I've been skipping everything cutscene wise is it crucial to the experience? Like is the gameplay enough or am I expected to care about the characters.
I'm planning on rotating my fourth, but based on your current party, you can round out your path actions with either Olberic, great defense and strong Sword and Spear attacks, or H'aanit, bow master and able to instantly defeat and tame monsters to use as additional attacks.
both can give you the last path action, picking fights with people! I'm all about H'aanit, but Olberic's massively useful defensive ability can really help you out in a pinch!
here's my write-up on all the characters, in case it helps you with choosing:
Alright, I've played through all the stories, and I'm thinking about my main party. obviously you should swap and change characters around to experience their stories, but because of that ease you really don't miss things easily, since you can always change characters to access stuff you missed before.
one thing that might be important to note is that the first person you start with, is ostensibly your Main Character. you start with their journey, but more importantly, they CANNOT be removed from your party.
I'd advise playing each story in this demo now, and choosing somebody you're comfortable always having in the party.
I'll throw down every character, trait, and benefit of main-charactership for future convenience right now.
Ophillia: the Cleric
Path: Guide others to where they may be needed most, provided your experienced enough to do so
Talent: Any you guide can be summoned in battle for a short time to aid with attacks and their unique abilities, and can be summoned several times before going back whence they came.
Why: Having an extra helping hand in combat can be fantastically helpful in keeping up with particular needs, and people you guide will occasionally take damage for you as well!
Clerics heal everyone's wounds and nullify Spells, which means she can be counted on to always aid the party's survival.
Cyrus, the Scholar
Path: Scrutinize the folk around you, gleaning information both informative and beneficial, however with a chance of permitting annoyance and a loss of reputation.
Talent: Whenever you're engaged in battle with enemies who have vulnerabilities yet to be uncovered, a single one from each relevant enemy type is revealed at random at the start of battle.
Why: Scrutinize offers many useful opportunities to gain items, expand store inventories, or even empower other Path actions, and with careful risk management, nearly all these opportunities will be open to you immediately.
Scholars focus on the elements of Fire, Ice and Lighting, but always strike all opponents, and can do so Twice with the stronger attacks. you will never be won't to expose elemental vulnerabilities.
side note: Elemental attack stacks with all weapons equipped, unlike physical, so with time Scholars (and other magical classes) can be heavily versatile and dangerous.
Therion, the Thief
Path: Steal whatever you fancy from others, and never go without a free item or equipment upgrade. Even Priceless items are within your reach! provided you don't get caught, that is.
Talent: Locked chests dot the landscape, impenetrable to all... not names Therion. they hide powerful, very valuable things, and are always within reach to you.
Why: even with high failure chances on many items, there are still many chances to gain extra cash and provisions by stealing from any character crossing your path.
never need to swap out a character to get those locked chests!
Thieves are very self sufficient in combat, healing both health and SP by striking with powerful double attacks, and syphoning from their total damage. always having access to attack and defense reducing skills can also make many battles much less severe.
Side note: Stealing, Capture, and snagging pocket change all become more effective as the enemy's vulnerabilities become exposed, their health withers, and as they are inflicted with Ailments. keep that in mind, and you can always count on getting that little extra.
Olberic, the Warrior
Path: Challenge anyone you see fit to a one-on-one duel, making use of all your skills to defeat your opponent, and claim victory, among other things. some will be out of reach until you've grown more experienced, however.
Talent: Should your allies require a shield, you shall be there! not only can your defend command be charged with BP, but doing so allows you to take single target damage on the behalf of your allies, with more reduced damage the more powerful you make it.
Why: as a man who constantly challenges others to personal fights, you can be guaranteed to be consistently stronger then your allies, which in turn will aid you in picking more fights. you'll also be more privy to unique rewards from these fights as well.
Defending your allies when breaking isn't an option will always be available to you, and as such justifies purchasing the best possible equipment on your main character, as everyone will benefit from it.
Warriors mainly tend to their own strengths, powering up their blows and either raining spear blows on enemies, or decisively striking with a blade. they are meant to embody a slow build to a well-times defense, or a climactic blow.
Side note: All those you Ambush or Challenge are unique, and as such may be more dependable for quickly and easily procuring specific items when crossed with the appropriate role.
Primrose, the Dancer
Path: Entice any and all you meet to follow your lead, and travel alongside you. while it may occasionally fail to attract positive attention, Everyone is at least somewhat coercible.
Talent: Those charmed by your beauty will be willing to fight for it as well, and can be summoned to aid you for a short time, several times, until they lose faith and return home.
Why: While it can always fail, Entice can always succeed, and there are several dangerous people around the world that can be convinced to make your fights much easier, more quickly then you can eventually Guide them.
