To be fair that's only one town that speaks like that, haha.
But yes, it's pretty ridiculous.
You would think that's not significant, but on the other hand if you already have experience with Dragon Quest 4's godawful localization you'll quickly learn aboot tae bairns and how fucking glad you'll be when you're finally out of that part of the game.
I haven't played every opening chapter yet, but yeah it's only H'aanit and the people from her village that speak like that.
It was honestly starting to get annoying, because it was clear they were just putting the damn accent on every third word, regardless of whether it was actually a thing. If the whole game were like that I'd probably go nuts, and possibly give the game itself a hard pass. But it's just the one area so I'm fine with it.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
To be fair that's only one town that speaks like that, haha.
But yes, it's pretty ridiculous.
...or your "protagonist" the whole game. I was going to main her, but while I like the character and voice actor I just couldn't listen to that as the "default" speech for 100 hours.
Hey, turns out that my preferred party of Cyrus (Scholar/Merchant), Primrose (Dancer/Cleric), Therion (Thief/Warrior) and H'aanit (Hunter/Apothecary) actually hits every enemy weakness.
Hey, turns out that my preferred party of Cyrus (Scholar/Merchant), Primrose (Dancer/Cleric), Therion (Thief/Warrior) and H'aanit (Hunter/Apothecary) actually hits every enemy weakness.
So does mine!
H'aanit (Hunter /Warrior), Therion (Thief, Apothecary), Cyrus (Scholar/Cleric), Tressa (Merchant/Dancer)
So I just finished up my 3 hour prologue demo thing and managed to get through 3 of the characters before I ran out of time. So far the combat seems a bit stale and boring without much change or difficulty to it - anyone made it further that might confirm it'll change at all?
So I just finished up my 3 hour prologue demo thing and managed to get through 3 of the characters before I ran out of time. So far the combat seems a bit stale and boring without much change or difficulty to it - anyone made it further that might confirm it'll change at all?
Previews so far say the same thing but also say the difficult starts to ramp up for chapter 2 and further. But yeah, all 8 chapter 1s follow about the same pattern, after all they're meant to introduce you to the game, it's just weird since by the 8th one you've been introduced, well, 7 other times.
So I just finished up my 3 hour prologue demo thing and managed to get through 3 of the characters before I ran out of time. So far the combat seems a bit stale and boring without much change or difficulty to it - anyone made it further that might confirm it'll change at all?
Previews so far say the same thing but also say the difficult starts to ramp up for chapter 2 and further. But yeah, all 8 chapter 1s follow about the same pattern, after all they're meant to introduce you to the game, it's just weird since by the 8th one you've been introduced, well, 7 other times.
it's not like they're particularly long.
Also, as the difficulty of them ramps up you do need to use more and more tactics.
I expect in the end, the game'll play like a pretty standard JRPG with a few twists.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
Reading your thoughts... it does seem like their ambition exceeded their ability, what with having eight protagonists and allowing you to start with any one of them. Of course that's going to mean that you're basically playing an introduction eight times; the alternative would be that some of the starting choices would need to be more advanced or leave out some hand-holding. Wish they'd been a little creative with it, like... this character plays entirely differently from this one. But you'd literally have to do some genre-melting/melding to do that, I think. Like, "This character is a turn-based RPG dude, but this other character races with a hoverbike, and this other character is nearly ALL dialogue, and this other character does a timing-based rhythm mini-game for combat" - shit, now I want this other game. But how would you balance all of that? It would probably do some gameplay types better than others.
I expect to make the most of the combat (90% of the reason I'm excited for Octopath) and kinda trudge through the early story until it gets better. I'm hoping that reviews reveal that it does, in fact, get better.
pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
Honestly what I’m looking forward to the most in this game is the side mission stuff. Give me fairly involved vignettes that make me use the path actions in sequentially creative ways and I’ll give less of a shit that the main narrative is likely going to be thin by necessity of the game’s structure.
GameXplain did a video answering several questions. I'm still listening to it myself but kinda cool. He's still nowhere near the end so unfortunately still nothing conclusive on story.
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
Reading your thoughts... it does seem like their ambition exceeded their ability, what with having eight protagonists and allowing you to start with any one of them. Of course that's going to mean that you're basically playing an introduction eight times; the alternative would be that some of the starting choices would need to be more advanced or leave out some hand-holding. Wish they'd been a little creative with it, like... this character plays entirely differently from this one. But you'd literally have to do some genre-melting/melding to do that, I think. Like, "This character is a turn-based RPG dude, but this other character races with a hoverbike, and this other character is nearly ALL dialogue, and this other character does a timing-based rhythm mini-game for combat" - shit, now I want this other game. But how would you balance all of that? It would probably do some gameplay types better than others.
