Octopath Traveller: Square Enix also celebrating the Year of the Octoling

Balla: I'd say it depends. I ended up caving and watching the final battles on YouTube, and whilst the lore up to that point is neat, I do think there'd be something hollow about not finishing off the secret boss. Your mileage may vary, natch.

Muss wrote:: I dusted this off tonight. Well sort of, I got all the way to the final secret boss and then the game told me I had to split my gang into two for a two phase boss. Nope, not grinding up my reserves.

See, I levelled up each member equally besides my protagonist, but that's not even put me into a good place either considering that by doing that I'm still 10 levels below the recommended level for said secret boss. And I really don't fancy grinding... Aww!

The journey up to that point was still good though, agreed!

Regarding the direwolf: Hahahaha... oh no. This is in a LVL 58 area. It's part of a side quest.

I'd say its worth doing for the lore but I'm quite into the narrative stuff. I had a level 68/9 olberic and the rest were around 60-3 and I didn't have any bother until the impromptu 2-part big big bad, but it crops up after the lore stuff and I was satisfied to leave it there.

I mean, I watched bits of a YouTube video for the final battle[s] too, they had level 75 peeps across the board and had a way better grasp got the game than me and it still took them forty minutes!

Folks have been heralding it as one of the toughest bosses ever in an RPG, so that'll give you a good idea of what sort of level you need to be to take it down.

Not a fun one... In a genre where difficulty is primarily defined by how long you've played the later stages for, I'd say that's not something to be 'heralded'.

Anyway I've defeated Shiva. One of the tougher ones, that, despite my amazing magic Primrose.

EDIT: That's all the secret jobs unlocked, but I don't have much incentive to do anything with them. I think I'm done.

Bumping a dead thread because I'm what? PRETTY SURE I WON'T GET IN TROUBLE FOR IT.

Just to say that I've gone back to this after plunging about 25 hours into in a year and a half ago and then leaving it alone. I've got one more chapter 2 to complete (Ha'anit's, I think) but think I need to do a bit of grinding as Ha'anit, Tressa and Therion are all several levels below everyone else.

Was interesting reading through the thread and seeing people's thoughts on how the stories progressed! I don't know if I'll finish the game any time soon but hopefully I'll get through a decent amount more. Those boss fights though - so long! Gotta commit a fair whack of time to each one.

BANNED FOR SEVE-yes that's not funny any more.

The stories definitely get better as you go on! As for the boss fights, I've seen a lot of complaints about the length of them, but I never got that and I think they were my favourite bits of the game... most of them. (Alfyn-4 DAMN YOU!

)

Second time around I think I have a better grasp on juggling the job system - I don't think I really appreciated the flexibility it gives you when I first played it. For example, I've found that Tressa is actually pretty fun to use as a Merchant/Thief, whereas I really struggled to find any kind of niche for her before. Now just need to have a similar breakthrough with Therion (that isn't just Thief/Merchant)...

Just finished Olberic's 3rd chapter, and I think I'm going to do Alfyn's next. It is odd how they've made a game focusing on 8 characters with 8 stories, and they just don't weave the plotlines together very much. I know I have loads of plot left to cover so I'm sure there'll be some crossover to come, but your party doesn't even interact apart from in those throwaway 'travel banter' bits. Would be nice if it felt a bit more meaningful, but I'm still enjoying the game.

I did Thief/Cleric I think for Therion. Spend MP, then nick it straight back. He's definitely not as easy to mix-and-match though. As for weaving the plotlines together, I have Opinions about that... but that's for later.

Side note: I read back through most of the thread today (I was booooooooored) and it was really fun to read the back-and-forth! Even if, er, it was just me and Jay for the most part. Embarrassed

It's the sort of thing I'd love to see more of. Smile

Having a proper in-depth chat as you're playing through a game is great, but it's tricky to time it well! Unless you actually buy and play through something right after release, chances are slim you'll be playing something at the same time as a pal on the forum.

I've now reached Chapter 4 with every character, having finished all the Chapter 3s with everyone at about level 41, 42 (bar Olberic who's 53 or something). All the level recommendations for the final chapters are 45 so I've been trekking to the new cities to get everyone up to that sort of level and then I'm planning on tackling them all!

It's nice to see this pop up again. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I still listen to it while I'm working every now and then. I particularly like the battle music.

I really like how the battle music changes between chapters. Going into the new "danger level 45" areas with new tunes has made it feel like everything's progressing and my team are properly strong now.

Rum wrote:: Having a proper in-depth chat as you're playing through a game is great, but it's tricky to time it well! Unless you actually buy and play through something right after release, chances are slim you'll be playing something at the same time as a pal on the forum.

I've now reached Chapter 4 with every character, having finished all the Chapter 3s with everyone at about level 41, 42 (bar Olberic who's 53 or something). All the level recommendations for the final chapters are 45 so I've been trekking to the new cities to get everyone up to that sort of level and then I'm planning on tackling them all!

True, and ideally the people involved need to be logging in every day. Shifty

Do let us know how you get on with those final chapters: some truly top stories there if I remember correctly.

Muss wrote:: It's nice to see this pop up again. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I still listen to it while I'm working every now and then. I particularly like the battle music.

