you check any stats chart of the game you'll notice that gear in the game is around 3 times more powerful than what you get from levels. I even was able to beat the game Solo at level 12 with Tressa (something you can watch on my channel).
Now about the argument of the same layout in each dungeon, yes it is true to some extent, but most RPG game uses the same resource for different things so it's not like Octopath is worst than the average RPG game on that. Also you need to remember that Square-Enix released a statement a while ago about the success of Octopath Traveler. They weren't expecting the kind of success it had. So what does this means? It means that the marketing team were not expecting to make that much money with the game, so you can kinda understand that Octopath Traveler didn't have a that big of a budget in the first place. Now with the over 2 millions copies sold of the first game you can bet some money that the second installment will improve a lot on that and other things.
Thankyou
I fucking *love* this game... I love it! And yet I haven't beaten it after... wow, it's bee 2 years. I'm just like you. There's so much I appreciate about this game but I just can't manage to get through it. The same issue I found with BDefault 1 - I just got overwhelmed or something. I'm gonna play through some of it when I get home because of your honest video.
Yeah I finally beat it myself yesterday. I think chapters 3 and 4 are much than the early chapters, so once I got there I enjoyed myself more. Plus you'll have a lot more options and be familiar with more interesting strategies by then.
Who said you have to spell "OCTOPATH" in your playthrough? I mean yeah they spell it but I never saw it as something ro adhere to, haha. I did start with Olberic, however. He appealed to me the most in the demo. On a subsequent playthrough I chose Therion to have the benefit of being able to open the chests without too much backtracking. Great video.
I started with Cyrus. His talent allows you to learn an unknown weakness at the start of battle for free. It’s so useful when you’re building your party early game. It saves time during boss fights too. He also gets a 1SP skill that teaches you another weakness. He’s really good.
Should i buy this game?
I just wanna say that this was such a well written video essay, clear and concise, and your voice is very easy to listen to! Look forward to more of your content. (Funnily enough, I have no interest in Octopath, I just randomly clicked on your video to listen to something during work and it was very entertaining)
Dude this game started so strong for me but wow did the grind really take a tole on me personally
I have about 190 hours in Octopath. I started back in January of last year. However, I stopped playing because of Galdera. Don't get me wrong, I love One they call the witch/Daughter of the dark god playing while I'm fighting. But I don't wanna grind for soulstones just so I can use it for Galdera.
You don't really need to grind levels for this game. You just need to equip your party well, break at the correct time and strategy.
Same
@@tantheman0921 with the olberic fortitude 1 HP war master Divine skill combo it makes that fight way more bearable to fight. Without that I wouldn’t have been able to beat him, cheesing that boss doesn’t bother me given he Destroys you if you have no idea what you are doing strategy wise.
Ya I understand what you are saying but you really don't need to grind at all. Your main character will always be super overleveled. As long as you always bring a scholar you litteraly 1 shot minions before they attack. You can use passive skill to have pretty much infinite mana sustain. I found the game was hard for the first 2 hours but after I just destroyed everything until later bosses. Later boss you can beat them even if you are super weak. You just have to wait the boss big damage spell and break him just before. Rince and repeat. All that said, this game is a lot harder than most RPG. Especially if you don't test some ability/concoct etc.
The completely isolated character stories was my single biggest barrier to entry.
I kinda like it. A smaller stake collection of smaller stories is kinda chill in some ways
@@cypher838 The game could have been structured around smaller character stories, but still have maintained normal party interactions whilst doing so.
@@captainthunderbolt7541 actually maybe the game couldn’t. The game obviously didn’t have the biggest budget in the world. They weren’t expecting it to sell that much. They would’ve had to create hundreds and hundreds of different character interactions because each scene would be different based off of who is in your party, and that’s different in almost every play through . That instantly adds a lot of time and money that the devs probably didn’t have.
@@bbpaulss Writing words down on paper is literally the least costly part of developing a video game. Moreover, the issue you mention is a problem that has already literally been solved by Squaresoft for the development of Chrono Cross. Also, this is Square Enix we are talking about. If they have the money to keep pouring into content for their failed Avengers game, then they've money enough to write a few extra lines of dialogue.
The Battle System is fantastic, The Visuals are amazing, The Music is arousing, The intersting ways the game goes with it's skills are very cool.
The.... gameplay however feels.... repetitive at the start.
The flow went like:
New Char -> Town -> Dungeon -> Boss ->
Repeat.
The only thing that makes repetitive loop bearable is the fact that the combat is actually fantastic.
The break from the loop are the sidequests, which aren't anything to write home about.
I started with Therion because of pickpocket skill. Because free items is life💜
That and purple chests!!
while its good I feel like it killed my enjoyment because I've stolen really good items and made the game a joke by the time I run into the same challenge I had before regarding bossfights it will take a while. trying to nerf my party by matching the gear stats with the one in the shop is annoying in the long run.
