Octopath Traveler
Problems with the Chapters: The game is divided up between eight separate characters in a total of four chapters each. You choose your first character, advance to "pick up" your second character, then your third, and your fourth. In the beginning, the game is rather lax in making sure you can take on enemies with less than 4 characters. Eventually you can explore all 8 character chapters and switch them in-and-out as you like except for your first character. That is one huge oversight. I don't ever recall a warning about that when I started the game. Amusingly the option to switch your main character is still there. They threw in a notification if you try switching the person while at the tavern. You are essentially stuck with "your protagonist" until you "finish the game" by completing that character's fourth chapter. I'm merely glad that I chose the merchant as my first character. Even though the credits roll, the game is far from finished. Each chapter can take roughly an hour or two depending on your situation. You explore a town, an off-site area where monsters roam, and a final boss. I once thought that it might have been better playing the first chapter with each character individually before grouping up, but I now realize how silly it would be playing 10% of the game with one person in your party.
Problems with the Levels: The first chapter explores the first tier city from levels 1-15, then you visit and re-visit the second city from levels 20-30 and 30-40, and finally the third tier city at level 45. You can expand into various side areas from levels 50-60. The problem is that these levels are... arbitrary? What I mean is that they aren't exactly centered around your characters' levels. They are actually balanced around your characters' equipment "levels", as it were. I remember my first second chapter boss taking me one full hour simply because my weapons were not doing enough damage in proportion to the amount of health he had. Depending on your circumstances some bosses can prove more challenging than others simply because their battle mechanics are much more aggressive. Because of this, there is no need to farm levels. What is worse is there is hardly any depreciation on experience. So go ahead and group a level 25 with your level 35. There is a good chance they will both gain a level by defeating that level 32 monster. I had the group skill "Elusive Maneuvers" equipped the entire time (decreases enemy encounters) and not once did I need to run through the field or equip Alluring Ribbon. Then there is the issue of accidentally exploring down a wrong road that leads down a higher area or exploring a cave too soon. Within my first five hours of the game I somehow stumbled upon a secret cave that was level 45. That shouldn't happen. At least they have the decency to blockade chapter-specific areas. Still, it would have been nice to have some sort of notification to know when we have cleared a dungeon or not.
Problems with the Classes:
When you are trying to develop a plan of attack, you usually want to
see what classes work well with each other. It is understandable in the
first chapter when your party selections can be pretty limited. Within
the second chapter though, I started to notice a pattern. For starters the thief is required
to open that one rare purple chest you find in every dungeon. Then,
considering you didn't choose him as your starter character, you have a
secondary character you are stuck with for the rest of the game. Don't
forget that you just have to include a third character for their
exclusive chapter. That doesn't give a lot of wiggle room for
customization. I'm not saying that any particular class is useless. I'm
saying that I found the merchant, the thief, the scholar, and the cleric
dwarf overshadow the capabilities of the warrior, the hunter,
the apothecary, and the dancer. Things get even muddier when you start
learning about the shrines that allow your classes to learn their
counterparts' abilities through the use of "jobs" free of charge.
Problems with the Equipment: Octopath Traveler tends to deviate from your typical gear arrangement found in most RPGs. Your player doesn't just carry one weapon but can equip many different tools depending on your class and job skills. From my understanding of the provided tips elemental damage is taken from the highest value shown on any weapon, healing is boosted from the elemental defense value, and your standard attack is taken from the currently selected weapon in battle. This would be an awesome setup if you were able to see what your weapon was in battle. The number of times I "accidentally" chose a weapon that had +50 attack and +200 elemental attack only to dish out about 4 damage to the enemy, even with Eye for an Eye group skill equipped, is incalculable. In fact since elemental attack power tends to be three times your attack power on weapons and appear on standard armor, this concludes it is much better to use your elemental abilities over standard strikes. The only drawback is requiring SP but those are mere trinkets when I have several dozens of inspiring plums to keep things moving along. Worried about it running out in a dungeon? I found myself constantly "refreshing" my SP bar when going up a level. There is some good news. They added an "optimize all" ability so the system can automatically equip your characters. Too bad its terrible. I don't know how it selects the items but it seems to select the highest vendor value. And since "Forbidden Weapons" are the most expensive, they are always picked. Trust me when I say there are a lot of items I wish it wouldn't selectively pick - Forbidden Bow: Increases random encounters, Calamity Spear: +111 attack/-30 accuracy, Werner's Sword: Translation Error where non-crit strikes will always miss. Eventually I just made the choice to sell most of those situational items. Shields can provide additional armor in exchange for evasion. Helmets, chest armor, and jewelry can increase a number of different stats. For what its worth, I can't see the optimize feature being any smarter. The problem is this makes it utterly useless in the grand scheme of things.
