Not sure if there’s some sort of bonus once you’ve beaten all eight (I’ve only finished four so far - mopping up the rest today), but they are all entirely standalone stories.
And:
Just to be clear, the 8 main character never interact with the other’s stories, they are just there for the ride?
Answer:
Correct - they don’t even appear in cut-scenes.
Aaaaaand that's everything I needed to know. Oh well!
That encourages me a lot, tbh. It's one thing to have everything merge-ish into a single, high-stakes story (a la Final Fantasy). In that case, when you have optional party members they often just kinda feel tacked on to the story and deep character interactions.
If it's intended that everyone has their own individual story, and you also have a group of tag-alongs that are helping you out but not important to your story, that's a separate situation and doesn't share the same downside.
I'll probably still wait to make sure someone here confirms that's the case, but I'm excited again!
That's certainly true!
For me it just makes the whole thing feel weird still, like they should have stayed completely separate. That would've worked for me I think. Like there's no reason for them to be imaginary characters in each others story lines so if all the characters stayed separate that would make a whole lot more sense.
Yeah. If it's like this, then why are the stories not Live A Live-esque affairs where you play as one character on their own?
God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
Yeah. If it's like this, then why are the stories not Live A Live-esque affairs where you play as one character on their own?
God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
This is basically why I'm eager to know the one question nobody yet has been able to answer: What happens when all 8 stories are complete? It's also a question I'm ready to have answered myself.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Yeah, this was brought up by others where you could still have a full party of "nobodies" with the main character's story. To be honest, I think I prefer this way? There is more of an attachment to characters who are with you the entire game, even if you aren't actively seeing them in everyone's cut scenes. This also allows for the vignette scenes. I'd rather learn everyone's abilities and be able to use whoever's path actions as needed rather than having a "scripted" team who would be running around with whoever is the main character at the time.
You can argue that the story scenes are jarring because of this, that's fine, but it was a design decision not completely without reason. We also already know there are some shared story aspects between the stories, ie people showing up in multiple stories. Each chapter you do gives you a different view point of the world. I don't think that's inherently bad, just different.
I still maintain that this decision doesn't mean the game has bad writing, that's kind of a silly stance to take imo. It sounds like the individual stories are still compelling, which would make the overall world compelling. This is how they decided to tell the story for this specific game. If it's not your cup of tea, that's ok! But there's still plenty of us that find the story layout interesting and, at least in my view, kind of a breath of fresh air compared to every other "epic" jrpg that has released in recent years.
Yeah. If it's like this, then why are the stories not Live A Live-esque affairs where you play as one character on their own?
God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
This is basically why I'm eager to know the one question nobody yet has been able to answer: What happens when all 8 stories are complete? It's also a question I'm ready to have answered myself.
We don't know, but I'm not going to try to convince myself that there's "something" either. I would hope there is just to kind of wrap everything up? And there have been people vaguely tweeting about this kind of stuff, but I kind of like the mystery of not knowing. However, I'm in the camp of "8 individual stories sounds just fine to me." but it would certainly be cool.
Wait, so it's like an anthology of 8 different stories? You pick one character, see their story/beat the game, and then choose someone else and see a relatively different story? Is there an overarching big-bad that connects them?
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Wait, so it's like an anthology of 8 different stories? You pick one character, see their story/beat the game, and then choose someone else and see a relatively different story? Is there an overarching big-bad that connects them?
Nobody knows. So far the answer is no, but nobody's gotten far enough in their review copies to answer definitively.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Wait, so it's like an anthology of 8 different stories? You pick one character, see their story/beat the game, and then choose someone else and see a relatively different story? Is there an overarching big-bad that connects them?
You pick your "main" character, but you can go pick up all the other characters and complete all of their stories in one playthrough of the game. So far, the stories are largely separate with a few connecting threads but since nobody has actually beaten the game we don't actually know if there's a "final" chapter of sorts.
So...there is no main story? It's just 8 separate stories that don't ever come together? I...don't know if I can enjoy that. Sigh...and here I was excited to have a new jrpg for switch to play while waiting for MHGU.
