Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread

jschreier · Jul 6, 2018

TheFuzz said:
Honest question, how far into the game are you?

I am about 20 hours in, doing Olberic's Chapter 3 as we speak. I've done all of the Chapter 1s, and 5/8 of the Chapter 2s. One other thing I haven't mentioned is that party members who aren't in your active party (of four people) don't get experience, which is a real pain in the ass. My main characters are Olberic, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophelia, and they're all around level 30. The other four characters have been sitting in my reserves, so they're all under 10. But when I wanted to do Primrose's Chapter 2, which has a recommended level of 20-something, I needed to take her out of the reserves and put her in my main party, so she was just useless for that entire chapter because she was so wildly under-leveled. By the time I had finished it, I think she was only like 15? Again, this game has a lot of structural problems.

OK, I have to get back to work. See you guys later.

jorgejjvr · Jul 6, 2018

Looking great, when are reviews??

Vesper · Jul 6, 2018

jorgejjvr said:
Looking great, when are reviews??

Next Thursday

KtSlime · Jul 6, 2018

ZeroX said:
Uh, outside of Japan, is it? This is the first I'm ever hearing of it.

The amount of people who love DQ3 in Japan vastly outnumbers the number of people outside of Japan who even know what DQ is, so that's not surprising.

Raven117 · Jul 6, 2018

Phantom Thief said:
Yeah, thanks. Nothing against Jason, I generally respect his work (if clearly disagree with his opinions lol), but in this case the dissonance was almost unbearably ironic.

Message boards are message boards. Doesn't matter the user. So its all good. (Sometimes, we all get a little short...and being an outed game critic, Im sure its tough for him to constantly be defending his position on everything like he is in a feature review, so, in my mind, I cut the dude some slack).

By all accounts, looks like the game is poised for some solid reviews, and some solid sales. So the genre can continue and we can enjoy some quality games.

Diarrhea Day-Lewis · Jul 6, 2018

I am unbelievably hyped after playing the second demo last night.

Going to play this until Shenmue/Yakuza at end of August

Disclaimer · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
Is this a joke? In the first 20 minutes, you're alternating between parties of Moogles to defend Terra from a gang of invading soldiers. Within the next hour you're stealing uniforms from merchants and soldiers, zipping through an underwater tunnel, uncovering the mysteries behind a ghost train, and feeding raw meat to a wild kid in order to convince him to join your party. Soon enough you're participating in an opera and stealing an airship. The game is constantly throwing new ideas at you, and although the combat system doesn't change much, nothing about the game feels repetitive because there's so much variety at every turn.

Octopath Traveler can be summed up as: Go to a new city, enter a new dungeon, fight boss, repeat. It's nothing like FFVI.

You just disingenuously compared story with gameplay. Slightly different things, and none of it tantamount to "gameplay variety" for FFVI. I could make as diverse a story summary for Octopath as well.

In FFVI's opening hour, the combat system you have access to—which doesn't deviate from easiness until Vargas on Mt. Kolts—amounts to Attack, Fire, Cure, and Steal. Oh, and a moogle segment where they auto-battle, and you control Locke and Mog.

Deleted member 249 · Jul 6, 2018

jorgejjvr said:
Looking great, when are reviews??

Next Thursday

Mr. Lemming · Jul 6, 2018

Regarding the FFV:Bravely Default :: FFVI:Octopath comparisons, it seems to be just the fact that FFV and Bravely Default both have a robust job system that you can apply to any character, whereas FFVI and Octopath have very character specific skills that are fixed to specific characters. The structures of all four games are very distinct from each other.

Deleted member 249 · Jul 6, 2018

Raven117 said:
Message boards are message boards. Doesn't matter the user. So its all good. (Sometimes, we all get a little short...and being an outed game critic, Im sure its tough for him to constantly be defending his position on everything like he is in a feature review, so, in my mind, I cut the dude some slack).

By all accounts, looks like the game is poised for some solid reviews, and some solid sales. So the genre can continue and we can enjoy some quality games.