Problems with Combat: Octopath Traveler has this thing about making you remember things. I've mentioned above how you can't see what weapons you have equipped. It also decided to make it more difficult so you can't see your enemy's health. There are ways to figure out how much they have left - Collect/Steal shows a standard percentage that coincides with their health (only when applicable), the scholar's Analyze briefly shows it on the screen, and the target's name will change from white to yellow to red (my best guess at 50% and 25% health). This isn't so bad. Things like discovering the enemy's weaknesses are part of the fun. I just wish they helped you with the tooltips a little bit, so that things like using specific alchemy concoction would update the information for every tier. It took me much longer to figure out what exactly "boost" does to my abilities. Timed abilities are active for more turns, you deal additional blows with standard attacks, skill modifiers are multiplied, and the chances a certain technique will succeed is increased. However, say your enemy lowers your attack power for four turns. Augmenting yourself only cancels the enemy's debuff. So don't be an idiot and try to raise your attack power for nine turns when your character has a lowered effect for two turns. It doesn't give you attack power for seven. Most of the different status ailments can be seen in the game tips except for one special boss's "no upgrades" ability. At least you don't have to worry about certain enemies absorbing certain kinds of damage.
Problems with the Story: Don't get your pitchforks out yet! I personally enjoyed the stories! I just wish there wasn't some sort of ultimate betrayal in every character arc (besides the hunter). The stories really did fit your normal stereotypes. Especially how the thief usually talked about how stealing things came so naturally to him and the dancer acted as though revenge was the right choice of action (two things that shouldn't be normal). The thing I want to pinpoint are the side stories. Each one of your characters have an ability to engage with npcs. This is brilliant in itself. The problem I realized early on is that the required character level to initiate, or even succeed, is highly situational. Just like that level 45 cave I encountered before gaining my second character, there were times I found myself engaging with someone way above my pay grade. "Scrutinize" can be used at lower levels than "Inquire" but has a chance to fail. Some areas will allow you to "Provoke" earlier than "Challenge" or visa versa. This means you had to constantly travel between towns as you leveled in hopes you could finally use your abilities. This problem is substantially worse when you visit Tier 2 cities, multiplied by the fact that you will be running around trying to find that one dude to fulfill the obligation of a side story. I didn't even mention the fact that certain npcs will only appear after initiating a quest or completing the final chapter. I guess technically that makes a lot of sense but is very annoying from a gameplay point-of-view. It takes a lot of mental prowess to recall that one grandma that can translate anything or that one guy who fascinated about knights. At least half the quests automatically notify you if you have already obtained that one specially marked memento.
Problems with the Ending: I'm going to be pretty blunt here and it is probably wise to learn about this after you unlock the final area. Once you finish a few side missions and all eight chapters, there will be the option to enter the Gate of Finis. Once you enter, you cannot leave. You cannot save. You cannot rest. You will have to defeat eight bosses, all previously encountered on your adventure. And then you will encounter the final boss where you must fight him with all your characters split into two teams. Yes, this means that all your characters must be leveled and properly equipped. If you fail, you will have to start over. This is Hollow Knight all over again. I cannot stress enough... actually this is the perfect time to stress on how insane this move is. I think that's why the credits roll when they do. This is only for the masochists looking for a challenge. There is little room for error and your only reward is a little item that removes all random encounters. There isn't even a proper cutscene. At least you can dive right into the backstories of some very important people.
Good Attention to Detail: I will have to say that the game does an excellent job with the little touches... and there are a lot of them. Boss fights truly feel like boss fights as the art department made them literally "larger than life". A lot of the world is very nice to look at with unique water, sand, and snow particle effects. The so-called "blur effect" that simulates distance is very well done as things properly fade when you travel. You can see this clearly while in buildings. It didn't trouble me at all like other games. The music is rather soothing everywhere you go and is just long enough to be only slightly irritating if you leave it on for an hour. Except you Sunshade. You will always be awesome. Even during the final chapters the entire tone of the village changes after defeating the boss from a depressed slumber to an upbeat celebration in the music and npcs. People's possessions match their story. Kids will have little pieces of candy while grandmas might try to guilt you with stories of their most treasured memento. Swindlers will try to sell you cheap items for twice their value. All the tips helped transition the drastic changes in gameplay. Being able to hear conversations between your characters is nice (but why don't they happen in cutscenes is beyond me). Even the characters' clothes are unique when switching jobs! They aren't just a recolor! Defeated town members stay down while you explore the town (and switch characters). Your party members look at you when they level up. Loading up a saved game automatically places it to the last known location. Torches and Flags show you the main path so you know which path to take to loot chests. Locations "blow up" when you get closer to them to show you your destination. This usually happens when you leave a crossroads. You can view and change all eight party members' equipment at a tavern. The game does an excellent job reviewing previous events when starting a new story chapter or revisiting npcs and their side quests. They did the most awesome thing by recording each of your final blows on bosses and review them like a slideshow during the ending credits.