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So...there is no main story? It's just 8 separate stories that don't ever come together? I...don't know if I can enjoy that. Sigh...and here I was excited to have a new jrpg for switch to play while waiting for MHGU.
Don’t know for sure if that’s the case yet. Could be combined content after the 8 stories are done.
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I still maintain that this decision doesn't mean the game has bad writing, that's kind of a silly stance to take imo. It sounds like the individual stories are still compelling, which would make the overall world compelling. This is how they decided to tell the story for this specific game. If it's not your cup of tea, that's ok! But there's still plenty of us that find the story layout interesting and, at least in my view, kind of a breath of fresh air compared to every other "epic" jrpg that has released in recent years.
See you're doing the opposite thing here. Where you like something so don't want to say that flawed writing is flawed writing. It doesn't mean the entire story is flawed. I have legit said that multiple times. But if you write a story that involves portions that just don't make sense, those parts are poor writing. That's what poor writing is. There's totally nothing wrong with enjoying the game and I'm sure it will be super rad for plenty of people. Every game has some flaws somewhere, which ones bother you decide what you want to play and don't want to play. This is completely normal.
Yeah. If it's like this, then why are the stories not Live A Live-esque affairs where you play as one character on their own?
God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
This is basically why I'm eager to know the one question nobody yet has been able to answer: What happens when all 8 stories are complete? It's also a question I'm ready to have answered myself.
We don't know, but I'm not going to try to convince myself that there's "something" either. I would hope there is just to kind of wrap everything up? And there have been people vaguely tweeting about this kind of stuff, but I kind of like the mystery of not knowing. However, I'm in the camp of "8 individual stories sounds just fine to me." but it would certainly be cool.
I won't get my hopes up that there's something hugely huge waiting in the wings. But at the same time, there kinda has to be something. Unless the full credits run at the end of every single character's story, there's gotta be a place for them. It would be incredibly weird if the game just... stopped after completing the 8th story.
Given the setup that you can recruit everybody almost right off the bat, and have the freedom to do any of their stories in any order you want, my gut reaction is that the "intended" overarching gameplay loop is to have the player eventually complete all 8 stories as one overall complete playthrough. As opposed to say something like... (I'm desperately thinking of some multi protagonist games off the top of my head here...) Seiken Densetsu 3, or Star Ocean 2. In those you picked your hero. You played through the game, you saw their story, you beat the final boss, you saw the ending and the game was "over". Playing as another character was tantamount to replaying the game at that point. I don't think that's the overall intend with Octopath. That is, you pick H'annit, you play through her story, you beat her final boss, and then you have technically "beaten" Octopath Traveler. I don't think that's how the game works or is intended. You're intended to then complete the other 7 stories. But since you can do them in any order, they must have similar styled endings. So something logically should unlock, to serve as the final, official ending of Octopath Traveler.
I hope that made about as much sense in writing as it did in my head. To try and use the dreaded "food analogy", there are RPG's with multiple characters where completing the game with a character is like eating an entire burger. Completing the game with a character in Octopath seems more like simply taking a bite of the burger, and you're not technically done eating it.
And just to clarify finally, this is all just speculation and gut reactions. I'm not speaking with any kind of authority or nothing.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Yeah. If it's like this, then why are the stories not Live A Live-esque affairs where you play as one character on their own?
God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
This is basically why I'm eager to know the one question nobody yet has been able to answer: What happens when all 8 stories are complete? It's also a question I'm ready to have answered myself.
We don't know, but I'm not going to try to convince myself that there's "something" either. I would hope there is just to kind of wrap everything up? And there have been people vaguely tweeting about this kind of stuff, but I kind of like the mystery of not knowing. However, I'm in the camp of "8 individual stories sounds just fine to me." but it would certainly be cool.
I won't get my hopes up that there's something hugely huge waiting in the wings. But at the same time, there kinda has to be something. Unless the full credits run at the end of every single character's story, there's gotta be a place for them. It would be incredibly weird if the game just... stopped after completing the 8th story.
