I don't mind since it was a fairly sensible theory, but since that person is seemingly a reviewer confirming it, it's more than mere speculation. Most characters don't have named villains as of the prologue.
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Octopath Traveler: Preview Thread
- Thread starter Meelow
- Start date
I don't mind since it was a fairly sensible theory, but since that person is seemingly a reviewer confirming it, it's more than mere speculation. Most characters don't have named villains as of the prologue.
Apparently this video has some inaccuracies / misleading statements, like how you get the subjobs is wrong & the number of save files is wrong.
I'm dumb, I just focused on the quoted part of the tweet... Why would you even reply to that, yikes.
Probably because it's not a very big deal, and it's obvious once you know Octopath spells out the protagonists' names.
I didn't play the demo multiple times to play all 8 characters.
I mean, I don't really care but some people here obviously do. I don't think you should assume everyone played the demo for each character.
There's Shrines in the map that give you the subjobs. It was shown in one video preview, you enter the Shrine and you get the subjob, IIRC the hidden subjobs (the extra subjobs aside from the main 8) are in shrines that have enemies or at least a boss.
To be fair, only one or two protagonists even have named villains by the end of their prologues, so it is very much a minor spoiler if true.
I feel like this makes it even worse because now I'll be suspicious of every character whose name starts with one of those letters.
So how does this work? I've started the demo in preparation of the full game. Picked Ophelia since I wanted to explore the snow area and I found a boss fight that I can't win because I'm just a one person party with a weak summon. I decided to look up a video but all the videos have 3 person parties. I have no idea how I get more people in my party and I Googled it but I can't find it. I'm going in pretty blind btw, so I missed a lot of coverage around this game.
Ophelia can escort NPCs as a sidequest but also use them as allies in battle. Think it's only
One at a time though.
Yeah I did that. But that's still only one guy who attacks on his own. Not 3 playable characters like people in the video's have.
Is it a story boss fight? Because there are very high-level areas (caves and stuff) literally right outside some of the beginning towns so you might have accidentally bumped into one.
If it is a story boss fight, you should be able to beat it with enough perseverance. Make sure you have plenty of health and mana restoring items and make good use of the break and turn banking mechanics. Also, if there are multiple enemies make sure to get the minions out of the way first; the less damage dealt to you each turn the less chance there is of a wipeout. To further avoid wipeouts make use of the guard mechanic as it can sometimes be the only thing stopping an instant death. Sorry for the lack of specific tips, I haven't played Ophelia's Chapter 1 yet.
I'd recommend using Guide on the blonde man at the tavern in town, who has powerful wind magic that should tear through the boss. Specific strategy:
Fully boost Ophilia's single target light spell against the flames the boss summons to defeat them in one turn, nullifying their deadly countdown. Use your staff to break the boss' shield. When it's at 1 shield remaining, summon your wind magic-user again. Break the boss. Fully boost your single target light spell against the boss. Use healing items as necessary. Defend if the boss seems like it's readying any powerful attacks.
The reason people in videos have multiple party members already is because Ophilia is the second, third, or fourth character they're going after. After you defeat her boss, since she's your first character, you'll be able to go out exploring and recruiting the other protagonists.
Meh, there's still conflicting information. There are several clear connections between the prologues' plots, so I would be surprised if those don't wrap up in some fashion, especially since:
- Each job has a Divine ability associated with one of the twelve benevolent gods.
- Ophilia's task is to preserve the seal of the thirteenth god, the Dark God Galdera.
- Primrose is pursuing the same antagonists that are keeping tabs on Cyrus' investigation into From the Depths of Hell, a book of ancient dark magic.
- The royal family of Hornburg, whom Olberic previously failed in protecting, possessed ancient magic according to Cyrus, and were the victims of a well-plotted assassination.
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That's one of the most refreshing aspects of the game to me. Because every character is an adult the story is allowed to have more 'mature' (as in actually mature, not just blood and boobs kind of mature) themes incorporated into its story; the group isn't just a gang of plucky teens fighting to save the world, they're 8 individuals with their own motivations that can range from tales of revenge to simply wanting to explore.
Because it would hint towards a shallow plot. Unless there's a lot of post game, but then why do sidequests if there's no benefit to becoming stronger?