Bad Attention to Detail: Sadly there are a few things that bothered me. Chests tend to contain junk items and even rare purple chests might contain outdated loot. Although many looted items are self-explanatory, some are a little harder to figure out when their icon isn't shown in the message window (Example: Justice Breaker is actually a dagger). You could tell that a lot of the kid npcs were simply adults trying their darnedest to make their voice sound young. There was no explanation or tip about how "nuts" were permanent status changers. Location difficulties were all over the place. A level 45 cave boss had 20,000 health while the level 50 shrine boss had 200,000 health. Although sensible, there wasn't that much variety in the locations you can visit. You can only go through so many mansions before they all start looking the same. Experience from a boss is about the same amount you get from random encounters. Your characters do not alter their clothes as you venture the land. Primrose must be freezing in the Northlands and H'aanit must be melting in the desert (which they both admit). Each town has a separate list of weapons, armor, and items to offer. I never did figure out if this was a good idea or not.
Strategy: There are a few techniques I picked up on my travels that work rather well. Giving the cleric the apothecary job can allow her to poison her foes for a whopping 1000 damage each, about 10 times what anything else she could do. Giving the warrior the apothecary job can allow him to heal himself when challenging people. Giving the hunter high evasion, sometimes up to 800 points, can allow her to dodge most attacks when provoking them. The thief and warrior divine skills can do devastating damage, 20 thousand damage at max, when you augment their attack power and lower the enemy's defenses. You can pair the dancer's divine ability with a merchant's collect or thief's steal to target all enemies. Sadly, the only message you receive is "Looted All Sorts of Things" without naming exactly what you got. A warrior's protective nature paired with the dancer's Eye for an Eye (50% counterattack) can be pretty cool. However despite all this, the scholar is key. Dancer's Peacock Strut + Cleric's Divine Skill + Merchant's Donate BP = Awesome Damage. Add a few more things with secondary jobs and you can get 6 strikes totaling 120,000 damage at max within the first 5 rounds.
Stories Rated: Each of the stories has their positive and negative points but I'm going to rank them from best to... least favorite. #1 Tressa Colzione (the merchant) with her pirate-fighting cartoon adventure, #2 H'aanit (the hunter) with her story not having any silly plot twists as she hunts down a dangerous foe even though ultimately the beast was kind of disappointing and her accent can get irritating at times, #3 Olberic Eisenburg (the warrior) getting hired to fight in an arena and reuniting with his brother-in-arms against a corrupt leader, #4 Cyrus Albright (the scholar) using his intellectual words and knowledge in finding a lost book despite staying true to the fact that he has no emotional fortitude when it comes to women, #5 Alfyn Greengrass (the apothecary) travels around healing people while discovering the motives behind certain decisions other apothecaries have made, #6 Ophilia Clement (the cleric) who takes on a sacred pilgrimage around various cities while helping little kids with their problems, #7 Therion (the thief) chosen to retrieve artifacts for a benefactor after being caught trying to steal one but ultimately leaves when all things are said and done, #8 Primrose Azelhart (the dancer) forced to run away from home while choosing to hunt down the ones that killed her father.
Summary: I really wished they would have did a few more extra things to make it similar to Final Fantasy 6. That game had moments where your team split up into different directions, you encountered multiple waves of enemies, and there was a ton of mini-games like remembering the lines at the Opera House. But as Cyrus stated, "Knowledge is a journey with no destination." Let me tell you a story. I once visited the town of Cobblestone. There I found the Courageous Cowherd. If you converse with him, he will talk about how much he loves his cows and how much he loves their poop. If you inquire of him, his sheet discusses how he decided to tend to the cows after failing the monster taming business. A little south I found a Kindly Farmer needing a new kind of fertilizer. You can then buy or steal Cow Droppings from this man and provide them for the Kindly Farmer. You can even battle or recruit this person and he will actively throw cow droppings that will poison his foes. Now imagine this scenario everywhere. It feels like each person is meticulously crafted with loving care. And that's why I love this game.
11-6-2019