Octopath Traveler Catch-All

I finally got to Tressa's second chapter which is my first second chapter of any character. This game just keeps getting better and better for me. I do wish you could turn off random encounters or change the rate like in Bravely Default. Sometimes I'm just trying to explore and figure out how to get somewhere and I end up backtracking which adds in a couple encounters and that's a bit frustrating. I can deal with it fine, though. I found my first 2nd job thing (thief) in a cave which is sweet. Now I can have my main character be a thief alternatively which will let me open up chests everywhere, I'm hoping. Tressa can now collect or steal during battles, too which is pretty sweet. I sort of feel like Tressa and Thereon feel a bit redundant in battles and want to swap out Thereon for Cyrus because his magic is way more useful in battles.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I finally got to Tressa's second chapter which is my first second chapter of any character. This game just keeps getting better and better for me. I do wish you could turn off random encounters or change the rate like in Bravely Default.

Cyrus has a passive that lets you do that somewhat.

You seem to be further ahead than me though.... still collecting the characters (6/8)

Enjoying the game a lot now. I've collected all the characters and have half of the secondary jobs unlocked. It creates a lot of room for interesting character and group builds. For example, a complaint I had about my main character Cyrus was that he did too little while charging BP for a max spell. Now he has Primrose's skills and can buff himself and Olberic in that dead time when he was previously just defending or doing weak staff attacks.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Enjoying the game a lot now. I've collected all the characters and have half of the secondary jobs unlocked. It creates a lot of room for interesting character and group builds. For example, a complaint I had about my main character Cyrus was that he did too little while charging BP for a max spell. Now he has Primrose's skills and can buff himself and Olberic in that dead time when he was previously just defending or doing weak staff attacks.

Nice! Yeah, I just started getting into that secondary job stuff and am really delving into all the subtleties of everything. I'm having a really tough time being slightly underleveled on a boss, and it's just a blast trying to figure out how to best him underlevelled. I think I'm on my fourth or fifth game over now. I'm about level 20 trying to do a level 22 second chapter. I keep doing better and better but then the boss has a few tricks up his sleeve that keep showing up.

I'm not yet to where secondary jobs are, but that sounds super intriguing. I'm only at 4 collected characters so far, but high teens in leveling. So far I don't mind (and even enjoy) grinding.

I finihsed the 3 hour demo, and I cant wait to keep on going.. just need to advance a little more on xenoblade chronicles

I've unlocked all of the characters so far, but only unlocked one shrine for the secondary jobs (Therion now has scholarly magic). I do find the inability to remove the first person I selected, and the everyone not in the group currently getting no XP to be a bit annoying, and wonder what the design decision behind that could possibly be (maybe I'm too spoiled by other RPGs with larger parties than I can field at one time in recent times).

Then again, it meant I didn't even realize that the reason I was able to open all chests I came across is because that's Therion's Field Skill.

Aeazel wrote:

I've unlocked all of the characters so far, but only unlocked one shrine for the secondary jobs (Therion now has scholarly magic). I do find the inability to remove the first person I selected, and the everyone not in the group currently getting no XP to be a bit annoying, and wonder what the design decision behind that could possibly be (maybe I'm too spoiled by other RPGs with larger parties than I can field at one time in recent times).

Then again, it meant I didn't even realize that the reason I was able to open all chests I came across is because that's Therion's Field Skill.

Yeah, Therion should be good one to always have because it's annoying to come across chests you can't open. Giving him a secondary job more in line with what you want him to be in battle kinda fixes the problem that you can't swap him out. I currently have him out of my party and ran into a chest near the boss I can't open.

Edit: I had hoped that giving my main a thief secondary job would let me open those chests and it doesn't. It only affects battles.

Thankfully, I don't mind Therion too, too much (his Steal SP and Share SP have been super useful), but before opening up secondary jobs, it does feel a bit restrictive.

Right now I'm running Alfyn as my main -- not sure how I feel about that now that I know I can't swap him out. Grumble. But he's decent enough so far. Then I've collected Therion, H'aanit, and Ophilia. Therion is currently the hardest to figure out what to do with him. I do like Steal/Share SP though as H'aanit tends to burn through her SP pretty bad as I love the flurry of arrow type skills to quickly discover who is weak to bow. I imagine I'll keep Ophilia always in my crew for major healing. Therion is good for the chests. Kinda bummed I can't swap Alfyn out, but I don't think I want to replay the past 10 hours just to get a different starting character.