I can't agree that locking "main" characters is essential for roleplaying beyond the start of the game. How is it essential for roleplaying that during Person B's story, I'm stuck playing Person A? Person A's not even supposed to be there, story-wise, so what exactly am I roleplaying at that point? Rather, I'm obviously roleplaying the character the chapter is about, so... why do I still have a "main" then? There's no "different journey" here; that's basically just marketing speak for "you pick a starting character and some stuff is optional". Like... I don't know about you, but if I do start with H'annit I'm not going to be thinking "this is the story of H'annit, all of this is the journey of H'annit, I am roleplaying H'annit at all times, I am H'annit, and so she absolutely has to be here" when I have the other 7 characters, I'm doing their stories (where she technically doesn't exist if I'm not in a tavern) and not hers, and I'm using their path actions to do quests and not hers. (And of course then I could say- why does someone roleplaying against that structure, who still acts as that that semi-extent first character at all times, take priority of my roleplaying of the entire group as the structure would actually support...?)
And I wasn't saying they should actually do the 8 different parties thing here, mind; my point is that they're trying to do many things at once conceptually without committing to any of them. If it's supposed to be about the group of 8 travelers traveling together, then the game's story should account for that and not act like they're doing everything alone (or, not having seen it, possibly doing everything with some generic support from unnamed people). If it's supposed to be about 8 travelers traveling separately and interacting at inns, then the gameplay should reflect that instead of acting like they're fighting alongside each other. If you have it both ways, as they seem to be doing, you're just asking me to pretend that they're traveling together, but also they don't ever interact at all during important events, but also that they totally fought alongside each other during important events.
That's... not roleplaying, or asking me to use my imagination to fill in the blanks? That's asking me to pretend that a different thing happened than what game had play out. They can't just say "the inspiration is storytelling", etc. to justify some parts (assuming what you're saying is what they did say), but then have the rest of the structure directly contradict it, and still expect me to be fine with that justification.
...so, uh. just to be clear, I am excited for the game still. I think I'm going to enjoy it a lot! But a thing I really enjoy about RPGs is their story and their characters, and how the characters play off of each other. And as I said I don't play many RPGs, but off the top of my head (so maybe I'm forgetting something obvious) I really can't think of any other modern one I've played that didn't have a focus on the party and them bonding and growing together. It's just disappointing to hear about this, and though I can get some of the arguments involved, there are just parts that I can only see as contradictory and flawed.
Even if there isn't a culminating chapter, which we don't know, why would that mean the plot is "shallow"? You don't know the quality of the eight stories—Primrose's prologue alone is more dramatically compelling than most JRPGs. lol
There's an enormous amount of content in the game, including a plethora of optional bosses. There'll be plenty to do.
Those people started with someone else and got to Ophelia later, so they had extra party members (for instance, I started with Therion and picked up H'aanit before I got to Ophelia in my run). No matter who you start with, you will only have that character for the first story boss.
Basically you want to Break them with their weakness (which should generally be with the weapons/elements that your character has), then when they are broken you want to Boost yourself to do as much damage as possible. So smack the boss with your staff, heal as necessary, and then when they break, use your Holy-element spell at Lv 4. Summon your friend that follows you to help out with damage/support.
Also I can't remember if that boss has some sort of "hyper mode" thing (where they get a purple cloud around them, signalling they are gonna do a big attack), but if you break them when they have that, it goes away.
This is where I'm at, although I understand people's trepidation over it. I think part of it is accepting this isn't a traditionally-told JRPG story.
Let's not exaggerate here. RPG protagonists being orphans have been done before. As for shallow, I mean something other than revenge as the main motivator for Primrose. That is a bit shallow, don't you think?
...No, not necessarily? Motivations can be simple while telling compelling stories, and Primrose's prologue was told in an affecting manner.
Just because a story adheres to common tropes doesn't mean it can't be well-written. Something "being done before" isn't a detractor of quality.
You absolutely can tell an interesting story regardless of its premise being simple tho.
I think one of the issues is that this is advertised as a retro RPG but only some elements of it are actually traditional, or at least what most people think of when they think of traditional RPGs.
Game seems fairly mechanically rich and unique and bold in its story structure so it's easy to see where their priorities lie, which is why I find it unfair that some judge it based on the writing along (and honestly I find the writing pretty interesting myself so idk).
I think one of the issues is that this is advertised as a retro RPG but only some elements of it are actually traditional, or at least what most people think of when they think of traditional RPGs.
It doesn't strike me as any more shallow than, say, the characters deciding to fight The Destroyer and the Abyss Lords* to save the world, just because.
*This is a reference to Romancing SaGa 3, not Octopath Spoilers. It is relevant because RS3 is a game where you have eight protagonists, and some of them have their own storylines, but they all face the same final boss at the end of the game even though it's largely irrelevant to like half the cast.
