*facepalm* out of all the criticisms...
You were obviously not into old school dragon warrior / final fantasy type games. We're not talking about live Dungeons and Dragons intra-party alignment conflicts here. It's not that kinda game. OT is party-based traditional jrpg. There's not a western karma system at play, and jrpgs have never been like that.
I play a lot of JRPG to know what i´ m saying here. I´m not asking for a karma system, decision o infinite scenarios for each particular party composition. I´m asking that if they present me certain situations in the story, that they simply respect its coherence. One of the reasons to form a party in any rpg is to have a (to some degree) believable reason that can sustain that party, which is absent here. Also, it is obvious to think that a party will influence the situations happening in the story to some degree, and here, except the protagonist of a certain plot, everyone else is absent. That can create narrative problems and holes that can only be prevented with something called "suspension of disbelief".
It´s usual in JRPGs to see those kind of situations. Take the typical "you can free roam while a meteorite/giant enemy/apocalypse menaces the world", which you can accept to some degree. But in the Octopath situation, what happens is that the game asks you to accept 8 plots designed for characters working alone while in a party.
It´s difficult to enter in particular examples without spoiling Octopath story, but basically the problem is:
1) Characters travelling in a party for no particular plot reason, without common goals, and even with conflicting ideals.
2) Zero influence of that party in the story, creating some coherence conflicts (situations that are logical alone but not travelling with 8 people).
If they didn´t want to design an experience to justify 1), then maybe the better choice would have been 8 totally independent stories. If not, 2) could have been solved easily, creating to plot variants: one with the character alone, and another with a party. But basing the game story in the premise "hey, forget about the other seven while doing a particular character chapter even if they are travelling with you and could help to solve some situations" its not really solid.