Dancers are very proficient with Dark magic, and can be counted on to empower the entire party's offensive ability, so consistently having one can do wonders for shortening a fight, or at least taking advantage of a climactic opportunity.
Side note: outside of certain Talents, Wind and Shadow belong to single classes, and while they won't always be necessary, it can be good to consider them if rounding out your versatility strikes you.
Alfyn, the Apothecary
Path: Inquire about local happenstance with your charming, positive personality, gaining insight into people, and into unique opportunities! while some, however, may only open up to the experienced, you can be assured that your smile invites no trouble.
Talent: As you travel the land, you will come into the possession of Components, smaller pieces of a much larger item only Alfyn can create and use. you can Concoct these item during the heat of battle to unleash unique, versatile and sometimes breathtaking effects, and as you discover them, you will find yourself with a much expanded set of abilities, provided you have the right ingredients.
Why: While it may be unfortunate that some information is locked away until you grow stronger, all other information is consistently available to gain and benefit from, which in large towns can be an absolute godsend and time saver. Concoct will always open opportunities to break and debuff opponents as long as you can consistently find the right items to use, and I mean break; most of the smaller effects thus far have been very weak multi-attacks of various elements, less for damage, more for opportunity.
Apothecary's are super helpful against Ailments, as the same move that heals them for one, further inoculates then from further Ailments for a short time, which is fantastic in fights where your entire party can be potentially shut down with Knockout or Sleep. They also have an all-hitting attack that's stronger the weaker their health, so they can put up a good fight too.
Tressa, the Merchant
Path: Purchase whatever goods you desire, using your understanding of market value, a little off the top for profit, and the occasional haggling down you can get away with occasionally, with better results at higher levels! however, some items are priceless, and cannot be parted with.
Talent: As you make your way around, you can pick up the odd change left around by clumsy merchants and unfortunate adventurers, supplying you with the extra capital necessary in merchantry affairs.
Why: many special items, and cheap items, are in the possession of the worlds people, and will forever be within reach provided you're careful with your coin. Being careful, however, is a heck of a lot easier when you're literally stumbling onto coin everywhere you go, and while it's unknown if it's a one-time discovery, or a consistently findable occurrence, you'll never be light in the wallet by the time you visit a new town.
Merchants can make use of their coin to buy help, greatly expanding their abilities provided they have enough to spend. HOWEVER, this doesn't just count for gold! EVERY BP SPENT BUYING HELP ADDS ANOTHER STRIKE AGAINST ALL FOES! making merchants break-masters! they can even be relied on to make the most of rare encounters, multiplying the amount of gold gained in a boss or rare fight with a well timed pinch of pennies. they also have dominion over the tradewinds, as an elemental specialty.
H'aanit, the Hunter
Path: Ambush anyone you cross paths with, putting their martial might against your most powerful asset, the Beasts you have tamed. while you are never burdened with a requirement of expertise, this comes at a grave cost; no natural skills or attacks can be used in an ambush, save for items, defense, and your trusted animal companions, and should their formidable power not be enough, you will lose respect for your conduct should the battle be lost.
Talent: A true hunter, through and through, can rely on the beasts in their travels to fight in ways they cannot. through legitimately one of the most powerful instant death attacks seen in Role-Playing Games, you can Capture any animal you've weakened through damage, Ailments, Break, and understanding of weaknesses, and instant conquer it, gaining all regular rewards. however, as the name implies, you also Tame said creature, and can add it to a retinue of Six animal allies to be counted on as an ability. they may be utilized several times, without SP cost, and with the chance to power them up through BP, before departing back to their habitat.
Why: Let's just forget about Ambush and her regular skill set for a sec. Capture is broken, period. even if you don't intend to keep an enemy you've weakened, if they can be captured, you can hit them, and get a high chance to just defeat them instantly, letting them go afterwards, and still get everything they were going to give you. this is immensely useful in regular encounters, where most enemies are wild animals of some kind, and should you Capture a tough one, congratulations, you just gave yourself another weakness you can exploit. She is much riskier to use then Olberic for fighting people, considering you cannot easily build a consistently useful skill set, but makes up for it with the wildly dangerous opportunities available should you regularly attempt to capture opponents.
Hunters are usually known for two things, Hitting random enemies with multiple arrows, and hitting every enemy multiple times with arrows. one of their best abilities actively empowers that approach for everyone, by improving both accuracy and critical hit chance, driving anything vulnerable to arrows straight into Break-City.
Side note: Warriors also benifit from the hunters party buff, as they have a similar ability for spears
I hope that these synopses help you decide on who you want to have in your party forever, or at least whenever. it was fun writing this!
Made the mistake of playing the demo (went with Tressa). Waiting until the end of next month (for payday) is going to be tough now.