Aeazel wrote:

I do find the inability to remove the first person I selected, and the everyone not in the group currently getting no XP to be a bit annoying, and wonder what the design decision behind that could possibly be.

It's definitely my biggest frustration so far. Doing stuff like this guarantees I'll be rolling with a core party of 4 and not bothering with the rest. Also, if they had intimated that you wouldn't be able to switch out your main, that would have helped my decision a lot.

Neat, but this is also the kind of information that once I have it ruins the game for me. I should keep away.

Minarchist wrote:
Aeazel wrote:

I do find the inability to remove the first person I selected, and the everyone not in the group currently getting no XP to be a bit annoying, and wonder what the design decision behind that could possibly be.

It's definitely my biggest frustration so far. Doing stuff like this guarantees I'll be rolling with a core party of 4 and not bothering with the rest. Also, if they had intimated that you wouldn't be able to switch out your main, that would have helped my decision a lot.

FWIW, I read one of those "tips before you start playing" articles on Kotaku and it said to keep all 8 characters somewhat leveled. Might be an FFVI style dungeon or event where you split up into two groups, who knows.

It also mentioned not being able to switch the main til you finish their chapters which led to me switching from Tressa to Cyrus.

That part bugs my OCD side, but my rational side has come to terms with it. Cyrus is gonna be level 26 when others are 20, and it isn't really a big deal.

More bothersome to me is that neither healer really feels complete without subbing the other. Ophilia doesn't get single target or status heals, and Alfyn doesn't get (SP based) group heals.

Blind_Evil wrote:

More bothersome to me is that neither healer really feels complete without subbing the other. Ophilia doesn't get single target or status heals, and Alfyn doesn't get (SP based) group heals.

Items for single target heals are quite sufficient. Alfyn can do group heals with Concoct that are quite powerful.

Has anyone figured out a way to access inventory for inactive party members? It is a truly bizarre decision from a QOL perspective, but maybe I'm missing something.

Minarchist wrote:

Has anyone figured out a way to access inventory for inactive party members? It is a truly bizarre decision from a QOL perspective, but maybe I'm missing something.

The equipment tab at bartenders lets you do it. Nothing that I've seen in the field. I've just made a habit of unequipping my inactives when I change members.

hbi2k wrote:

I've got six of the seven characters. I sort of wish that the characters had any kind of interaction or relationship with each other. It feels less like I'm forming a team of traveling companions working together toward a common goal and more like a bunch of people awkwardly sharing a taxi and never talking.

I can now confirm that during chapters after the first, you occasionally get the option to hear "travel banter," which is a short conversation between two of the travellers. I just heard Tressa and Cyrus compare his focus when studying to her focus when negotiating.

After collecting everyone and spending some time grinding a few levels for the newer people, I started to move on and collected 2 shrines. Now my optimization wheels are turning to figure out the team and secondary jobs will be best.

Been playing with Prim’s Bewildering Grace in most battles. Actually once got JP x100! 6000 JP was such a crazy get!

I finally tried the demo today, and picked Ophelia as my first character. After the one hour investment in completing her beginning, I have two comments:

1) Boy this game sure is pretty, even despite the somewhat washed-out snowy areas.
2) The boss fight was significantly more difficult than your average "my first boss" fight; took me a few tries, before I figured out the "trick" -- and by that I mean actually understanding how combat in this game works.

I got to the point where I'm given the option to go out into the world to continue her story, or to look for more people. So I stopped there and hit the eShop. Count me in.

Blind_Evil wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

I've got six of the seven characters. I sort of wish that the characters had any kind of interaction or relationship with each other. It feels less like I'm forming a team of traveling companions working together toward a common goal and more like a bunch of people awkwardly sharing a taxi and never talking.

I can now confirm that during chapters after the first, you occasionally get the option to hear "travel banter," which is a short conversation between two of the travellers. I just heard Tressa and Cyrus compare his focus when studying to her focus when negotiating.

There’s a lot of nice conversations. It’s worth swapping out all of the characters in your party between each beat in each chapter to make sure you don’t miss any banter.