I can mostly agree with the criticisms you have.
Still love the game though :D
Played through it 2 times and wouldn't mind a third time
Man, whats with Square recruiting (a lot of, not all) the best composers? They have a lot of "this is x persons first game ost, and its excellent af". Very cool.
Square has always been just as famous for their games' masterpiece soundtracks as they've been for their actual games. The Final Fantasy series of course is legendary for its vast collection of grand unforgettable music featured in both the main series & the spinoffs as well as in additional albums such as FF4: Celtic Moon, FF7: Piano Collection, FF7: Reunion & the soundtracks to both FF7: Advent Children & FF7 Remake for example. There's also the music of the Dragon Quest & Kingdom Hearts & Mana series, Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Brave Fencer Musashi, Radiata Stories and of course Octopath Traveler. Square has always consistently produced high quality game music✌
This game is special to me. Helped get me through a divorce. Life is so good!
Hell yeah bro life is good!
Divorced already?
@@isaacgutierrez372 oh yeah. Divorced that skank.
Same bro
Great review. I liked most elements of this game and while there are a couple aspects I disliked the good far outweighed the bad for me. I have played through it twice now - first time 100% and second just completing all the story chapters. My second play through was actually triggered by listening to the soundtrack separately - the music is so good it made me need to play the game again.
The art style, environments and most of the all the amazing soundtrack created such a strong and distinct sense of place for each area that it really gave me a sense of presence within the game that doesn’t happen too often for me. Additionally, so many of the areas, especially earlier in the game, have such a soothing feel between the art and music. It was relaxing and fun for me to just grind a little with the excellent combat system. I think my intermittent periods of grinding may have allowed me to avoid those skill curve spikes you ran into.
The complaints I agree with you the most on are in regards to the repetitive story structure and the bland dungeon layouts/designs. For the story structure the game itself really does highlight how much better it could have been - Olberic’s chapter 2 was my favorite. I mitigated this a bit by not playing multiple chapters in a play session. I would do a chapter and if I wanted to play more go do an independent dungeon, a couple side quests or just a little bit of grinding and then would break for a day or two and come back for another session. Unlike you though, when I took a break I always wanted to come back in short order for the other strengths of the game.
For the weak dungeon design, I think the strong sense of place mitigated the blandness of the design for me but I definitely hope they improve upon this with the Octopath sequel they are working on.
As for stories, they are definitely uneven between characters, I really enjoyed several of them, some were mediocre and the one I really disliked was Ophelia’s story. However, I found eight unrelated stories varying from mundane to intriguing or exciting to be quite refreshing. Personally, I find the typical JRPG storyline of a chosen one who teams up with a powerful group of allies needing to save the world to be contrived and overused trope. These stories felt more natural and relaxed - I really enjoyed that aspect.
I do think they could’ve invested more effort in making some inter-character relationship development within the party to make the group feel more cohesive. I get they cannot put in the immense effort needed to have unique development for every pair of characters but even a smattering of that would be way better than the tacked on “banter” bits in the inns.
Overall, my hope for the sequel is that they keep the separate stories that aren’t necessarily epic in scope but remain a bit more down to earth. Improve the story structure to make them more varied and interesting and improve dungeon design with some fresh concepts. If they can do that while keeping/improving the great combat, art and soundtrack whether it’s with the same characters, new characters or a mix then I am going to be a super happy gamer.
OCTOPATH was my first proper JRPG, and I very much enjoyed it. It did certainly have it's shortcomings, but overall it was an excellent experience with great music, visuals, gameplay, and world building. I can certainly look forwards to replaying it at some point down the line, if only to hear Daughter of the Dark God again.
I'm about 10 hours in and love it. The grind is my favorite part but I completely understand your point that it is quite a bit. Excellent review.
I came across this review after picking up octopath and trying to finish it. I feel the exact same way about this game and really am struggling to finish it. There are so many great parts of the game, but many that I think are lacking. Excellent review, thank you for all the time you put into this. Very thorough and sincere.
I recommend octopath traveler to any fan of classic jrpgs. I got it at launch and finished it within around a week or so along with every side quest and was absolutely captivated by everything about it. Aside from the wonderful music and nice artwork and sprite work. After playing all of the characters stories you get the subtle hints about the true lore of the world almost like getting all of the puzzle pieces and then constructing in your head and having ah ha moments as to how everything connects and the implications in the lore and story is and what the real enemy is working behind the scenes and it’s all in between the lines like you may learn something in olberics story that ties to cyrus’s story for example and what Cyrus discovers ties to so on and so forth. All of the characters connect together in such a way that you have to read between the lines. Reading the party banter is essential every time it pops up too to get the most out of the story for their personalities and depending on who you have with you I’m pretty sure it probably changes because different characters might say different things at different moments of each others stories. Then there’s a whole lot of lore that gets dropped right at the end of the game right before the true final boss and it’s absolutely wild from other characters perspective. On paper it might seem generic what each character sets out to do but there’s a lot of stuff going on in the background. It’s mental.
