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You can recruit 0 or 8 characters, you can play all 8 origins in one playthrough.
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Jul 2, 2018 20:55
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minya posted:Is there word yet on whether or not the full game will always involve all 8 characters? Or will it be designed for multiple playthroughs, where you select different starting characters and end up engaging with a different set of guys? You can recruit all eight characters and do all of their stories in one playthrough. I think what you do is sort of "activate" which character's story you're doing when you go to the area that continues that story, and they're functionally the "main" character during that time. There's a lot of level scaling there to make sure every new thing you come across can level up to meet you if you've been doing a lot of other quests along the way. You're also free to recruit nobody except your starter character if for some reason soloing sounds fun.
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Jul 2, 2018 20:59
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if you haven't played Tressa yet you need to play Tressa as for playing the game multiple times, it sounds like the idea is that you can play through everyone's story start to finish in a single game. You meet up and get the chance to play their prologue, and from there it looks like the world map will show you where to go next for each character's next chapter. A more interesting question that's still unanswered is whether there is even an overarching story at all or if it's strictly the 8 character stories 
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Jul 2, 2018 20:59
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Your Computer posted:as for playing the game multiple times, it sounds like the idea is that you can play through everyone's story start to finish in a single game. You meet up and get the chance to play their prologue, and from there it looks like the world map will show you where to go next for each character's next chapter. A more interesting question that's still unanswered is whether there is even an overarching story at all or if it's strictly the 8 character stories Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. If it's like SaGa Frontier, there might not be any overarching story at all and you'll just get a sort of epilogue that opens up once you complete all eight personal stories. That's sort of what I'm expecting right now (give or take the epilogue, but I'm pretty sure some sort of wrap-up is needed in a long RPG like this), but it could really go either way. The main differences between this and SaGa Frontier (at least as far as structure goes) is that you can recruit all eight main characters and do their stories in one playthrough, and there aren't any other characters to recruit. In SaGa Frontier, you had to start a new playthrough for each of the seven main characters, some characters wouldn't join others, and there were a couple dozen other recruitable characters along the way.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:02
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minya posted:Hi joining this thread after posting about Octopath in the Switch thread. You can start other games as long as you don't save. That said, you'll be able to see every character's intro in the full game so you'll kinda end up repeating stuff if you check them out now.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:09
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The game is not SaGa. I dunno what SaGa is, but I'm like 99% sure you'll hate the game with expectations that it will be like a SaGa with the way people talk about it.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:10
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Tae posted:The game is not SaGa. I dunno what SaGa is, but I'm like 99% sure you'll hate the game with expectations that it will be like a SaGa with the way people talk about it. I'm just using it as a point of comparison, since it's an easy one to make. In both games, there's a selection of main characters who each have their own personal story. SaGa games differ in how it all works, though. SaGa Frontier has only those personal stories without any overarching story; Romancing SaGa, meanwhile, has one core story with only some small differences based on your starting character, so playing through the game 8 times would have basically the same story each time, just with a different main character. Octopath Traveler has little in common with SaGa gameplay-wise (for one thing, it has a normal leveling system) and the ability to do all 8 stories in one playthrough is a big difference, too. But all I'm saying is that it looks like Octopath will be about those 8 character-specific stories without having some big overarching story that ties it all together, which is how SaGa Frontier was (again, with a different overall structure since you couldn't do it all in one playthrough). This looks like it won't take the Romancing SaGa approach, where characters' personal stories are mostly subplots in comparison to a big, central story.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:16
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Nah. Octopath is pretty obviously going to have 8 small intro stories, then one big overarching shard plot, and then probably 8 small callback story quests later on to wrap up the character intros. I don't see them sticking to 8 character stories for long. I think it exactly is like you described romancing saga.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:25
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Zaphod42 posted:Nah. The thing is that each map destination is labeled with whose story it advances once you complete the prologues. It pretty strongly telegraphs that those stories are the primary plot. It doesn’t just stop with the prologues with only a few subplots later on.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:27
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I'd love to hear where you got "pretty obviously" from Zaphod, because as far as I know they haven't actually revealed or talked about any of it yet? I guess other than it's a JRPG and JRPGs usually have a big ~save the world~ plot.Harrow posted:The thing is that each map destination is labeled with whose story it advances once you complete the prologues. It pretty strongly telegraphs that those stories are the primary plot. It doesn’t just stop with the prologues with only a few subplots later on. Yeah, that's how I interpreted it as well. When you complete Tressa's prologue for example you get a map marker for Quarrycrest on your main map with a little icon saying that Tressa's chapter 2 will begin there. Just the fact that there are chapters and it's segmented like this makes it sound to me like it's a big focus.