Given the setup that you can recruit everybody almost right off the bat, and have the freedom to do any of their stories in any order you want, my gut reaction is that the "intended" overarching gameplay loop is to have the player eventually complete all 8 stories as one overall complete playthrough. As opposed to say something like... (I'm desperately thinking of some multi protagonist games off the top of my head here...) Seiken Densetsu 3, or Star Ocean 2. In those you picked your hero. You played through the game, you saw their story, you beat the final boss, you saw the ending and the game was "over". Playing as another character was tantamount to replaying the game at that point. I don't think that's the overall intend with Octopath. That is, you pick H'annit, you play through her story, you beat her final boss, and then you have technically "beaten" Octopath Traveler. I don't think that's how the game works or is intended. You're intended to then complete the other 7 stories. But since you can do them in any order, they must have similar styled endings. So something logically should unlock, to serve as the final, official ending of Octopath Traveler.
I hope that made about as much sense in writing as it did in my head. To try and use the dreaded "food analogy", there are RPG's with multiple characters where completing the game with a character is like eating an entire burger. Completing the game with a character in Octopath seems more like simply taking a bite of the burger, and you're not technically done eating it.
And just to clarify finally, this is all just speculation and gut reactions. I'm not speaking with any kind of authority or nothing.
I agree with this, you would think! But I don't want to go in expecting it. Assumptions almost never work out. The only thing really giving me pause here is that they said you could go through the whole game with one character. I mean that might be technically possible too, we don't really know the details.
I feel like it would be a pretty big missed opportunity if there was just...nothing. It just seems like it'd be really weird. But I'm mostly just planning to go in and enjoy the game as it is.
Wait, so it's like an anthology of 8 different stories? You pick one character, see their story/beat the game, and then choose someone else and see a relatively different story? Is there an overarching big-bad that connects them?
Octopath no, you pick who you want to be your first character, and once you clear their initial story chapter you can then move about the world at-will and meet up with the other characters to recruit as you'd like(you get the option of playing their initial chapter when you meet them iirc). We don't know how they play off eachother much further than this however as the demo has a 3 hour time limit and it's a simultaneous worldwide release - not even the Japanese have it right now.
Live-a-Live works that way however, which is why some people are thinking from these early looks that this approach probably would have made a bit more sense for Octopath's starting story chapters. Each character in Live-a-Live is an entirely unique story chapter. For a few examples one chapter focuses on a ninja attempting to infiltrate an enemy castle(even different things happening based on whether you kill anyone or not and how many you kill if you do), one character is a little non-combat science robot in a ship in deep space and the whole chapter plays like a survival horror, one chapter plays like a super robot anime, one chapter plays like an old western where you're defending a town from a pack of bandits, and one has you playing as an aging martial arts master who decides he wants to take apprentices before he can no longer continue to practice. I won't spoil the overarching connection as it's part of a big end-game reveal, but they all are connected in a very specific and hinted ways that will make you wonder how you didn't notice it before. It's a pretty brilliant game and was criminal that we never got it.
At this point, the gameplay looks fun and the graphics and music look great. If the game is fun to play and the individual stories are entertaining, then the weirdness of the game's structure is a flaw, but not necessarily a detriment. Sure, could be better, could be argued that it's missed potential, but still good. Like a steak that makes you think while eating it "Hmm, needs salt".
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
At this point, the gameplay looks fun and the graphics and music look great. If the game is fun to play and the individual stories are entertaining, then the weirdness of the game's structure is a flaw, but not necessarily a detriment. Sure, could be better, could be argued that it's missed potential, but still good. Like a steak that makes you think while eating it "Hmm, needs salt".
That's true. I still haven't tried the demo yet. If I'm really am into the gameplay itself I may still get it.
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That's a lot clearer now. So it really is 8 different stories in a shared world, perhaps less like the past decade of Marvel movies and more like the Cloverfield series - similar in setting and abstract conflict, but each capable of standing alone.
The former could have been awesome, and maybe this inspires something like that down the line, but I also appreciate that this approach seems to more readily allow access to any of the stories, in any order, with just about any party makeup.
I think the structure is a bit of a let down for me personally. My favorite parts of all team ups are the moments when the team members come to like/value/respect each other, and starts to crack knowing jokes at each other. It sounds like any team bonding is completely absent in the game.