That's some Bravely Default shit.
I downloaded the demo for this because I know the data carries over but I'm hesitant to start it up yet. I really want this game to be good and I'm afraid I'm setting myself up for disappointment with my expectations.
As someone who loves the old school job system FFs (Tactics and V respectively and the aforementioned Bravely Default) how is the job system in this game handled compared to those? Also, how's combat feel? One of the previews mentioned that it included the best SMT's press turn system, etc etc.
Auuugh.
As far as the plot goes, since I've talked so much about characters- I'm not very concerned with the overall plot being "shallow", but I am concerned about how much it'll tie things together or not. And not even in the sense of wanting a big overarching plot.
Since people have said (and that's all I personally can go on) that there's definitely connections in the chapter 1 stories already, I could see it feeling unsatisfying if things are only resolved internal to each characters' story, without acknowledging those ties. If Character A's enemy did something to Character B too, it'll be weird if A defeats them in chapter 4 but B doesn't get any resolution for it. Particularly as... well, I'm not sure of how this works, actually; are we assuming every story event happens linearly as you play them, or does every chapter 2 take place before every chapter 3, or is there a jumbled timeline of events? If it's the first one (which, in typing this out, I guess does seem less likely at least), I could see it being hard to actually do much with those connections.
But in any case I'd just hope those interactions scenes make up for it, even though that's going to be hard...? I think an overarching story - or just an overarching conclusion - is an easier solution for this, sure, but I really don't need that as long as the connections are handled well.
Since people have said (and that's all I personally can go on) that there's definitely connections in the chapter 1 stories already, I could see it feeling unsatisfying if things are only resolved internal to each characters' story, without acknowledging those ties. If Character A's enemy did something to Character B too, it'll be weird if A defeats them in chapter 4 but B doesn't get any resolution for it. Particularly as... well, I'm not sure of how this works, actually; are we assuming every story event happens linearly as you play them, or does every chapter 2 take place before every chapter 3, or is there a jumbled timeline of events? If it's the first one (which, in typing this out, I guess does seem less likely at least), I could see it being hard to actually do much with those connections.
But in any case I'd just hope those interactions scenes make up for it, even though that's going to be hard...? I think an overarching story - or just an overarching conclusion - is an easier solution for this, sure, but I really don't need that as long as the connections are handled well.
Was it heinous for SaGa Frontier to not have singular big bad when each character also had their own personal quests and motivations as well personal enemies to fight.
Not every single RPG has to have a cohesive relationship between the entire cast against a common threat to work against. SaGa Frontier isn't the only example of this style of RPG working in this manner, either.
Not every single RPG has to have a cohesive relationship between the entire cast against a common threat to work against. SaGa Frontier isn't the only example of this style of RPG working in this manner, either.
I think we're talking about two seperate things here. First of all, I was replying to your statement that Primrose's prologue is dramatically compelling. It is dramatic, but let's be honest here. Nobody gave a shit about her friend who had like 10 lines throughout.
Secondly, yeah, you're right. A lot of things can happen and change during Primrose's chapters. By being singularly written without any connection to other characters' stories, I'm not that hopeful it'll be layered with twists and character development though.
Then there is that little girl telling her father how she wants to be a dancer, oblivious to what the dancers actually do there...
I only played Primrose story in the original demo and loved it, probably gonna start the main game with her again.
Currently playing Saga Frontier 2 and the at your own pace fractured narrative is so out there compared to what we typically get.
Got him. Thanks for the help guys! I would've experimented a bit more bit the 3 hour limit is putting some pressure on that.
I didn't realise the magic attack did that much more damage when they break. I just smacked the boss again with my stick as he seemed vulnerable to that.
I didn't realise the magic attack did that much more damage when they break. I just smacked the boss again with my stick as he seemed vulnerable to that.
Absolutely. I'm expecting a metascore in the low 80s too, if not upper 70s for the same reason.
This simply isn't an RPG with mainstream appeal, and for RPG reviews you're better off following strictly genre-centric sites anyway.
Could someone transcribe this short video of a conversation between Primrose and H'aanit (in spoilers, if necessary) for me, please? I'm on farm internet and it keeps auto-correcting it to a quality where it's illegible.
I dont see how a storyline being primarily about one character suggests a lack of character development or layered twists.
I'm more thinking about an overarching plot tying everything together at the end.
Because you'd need to do it for 8 characters separately. It's not exactly rocket science.
Couldn't the same be said for every long game though?
There's reviewers that will review it without finishing it?