I'm in the minority. I'm not in love with this game. Halfway through party's 3rd chapters. Art is gorgeous. But you can't have long drawn out tactical battles AND be grundy. Story is also weak and inconsistent for me
@XBladerz thanks mate
Octopath is my favorite switch game currently. Love the review subscribing for sure! The music, gameplay, everything is so awesome about this game. Are you looking forward to triangle strategy?
Definitely appreciate an in-depth review like this. Got a Nintendo gift card and was debating between bravely II and octopath as I’ve been on a j/rpg tear. I’m playing the bravely demo now and this review definitely helps
Bravely 2 is definitely a better buy💜
Bravely default is more of a classic homage to old final fantasy, which is also what octopath went for, I would say with an emphasis on the style and aesthetic of FF6 (the best one imo); but fails to pull it off anywhere near as well as Bravely Default.
My personal favourite part of Octopath was the soundtrack. It was fantastic (as was the art direction), but the story elements just didn’t work for me at all, and the game was all over the place with regards to difficulty to a point that it just didn’t make sense; not because it was poorly balanced, but because you never knew where you should be at what time and there really was no easy way to figure it out. Bravely default was more of a linear adventure with elements built in to help streamline some of the more questionable attributes of the traditional JRPG (fast forwarding through grindy battles for example). I also think the soundtrack was better than Octopaths (which is a point of personal taste, they were both fantastic), with the original composer REVO coming back to Bravely 2, that alone is all I need to make it a day one purchase.
Good luck making a choice :).
BF2 man over this any time of the day
Appreciate the feedback!! So I’m going to grab Bravely Default 2 once I’m done wi the P5R and Strikers
I actually feel highly defensive and disrespected listening to this haha... I respect your opinion and you made a good video, but I just disagree with so much you said. It does have some flaws, but I still think it’s a fantastic game. Is it a 10/10 game... no, however, I think they made an awesome game/throwback love letter to the best JRPG era ever of the SNES/PS1 days. I wish they’d make this a series, and BUILD off of this game/starting point. I think there were so many great ideas, and they gained so many fans, that if they did this series like FF, where each game was its own story and not linked, I think they could do SO much. I think it would be amazing to have a series for all the old school turn based, 2D JRPG fans. I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to. This game made them SO much money, sold SO many copies (they couldn’t keep it in stock) AND they didn’t have to pour tons and tons of money into it like you would a new age RPG. Bravely series is ok, it just doesn’t “hit” like OctoPath does, nostalgia wise. I say keep both Bravely and Octo series. There’s more than enough rpg lovers that would love and play/adore both.
as someone who just completed this game 100% a month or 2 ago, i agree with 90% of what you're saying here. this game is a mixed bag that i have trouble recommending to jrpg fans for a lot of these reasons, especially plot, pacing (it's boring sometimes), + dungeon design. but i disagree with a lot of your comments about difficulty + combat. for example, i didn't have to outlevel Miguel to beat him. instead i just needed to try a few strategies to get some different party combo to work. i wish the game would advise you "pick 2 characters + keep them in your party the whole time" b/c it made my playthru extremely enjoyable having a strong anchor to every team. but otherwise, i really appreciated this review + a lot of it reflected my own feelings while playing.
Honestly how I see the game too. Bought day one and regretted it. I've finished Tressa (main) and Primrose paths. Have just finished a "burst" since first picking up the game and finishing those two paths. But gosh momentum has waned...
I loved this game, even with all its imperfections. I hope the creators take the ideas from Octopath and make a sequel that’s more refined
This game went for quantity over quality
I disagree, it went for both.
Played this game for like an hour and was so bored combat was basic persona and final fantasy, and all the story characters felt extremely boring and basic.
I have played through the whole thing attempting to complete ALL side quests and yes... I have beaten the game. It took me weeks to finally beat it and strategizing different attempts for days. I would grab that switch and for hours be defeated and it was probably the most thrilling and aggravating boss battle of my life. So glad I played this game! One of my favourites. Your arguments are definitely valid however... but perhaps they didn’t bother me to the same extent as you. I absolutely agree about Tressa and Alfin being stale stories. They were my least favourite. I was also unaware you had to choose the names in the order of the title OCTOPATH... as I started with Haanit.
i felt too hard on demo and never went back but now gettin BD2 as worked that out.. tempoted to retry octo one day
I was in the exact same boat. Obsessed with Bravely Default, bought Octopath at launch, and had thoroughly mixed feelings. It ended up being a nearly 80 hour campaign - so its not surprising it took so long to get through, but I finally finished it over Christmas. I basically agree with all your points (although, in addition, I found the towns boring and repetitive and I wasnt really a fan or Olberic or Primrose's stories either)
My experiencing is a perfect mirror to your own although I thought Primrose had the best story in the game, simply because it was gritty. Still a huge fan of the developer and loved the style of octopath (although bravely is still MVP), and am very much looking forward to triangle strategy, which I think shows that the devs learned a lot from octopath. They actually gave the game a defined story to go along with it’s stellar artstyle and beautiful soundtrack, phenomenal.