With Tressa, definitely make sure that you use her steal money ability on every enemy in boss encounters as the amount you get can be huge. The success rate increases as the enemy's HP decreases & you can boost it further with boost.
So it appears fairly obvious that you'll make your way to all the towns where the characters are and slowly build up your crew before embarking on the main story with your entire party. Is that a fair assumption? They make it sound like 8 distinct stories but the demo sets it up like you'll mor woe leas grab all 8 within 10ish hours and their main stories.
Yes that is the intent. Chapter 2 quests are around level 25. So you will recruit the characters for ~L5 to L20. It isn't that hard to get all characters during the demo time if you're skipping scenes.
Yes that is the intent. Chapter 2 quests are around level 25. So you will recruit the characters for ~L5 to L20. It isn't that hard to get all characters during the demo time if you're skipping scenes.
Speak for yourself, this is going to be the game of the year for me on the Switch. And if it's not, it's absolutely going to be the soundtrack of the year lol.
Based on the impressions presented in this thread, I'd say people find it the following:
25%: absolutely hooked and can't wait
25%: enjoyed what they saw, but not without faults, will wait for a sale
25%: didn't like it for various reasons enough to really be hooked (main reasons being the graphic effects or the writing/story/VA)
25%: absolutely hated it
So yeah, pretty split opinions. Compared to something like Hollow Knight:
99%: absolutely love it
1%: don't like the backtracking/punishing system for dying
Also to contrast from the first Demo of Octopath, I'd say it was like:
85%: Really enjoyed it
15%: Didn't like the look/filters/combat
So it definitely seems to have nose-dived quite a bit in reception from the first demo, I suppose.
Beat Cyrus, Ophelia and Therion. The battle system is exactly the same as the last demo? I don't see what changed it's basically the same thing, break either to stash up BP or to prevent bosses from using their charging attack then unload at max BP using their weakness for massive damage. I had fun with it. I'll be getting it day 1 as it reminds me of 16 bits RPG. It seems there is also less voice acting than in the previous demo too. It's also disappointing how most of the NPCs cannot be interacted with. I'm eager to see what everyone Chapter 2 looks like but it's gated in the demo.
I tried to speed run and get all 8 characters. I was able to get 3 in 45 minutes but then realized that the demo won't let you go to a 4th area once all the other places have been unlocked.
I'm currently going Thief, Scholar, Cleric for the start of my game. Cleric for heals + summon ability. Scholar for:
Class ability IDs a weakness per enemy every encounter
Ability that shows how much HP an enemy has and reveals a weakness
Even on the mini switch screen, the art style is incredible. Music is fantastic. I haven't played a classic square rpg in so long and I will buy it full price knowing full well I'll prolly never finish it just so I can vote with my dollar so they make more awesome shit like this for more people to be able to play.
I find in my older years I am all about financially supporting the shit I never had the ability to in my early days, even if I don't play it all the way through, so passionate devs can keep making the shit they love.
I know that's not everyone's scenario, but that's all the more reason I should, for those people that might only be able to grab it on sale or w/e. That way awesome shit keeps getting made.
Unrelated: I am traveling for like a million weddings this year and for real need some mobile love. Snagged yoku island express too which is good, and also stardew, but I really think octopath will be my jam
Got to the time limit, I enjoyed Cyrus' scenario more than the others. Probably won't pick it up day one, but maybe with a good sale later in the year.
Even on the mini switch screen, the art style is incredible. Music is fantastic. I haven't played a classic square rpg in so long and I will buy it full price knowing full well I'll prolly never finish it just so I can vote with my dollar so they make more awesome shit like this for more people to be able to play.
I find in my older years I am all about financially supporting the shit I never had the ability to in my early days, even if I don't play it all the way through, so passionate devs can keep making the shit they love.
I know that's not everyone's scenario, but that's all the more reason I should, for those people that might only be able to grab it on sale or w/e. That way awesome shit keeps getting made.
Unrelated: I am traveling for like a million weddings this year and for real need some mobile love. Snagged yoku island express too which is good, and also stardew, but I really think octopath will be my jam
The only thing you're missing is a healer, as none of the aforementioned party members can recover anyone's health, with the exception of Therion's HP thief for himself.
you'll be able to amend that later, as giving characters each other's classes lets you cover for obvious weaknesses. you're good just using the basic healing items for now!
otherwise, you strike a good balance, as Therion can debuff enemies, and Primrose can buff your strongest allies, and with Olberic's damage increasing Abide, or H'aanit's accuracy and critical boosting Take Aim, you've got a recipe for destruction!
plus, all four types of path actions, solid! the chance ones can be risky, and costly if failed to much, but they Always have a chance of success! the margins can be rough, though...
...eh, whatever, all cities have a save point anyway!
I would think Olberic or H'annit. I feel like these two are meant to be the big attackers in the party, Olberic being more tanky and H'annit being more bursty.