The soundtrack is absolutely top and definitely the best thing about the game, with the visuals a close second. Rum's replay has made me listen to especially the boss music all over again. Prim Chapter 4 springs to mind...

I'm relieved to see that another proper Octopath game is in production, didn't know that until I gave it a google.

Yes the visuals are also fantastic, a retro stylisation realised fabulously. It had an enjoyable battle system as well, it just got a bit too carried away with making the boss health numbers too absurd.

I've completed Olberic and Ophilia's stories - former was fine, latter was (as with the rest of her story) very twee.

Then tried H'aanit's, and I was doing just fine with the boss, until it whipped out a random attack that made my team unconscious the whole time and it just finished me off, which seemed a bit cheap. Just a bit annoyed that I spent however long doing fine and now need to try again with different accessories equipped and I'll probably be fine. Didn't mind that so much as a child, but I resent having to do that when I'm an actual adult with actual adult responsibilities who doesn't want 10 minutes of effort immediately washed down the drain!

I think I agreed with you there... ah yes.

Balladeer wrote:: ...on the one hand, it's definitely powerful enough to catch you off guard, and I needed to tailor my characters to avoid a TPKO (on the third time of trying). On the other, having a late-battle whole-party high-probability unconscious move is just... cheap.

What were your thoughts on the other lot? I apparently thought that Ophelia improved throughout, although not enough for me not to gag at the memory of her story. In particular, any thoughts about Alfyn 4?

Muss wrote:: I'm relieved to see that another proper Octopath game is in production, didn't know that until I gave it a google.

Yes the visuals are also fantastic, a retro stylisation realised fabulously. It had an enjoyable battle system as well, it just got a bit too carried away with making the boss health numbers too absurd.

Wait what? Shocked

There's another one announced? I... might actually remember that. Not seen much about it of late, mind.

The problem about the bosses taking ages was one I read a lot, and one that never bothered me... apart from Alfyn 4, but that was for different reasons. Evil or Very Mad

Nothing too spoilery but hidden because they're my thoughts about the last bosses for each:

Bosses taking ages was something I found a bit trying in the early game, but as I went through and got a better handle for ways of tackling them I found it less annoying. Honestly, Leghold Trap - the hunter skill that forces the enemy to go last in the next turn - was amazing because even though the boss goes first once recovering from a break, your team then all gets to go, and then all get to go again before the boss has a chance, meaning you can usually squeeze in enough attacks to break them again, especially if you have the skills that mean you can occasionally attack twice, or move again at the end of the turn. Or they're weak to arrows and you Arrowstorm them to fuck.

I seem to be the only one who had problems with Alfyn's final boss. Laughing

I think I was big into wearing them down slowly, which for obvious reasons doesn't work there. Jay will, I imagine, disagree with you about Tressa. Agreed with Prim. Leghold Trap is best ability.

I also ended up reading through the thread again after seeing this bumped. It almost made we want to go back and replay this and try and tackle The End, but uh, probably for the best that I avoid that. Laughing

I like that you had a different strategy for most of the fights than I did, Rum. I would usually just buff Cyrus to high heaven and then let him unleash hell. There's a good chunk of depth to the combat system in this.

I might back to this as it's coming to Xbox this month straight into Game Pass.

I enjoyed what I played and of Project Triangle, just when I played on Switch I messed up with one character's ability so never saw enemies in the filed which meant I was underlevelled come chapter 3 or something and I couldn't be bothered to grind.

This time I wouldn't make that mistake, just it's another RPG which got three on the go on Switch and stuff like Yakuza LAD on Xbox.

I was thinking about Octopath Traveler recently actually: mostly because it and Bravely Default 2 are very much cut from the same cloth, with similar pros and cons. Both pretty nice-sounding turn-based JRPGs with variable plots, intricate job systems, and absolutely stinking dull dungeons. I think OT's the prettier and nicer-sounding game, and might even have the better overall plot; but BD2's the better game. Take that random battles!

I didn't go back to the first however, after playing Triangle, which is still my number 2 game of the year and Live A Live I am keen for

I was quite surprised to see this turn up! I suppose it makes sense considering the mileage they've got out of the HD-2D engine and the clear trust they've got in that dev team.

It looks promising thus far - I think a common complaint about the game was how disconnected the different journeys felt and how the overall structure of the game fell a bit flat as a result. They look like they'll be tackling that with the sequel.

Yes! That was exactly my common complaint. Them showing off how much they weren't doing that in the first trailer was a big plus. Grin

What wasn't so much was them recycling the same eight archetypes. It wasn't a minus, because I enjoyed how each of the characters seemed to be a massive departure from the originals (Cyrus' role going to an Olberic-lookalike with Primrose's motivation); but job systems are usually my favourite things about games with job systems in, and starting us off with the same eight jobs doesn't bode super-well for that side of things. They could add fifty new jobs on top, of course. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, this was probably the third-highest point of the Direct for me.

I guess they could bring in that sub-job mechanic back from the first game. I hope they do, actually, as it was a neat bit of variety and made for some interesting ability pair-ups.

Mm, I'm interested in this too but was worried that the 8 characters might be too similar to the 8 characters from the first game. If the storylines cross over more though then I might take the plunge.

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