I LOVED Octopath Traveler and I'm incredibly excited for the sequel that was announced recently.
Yet I find myself agreeing with a lot of your criticism all the same. That was an excellent review! Sometimes I wonder why I stuck with the game because I definitely agree with the dungeons being bland, the chapter set-up getting really old really fast, the overall narrative being fragmented and poorly intertwined, party interactions being limited to tavern talk (and too rare in the first place), etc.
Despite all that, there was something I can't quite explain that I just found addictive about this game, and I wasn't able to put it down until I'd completed it. I never once tired of the combat, not even with the game's admittedly VERY high encounter rate. I guess I'm the sort of player who can forgive a lackluster story if the mechanics and presentation are satisfying (which they were to me at least).
If Octopath II is just 'more of the same', I know I'll enjoy it probably just as much. That said, I do hope they improve on some of the glaring flaws the first game had. At least they said they were gonna give us more party member interaction (please don't be limited to tavern talk again...). A bit more variety in the dungeons would be nice. At least more than just 'cave', 'forest' and 'creepy mansion'. But I'm gonna keep my expectations in check and I'm assuming it'll mostly be similar with a few minor tweaks. Anything more than that will be a nice surprise.
This game is absolutely amazing to be honest. It really does not bother me that the story is not connected. Sure it would be cool to have a story that brought all the characters together. But...It just feels like an engrossing adventure that makes you want to explore more and more. This is a JRPG done right.
I never beat Octo because I had my party of four based on their path actions, so I didn't miss anything. But then the others were so weak for their own missions, and you need Google Maps to find the actual ending.
Also the shot at BD2 about the menus is exquisite. SAY IT LOUDER KING!
edit - 2 of my four favourites had the same path action so that sucked
I like this game.
We agree in most points. It was a mixed bag.
Sadly most stuff in the bag is negative.
The individual stories were aweful. Occasional they had good moments and how they are intertwined is actually really good.
But the 30-45 minute long cutscenes were so boring. I did not really care about any of the characters. Tressa was ok. But even
if they would all have been killed in their stories I would not care. Maybe it would make the stories good somehow.
There was one part that really blew me away tho. The stories told by the antanogists you can read when you beat them
at the end were really, really good compared to the rest of the game. Each time I watched a streamer (only 3-4) they
skipped "the wall of text". The writers could do great word, but somehow they didn´t.
I read like 95% of the dialog in cities and what you could read about them with Alfyns skill.
It was not worth it.
While each character got a backstory, a daily routine or something, none of it made the
world more interesting. With some sidequests they tried to give some places meaning,
like when you bring an archeologist to a digging side of an old kingdom. This was ok,
but nothing came of it.
I liked to travel the world and like you said, it was diverse. Unlike the dungeons. I explored most of it.
What was really annoying for me, was the decision to blur anything out that was 5 meter away from you.
The view in Ophilias starting town from the hill to the cathedral could have been beatiful, but it was just
a blurry mess.
The combat and the story about the gods was what kept me going.
I defeated the first phase of the final boss barly. It was one of the
closest fights I had in a videogame ever and that will stick with more than anything other in this game.
Yeah, for some this fight is easy. While I like the classcombos and play around with it, I am not skilled
enough to figure out broken combos.
It is an ok game, but with not much time on your hand you either skip the cutscenes or skip the game.
Great review, it sure was a lot of work.
I actually disagree so much with you. For me this game is a masterpiece in all aspects. It never felt grindy.
I also liked the variety in the stories told.
XD
It never felt grindy? *Doubt*
@@Tengokuchi I literally finished all the individual storylines without any grinding. I would just go along naturally and my characters would earn enough XP.
@@pinguman13 I don't see how that's possible. After doing chapter 1 for each, all my characters were far under leveled for any chapter 2. Had to grind for cash just as much as exp.
@@Rockjay288 I guess I have to record my own strategy guide! Lol
Though I didn't have as much of a problem with dungeon design -- I think I was usually slightly above recommended and I never felt the need to grind until the final boss -- I 100% agree some spice would have made the dungeons much more memorable.
I actually liked most of the travelers' stories. Although I understand Primrose's story might be many people's favorite, to me it got a bit avant garde by the end and I half suspected Mr. Theater Kid to be head based on his clothes alone, so it was kinda like "*sigh,* ok" at the reveal.
