Octopath Traveler was good when I started out. It’s still good now that I’m over 25 hours in. I hope it will be good all the way through.
I’ve done all the Chapters 1s for all 8 characters, now I’m almost done with the Chapter 2s. IIRC I only have Ophilia’s, H’aanit’s and Olberic’s left. It seems there’s no feasible way to just focus on one person’s route all the way through, because the jump in level requirement from chapter to chapter is huge. For example, H’aanit’s chapter 1 had a recommended level of 1, but chapter 2 has a recommended level of 27!
I think you’re expected to do at least 4 characters’ routes at the same time, possibly more. This leads to the problem of a disjointed story with wildly shifting moods: from comical hijinks on Tressa’s route to bloody revenge on Primrose’s followed by a gory detective mystery on Cyrus’s. Early players expected all these plot threads to intersect eventually, but since I’m playing years after release, I already know they will be separate all the way through.
Gameplay/combat
I’ve made a bit of progress. My main party consists of H’aanit (fixed), Therion and Alfyn and all three just hit level 30. H’aanit and Therion are working on their sub classes (Thief and Hunter respectively) while Alfyn is cooling his heels and racking up the job points because I’ve only unlocked two sub classes so far. I could get more by FAQ’ing the location of the rest of the jobs, but it’s more fun to try and discover things for myself. The last slot in my party is taken up by whoever’s story I’m currently working on. If I had to pick a favorite fourth member it would be Cyrus. Mainly because his personality is funny, but also because his elemental attacks and Analyze skills are really useful in longer battles.
Least favorite character is Tressa because she’s too cutesy. Also I’m a hater.
I’m not quite sick of the Break system yet… yet I can see the clouds on the horizon. Breaking just gets tedious when you’re fighting a lot of mobs who are not that strong but nevertheless have a ton of HP so you have to break them several times just to get rid of them. Cyrus’s skill that reduces random encounters is another reason why I like him. Can’t wait to get the Scholar sub class so I can have it on at all times.
That doesn’t mean I dislike the Break system entirely… yet. I do look forward to getting to new areas so I can fight new enemies and figure out how to break them. It’s just that because of the way the system is designed, you won’t be doing much damage especially to bosses without breaking them. That means many battles are going to take a lot longer than they have any right to, just because you have to figure out weaknesses, break, break, break and break again before a boss finally goes down. I’m not even halfway through the game but I’m already dreading the last boss battle =___=
As for the individual stories in Octopath Traveler, I have nothing to say about them at this point in time. That’s because nothing much has happened on any individual route yet. And probably won’t happen until chapters 3 at the earliest, most likely chapter 4. Because one game is telling 8 separate stories instead of 1 or 2, they all come across as really shallow. And trivial, to be honest. Blah blah revenge~ Ehhh. Blah blah I wanna travel the world~ Yeah okay, whatever. And there are two revenge plots, two solve-the-mystery plots and two travel/adventure plots, so they lack a bit of freshness. But I shouldn’t be judging this early, so let’s allow the game to develop a little further first.
That’s enough for an early update on Octopath Traveler. When/if I finish chapter 3 for all characters, I’ll be back with more comments and opinions.
Haha, that’s ironic. I love Tessa’s archetype (though really I can only think of two characters in that category) so she’s my forced MC. She’s also like basically the best support character in the game, that BP transfer is just way too good.
That’s why they gave 8 possible mains, I guess. You’re bound to find at least one you like. I just started with H’aanit at random, not knowing that she would end up as my forced main. If I had known, I would have chosen Cyrus or someone else instead.
I’m really torn on this game, so I’ll be waiting with baited breath for your next review on this. I’ve heard a lot of mixed commentary about how the individual stories are interesting, but they never tie together. If you recall I shared in your disdain for Trails and Vesperia (Trails of Vesperia?) so I figure this blog is definitely worth following if it can cut through the usual JRPG fan standard of “it has an anime art style and it’s funny sometimes so it’s a masterpiece.” *rolls eyes*
Lol I like anime art styles and funny hijinks. As long as the gameplay is good and the story isn’t nonsense, I’m pretty tolerant.
Summarizing Octopath as “a series of interesting but unconnected stories” is highly accurate. So if you’re okay with short stories and aren’t expecting Square-Enix’s usual grand, overwrought plots, you’ll be fine.
I’m not crazy about retro SNES-type graphics, but they work pretty well here. Everything else about the game also falls under “interesting.” I’m not done yet, but I’m still having fun so I’d give it a 7.5-8/10. I don’t know if the demo is still available but if it is, give it a try because it represents exactly what the rest of the game will be like.