Yeah, as a JRPG fan, I've been happy the last year and a half lol

Eolz · Jul 6, 2018

MELLO said:
This thread fucked up already

You can blame the various details by the poster, about Xenoblade 2, what is a good JRPGs or not, and gameplay variety.

jschreier said:
Is this a joke? In the first 20 minutes, you're alternating between parties of Moogles to defend Terra from a gang of invading soldiers. Within the next hour you're stealing uniforms from merchants and soldiers, zipping through an underwater tunnel, uncovering the mysteries behind a ghost train, and feeding raw meat to a wild kid in order to convince him to join your party. Soon enough you're participating in an opera and stealing an airship. The game is constantly throwing new ideas at you, and although the combat system doesn't change much, nothing about the game feels repetitive because there's so much variety at every turn.

Octopath Traveler can be summed up as: Go to a new city, enter a new dungeon, fight boss, repeat. It's nothing like FFVI.

That's not gameplay variety, that's setting changes.
You can do that in other games, you just romanticized it to the extreme. Writing it in a different way is borderline a straw man at this point...

K Samedi · Jul 6, 2018

I think the whole idea the developers are trying to implement is make a repayable game with different party member configurations and stories for each party member. You can basically play this with any combination of party and stories for each individual character that you either choose to follow or leave out for another play trough. I sure am not going to catch up on each and every story on the first play trough. I will probably just check out all chapter ones and continue with the ones I find most fun at the moment. Then replay with another story and character combination when I feel like it. Its basically an infinitely repayable RPG.

TheFuzz · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
I am about 20 hours in, doing Olberic's Chapter 3 as we speak. I've done all of the Chapter 1s, and 5/8 of the Chapter 2s. One other thing I haven't mentioned is that party members who aren't in your active party (of four people) don't get experience, which is a real pain in the ass. My main characters are Olberic, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophelia, and they're all around level 30. The other four characters have been sitting in my reserves, so they're all under 10. But when I wanted to do Primrose's Chapter 2, which has a recommended level of 20-something, I needed to take her out of the reserves and put her in my main party, so she was just useless for that entire chapter because she was so wildly under-leveled. By the time I had finished it, I think she was only like 15? Again, this game has a lot of structural problems.

OK, I have to get back to work. See you guys later.

Thanks for the insight. It sounds like you're ok running 4 for the whole story with the potential to run more if you want to grind them up.

While it may sound like a problem for you, this sounds perfect for me and will add to the replay value for me. I can see why some may not like it, though.

Deleted member 4093 · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
I am about 20 hours in, doing Olberic's Chapter 3 as we speak. I've done all of the Chapter 1s, and 5/8 of the Chapter 2s. One other thing I haven't mentioned is that party members who aren't in your active party (of four people) don't get experience, which is a real pain in the ass. My main characters are Olberic, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophelia, and they're all around level 30. The other four characters have been sitting in my reserves, so they're all under 10. But when I wanted to do Primrose's Chapter 2, which has a recommended level of 20-something, I needed to take her out of the reserves and put her in my main party, so she was just useless for that entire chapter because she was so wildly under-leveled. By the time I had finished it, I think she was only like 15? Again, this game has a lot of structural problems.

OK, I have to get back to work. See you guys later.

You reviewing this game???

kuroneko0509 · Jul 6, 2018

when someone confused so hard about gameplay variety ends up being something else, then bailed out from thread... lol

reKon · Jul 6, 2018

I played the demo and enjoyed it. Nothing sure why people are calling this GOTY already. Perhaps it is for then personally? There's a lot of upside with this game as it seems to be doing a lot of things right. But the main story has to be something good and the pacing should be excellent. Based on the demo, I obviously don't know about the main story yet and the pacing sucks.

There's way too much competition this year to declare this GOTY, lol. This likely won't even be the best thing on the Switch itself

Vesper · Jul 6, 2018

MELLO said:
This thread fucked up already

Jason Schreier came in here stating that the previews for Octopath were "worshipping at the altar of hyperbole". He then proceeds to hyperbolize the crap out of Xenoblade 2 and hyperbolizes how good FFVI's opening "gameplay" is. That's why.