Ha'anit was... there, most of her personality other than being stoic was shown in the kinda missable travel banters. I liked how her lack of understanding of Redeye hints to the monster's origins, they could have leaned into Ha'anit's lack of social skills mixed with her stoic front and have her get into trouble _because_ of how unshifting she is, which would perfectly mirror how her master's lax personality does the same for him.
Ophelia, the grand conclusion and focus of her story: alive things die, feat. birb. Like a few weeks before I finished her story, I had to sit with one of my cats as he died in my arms, they don't give the pastor's death the focus it needed and *that's* all they had to say about it? I only now made that connection and it is insulting
I cannot believe they hid the final boss behind those terrible side quests, that has seriously soured me on this game
Thank you for this! I was feeling a lot of the same things. I'm 20 hours in and just realized that it's really not doing much for me, and I'm disappointed because it made me much less excited for Bravely Default 2. Do I force myself through another 40+ hours just for some good music and good but repetitive combat? I really don't know the answer.
Go play fortnite
I agree. For me it's one of those "get back to it" games, where I play it for a little bit, got annoyed at the grind, went to something else, then came back to it.
Liked the video, but a couple things:
The Chapter 1s actually do increase difficulty based on how far you are. In fact, the whole game scales enemies up based on your level.
Also, the monsters in each region are always weak to the character from that region. So spelling Octopath doesn’t really put you at a disadvantage there.
This game had so much charm, except the actual storis. I was bored for most of it and had to convince myself I liked it just to get through it. The stories were too simple and shallow. There was a ton of potential but the stories never go any deeper. Also didn't like the English voice acting.
But the visuals, gameplay, and music is top notch.
This is one of my most played games on the switch. I played this longer than ai played breath of the wild... and I still don't know anything about 50% of the characters stories. Even after like 7 playthroughs I've always skipped them. The combat, visuals and music are fantastic but the game has a lot to work on if they're planning a sequal. Which actually makes me really excited. Considering this is one of my favorite games on the switch and I know it's only using a fraction of it's potential I can almost certainly say that a gme with the same style and combat alongside a top tier story would be my favorite game of all time.
I can sorta related to this. I really wanted to try this game out. But I just couldn't. And when I watch other people play the game and seeing how the gameplay is holding up, it didn't really impresses me. Which is sad. Because I do like this sort of approach of the game. I love the artstyle, battle combat looks really good, the music is outstanding & the game brought the creators of classical JRPG'S to make it like an good old days. But it was so aggressively slow & boring. The story didn't go anywhere, the characters aren't that memorable to me, the dungeons design are really bad IMO ( especially the boss gauntlet dungeon near the end ), battles take forever cause they go down so frickin slow and worst of all, it goes on way too long. I hate playing RPG'S that goes over 80+ hrs. long. It's one of the reasons why I couldn't get into modern RPG'S these days cause they can go for far too long. Octopath Traveler has great concepts. But excuted really poorly IMO.
How to make the game a complete joke : start with alfyn (concot is op), get therion (steal in towns are extremely important), then get primrose (bewildering grace), olberic (challenge for item drops), tressa (money), cyrus (enemy weakness), ophellia (ulti), haanit (the most useless party member of the game).
I finished all chapter 1 to 3 without buying equipments at all. Havent continue chapter 4 yet.
Thorough and insightful review! Ever since this games release I kept going back and forth between whether or not it felt worth buying for me. When I can technically get it I just didn’t despite liking many aspects from the demo, mostly Battles and Graphics. I still don’t know if I’ll end up getting this game, but for some reason I am more interested in waiting for it’s sequel. Again great review!
Octopath Travler was not for me. I completed Therions story and got to the final chapter of Cyruses story, and I genuinely hated every minute of it. Not hating on anybody who loves or likes this game. If you love this game, I’m happy you do. Again, it’s just not for me, and I don’t think I can play another JRPG for a llllllllllloooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg time.
"Level grinding became a chore!"
You had Evasive Maneuvers equipped for most of your playthrough, didn't you? (Or abused fast-travel I guess.)
Nope, I would take it off to grind. I would use fast travel to get back to town, but I hardly ever ran from fights
@@RedNovaTyrant Well *obviously* you would take it off to grind if you had it on the entire rest of the time, geez louis!
I know i will be called a weeb here, but i disagree a lot with your point regarding the dialogue and voice acting. If you play the game in english, sure, you can criticize a lot, but that is not a problem on the writers, it is a problem on the localization. For example, H'aanit in english does speak this weird amalgamation of modern and old english, but if you play it in japanese, the way she speaks is more like a mannerism of extreme politeness, which certainly can be lost in translation.
Also, if you review the voice cast for both languajes, there are far more actors that did the additional voices in japanese than in english, which leads me to believe that the localization team was smaller and had to cut corners.