I haven't really thought too much about all the party compositions though. I really like the skillset Cyrus has so I do think I'll use him for the most part since I love seeing HP values, H'annit's bow skills are pretty nuts if anyone has a weakness to them.
If you want to have all your bases covered regarding weaknesses with the initial skills, H'aanit and Cyrus are a must (outside of using items for spells).
That covers:
H'aanit Weapons - Axe, Bow
H'aanit Linde Companion - Sword, Spear
Cyrus Weapon - Staff
Cyrus Spells - Fire, Ice, Elec (can learn at 30JP)
Which leaves: Dagger, Wind, Shadow, and Light.
Primrose can cover Dagger and Shadow
Ophilia can cover Light
Therion can cover Dagger
Tressa can cover Wind
H'annit can also cover some of these if you have the right animals captured.
Of course you can always Guide/Seduce someone to cover one of those as well.
your Max party is four, but you can change your party anytime you're in a city tavern. they all have their strengths, and all their stories can be experienced at once, so swapping them around is encouraged and fun!
you want eight characters at once, check out star ocean 5! it's not the best game, but having a massive posse performing beat downs is pretty awesome usually!
another option is the classic isometric RPG, Dungeon Siege, named no doubt by the fact that you can bust into several dungeons and proceed to wreak up the place with a maximum of eight characters!
Ross Scott devoted a Game Dungeon to it that opened my eyes to this perspective:
Nice work, Hecht! I love using both, so I'll consider that as an opportunity!
another point in Cyrus's favor is not only that his elemental attacks hit all opponents, But he is the only one with Fire, Ice and Electricity that can hit everyone TWICE.
those two are a freaking wreaking crew, considering one can attend to potentially any weakness, and the other susses out weaknesses easily! heck, the more vulnerablities you uncover, the more effective capture becomes! it's nuts.
oh, extra credit: Alfyn can take advantage of elemental vulnerablities with his Concoct, and it can even inflict ailments as well! you just need to make sure you get enough Components, but honestly they aren't that hard to come by, especially the super cheap starting ingredients.
So then Therions ability basically turns his Steal into a potential Mug. That might be a problem if you are trying to steal from a weak enemy and you killed them by accident if the random attack effect kicks in.
So then Therions ability basically turns his Steal into a potential Mug. That might be a problem if you are trying to steal from a weak enemy and you killed them by accident if the random attack effect kicks in.
Question - I'm not playing this because I know I'm buying it, but there are details I'm still murky on, even after Googling. If I pick a character, am I locked into that campaign? I assume they meet up, but will there be a way to play the other ones without starting eight save files?
Question - I'm not playing this because I know I'm buying it, but there are details I'm still murky on, even after Googling. If I pick a character, am I locked into that campaign? I assume they meet up, but will there be a way to play the other ones without starting eight save files?
I am confuse about this too. Would be nice if there are some explaination on how that eight stories interchange through gameplay. Do u just switch between characters at anytime and continue their story at where you left off?
What in the holy hell is going on with the dialogue in H'aanits scenario. I feel like I'm missing a joke. It's like they asked a toddler to translate the script into old english. And it comes and goes at random.
I am confuse about this too. Would be nice if there are some explaination on how that eight stories interchange through gameplay. Do u just switch between characters at anytime and continue their story at where you left off?
You choose one character to start out with. You complete their first chapter and then you're free to move about the world and find the other characters. When you meet another character, the game will ask you to play their chapter 1. When you do, the main story stops and you essentially go back in time to play that characters first chapter. Once you finish that, you are returned to the present and that character then joins your party. So you are not continuously switching between characters.
In the full game, that main character will have one save dedicated to it, and in that save he/she will be main character and can't be removed from the party. Each character gets their own save where they can't be removed, and you can switch between different players at will. So it might not be so bad who you start with, but it remains to be seen.
I am confuse about this too. Would be nice if there are some explaination on how that eight stories interchange through gameplay. Do u just switch between characters at anytime and continue their story at where you left off?
You choose one character to start out with. You complete their first chapter and then you're free to move about the world and find the other characters. When you meet another character, the game will ask you to play their chapter 1. When you do, the main story stops and you essentially go back in time to play that characters first chapter. Once you finish that, you are returned to the present and that character then joins your party. So you are not continuously switching between characters.
You can also choose to NOT play the additional characters' Chapter 1 and they'll just join you and you continue on immediately. I don't know if you can choose at that point to somehow go and play that other char's chapter 1. The journal seems to be a cutscene viewer only?
You can also choose to NOT play the additional characters' Chapter 1 and they'll just join you and you continue on immediately. I don't know if you can choose at that point to somehow go and play that other char's chapter 1. The journal seems to be a cutscene viewer only?