JustinBailey · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
Is this a joke? In the first 20 minutes, you're alternating between parties of Moogles to defend Terra from a gang of invading soldiers. Within the next hour you're stealing uniforms from merchants and soldiers, zipping through an underwater tunnel, uncovering the mysteries behind a ghost train, and feeding raw meat to a wild kid in order to convince him to join your party. Soon enough you're participating in an opera and stealing an airship. The game is constantly throwing new ideas at you, and although the combat system doesn't change much, nothing about the game feels repetitive because there's so much variety at every turn.

Octopath Traveler can be summed up as: Go to a new city, enter a new dungeon, fight boss, repeat. It's nothing like FFVI.

I believe FF6 is the best final fantasy and one of the most important games ever, and know what you are saying. However, I think it is important that you qualify that your statements are made within historical context. In modernity, most of what you are pointing out feels the same mechanically - as in, you are advancing through the story via a set of interactions.

Even moreso - the core battle gameplay does not have huge variance, even though the characters have different styles. I encouraged a playthrough of the game by a friend who wanted to see the best old final fantasy game, and with 6 he became bored because it was grindy to him - and I could not fully disagree. With Octopath I havent felt that yet. But anyway - I agree with your statements within a historical context but wonder if in modernity what they are trying to do here is something different than the revolution FF6 wrought.

TheFuzz · Jul 6, 2018

K Samedi said:
I think the whole idea the developers are trying to implement is make a repayable game with different party member configurations and stories for each party member. You can basically play this with any combination of party and stories for each individual character that you either choose to follow or leave out for another play trough. I sure am not going to catch up on each and every story on the first play trough. I will probably just check out all chapter ones and continue with the ones I find most fun at the moment. Then replay with another story and character combination when I feel like it. Its basically an infinitely repayable RPG.

This is what I'm gathering. The game may be better experienced playing 4 characters the whole game rather than running all 8. Sure, you can run all 8 but it may be a bit of mess keeping all 8 at equal levels when you can only run a party of 4. For me, this is perfect since I can play the game over and over with different combos, but I can see this disappointing some.

Raven117 · Jul 6, 2018

Phantom Thief said:
Yeah, as a JRPG fan, I've been happy the last year and a half lol

It has been pretty great! Especially since the epic drought we had for quite some time. (Sure there was some niche stuff, but I'm talking about feature JRPGs).

Fingers crossed for a Persona 3 re-release! HA!

Deleted member 249 · Jul 6, 2018

Raven117 said:
It has been pretty great! Especially since the epic drought we had for quite some time. (Sure there was some niche stuff, but I'm talking about feature JRPGs).

Fingers crossed for a Persona 3 re-release! HA!

I'd love that, but honestly, remake over re-release. I adore P3, but it doesn't hold up that well anymore, especially in context of P5's release. They should do a from the ground up remake.
That said, I'll take a re-release over nothing. It would be *takes a deep breath* perfect for Switch.

PlanetSmasher · Jul 6, 2018

Vesper said:
Jason Schreier came in here stating that the previews for Octopath were "worshiping at the altar of hyperbole". He then proceeds to hyperbolize the crap out of Xenoblade 2 and how good FFVI's opening "gameplay" is. That's why.

I don't know why people are getting so bent out of shape about the gameplay comment he made. FFVI presents its gameplay in a more interesting manner than Octopath does. Yes, the core combat at the beginning of FFVI is kind of bland, but the scenarios and setpieces you go through are structurally and mechanically more interesting than "30 minutes of cutscenes, then a short dungeon, then a boss you have to fight solo for ten minutes".

MegaXZero · Jul 6, 2018

Vesper said:
Jason Schreier came in here stating that the previews for Octopath were "worshiping at the altar of hyperbole". He then proceeds to hyperbolize the crap out of Xenoblade 2 and hyperbolizes how good FFVI's opening "gameplay" is. That's why.

Jesus.

Previews sound great. I guess I'll worship at the altar of hyperbole and sacrifice my cash.