EDIT: Also while i think your review is nice, the difficulty curve is not really felt if you adapt your party for each boss, an example, as much as you might dislike Ophelia, when you have a boss that forces you to turtle and endure, Ophelia is pretty good at it, in that fight you were having trouble, instead of grinding levels, you could bring a double cleric, apothecary, and a heavy dps, and then just top up the dps person. I know, it doesant sound as exciting as having big numbers on the screen, but sometimes making an unkillable party feels just as rewarding. this applies backwards for some bosses too, where regenerating/healing is not as important as keeping them stunned with many shield breaks.
As someone who maxed out Bravely Default 2, this review was greatly appreciated. You’ve got me 100% sold based on how you descibed the music, visuals and art alone.
I have been playing this game since launch, at least 2 hours every single day and usually at least four. I am stuck on chapter 1 Ophelia but I **WILL** finish this game
Don't play an jrpg every single day, breaks are good... i.got half the characters on my 1st jrpg playthrough ever.... got this to play as it was on sale, how much i like it will determine on if i get bd2
Well this is the 2nd time playing octopath traveler and both times i started with olberic and grinded him for hours.. Got him to level 24 before beating the first boss by dueling the 4 star dude in town who hands out like 80 exp each time.. But.. Just like the first time i go to get primrose and when taking over her and starting at level 1 kinda takes the wind out of my sails
It pains me to say that this was my 1st Switch video game. This, along with Bravely Default 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 were all what made me want to buy a Nintendo Switch, all 3 disappointed me in different ways, there was also Shin Megami Tensei V, but i decided not to since I wasn't going to wade through another disappointing sequel again, so I bought Blue Reflection 2nd Light instead and started to regain my faith in Switch RPGs as well as my sanity.
Since then I only bought Switch games that I legitimately enjoyed, whether or not they are JRPGs.
Ive tried playing this game like 4 to 5 times since launch. Get about 15hrs in a drop it. It feels unbalanced to me and i dont like the fact its not just one narrative. Feels like a bunch of sidequests stuck together. Beautiful game though.
"Feels like a bunch of sidequests." Yup. That's how I felt.
The first playrun I did I select ophilia because memes, And yes the game was a bit boring only using magic till tressa join the party, but I didn't feel the game was harder because of that. Yea having ophilia stuck on my team suck, but it wasn't harder or anything
Maybe boring at parts xd
Interesting review, thanks for that. Though it does sound like you haven't been in many a forest in your life before. xD
SUper fair review. I love the game, and I still understand all of your complaints. THey are all super valid!
This was literally a game for people that grew up playing games in the 80s and 90s
100% This is what I want atleast 1 rpg a year to look like. Prefer a more central story and id be happy.
Your section on Chapter Formatting is SPOT on. I LOVED this game hours 1-12 and then after starting the 2nd character’s 2nd chapter it became clear it was all the same...for the rest of the game. I couldn’t do it.
Side question: Where did you hear you should go through the game in OCTOPATH order?
I figured it was suggested by the fact that the characters were able to spell it out in the first place, and that they were organized in a clockwise circle to do so. It wasn’t necessary per se, but it felt suggestive of it
I still haven't beaten Octopath either. I don't think I have ever played past finishing the first part of everyone's story. Compared to BD, that I beat three times, and BS that I beat once and played to the half point again, but stopped because of a 3DS malfunction that stopped me from using it for a couple months.
I loved this game I started with Ophilia and was fine with it. Thanks for the honest review but I don't really agree with all your points. Good video though. Just subscribed to your channel.
Hei man. Great review. It's been 4 years since I touched octopath sadly. I could never understand why I didn't like it. I knew why I loved it but it was just so hard to pick it up. I always pick up XCOM or even final fantasy 10 on my vita. But never octopath. Ur video put in words what my heart felt. Thanks man.
Glad I was able to help you find the words :)
I am almost done with the final chapters of the characters. I've been playing since it came out as well. Grinding has never made me put a game down like this has.
I would mostly agree. I really want to love it. But the feeling of it being impossible to want to pick it up and play it hits home. I love all the characters (even H'aanit's stupid way of speaking) but I think it's telling that my favorite parts are the mid-chapter dialogues and fan depictions of the eight together at a tavern etc., and not the actual game 'interactions'. It's combat is a little slow and could probably use some tweaks to keep it exciting and some leveling up and encounter rate modernizations like they do for FF ports. But I really WANT to like it, so it is only harder.
I had the same problem with Final Fantasy The Four Heroes of Light... and I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago. After I finish Bravely Default 2 I will try again to get into Octopath, wish me luck xD...
Did you really just spoil what we fight at the end 10 minutes into a 40 min video
i am begging you to rewatch 2:30 there's a really funny joke there i think you'll enjoy
so maybe I do do the speedrunner strat
get Tressa
do veteran soldiers
beat game at level 14
If you like Daughter of the Dark God, you need to check out the cover done by FamilyJules and Adriana Figueroa. Absolutely incredible.
