Octopath Traveller: Square Enix also celebrating the Year of the Octoling/Octopath 2: Octopus Boogaloo

Balladeer wrote:

It almost felt like the Primrose section was something to put in the demo. and lure people into a slightly darker world that doesn't actually exist.  Does that tone crop up again at all, Jay?

Not sure what to do now.  Explore the dungeons around the world?  I'm not at a high enough level to take on the next quests, I don't think. Therion, my highest-levelled, is at 19.  Alfyn's 11.

No, that darker side of the world definitely exists and at least at some point in their storylines, each character delves into that darker tone somewhat, albeit some more than others. Nobody does it to the degree that Prim does though - that's her character through and through.

As for levelling, my advice - and what worked for me - would be to cycle your party so that everybody bar your protagonist stays similarly levelled. I'd avoid running from battles and I'd keep your fast travel use to a minimum throughout most of the game. If you've got every traveller now, I'd suggest popping your head into the dungeons you'll have passed in the Chapter 1 areas before starting on the Chapter 2 storylines along with returning to each town and clearing the substories within them. Basically, do another loop of the starting towns.

I don't run from battles, but - really?  That feels like slightly off pacing. Anyway, I've had a romp into a forest and got mauled by some massive pigs, and run into a couple of very tough armadillos.  More news as I die to it.

EDIT: Frogman VI can GET STUFFED

It's either my suggestion or traditional JRPG grinding. The former doesn't feel like grinding as you're at least exploring new locations and picking up fresh loot in each dungeon.

Make sure Cyrus isn't equipped with his Evasive skill that lowers the enemy encounter rate either, as that'll hurt your levelling as you go.

Oh no, I'm not criticising your suggestion: I'm criticising the game's insistence on this. It doesn't feel like good design, insisting you explore a bunch of dungeons which contain nothing but foes and loot. I'm beginning to see what Mas was moaning about.

Cyrus is Fantasy Edgeworth. Just throwing that out there.

It's unashamedly a JRPG in the classic sense with all the annoying trappings of the genre along with the good stuff. Old JRPGs would just insist that you spend ages grinding against enemies in the same area until your brain melts. I think it's better considering how Octopath gives you something to do. Course, the best thing would be for the game to better paced and to avoid having to do that, but I can't fault them for amping up the difficulty and forcing some levelling before tackling the story bits as that'd be betraying their target of being a retro JRPG in terms of design.

I thought that too! Like Edgeworth crossed with Sherlock Holmes.

While I see your point, I can't help but think that the Bravelies have shown exactly how an old-style JRPG can make those elements work!  But never mind that, I'm now trying to build up a chain whereby everybody has a helpful sub-job with no loops.  Either Ophelia or Cyrus needs Dancer power, and it'd be funnier if that was Cyrus.  (Or Olberic.)

Mate, have you played Investigations?  Edgeworth is Edgeworth crossed with Sherlock Holmes!

Without spoiling the travel banter sections you'll see in Chapter 2, Cyrus actually has a canon reason to be a dancer!

And sadly, I've not played Investigations. Need to get on that.

Ah yes, I remember, you were going to spend £30 on it.

I have found another couple of dungeons now. My party with Therion level 24 and everybody else around 18 seems to be doing okay in Level 20 dungeons.

Also Apothecary!Olberic is a great fatty, but I need to get him some more axes. The Silver Axe is bobbins.

Great choice of subclass for Olberic - it makes him into what's essentially a paladin by giving him a bit of healing functionality along with some axes. I went for Hunter!Olberic to give him a nearly complete weapon spread along with some debuff functionality.

As I said earlier, the subclass system is where the battles really open up in regards to strategy. The only character that I struggled to assign a subclass was Cyrus because he was too good at nuking enemies with spells that he didn't exactly need anything else. I ended up giving him Merchant to give him access to wind magic along with a really handy skill which you might not have unlocked yet.

Now Primrose is a Cleric. Because.

I'm finally onto the Chapter 2s! Starting with Primrose...

Flip's sake:

She's actually got one of the highest magic stats in the game naturally, so she's great for either Cleric or Scholar.

Chapter 2 chat:

I've got back into this now! That's me now finished with 3 of the 8 traveller storylines, but there's some interesting things brewing which makes me think there's more to come...

Oh good, glad the stories start to build to something eventually!

I've finished Prim 2 - bloody hell, Prim 3's at level 40!? Crying out loud...

I suspect...:

The 'Travel Banter' is bobbins thus far.

Well, it's incredibly subtle thus far, so I wouldn't take that as concrete proof that there's something more to come.

Yeah - for the higher levelled chapters, I would push them to the back of the queue and tackle the chapters in level order to allow for the trickier chapters to be dealt with in due course. Prim's Chapter 4 was the last chapter I finished with, so I'll stay quiet on your spoilered chat...

Ah, I don't mind the Travel Banter! I like seeing the characters interact with each other as it would have felt like a bit of a lonely adventure otherwise. There's some that are much better than other, mind, but it's still worthwhile. What did bother me is that some of the banter is missable depending on who's in your party after each story beat. I've gone to YouTube after clearing each Chapter 2 story and Chapter 3 story to see the ones I missed, but I wish they'd have set it up so you could see each scene regardless of who's with you.