Deleted member 249 · Jul 6, 2018

PlanetSmasher said:
I don't know why people are getting so bent out of shape about the gameplay comment he made. FFVI presents its gameplay in a more interesting manner than Octopath does. Yes, the core combat at the beginning of FFVI is kind of bland, but the scenarios and setpieces you go through are structurally and mechanically more interesting than "30 minutes of cutscenes, then a short dungeon, then a boss you have to fight solo for ten minutes".

Then argue for contextualization, don't argue for gameplay variety.
People get bent out of shape because he made an emphatic statement multiple times, and either proceeded to contradict himself, or proceeded to be unable to back himself up. This is the same as would happen with any other poster on this board. Jason isn't special in this regard.

Comic Obsessed · Jul 6, 2018

Alrus said:
None of those denote gameplay variety though. Just different scenarios based on the same gameplay systems.

Pretty much.

KodaRuss · Jul 6, 2018

I need to finish Hollow Knight before this launches. I have a week....

casiopao · Jul 6, 2018

MegaXZero said:
Jesus.

Previews sound great. I guess I'll worship at the altar of hyperbole and sacrifice my cash.

Haha. I mean. Considering the hyperbole Jason often throw based on his taste....... him not worshipping this game is probably going to be my GOTY too lol.

fluffydelusions · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
I am about 20 hours in, doing Olberic's Chapter 3 as we speak. I've done all of the Chapter 1s, and 5/8 of the Chapter 2s. One other thing I haven't mentioned is that party members who aren't in your active party (of four people) don't get experience, which is a real pain in the ass. My main characters are Olberic, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophelia, and they're all around level 30. The other four characters have been sitting in my reserves, so they're all under 10. But when I wanted to do Primrose's Chapter 2, which has a recommended level of 20-something, I needed to take her out of the reserves and put her in my main party, so she was just useless for that entire chapter because she was so wildly under-leveled. By the time I had finished it, I think she was only like 15? Again, this game has a lot of structural problems.

OK, I have to get back to work. See you guys later.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand it would be cool to swap characters out on the fly to try different party makeups but on the other hand it makes sense that they wouldn't get experience as they are not in your party and are just chilling in a tavern.

Massicot · Jul 6, 2018

Name dropping FFXVI in that preview is so corny and unnecessary IMO, because right now FFXVI is nothing except the most idealistic, romanticized representation of that series in the mind of every fan. Let Octopath be its own thing, and not some quasi successor to FFVI or someone's FFXVI headcanon.

casiopao · Jul 6, 2018

PlanetSmasher said:
I don't know why people are getting so bent out of shape about the gameplay comment he made. FFVI presents its gameplay in a more interesting manner than Octopath does. Yes, the core combat at the beginning of FFVI is kind of bland, but the scenarios and setpieces you go through are structurally and mechanically more interesting than "30 minutes of cutscenes, then a short dungeon, then a boss you have to fight solo for ten minutes".

He is a reviewer. If he wanted to comment on something. Made it properly rather than throwing different words for different things only to bash thing not suit his taste lol. I am not going to said it again. If he want to said Octopath had bad stories structure then said that. Not suddenly throw gameplay comment as that means he is talking bulls.

Guaraná · Jul 6, 2018

Raven117 said:
Message boards are message boards. Doesn't matter the user.

true statement there, my friend, true statement.

Instro · Jul 6, 2018

Sounds like SaGa basically, which was expected. I wouldn't be surprised to see some more overarching/joint plotlines in the late game or post game.

Meelow · Jul 6, 2018

Here is my opinion, I think the way Jason posted was handled very badly. He didn't have to call Xenoblade 2 garbage, he could have said what that other poster said earlier and the whole gameplay and story confusion was weird, to say the least.

Obviously from what I have seen from his work me and him don't have the same tastes, which are fine.

the magical kitsune · Jul 6, 2018

It does seem that too many people are buying into the hype. It's not a bad thing to be hyped, but the way things are going right now feels too similar to the hype building up to the release of Bravely Default ... and that didn't end too well for those who actually played through the game.