On top of which, if they were going to do it that way, they could at least attempted to craft a narrative reason why the other party members are silent. You can't speak for fear of interrupting the other character's timeline? Some sort of Tachyon beam?
As it is, I have enjoyed the demo, and the first 2 stories I finished were ok. Its going to get pretty weird after 20 hours hanging out with such an extremely anti-social group.
I think the structure is a bit of a let down for me personally. My favorite parts of all team ups are the moments when the team members come to like/value/respect each other, and starts to crack knowing jokes at each other. It sounds like any team bonding is completely absent in the game.
On top of which, if they were going to do it that way, they could at least attempted to craft a narrative reason why the other party members are silent. You can't speak for fear of interrupting the other character's timeline? Some sort of Tachyon beam?
As it is, I have enjoyed the demo, and the first 2 stories I finished were ok. Its going to get pretty weird after 20 hours hanging out with such an extremely anti-social group.
To be clear, there are (optional) vignette scenes scattered throughout the game where your characters do interact. Your characters just don't show up in the the main scenes of each character's stories.
Each character has 4 chapters. You can complete them in any order you like, or even just play through your "starter" person's solo.
After you recruit, that character's "chapter 2" shows up on the map. So you could do all the chap 1s, then the chap 2s, etc or do a character's whole story before doing another. It seems like you can have anywhere from 1 to 4 in your party. (Well, you probably have to have at least 2 since a char will have to be present for their chapters).
All on a single save. It's super ambitious, and if they pull it off I think it's brilliant.
I know the demo is "play three hours and your save will carry over," but... is the "demo" actually just the full game download, and it'll unlock the time restriction on Friday, or will that be a separate download? I'm... this is dumb, but I'm less likely to play the three hours if it's a separate download, because I'm (a) unjustifiably worried about something happening to the save and (b) want to preserve the "I'm starting this big adventure right now" feeling.
Also, anyone know if we can expect a day-one patch? I want to start playing now, but I don't want to do so if there are going to be any at-launch improvements/fixes (other than unanticipated post-launch bug fixes, I mean). I'll just wait the few days if we're expecting a day-one patch.
I know the demo is "play three hours and your save will carry over," but... is the "demo" actually just the full game download, and it'll unlock the time restriction on Friday, or will that be a separate download? I'm... this is dumb, but I'm less likely to play the three hours if it's a separate download, because I'm (a) unjustifiably worried about something happening to the save and (b) want to preserve the "I'm starting this big adventure right now" feeling.
Also, anyone know if we can expect a day-one patch? I want to start playing now, but I don't want to do so if there are going to be any at-launch improvements/fixes (other than unanticipated post-launch bug fixes, I mean). I'll just wait the few days if we're expecting a day-one patch.
It is definitely a separate demo. You can preload the actual game now but they show up as separate things on your home screen. The actual risk of your save exploding when transferring is fairly low, this is likely something they'll have tested extensively.
The demo IS the game, however, it's just restricted both by time and areas you're allowed to visit. That experience is not likely to change before release, other than bug fixes.
I know the demo is "play three hours and your save will carry over," but... is the "demo" actually just the full game download, and it'll unlock the time restriction on Friday, or will that be a separate download? I'm... this is dumb, but I'm less likely to play the three hours if it's a separate download, because I'm (a) unjustifiably worried about something happening to the save and (b) want to preserve the "I'm starting this big adventure right now" feeling.
Also, anyone know if we can expect a day-one patch? I want to start playing now, but I don't want to do so if there are going to be any at-launch improvements/fixes (other than unanticipated post-launch bug fixes, I mean). I'll just wait the few days if we're expecting a day-one patch.
I feel like I'm doing something wrong with this game. Two things tripping me up:
1, I can't seem to figure out where I'm going. I'm playing Therion, got out of the first town, I'm supposed to go to a specific place but it's a bit unclear how I get there. Am I missing directions somewhere?
2, the encounter rate seems kind of bonkers. I feel like I'm fighting every 5 steps. Is that normal?
I feel like I'm doing something wrong with this game. Two things tripping me up:
1, I can't seem to figure out where I'm going. I'm playing Therion, got out of the first town, I'm supposed to go to a specific place but it's a bit unclear how I get there. Am I missing directions somewhere?