I expect to make the most of the combat (90% of the reason I'm excited for Octopath) and kinda trudge through the early story until it gets better. I'm hoping that reviews reveal that it does, in fact, get better.
I remember that Barkley: Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden managed to give each character an entirely different method of attack for basic moves. One character had a rhythmic attack an a button-mash attack, another had a free-controlled laser pointer that pulsed damage over time, another had an ammo meter, and another made you mash out combos in a limited time frame. It was weirdly in-depth for a game that looked like hacked-together RPGMaker garbage for the most part.
I remember the way the third Mana game did overlapping character stories. You picked your party of 3, starting with your lead character. You play through the lead's intro chapter, and then you run into the other 2 characters at set points in the game. When the others join up, you get a sepia-tone cliffnofes version of their story before moving on. Certain characters had overlapping motivations that led them to the same story beats and final bosses for different reasons.
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
Reading your thoughts... it does seem like their ambition exceeded their ability, what with having eight protagonists and allowing you to start with any one of them. Of course that's going to mean that you're basically playing an introduction eight times; the alternative would be that some of the starting choices would need to be more advanced or leave out some hand-holding. Wish they'd been a little creative with it, like... this character plays entirely differently from this one. But you'd literally have to do some genre-melting/melding to do that, I think. Like, "This character is a turn-based RPG dude, but this other character races with a hoverbike, and this other character is nearly ALL dialogue, and this other character does a timing-based rhythm mini-game for combat" - shit, now I want this other game. But how would you balance all of that? It would probably do some gameplay types better than others.
I expect to make the most of the combat (90% of the reason I'm excited for Octopath) and kinda trudge through the early story until it gets better. I'm hoping that reviews reveal that it does, in fact, get better.
I remember the way the third Mana game did overlapping character stories. You picked your party of 3, starting with your lead character. You play through the lead's intro chapter, and then you run into the other 2 characters at set points in the game. When the others join up, you get a sepia-tone cliffnofes version of their story before moving on. Certain characters had overlapping motivations that led them to the same story beats and final bosses for different reasons.
Oh yeah, SD3 is a great example! I mean they've made it clear they want you to be able to experience all the story in one playthrough but that would have been really cool.
I think we can all agree, if you're expecting large multi-character setpieces then this game is likely not for you. If the idea of 8 loosely intertwined stories playing out besides each other sounds kinda cool, this is the game you've been waiting for.
These previews are still largely based on the demo content. It looks like they've seen a little bit of chapter 2, but keep in mind that we know chapter 1s are all basically solo intros, and that's been the majority of their playtime. To say definitively that there's very little character interaction is a little quick on the draw.
We also have 0 information on the "endgame", ie is there a "post" story if you complete everyone's chapters? We're still working with very few story details, which is probably a good thing since it'd be pretty easy to spoil.
Thankfully I don't think anyone here has said definitively one way or the other
Although I honestly just noticed that your first paragraph is actually doing exactly that...
I mean, we can make some likely assumptions based on what we have. It is more likely that the focus is on the individual character stories and I wouldn't fault anyone wanting otherwise for looking the other way. Could it surprise us? Sure! But I think it's safer to guess based on what we do have rather than what we don't.
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
Reading your thoughts... it does seem like their ambition exceeded their ability, what with having eight protagonists and allowing you to start with any one of them. Of course that's going to mean that you're basically playing an introduction eight times; the alternative would be that some of the starting choices would need to be more advanced or leave out some hand-holding. Wish they'd been a little creative with it, like... this character plays entirely differently from this one. But you'd literally have to do some genre-melting/melding to do that, I think. Like, "This character is a turn-based RPG dude, but this other character races with a hoverbike, and this other character is nearly ALL dialogue, and this other character does a timing-based rhythm mini-game for combat" - shit, now I want this other game. But how would you balance all of that? It would probably do some gameplay types better than others.
I expect to make the most of the combat (90% of the reason I'm excited for Octopath) and kinda trudge through the early story until it gets better. I'm hoping that reviews reveal that it does, in fact, get better.
I remember that Barkley: Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden managed to give each character an entirely different method of attack for basic moves. One character had a rhythmic attack an a button-mash attack, another had a free-controlled laser pointer that pulsed damage over time, another had an ammo meter, and another made you mash out combos in a limited time frame. It was weirdly in-depth for a game that looked like hacked-together RPGMaker garbage for the most part.
I remember the way the third Mana game did overlapping character stories. You picked your party of 3, starting with your lead character. You play through the lead's intro chapter, and then you run into the other 2 characters at set points in the game. When the others join up, you get a sepia-tone cliffnofes version of their story before moving on. Certain characters had overlapping motivations that led them to the same story beats and final bosses for different reasons.
Oh, I remember Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden! Awesome pull. Yeah, do that.
