Octopath Traveler

Ugh. Beat all the 8 stories and enjoyed it a lot mostly.

However, I am very annoyed that I have to grind the shit out of all of my toons so that I can do the secret final dungeon and get the "True" ending. I despise it when games do this. I guess it's not as bad as the Persona games, where you have to play the game twice.

I think they should have made nuts farmable as an incentive during the grind to level 99. You do get plenty of meaningful stat upgrades through levels but it seems like the whole system for Nuts was badly designed / an afterthought. TL;DR Nuts improve a character based on a % of their starting level 1 stats. So you have a limited supply of them and they don't even provide a flat increase (Elem Atk (L) for example gives Cyrus +36.4 but Alfyn would only get +28). Weapon options and class setups become way more of a deal since you can't change a character's primary class and the amount you can improve base stats is 95% gear dependent.

Octopath Traveler - Google Spreadsheet (Nuts and Level Stats version)

pharmakos said:

Octopath Traveler review: Retrograde sexism in a shiny new game

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pharmakos said:

Octopath Traveler review: Retrograde sexism in a shiny new game

Click to expand...

Jess is an LA-based writer, entertainment reporter, internet witch, and Khaleesi of Hell. She covers how all forms of media (TV, film, games, the internet) intersect with culture. Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words at Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American mutt, but also actually more like a lion.


journalism sure is different nowadays

I don't play a lot of JRPGs but I'm enjoying this one. Started with Therion and have unlocked all but 2 of the other characters. The only one I didn't like so far was the Merchant. She's just annoying. Mostly I find the game pretty fun and quaint. The characters are neat and the combat has a level of depth in the boss fights that I find fun. I do also not particularly like the grindy random encounters that you can't possible lose (wish for an auto-play feature). They just take too long. But I recognize that its part of the style of the game so I'm willing to go with it. Also fun to play on the Switch in summer out on my porch with a cold beer. Too hot to sit inside on the couch. Anyway, good times so far.

I put this down for a week but intend to finish it up this week. I have like two more chapter 4s to go but I'd say it's a good, not great game. Main issue I have is the very repetitive story structure; every chapter is go to town > talk to some people and get sent to a dungeon > kill boss, chapter ends. Like literally everyone's story is set up the same way. Combat is good, game looks nice if you love the retro style and the music is good. Would like to see a more standard jrpg with these mechanics.

Yeah, I’m not that far along (starting chapter 3s), but the story is fractured and mostly garbage. Not a classic RPG where story and characters carry the game that’s for sure.

Still having fun and overall like the game though

I too found it ironic too that a game which promoted 8 different character stories was a solid release because of its gameplay rather than the plot. I would say 3/8 were good stories but others were generic class based intros followed by random villain episodes.

The three I liked were

Been playing this game for a few weeks. Getting a little frustrated because my group is now getting face raped by anywhere I go. Anyone have suggestions on the best group make up? Some of the 8 seem to be underpowered and not worth leveling up, but I'm not sure if they get any stronger as they progress.

Depends on where you are in the story. Generally speaking if you're within like 2-5 levels of "danger" level of an area or whatever you should be fine. There are exceptions though, as most any monsters with large AE magic attacks will facerape almost any party and need to be bursted down quickly. The big elemental mobs are a prime example of this, as even with near 1000 elemental defense they still do 4-digit damage etc.

Early in the game you kind of have to run with Cyrus for most areas, as he's the only one with reliable/effective elemental attacks. Once you get the sub-job of scholar you can just run that on whoever really. Once you're in to sub-jobs you typically want to stack similar classes due to the stat bonuses, so physical class + physical class etc. Olberic just gains a bunch of damage and flexibility by adding hunter or apothecary as his 2nd job etc. Speaking of hunter, you want to spend some points in hunter for all your melee to get the passive second serving for them as it's just basically the best for grinding through mob melee resists.

Towards the end game you need to start really using specific strategies to win some of the bosses, especially the advanced job bosses. Their damage is just through the fucking roof so you need to really properly stack damage types to stun lock them, or abuse the dancer ultimate skill to stack party buffs etc.

Nintendo really hiked up this game's skirt like a cheap hooker. I tried the demo only, played a few stories and was mostly unimpressed for the most part.

The stories were all pretty predictable (anyone who's seen any amount of subpar anime could predict many moments) and some were outright sleep-inducing. And honestly, I didn't enjoy the gameplay at all. I don't know why it was touted, but it did remind me of Bravely Default, as everyone said it would; that's for sure. And there's a reason I gave up on that game when I first bought it too.

Overall, I can't help but feel so many people splurged on this game not out of interest, but because of the insanely aggressive advertising and the like. Overall, meh.

A prequel for this is getting made for smartphones but there possibly may be another console game developed after they whore it out for phone $$$

Mild hype. Battle looks like Star Ocean 2, which I think has aged very well. I'm sure it isn't the same system, I just mean enemy sprites.

I'd say $20, tops. It was not a particularly good game, and I think I'd have even less tolerance for it without the portable aspect.

3 of the 8 class stories were fulfilling, a couple more were average, but it was at the expense of cramming all "main story" until the end bonus area.