Although the official Final Fantasy XVI may still be quite a few years off, we firmly believe that it's already arrived under a different name.

Ugh can they piss off with these banal statements already. There's so much more to 90's JRPGS than the final fantasies released during that time. FF itself as a franchise hasn't gone back to this style since the 90's as well, so implicitly claiming FF XVI is gonna be just like it while ignoring all the previous titles which evolved FF is just delusional. Let Octopath Traveler be its own thing like it's supposed to be.

Raven117 · Jul 6, 2018

Phantom Thief said:
I'd love that, but honestly, remake over re-release. I adore P3, but it doesn't hold up that well anymore, especially in context of P5's release. They should do a from the ground up remake.
That said, I'll take a re-release over nothing. It would be *takes a deep breath* perfect for Switch.

Ha! It would! (I just have never played it, so I want to. Will be happy with Catherine though).

*Guaraná said:
true statement there, my friend, true statement.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile. :)

JustinBailey · Jul 6, 2018

Disclaimer said:
You just disingenuously compared story with gameplay. Slightly different things, and none of it tantamount to "gameplay variety" for FFVI. I could make as diverse a story summary for Octopath as well.

In FFVI's opening hour, the combat system you have access to—which doesn't deviate from easiness until Vargas on Mt. Kolts—amounts to Attack, Fire, Cure, and Steal. Oh, and a moogle segment where they auto-battle, and you control Locke and Mog.

Yea youre right - but in the mid 90s remember this was bordering on revolutionary because of how the story was told. And how the spectator saw it. Which is what is most interesting since with Octopath I feel like the same thing is happening, though I only played the first demo and would call it a strong evolution rather than a revolution based only on that demo.

Point is moot - I am getting the game and think its amazing. I think the battle with JS is deciding how much a reviewer can judge a new direction that doesnt get everything perfect. The same battle rages to this day over Breath of the Wild, for example. That game has many flaws but I would still call it revolutionary and one of the most important games ever.

reKon · Jul 6, 2018

What is up with that Nintendo Life excerpt?

I swear, I'm not trying to shit on this game but this quote:

"Although the official Final Fantasy XVI may still be quite a few years off, we firmly believe that it's already arrived under a different name."

No, just stop it.

From the few prologue stories I through there was nothing special about the dialogue and the structure/pacing was quite poor and boring. And this isn't to say that FFXV's story was great, but the dialogue was at least leagues above this and the combat system was strong as wel

It seems like thirst for this style of RPG is really what is driving the hype. I love the gameplay and music so far. But games like FFVI and Chrono Trigger kept me interested.

This one hasn't come close. But also don't think that 3 hours is a enough for me to know for sure.

DecoReturns · Jul 6, 2018

Sounds good.

Next Friday should be a fun time.

Kthulhu · Jul 6, 2018

I really hope the characters interact more than what we've seen so far, otherwise I'll be pretty disappointed.

Minsc · Jul 6, 2018

PlanetSmasher said:
I don't know why people are getting so bent out of shape about the gameplay comment he made. FFVI presents its gameplay in a more interesting manner than Octopath does. Yes, the core combat at the beginning of FFVI is kind of bland, but the scenarios and setpieces you go through are structurally and mechanically more interesting than "30 minutes of cutscenes, then a short dungeon, then a boss you have to fight solo for ten minutes".

What you seem to lumping in to "30 minutes of cutscenes" for me, when I did Primrose's demo, seems very unfair because it was much more than that, I got to explore the town, sneak around a little, and interact with NPCs, find secret chests hidden away in different places. I also had access to the various stores and was able to fight some enemies to learn the difference techniques, acquire some money and purchase better equipment. I don't know, I didn't really experience the game like the way you're describing. Even Olberic's section was fun for me, I played through both characters pretty fully, and put in about 3 hours from the first demo, and I was very thorough too.

I don't agree with people saying it's nothing like FFVI either, it definitely has some similarities, but it's certainly not FFVI in a new name either, the game is very much it's own thing. I don't know, I was just as impressed with the original demo to Octopath as I recall being with FFVI, but I guess ymmv.