Where did everyone go after obtaining all 8 characters? I meandered a bit, then entered a cave I'd found earlier rated at level 20 (the lowest chapter 2 quest is 21). Could manage the trash mobs but the boss handed my ass to me. I did get him down to 25% health before he did two full-HP area effect spells in a row. So...I'm open to suggestions on where to go next.

I just went into my main chapter 2. I haven't even got all 8 characters yet.

Octopath Traveler - Easy Allies Review

Minarchist wrote:

Where did everyone go after obtaining all 8 characters? I meandered a bit, then entered a cave I'd found earlier rated at level 20 (the lowest chapter 2 quest is 21). Could manage the trash mobs but the boss handed my ass to me. I did get him down to 25% health before he did two full-HP area effect spells in a row. So...I'm open to suggestions on where to go next.

I did Primrose’s 2nd chapter and by the end of that Olberic, my main, was high enough level for his 2nd chapter.

I just beat this. Took roughly 50 hours. I didn't do many of the side quests since, to be honest, I thought the side quests were not that great (of the ones I played).

Anyway, it's a 6.9/10 game for me. The BLUF review is below:

THE GOOD PARTS
- Visuals are really good beyond a couple of areas in the beginning where I couldn't read the text due to bloom. Maybe I either got used to it, or it was only that one area.
- The gameplay. The best part of this game by far. I liked how you couldn't just mash the Attack button like old SNES games. You had to truly think about who to bring with you, how to load them up, etc. Much fun.
- The soundtrack. Even though some of the town themes were repetitive, I never hated them. Everything else was great to listen to.
- The voiceovers. The acting was REALLY well done.

THE BAD PARTS
- The voice overs.... in battle. I had to turn them off six hours in due to repetion of the same 2-3 lines.
- The story. What story? Exactly. There was little point to keep caring about the story beyond hoping to see each of the eight characters fulfill their duties.
- The party interaction. What interaction? Someone else on the forums phrased is as you are a group of strangers sharing a taxi to the airport. Beyond some optional mini cutscene-esque events, they never talk. It's really jarring, and honestly broke the game for me. I felt no drive to see the end of the game because we were not working together towards anything, and there were no relationships being built.
- Grinding. I don't hate grinding, and thankfully a majority of it is in the first half, but with the game play being the only super strong point, don't give me chances to grow tired of battling.

I really wanted to love this, but if combat was not as fun as it was, I would have sold it on eBay a week after launch.

Nice! I agree with all the good and bad parts you list even though I'm not super far into it. I had hoped there would be some good writing later in, though. Ah well, like you say, the combat is fun. I just finished that boss I was stuck on last night, and it took some grinding like you say. It was a pretty specific level you needed to be to be able to put enough pressure on in order to not get wiped 3/4 of the way through the battle.

I probably won't be quite as turned off on the negatives you list because I'm playing it in more bite-sized chunks given my lack of time. It's already been worth the purchase.

Vrikk wrote:

I just beat this. Took roughly 50 hours. I didn't do many of the side quests since, to be honest, I thought the side quests were not that great (of the ones I played).

Anyway, it's a 6.9/10 game for me. The BLUF review is below:

I've only completed a measly 2 intros (Tressa and Cyrus), but I already agree with most of what you wrote. Visuals, combat, and soundtrack all seem excellent so far. Unfortunately, I am having a really difficult time getting into the story, mostly due to the terrible writing. It's cliché after cliché so far.

The last time I had this feeling about writing in a game was Pokemon Moon, a game in which I began skipping all dialogue 5 hours in so I could just focus on battling and raising my pokemon. I'm also not thrilled about the voice acting, but I think that's more due to the poor writing than the acting.

That said, I really like the parts this game is getting right so far, so I'm going to stick with it for a while. I may just turn off voice acting entirely so I can get through the dialogue more quickly.

I'm really puzzled by people's comments on grinding.

I'm starting the chapter 3 stories now and I don't think I've had to grind at any point. There were 1-2 bosses where I had a hard time but I was able to the save right before the boss, re-tool, re-assign jobs, and succeed.

I can imagine you might need to grind if you're trying to power through some of the higher level story parts before doing some of the lower-level options you have available.

Am I THE ONLY one who get lsot so easily? I DONT KNOW if i am not paying attention properly or what but seems like im just wandering on the world map. any help or tips?