2, the encounter rate seems kind of bonkers. I feel like I'm fighting every 5 steps. Is that normal?
1. The game doesn't hold your hand a ton when it comes to directions but there is some. You should be able to go into the world map in the menu and see where the next place you need to go is, from there try heading in that general direction. Each area also should have sign posts along the road, check these and they should help as well. The game subscribes to older JRPG methods where you had to talk to people and kind of figure out directions on your own.
2. The encounter rate is fairly high, you'll be fighting a lot of battles. I think (but am not 100% sure) that running also increases the encounter rate. It definitely does something. Minor spoilers re: skills:
There is also a passive skill one character gets fairly early on that reduces the encounter rate.
I feel like I'm doing something wrong with this game. Two things tripping me up:
1, I can't seem to figure out where I'm going. I'm playing Therion, got out of the first town, I'm supposed to go to a specific place but it's a bit unclear how I get there. Am I missing directions somewhere?
2, the encounter rate seems kind of bonkers. I feel like I'm fighting every 5 steps. Is that normal?
1. The game doesn't hold your hand a ton when it comes to directions but there is some. You should be able to go into the world map in the menu and see where the next place you need to go is, from there try heading in that general direction. Each area also should have sign posts along the road, check these and they should help as well. The game subscribes to older JRPG methods where you had to talk to people and kind of figure out directions on your own.
2. The encounter rate is fairly high, you'll be fighting a lot of battles. I think (but am not 100% sure) that running also increases the encounter rate. It definitely does something. Minor spoilers re: skills:
There is also a passive skill one character gets fairly early on that reduces the encounter rate.
Please elaborate on point 2 as that sounds like it would strongly affect my planned game path.
I feel like I'm doing something wrong with this game. Two things tripping me up:
1, I can't seem to figure out where I'm going. I'm playing Therion, got out of the first town, I'm supposed to go to a specific place but it's a bit unclear how I get there. Am I missing directions somewhere?
2, the encounter rate seems kind of bonkers. I feel like I'm fighting every 5 steps. Is that normal?
1. The game doesn't hold your hand a ton when it comes to directions but there is some. You should be able to go into the world map in the menu and see where the next place you need to go is, from there try heading in that general direction. Each area also should have sign posts along the road, check these and they should help as well. The game subscribes to older JRPG methods where you had to talk to people and kind of figure out directions on your own.
2. The encounter rate is fairly high, you'll be fighting a lot of battles. I think (but am not 100% sure) that running also increases the encounter rate. It definitely does something. Minor spoilers re: skills:
There is also a passive skill one character gets fairly early on that reduces the encounter rate.
Please elaborate on point 2 as that sounds like it would strongly affect my planned game path.
Cyrus, or rather the Scholar job's first passive reduces the random encounter rate.
Given how fun the characters were in Bravely, and given how much I enjoyed the story in Bravely, I don't have any concerns whatsoever about the storytelling in Octopath. Just remember... this is the team that gave us Edea Lee.
Sure, it might be unconventional, but being unconventional is not a flaw.
They are clearly trying some experimental things here, and that has been very clear from the very beginning. I don't know why anyone is surprised by the info we're getting from advance reviews. There was never any doubt that this would be a bit out of the ordinary.
Not every game needs to follow a strictly linear path in its storytelling. Let them be creative! Let them experiment!
Just remember- the Bravely games are the best RPG's Square Enix has published in the last 6 years or so (or longer). This might not be their biggest budget team, but this is definitely their "A Team" in terms of ability to create a fun and engaging game, packed with tons of content.
I am not in the slightest bit concerned about the storytelling in this game.
Given how fun the characters were in Bravely, and given how much I enjoyed the story in Bravely, I don't have any concerns whatsoever about the storytelling in Octopath. Just remember... this is the team that gave us Edea Lee.
Sure, it might be unconventional, but being unconventional is not a flaw.
They are clearly trying some experimental things here, and that has been very clear from the very beginning. I don't know why anyone is surprised by the info we're getting from advance reviews. There was never any doubt that this would be a bit out of the ordinary.