808s & Villainy · Jul 6, 2018

reKon said:
From the few prologue stories I through there was nothing special about the dialogue and the structure/pacing was quite poor and boring.

Sounds like the recent FF games if you take away the glitz of their graphics and production

jwk94 · Jul 6, 2018

20 hours for an overarching story to pop up is a long time. I'm hoping the individual stories are good enough to hold the game up.

Deleted member 2145 · Jul 6, 2018

poor schreier lol

pretty clear his love for another game was clouding every comment he made in this thread

Huggy · Jul 6, 2018

Gonna be the first game I try to play since April, pretty excited.

BlueManifest · Jul 6, 2018

Not really many previews for this thought there would be more

Merton · Jul 6, 2018

So I'm trying the demo and trying to wrap my head around how this will play out. Pick a character, that character must remain in your party throughout the entire game. After doing each characters intro, this is where I get a bit fuzzy. You then have to go to the other 8 places and complete 8 intros before the game actually starts? I'm assuming there's a central "bad guy" that all of these characters hate and will have to fight. I guess I'm lost as to if this is a complete story or is this going to be 8 characters with different stories and maybe a little bit of the game is a central storyline.

Phonzo · Jul 6, 2018

jschreier said:
I am about 20 hours in, doing Olberic's Chapter 3 as we speak. I've done all of the Chapter 1s, and 5/8 of the Chapter 2s. One other thing I haven't mentioned is that party members who aren't in your active party (of four people) don't get experience, which is a real pain in the ass. My main characters are Olberic, Tressa, Cyrus, and Ophelia, and they're all around level 30. The other four characters have been sitting in my reserves, so they're all under 10. But when I wanted to do Primrose's Chapter 2, which has a recommended level of 20-something, I needed to take her out of the reserves and put her in my main party, so she was just useless for that entire chapter because she was so wildly under-leveled. By the time I had finished it, I think she was only like 15? Again, this game has a lot of structural problems.

OK, I have to get back to work. See you guys later.

Holy crap, glad someone quoted you cause i almost missed this. This is hugely annoying, and may even be worst than the non connecting characters.

Like the levels between characters are going to be so disjointed, and your main will always be wayyy stronger than the rest.

Edit: also funny cause your party is who im deciding to main.

PlanetSmasher · Jul 6, 2018

Minsc said:
What you seem to lumping in to "30 minutes of cutscenes" for me, when I did Primrose's demo, seems very unfair because it was much more than that, I got to explore the town, sneak around a little, and interact with NPCs, find secret chests hidden away in different places. I also had access to the various stores and was able to fight some enemies to learn the difference techniques, acquire some money and purchase better equipment. I don't know, I didn't really experience the game like the way you're describing. Even Olberic's section was fun for me, I played through both characters pretty fully, and put in about 3 hours from the first demo, and I was very thorough too.

I don't agree with people saying it's nothing like FFVI either, it definitely has some similarities, but it's certainly not FFVI in a new name either, the game is very much it's own thing. I don't know, I was just as impressed with the original demo to Octopath as I recall being with FFVI, but I guess ymmv.

Having done four Chapter 1s, I really feel no variation between any of them. Because the combat system would be broken if the player character is too weak, all the enemies are similarly programmed and do similar things and there's really no challenge to any of the battles, and none of the starting chapters really do anything unique setpiece-wise.

Even Therion, a thief breaking into a fucking heavily guarded mansion to steal a legendary treasure, can just walk around as much as he wants in there with no threat of being caught. There's no stealth mechanics, no interesting gameplay...it's just a regular dungeon with regular random battles.

Saint-14 · Jul 6, 2018

Yeah, characters not in your party not gaining EXP is annoying and requires to do grinding for them.

reKon · Jul 6, 2018

808s & Villainy said:
Sounds like the recent FF games if you take away the glitz of their graphics and production

I just edited my post. The dialogue in this game is nothing special and there's a lot of it, which messes with the pacinh when you're going through the same structure for every prologues intro.

Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread

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