I've heard that one! It's really good
I feel this is the mistake everyone does not just for Octopath but other JRPG as well, but especially for Octopath because it gives you a recommended LV, and I'm gonna be blunt the Recommanded don't mean shit past Chapter 1 I was always lower than the recommended LV with first Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and 4 being like 10 LV lower and I died... only to 2 bosses in the game (excluding the true Final Boss where I died a lot obviously), strategy, build and equipment are much MUCH more important than LV in Octopath Traveler, to anyone who want to play this game and haven't don't give a damn about the recommended LV ignore it, if you struggle against a boss analys his patterns, his weaknesses and Christ sake use buffs and debuffs in this game as they work very well try changing approach before thinking grinding is the only way, and really I want to say that for every RPG.
I feel a lot of people when they have struggle in a RPG jumps to the conclusion that they have to grind, instead of thinking their tactic and for some reasons I think this is especially the case with Octopath, no joke even the seller from the Store I bough the game told me "I warn you, you need to grind a lot in this game", while this simply isn't true with the exception of the True Final Boss which does require some grinding (and even then I beat him LV55-59, the grinding was more to get the right equipment and abilities), everything else in this game can be beaten by simply using the game mechanic and strategize.
And I think this hurt enjoyment of the game cause obviously grinding is boring and nobody is enjoying grinding, but for Octopath I was really schocked I'm not a Low Level expert or anything yet never in my entire I had so many people claiming to me that a game is a grind fest, only for me to beat it with almost no grinding at all with a Difficulty Curve that I honnestly very well tuned, I'm really confuse and legitimately wonder what the hell happened here.
Wow great review I'll probably wait to get this for 10-20$ not 50
If you have Xbox Game Pass, it's on there right now, so that would be the best chance you'll get
I share the same point of view that you have about this game.
The graphic style is very nice, a good mix of 2D/3D pixel art/3Dscenario that is very interesting to carry on next games. But the designs for the dungeons are too repetitive.
The Sountrack is a 10/10 Perfect, very few games have a sountrack so good. I played the game with the voices in Japanese and the acting is way better than in English.
The combat is great, very interesting and very tactical, i love it. There´s a lot of posibilities on mixing a first class and a sub class, that´s nice.
But the worse about this game is how the story is told. Tressa´s Story is very Meh, Also Alfyn. There are to many "meh" plots between the interesting ones, and that is what disconnect
yourself from the game.
Still a fair jrpg, try it.
At east you finished it,I started it. I played 17 hours got destracted playing my PS4 and when I came back I was so lost I gave up
Who says they want you to start in title order? You just invented that. The whole point of the game is that YOU choose where to start and which quests/chapters to do. It's fine to criticize the game, but you're mostly just critiquing your own self imposed rules.
I did state that you are able to start in whatever order you wish. However, the fact that the character names spell out OCTOPATH and their first chapter locations make a clockwise circle suggested to me that it was a recommended or suggested pattern to play in.
@@RedNovaTyrant The trailer for the game literally opens with "...you may embark on any of their journeys which all start in a different land." I know a lot of people who've played this game and I've read countless reviews and never once did a single one of them think there was a route or order you're "supposed to take." Pretty sure it's just you. It's a bit silly to include a critique on something that isn't mandatory or ever openly suggested by game developers and makes me question an otherwise solid review, even if there are some personal points I disagree with.
My experience with Octopath was very...unique, I wanted to unlock all the characters first before moving on to the second chapter for each, but anyways here's what happened:
I had Therion, Primrose, Alfyn and H'annit on my team and I fought a battle with a cait in it...and at the same time Primrose's Bewildering dance I believe it was called gave me a 100x exp multiplier and leveled all the characters up to level 60. Due to the increased level Therion could now steal extremely strong items from every town further destroying any sense of difficulty at the time, there was a 50 level deficit between half of my characters, the battles easily got repetitive when I was so overleveled they gave me negligible exp in combination with the rather linear dungeon design...all those factors blended together and my interest in the game gradually died completely...all set in motion due to a 3/100 chance of finding a cait in combination with a 1/1000 chance of an 100x exp multiplier.
I do love the art style, the music, and the combat mechanics, but I still can't bring myself to play the game
I'm at the end of the game and can't bring forth the effort to grind out 10 levels to beat the final boss. Wish something like that would happen to me
trying to get to 99 in octopath is the most tedious thing in the world
i stopped in the 70s AFTER galdera because it was just too much
i freekin love this game but yeah you do bring up some valid points.
Formulaic is what came to my mind as I played Octopath. Too formulaic. It could have been so much more. Just curious, what bad aspects of Octopath do you think carried over to Bravely Default 2? Thank you for the review
This game is good. But too damn long. After putting in 40 hours into the game and I'm still only 2 chapters done with all the characters I eventually stopped. Plus the story got too formulaic for me.