Not every game needs to follow a strictly linear path in its storytelling. Let them be creative! Let them experiment!
Just remember- the Bravely games are the best RPG's Square Enix has published in the last 6 years or so (or longer). This might not be their biggest budget team, but this is definitely their "A Team" in terms of ability to create a fun and engaging game, packed with tons of content.
I am not in the slightest bit concerned about the storytelling in this game.
I'm excited precisely because the narrative doesn't seem to follow the standard formula. It seems like a mashup of Romancing SaGa and Live A Live, which is pretty cool. And I miss when console developers tried to experiment with narrative structure (the aforementioned games, 7th Saga, etc.).
Given how fun the characters were in Bravely, and given how much I enjoyed the story in Bravely, I don't have any concerns whatsoever about the storytelling in Octopath. Just remember... this is the team that gave us Edea Lee.
Sure, it might be unconventional, but being unconventional is not a flaw.
They are clearly trying some experimental things here, and that has been very clear from the very beginning. I don't know why anyone is surprised by the info we're getting from advance reviews. There was never any doubt that this would be a bit out of the ordinary.
Not every game needs to follow a strictly linear path in its storytelling. Let them be creative! Let them experiment!
Just remember- the Bravely games are the best RPG's Square Enix has published in the last 6 years or so (or longer). This might not be their biggest budget team, but this is definitely their "A Team" in terms of ability to create a fun and engaging game, packed with tons of content.
I am not in the slightest bit concerned about the storytelling in this game.
I have confidence they will make a game that many people will enjoy just from what I've read/seen so far (I've never actually played Bravely). I just hope it will also be a game I will enjoy! Hopefully people that get further in the game can comment on some details to help
Kime you should play Bravely. They're both excellent and some of my favorite JRPGs of all time!
I played Bravely Default back in the day and hard dropped it at Ch5 (*cough cough* you know why if you've played it)
But then last year on a whim I picked it back up and decided to muscle through it and BOY AM I GLAD I DID
THAT ENDING IS STRONG AS FUCK
(and Bravely Second was subsequently AMAZING)
yeah hard recommend on the Bravely series. if you pick up Bravely Default just keep in mind that Ch5 onward you don't have to do everything (it's very, uh, daunting in that respect, but you don't have to do all the side stuff unless you really want to?)
Bravely Default does have its share of narrative issues. But the team realized that between games, and Second had a more solid narrative. So I'm confident.
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That's certainly true!
For me it just makes the whole thing feel weird still, like they should have stayed completely separate. That would've worked for me I think. Like there's no reason for them to be imaginary characters in each others story lines so if all the characters stayed separate that would make a whole lot more sense.
*shrug*. You can! But I think it's kind of fun to do it as a group and meet up with other travelers who will help. It's nice to have that option.
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God, can you even imagine a chapter like Orsted's in an RPG that actually made it west. That was one of the most creative story turns ever written in an RPG.
This is basically why I'm eager to know the one question nobody yet has been able to answer: What happens when all 8 stories are complete? It's also a question I'm ready to have answered myself.
You can argue that the story scenes are jarring because of this, that's fine, but it was a design decision not completely without reason. We also already know there are some shared story aspects between the stories, ie people showing up in multiple stories. Each chapter you do gives you a different view point of the world. I don't think that's inherently bad, just different.
I still maintain that this decision doesn't mean the game has bad writing, that's kind of a silly stance to take imo. It sounds like the individual stories are still compelling, which would make the overall world compelling. This is how they decided to tell the story for this specific game. If it's not your cup of tea, that's ok! But there's still plenty of us that find the story layout interesting and, at least in my view, kind of a breath of fresh air compared to every other "epic" jrpg that has released in recent years.
We don't know, but I'm not going to try to convince myself that there's "something" either. I would hope there is just to kind of wrap everything up? And there have been people vaguely tweeting about this kind of stuff, but I kind of like the mystery of not knowing. However, I'm in the camp of "8 individual stories sounds just fine to me." but it would certainly be cool.
Nobody knows. So far the answer is no, but nobody's gotten far enough in their review copies to answer definitively.