If the worst aspect of the early writing is the 'no reason to team up' thing, I can live with that. I am curious about the endgame at least.
My first impression of H'aanit was 'This is a bit much', but it grew charming in its own silly way.
We already know it's more than that. It will be interesting to see how it goes for the rest of the game for sure. But people out there have the review copies and have gotten further and said that it causes for some odd scenarios in the story because it continues to act like the character whose story you are currently playing is the only character there regardless of your party.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
8 travellers...8 stories to tell...
It's not like Square hasn't been up front with what to expect with this game.
I'm quite excited for it as it seems this game is more of a SaGa game...that isn't a bad thing.
We already know it's more than that. It will be interesting to see how it goes for the rest of the game for sure. But people out there have the review copies and have gotten further and said that it causes for some odd scenarios in the story because it continues to act like the character whose story you are currently playing is the only character there regardless of your party.
Sure, I played the demo, so I noticed that they go through their stories on their lonesome. And again it just kind of blew by me. It may be that that's a sticking point and there are others like it in the story, but I suppose we just have different tolerances for these kinds of dissonances.
I am going in mostly blind, but I am thinking of playing the demo to just run through each characters starting area to get an idea on who I will main, then starting fresh on Friday. Horrible idea?
I am going in mostly blind, but I am thinking of playing the demo to just run through each characters starting area to get an idea on who I will main, then starting fresh on Friday. Horrible idea?
Depends on how much you can tolerate replaying the early content, I guess.
I am going in mostly blind, but I am thinking of playing the demo to just run through each characters starting area to get an idea on who I will main, then starting fresh on Friday. Horrible idea?
Depends on how much you can tolerate replaying the early content, I guess.
Fair enough. It sounds like it's about an hour per character, I think I can handle that.
We already know it's more than that. It will be interesting to see how it goes for the rest of the game for sure. But people out there have the review copies and have gotten further and said that it causes for some odd scenarios in the story because it continues to act like the character whose story you are currently playing is the only character there regardless of your party.
Sure, I played the demo, so I noticed that they go through their stories on their lonesome. And again it just kind of blew by me. It may be that that's a sticking point and there are others like it in the story, but I suppose we just have different tolerances for these kinds of dissonances.
Yea no doubt. I've said as much. There's a difference between saying "I'm fine with it" which you are doing and is totally OK! And saying that it isn't even a thing at all or isn't a writing issue or whatever.
It would be like me saying that game with framerate issues doesn't have any issues because I don't notice framerate stuff or framerate issues don't generally bother me(which is totally true!) instead of just saying "yea that's an issue that people who are affected by that stuff should be aware of".
Yeah, but the demo is only three hours, so the only way to see all the character intros is to restart it. The speediest runs I've heard of are picking up 3-4 characters tops, and that's by repeating content anyway in order to be fast enough at each character's intro to get that many in 3 hours.
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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!
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!
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Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
An actual quote: "Letten the hunt begineth"
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
Is it bad writing?.... or is the character just an idiot?? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON:
OCTOPATH TRAVELER
#nintendodefenseforce reporting in!!
Doth maketh so
But yes, it's pretty ridiculous.
You would think that's not significant, but on the other hand if you already have experience with Dragon Quest 4's godawful localization you'll quickly learn aboot tae bairns and how fucking glad you'll be when you're finally out of that part of the game.
It was honestly starting to get annoying, because it was clear they were just putting the damn accent on every third word, regardless of whether it was actually a thing. If the whole game were like that I'd probably go nuts, and possibly give the game itself a hard pass. But it's just the one area so I'm fine with it.
...or your "protagonist" the whole game. I was going to main her, but while I like the character and voice actor I just couldn't listen to that as the "default" speech for 100 hours.
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
Hey, turns out that my preferred party of Cyrus (Scholar/Merchant), Primrose (Dancer/Cleric), Therion (Thief/Warrior) and H'aanit (Hunter/Apothecary) actually hits every enemy weakness.
So does mine!
H'aanit (Hunter /Warrior), Therion (Thief, Apothecary), Cyrus (Scholar/Cleric), Tressa (Merchant/Dancer)
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Previews so far say the same thing but also say the difficult starts to ramp up for chapter 2 and further. But yeah, all 8 chapter 1s follow about the same pattern, after all they're meant to introduce you to the game, it's just weird since by the 8th one you've been introduced, well, 7 other times.
Also, as the difficulty of them ramps up you do need to use more and more tactics.
I expect in the end, the game'll play like a pretty standard JRPG with a few twists.
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When bosses start having 7-8 on their break "shield," shit's gonna get real.
Random encounters are always going to be on the easy side, but that's when we'll get to collect and steal nonstop, heh.