I just recently decided if I was gonna pick this game up or not so was looking for reviews and found this recent review amazing video btw I managed to sit through a 41 minute video without feeling bored the only thing I'm disappointed is it's not the video but the fact the game is lacking in story I'm the type of person who plays for stories no matter if the gameplay and graphics are trash if it has an amazing story I'll still play it so hearing the story is meh makes me feel like not picking it up
I Like the game mostly for the fights, the Class System , Music, Breaks, BP system , Art Style , Character Actions , Choose a Character in the beginning are major bonuses for me.
The story is Meh, some got My interest , but wish it was abit better though, and not many Character interactions.
It’s such a shame I really wanted to love this game and I’ve tried so many times. Sadly it falls into the same traps that so many modern jrpgs fall. It’s just...boring
Last game i completed fully was digimon hackers memory. Now all the trails series, bravely default, second, fire emblem three houses, one piece warriors, naruto storms all getting dust omg. Currently hook up with sd gundam cross rays lol
Sooo can I save primrose? Or did you just spoil and ruin her story for all of us
no but really i promise 2:30 is a riot frfr
also why are you watching a 41 minute in-depth review if you care about spoilers
Loved the game, the difficulty, the combat system, and the grinding. The isolated, cookie cutter story telling formula was a miss for me. I'd have preferred a traditional story (but I thought the Primrose chapters were awesome). And the final boss and character tie-ins shouldn't have been buried... kind of important, I'd say.
idk man i just fucking love this game
What an excellent review! I hope your channel blows up, mate. Like and sub.
Thank you for the great review, Red! 100% agree with your opinions here. One of the things I enjoyed the most in Octopath was picking up all the delicious breadcrumbs about the overarching/connecting Galdera plotline (sadly these were just breadcrumbs and not a whole Caldislan emperor trout sandwich... oh well). In the end I could not beat phase 2 of the final boss either... I wonder if most of the players even got to the final boss at all?
I got to the boss. I want to beat the boss but don't want to put the time in to grind in order to beat it.
graphic kinda remind me of BOF III and IV.
I'd say even through all the nitpicky complaining your lucky to have a switch and a legal copy of this game
cope, seethe, mald
I have just picked it back up . I haven’t played since 2019 lol I have tried many times but last night I finally got thru another hour. I last left off at level 45 and 49 hours in. I think it’s the story that doesn’t get me riled up and then the fact you hop around so much. I didn’t watch the rest of your review due to possible spoilers. But most of the review I agree with totally , music visuals and job animations are sweet! Every boss fight is fun!
Music is sonething this game, Octopath and Final Fantasy get the power of. In Bravely Default, Wicked Flight, Serpent Eating the Ground and the boss fights associated with them, made the draggy section worth it and I think it's interesting it appears to be the same here, I still haven't finished Octopath either and it very much is something I enjoy but somehow don't feel pulled to play weirdly. But the comparison to Bravely's epic final boss actually makes me want to finish it. But yes to all of this, the difficulty spikes were very annoying.
I like the battle system, it's an improvement to the 3ds Bravely Default's and the job system is a banger (BD serie is a good student to the FFs), but the characters and story development are so generic (like they just put the archetypes on them...), and I'm afraid the BD 2 story is going to be like that too. For a game with multiple POVs and a huge plot twist, Square's Live a Life did it much better. (And FF 6 too!)
I totally agree with you in ALL points! and it also took 2.5 years to finish it! lol I am actually just grinding some levels (sigh) so I can make the fight against Galdera a little more bearable, and as soon I wrap up this game I'm buying Bravely Default II.
Great review! it's basically 1:1 with how I feel with the game.
While I disagree on some small points (I thought Ha'anit had excellent voice acting), I definitely agree on most points and overall. Especially the tedium -- while I enjoyed the gameplay loop immensely, I always felt let down by exactly what you said -- it was always the same thing over and over. And lol I love how you get mad about Ophelia helping those kids. Definitely a waste of a chapter.
Yeah, for Galdera I grinded side quests and levels for like ten hours, then returned for the kill. A lot of that time was working through every side quest in the game for high level gear. The actual levels weren't as important and the gear and JP for the best support skills. Also some powerful healing items.
The post game side quests are also much better than a lot of the pointless early game ones.
As someone who loved Octopath, I feel like you captured all the good and bad. I thought the stories were a little dry because they were separated and stretched thin between 8 tales but I loved this game and the adventure and the customization and the grind. I believe what you said that losing to tough characters (when you weren’t high enough level) it made me want to go back into the world and train to overcome it.
Having played and finished bravely default and many JRPGs I feel like the grind and growth is almost part of it and I feel like most every rpg gets tiring in that aspect but this game was just lovely. A nice world to dip into for a long time and get lost.
Dungeon design was spot on though... A to B dungeons that were just keep walking till you see the boss. LOL