You pick your "main" character, but you can go pick up all the other characters and complete all of their stories in one playthrough of the game. So far, the stories are largely separate with a few connecting threads but since nobody has actually beaten the game we don't actually know if there's a "final" chapter of sorts.
Don’t know for sure if that’s the case yet. Could be combined content after the 8 stories are done.
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See you're doing the opposite thing here. Where you like something so don't want to say that flawed writing is flawed writing. It doesn't mean the entire story is flawed. I have legit said that multiple times. But if you write a story that involves portions that just don't make sense, those parts are poor writing. That's what poor writing is. There's totally nothing wrong with enjoying the game and I'm sure it will be super rad for plenty of people. Every game has some flaws somewhere, which ones bother you decide what you want to play and don't want to play. This is completely normal.
I won't get my hopes up that there's something hugely huge waiting in the wings. But at the same time, there kinda has to be something. Unless the full credits run at the end of every single character's story, there's gotta be a place for them. It would be incredibly weird if the game just... stopped after completing the 8th story.
Given the setup that you can recruit everybody almost right off the bat, and have the freedom to do any of their stories in any order you want, my gut reaction is that the "intended" overarching gameplay loop is to have the player eventually complete all 8 stories as one overall complete playthrough. As opposed to say something like... (I'm desperately thinking of some multi protagonist games off the top of my head here...) Seiken Densetsu 3, or Star Ocean 2. In those you picked your hero. You played through the game, you saw their story, you beat the final boss, you saw the ending and the game was "over". Playing as another character was tantamount to replaying the game at that point. I don't think that's the overall intend with Octopath. That is, you pick H'annit, you play through her story, you beat her final boss, and then you have technically "beaten" Octopath Traveler. I don't think that's how the game works or is intended. You're intended to then complete the other 7 stories. But since you can do them in any order, they must have similar styled endings. So something logically should unlock, to serve as the final, official ending of Octopath Traveler.
I hope that made about as much sense in writing as it did in my head. To try and use the dreaded "food analogy", there are RPG's with multiple characters where completing the game with a character is like eating an entire burger. Completing the game with a character in Octopath seems more like simply taking a bite of the burger, and you're not technically done eating it.
And just to clarify finally, this is all just speculation and gut reactions. I'm not speaking with any kind of authority or nothing.
I agree with this, you would think! But I don't want to go in expecting it. Assumptions almost never work out. The only thing really giving me pause here is that they said you could go through the whole game with one character. I mean that might be technically possible too, we don't really know the details.
I feel like it would be a pretty big missed opportunity if there was just...nothing. It just seems like it'd be really weird. But I'm mostly just planning to go in and enjoy the game as it is.
Octopath no, you pick who you want to be your first character, and once you clear their initial story chapter you can then move about the world at-will and meet up with the other characters to recruit as you'd like(you get the option of playing their initial chapter when you meet them iirc). We don't know how they play off eachother much further than this however as the demo has a 3 hour time limit and it's a simultaneous worldwide release - not even the Japanese have it right now.
Live-a-Live works that way however, which is why some people are thinking from these early looks that this approach probably would have made a bit more sense for Octopath's starting story chapters. Each character in Live-a-Live is an entirely unique story chapter. For a few examples one chapter focuses on a ninja attempting to infiltrate an enemy castle(even different things happening based on whether you kill anyone or not and how many you kill if you do), one character is a little non-combat science robot in a ship in deep space and the whole chapter plays like a survival horror, one chapter plays like a super robot anime, one chapter plays like an old western where you're defending a town from a pack of bandits, and one has you playing as an aging martial arts master who decides he wants to take apprentices before he can no longer continue to practice. I won't spoil the overarching connection as it's part of a big end-game reveal, but they all are connected in a very specific and hinted ways that will make you wonder how you didn't notice it before. It's a pretty brilliant game and was criminal that we never got it.
That's true. I still haven't tried the demo yet. If I'm really am into the gameplay itself I may still get it.
The former could have been awesome, and maybe this inspires something like that down the line, but I also appreciate that this approach seems to more readily allow access to any of the stories, in any order, with just about any party makeup.