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
Right, everything I was saying is based on just what we have. Which is to say the first 20 hours or so have some writing issues. I said it could certainly improve. But whether it does improve or not doesn't retro-actively make the writing in the first 20 hours better. That's all that's being said, that 20 hours of poor writing may turn some people off and it's good to know that ahead of time if you are one of those people that it would affect.
I'm not sure I would call it poor writing. If you don't like the choice they made to make it 8 largely independent stories, that's ok! Games don't have to be for everyone. I mean, the game could also suffer from poor writing but I'll reserve that judgement when I have more than character introductions.
It's not the largely independent that makes it poor writing. It's lack of writing for characters working together or joining up. Villagers magically speaking to a character who has grown up with them like they are a stranger. Or them treating each scenario as if only the main character is there causing scenes that are wonky if you consider the other characters being there. It's totally Ok to not mind those things. And it's totally OK to not be looking for more. I've enjoyed plenty of games with bad writing that I glaze over. But that doesn't mean it's not bad writing. They chose to write a story where 8 characters with individual tales meet up and interact. That is now the responsibility of the writers to have that part come together and make sense. They chose to not bother and just focus on the single stories.
Like if you were reading a book and that happened you'd be like "Wtf did I miss a chapter or something? What is going on here?" It would be noted as an issue in the writing (as it is) and isn't any different here.
Reading your thoughts... it does seem like their ambition exceeded their ability, what with having eight protagonists and allowing you to start with any one of them. Of course that's going to mean that you're basically playing an introduction eight times; the alternative would be that some of the starting choices would need to be more advanced or leave out some hand-holding. Wish they'd been a little creative with it, like... this character plays entirely differently from this one. But you'd literally have to do some genre-melting/melding to do that, I think. Like, "This character is a turn-based RPG dude, but this other character races with a hoverbike, and this other character is nearly ALL dialogue, and this other character does a timing-based rhythm mini-game for combat" - shit, now I want this other game. But how would you balance all of that? It would probably do some gameplay types better than others.
I expect to make the most of the combat (90% of the reason I'm excited for Octopath) and kinda trudge through the early story until it gets better. I'm hoping that reviews reveal that it does, in fact, get better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LE4BLT5o9Q
I remember that Barkley: Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden managed to give each character an entirely different method of attack for basic moves. One character had a rhythmic attack an a button-mash attack, another had a free-controlled laser pointer that pulsed damage over time, another had an ammo meter, and another made you mash out combos in a limited time frame. It was weirdly in-depth for a game that looked like hacked-together RPGMaker garbage for the most part.
I remember the way the third Mana game did overlapping character stories. You picked your party of 3, starting with your lead character. You play through the lead's intro chapter, and then you run into the other 2 characters at set points in the game. When the others join up, you get a sepia-tone cliffnofes version of their story before moving on. Certain characters had overlapping motivations that led them to the same story beats and final bosses for different reasons.
"Frogeth"
Oh yeah, SD3 is a great example! I mean they've made it clear they want you to be able to experience all the story in one playthrough but that would have been really cool.
Oh, I remember Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden! Awesome pull. Yeah, do that.
My first impression of H'aanit was 'This is a bit much', but it grew charming in its own silly way.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
We already know it's more than that. It will be interesting to see how it goes for the rest of the game for sure. But people out there have the review copies and have gotten further and said that it causes for some odd scenarios in the story because it continues to act like the character whose story you are currently playing is the only character there regardless of your party.
It's not like Square hasn't been up front with what to expect with this game.
I'm quite excited for it as it seems this game is more of a SaGa game...that isn't a bad thing.
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Sure, I played the demo, so I noticed that they go through their stories on their lonesome. And again it just kind of blew by me. It may be that that's a sticking point and there are others like it in the story, but I suppose we just have different tolerances for these kinds of dissonances.
I am going in mostly blind, but I am thinking of playing the demo to just run through each characters starting area to get an idea on who I will main, then starting fresh on Friday. Horrible idea?
Depends on how much you can tolerate replaying the early content, I guess.
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Fair enough. It sounds like it's about an hour per character, I think I can handle that.
That... doesn't make any sense in regards to what's being talked about.
The issue isn't 8 characters with their own stories...
Yea no doubt. I've said as much. There's a difference between saying "I'm fine with it" which you are doing and is totally OK! And saying that it isn't even a thing at all or isn't a writing issue or whatever.
It would be like me saying that game with framerate issues doesn't have any issues because I don't notice framerate stuff or framerate issues don't generally bother me(which is totally true!) instead of just saying "yea that's an issue that people who are affected by that stuff should be aware of".
Yeah, but the demo is only three hours, so the only way to see all the character intros is to restart it. The speediest runs I've heard of are picking up 3-4 characters tops, and that's by repeating content anyway in order to be fast enough at each character's intro to get that many in 3 hours.
Jason Schrier read our minds.
And the important answer in the comments:
And:
Answer:
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!
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