Finished Therion 2:

Therion 3 isn't at quite as ridiculous a level.  Still bad though.

Oh don't get me wrong, travel banter's a great idea... that's very poorly put into practice.  Apart from Thezza, I haven't seen a travel banter that didn't make me cringe rather than laugh.  (Therefore I don't mind skipping it.)  Makes me long for Bravely Second, where most of the travel banter was about food but it had a sort of gormless charm to it.  Did you play the Bravelies, Jay?  I can't remember...

EDIT: Tressa 2.  Ali.

I guess it's more down to your tastes than anything else - I found the Travel Banter to be pleasant character building moments with the Chapter 4 stuff being pretty touching at points too. I didn't play the Bravelies, but I do own them... so someday I'll get round to it!

Speaking of Chapter 4, I'm now convinced that there's something being built to after Olberic's finale.

Look at this after Chapter 4 Olberic, Balla:

Hm, I'm torn. I don't know whether you'll find them drab after Octopath, or whether you'll find their gameplay and story strong after it. I certainly think Bravely Second beats this into a cocked hat, but it comes with the disadvantage of having to play through the second half of Default...

I'm glad it seems like the storylines come together a bit at the end! In other news I am grossly overlevelled, but know I'm going to be grossly underlevelled in not too long... sigh.

I've heard some tales about the poor pacing in the first game, but I shall persevere to get to the good stuff in the sequel.

That seems to be the norm once you get into the latter half of each chapter. I'm in that region now as I progress through the Chapter 4 storylines - even with a pretty imbalanced party of Merchant!Cyrus, Thief!Ha'anit, Hunter!Olberic and Warrior!Alfyn, I still got through Olberic's Chapter 4 with little issue. I thought I'd have a miserable time with such a physical attack heavy party and no dedicated healer, but it went well enough.

Trouble is, the story starts getting good just as the gameplay starts getting bad.


****ing Elementals! My first TPK was not a boss, or even a miniboss: it was a bog-standard enemy in the Hoarfrost Grotto that I lacked the spells to break. I was a level higher across the board than recommended too. Mince.

Completed Ophelia's Chapter 2 too, and I'm not even going to spoiler it because it was so dull and twee. Would the world not be better off if she'd left the kids to get eaten? I think it would. Will the kids return later on in her story? I doubt it somehow. Then what was the point? Double mince.

The only reasonably good bit:

Otherwise, Ophelia continues to do nothing to deserve her place in the game. There are other clerics.

My first game over was from a normal enemy too, so you're not alone in that one! They can be nasty buggers from time to time!

Aye, Ophelia's Chapter 2 is easily my least favourite in the game so far, so you can be safe in the knowledge that there's nothing remotely as bad as that one in the chapters to come. Tressa's Chapter 3 came close, but it at least had some implications for her overall storyline whereas Ophelia's... just didn't.

JayMoyles wrote:

...so you can be safe in the knowledge that there's nothing remotely as bad as that one in the chapters to come. Tressa's Chapter 3 came close...

Meantime Cyrus' story has taken quite a turn! I'm interested in that one now! And instead am helping Alfyn, who is a cutie.

Alfyn 2:

Yep! Cyrus's ramps up nicely. As for Alfyn, his story genuinely might be one of my favourites, which I must admit I didn't expect considering its rather humble beginnings. His Chapter 3 in particular is a standout!

Something to look forward to. It has made me a bit more worried about missing out on travel banter, though - there's an utter belter with Therion and Alfyn right after beating the boss of chapter 2 that I'd have been sad to miss. (And then a pathetic one with Ophelia, but that's only to be expected.) A couple of great ones in Primrose's chapter, too, that I had to look up on YouTube. Any travel banters in chapter 2s you think I should be looking up, Jay, if I've missed them?

Most of Therion's are particularly good, so you're in a good state there. I like Prim's banters as well. Alfyn's are usually good too. My honest recommendation would be to do a search on YouTube for a playlist that has all the Chapter 2 banters compiled and watch that after you've finished all the Chapter 2s. I've done that for each chapter so far and skipped the scenes I encountered when they came up in the video. On the topic of travel banter, it seems that in Chapter 4 there are some scenes with more than one member that pop up regardless of who's in your party whenever you enter a tavern and they seem to be more in the spirit of the scenes you mentioned from the Bravely games, which is a good thing indeed!

On other note, I've wrapped up with Tressa's storyline and I've got to say that it's easily the weakest so far. Ophelia's at the very least is getting good towards its finale, but Tressa's was a pretty dull affair all around. I understand that not all of the storylines can be as gripping as Prim's, but even something slower paced like Alfyn's still had conflict and character development.

That makes sense, I'll get on that. Sad about Tressa, I really liked her Chapter 2.

H'aaaaaanit's Chapter 2 boss is surprisingly good! Although the mini-boss was a bastard because I hadn't picked up any good monsters for a while...

Yeah, H'aanit's story is good! No complaints from me there.

In other news, I can't decide between Ophelia's storyline or Tressa's as the worst. Tressa's is just dull outside of her Chapter 2, but Ophelia's is full of the most painfully written characters in the game. Different crimes, but it doesn't help matters!

That's me finished all eight stories!

I don't want to spoil it, but the credits were really well made and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

...not done with this yet, though...