On top of which, if they were going to do it that way, they could at least attempted to craft a narrative reason why the other party members are silent. You can't speak for fear of interrupting the other character's timeline? Some sort of Tachyon beam?
As it is, I have enjoyed the demo, and the first 2 stories I finished were ok. Its going to get pretty weird after 20 hours hanging out with such an extremely anti-social group.
To be clear, there are (optional) vignette scenes scattered throughout the game where your characters do interact. Your characters just don't show up in the the main scenes of each character's stories.
After you recruit, that character's "chapter 2" shows up on the map. So you could do all the chap 1s, then the chap 2s, etc or do a character's whole story before doing another. It seems like you can have anywhere from 1 to 4 in your party. (Well, you probably have to have at least 2 since a char will have to be present for their chapters).
All on a single save. It's super ambitious, and if they pull it off I think it's brilliant.
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afaik this is a demo limitation, I think there's 3 slots in the full game.
I think he means that you can do all the stories on a single save.
Also, anyone know if we can expect a day-one patch? I want to start playing now, but I don't want to do so if there are going to be any at-launch improvements/fixes (other than unanticipated post-launch bug fixes, I mean). I'll just wait the few days if we're expecting a day-one patch.
It is definitely a separate demo. You can preload the actual game now but they show up as separate things on your home screen. The actual risk of your save exploding when transferring is fairly low, this is likely something they'll have tested extensively.
The demo IS the game, however, it's just restricted both by time and areas you're allowed to visit. That experience is not likely to change before release, other than bug fixes.
I very much doubt there will be a day 1 patch.
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I am working hard trying to be done with Xenoblade 2 before it arrives. :bigfrown:
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1, I can't seem to figure out where I'm going. I'm playing Therion, got out of the first town, I'm supposed to go to a specific place but it's a bit unclear how I get there. Am I missing directions somewhere?
2, the encounter rate seems kind of bonkers. I feel like I'm fighting every 5 steps. Is that normal?
1. The game doesn't hold your hand a ton when it comes to directions but there is some. You should be able to go into the world map in the menu and see where the next place you need to go is, from there try heading in that general direction. Each area also should have sign posts along the road, check these and they should help as well. The game subscribes to older JRPG methods where you had to talk to people and kind of figure out directions on your own.
2. The encounter rate is fairly high, you'll be fighting a lot of battles. I think (but am not 100% sure) that running also increases the encounter rate. It definitely does something. Minor spoilers re: skills:
Please elaborate on point 2 as that sounds like it would strongly affect my planned game path.
Sure, it might be unconventional, but being unconventional is not a flaw.
They are clearly trying some experimental things here, and that has been very clear from the very beginning. I don't know why anyone is surprised by the info we're getting from advance reviews. There was never any doubt that this would be a bit out of the ordinary.
Not every game needs to follow a strictly linear path in its storytelling. Let them be creative! Let them experiment!
Just remember- the Bravely games are the best RPG's Square Enix has published in the last 6 years or so (or longer). This might not be their biggest budget team, but this is definitely their "A Team" in terms of ability to create a fun and engaging game, packed with tons of content.
I am not in the slightest bit concerned about the storytelling in this game.
I'm excited precisely because the narrative doesn't seem to follow the standard formula. It seems like a mashup of Romancing SaGa and Live A Live, which is pretty cool. And I miss when console developers tried to experiment with narrative structure (the aforementioned games, 7th Saga, etc.).
I have confidence they will make a game that many people will enjoy just from what I've read/seen so far (I've never actually played Bravely). I just hope it will also be a game I will enjoy! Hopefully people that get further in the game can comment on some details to help
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I played Bravely Default back in the day and hard dropped it at Ch5 (*cough cough* you know why if you've played it)
But then last year on a whim I picked it back up and decided to muscle through it and BOY AM I GLAD I DID
THAT ENDING IS STRONG AS FUCK
(and Bravely Second was subsequently AMAZING)
yeah hard recommend on the Bravely series. if you pick up Bravely Default just keep in mind that Ch5 onward you don't have to do everything (it's very, uh, daunting in that respect, but you don't have to do all the side stuff unless you really want to?)
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