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Jul 2, 2018 21:52
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Your Computer posted:I'd love to hear where you got "pretty obviously" from Zaphod, because as far as I know they haven't actually revealed or talked about any of it yet? I guess other than it's a JRPG and JRPGs usually have a big ~save the world~ plot. Yeah, I think the thing is that the vast majority of JRPGs have a big, central story about saving the world. But the thing is that a game about a handful of personal stories isn't at all unprecedented, and I think the SaGa lineage is pretty clear here even with the differences. Like it definitely could still have a main, central plot, but the fact that the chapters are separated by character pretty strongly suggests that the characters' personal stories will be the main focus.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:11
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If it had a central plot I'd be pretty disappointed
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Jul 2, 2018 22:12
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the central plot for octopath is probably going to be the evil flame god thing from ophelias story getting busted out of its seal and all the other plots will lead into that.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:39
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Divinity Original Sin 2 had a major overarching plot while also incorporating every possible character's backstory into it.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:41
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It seems certain characters are just objectively more powerful than others, yeah? I started with H'aanit and her beast summon thing was so much stronger than anything Therion or Alfyn could muster.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:47
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Yeah, it's certainly possible, but I think if there is a central plot it'll be mostly background until the end. That's just a guess, but I'm basing it mostly on each character having their own chapter progression. If I had to guess, if there's a central plot, it'll be something that sort of appears around the edges of each character's story, with the final boss unlocking as soon as you finish at least one character's story all the way through (to allow for solo playthroughs). Maybe something changes if you do all eight before fighting the final boss, whether it's an optional harder version (Romancing SaGa had a similar mechanic) or unlocking the "true ending" or something. minya posted:It seems certain characters are just objectively more powerful than others, yeah? I started with H'aanit and her beast summon thing was so much stronger than anything Therion or Alfyn could muster. Alfyn's a healer, so that's not too surprising. That said it remains to be seen how things scale. It might be that H'aanit's beast summon is really strong early on but falls off later and leaves her on a more even playing field. Or maybe not, who knows.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:47
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minya posted:It seems certain characters are just objectively more powerful than others, yeah? I started with H'aanit and her beast summon thing was so much stronger than anything Therion or Alfyn could muster. You're 3 hours into a 50+ hour rpg without access to mid game techniques or even job mixing.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:53
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Tressa is the only character capable of one-shotting the first boss, thus she is the most powerful character in the game.
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Jul 2, 2018 23:09
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Terper posted:Tressa is the only character capable of one-shotting the first boss, thus she is the most powerful character in the game. I was shocked I one shotted the first boss with her.
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Jul 2, 2018 23:58
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Terper posted:Tressa is the only character capable of one-shotting the first boss, thus she is the most powerful character in the game.  (is she actually, I need to know more)
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Jul 3, 2018 00:13
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Tae posted:The game is not SaGa. I dunno what SaGa is, but I'm like 99% sure you'll hate the game with expectations that it will be like a SaGa with the way people talk about it. I absolutely hate every single SaGa game with a passion but this game is looking good. What makes SaGa games terrible are their atrocious growth system and a complete lack of in-game documentation of mechanics. Step one of playing a SaGa game is having a FAQ handy. Octopath has a traditional leveling system with a job tech tree that's easy to follow. I remember playing SaGa Frontier, selecting Lute as my main character, and within 10 minutes I accidentally ran into endgame mobs and died. Took me back to the title screen. gently caress that dumb poo poo.
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Jul 3, 2018 00:13
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Your Computer posted:I'd love to hear where you got "pretty obviously" from Zaphod, because as far as I know they haven't actually revealed or talked about any of it yet? I guess other than it's a JRPG and JRPGs usually have a big ~save the world~ plot. Just talkin out my rear end, but that's the impression I got. It could go either way, just feels like that is way more likely and that's the feeling I got in the demo once I got past the first stuff, it seemed set up to be pretty neutral to who was in your party otherwise. I'd actually like to be wrong, since we do have more JRPGs with a main plot than without. And maybe it being called 'octopath' is a hint in that side's favor. Heavy Sigh posted:the central plot for octopath is probably going to be the evil flame god thing from ophelias story getting busted out of its seal and all the other plots will lead into that. Yeah that's what I figured
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Jul 3, 2018 00:27
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minya posted:It seems certain characters are just objectively more powerful than others, yeah? I started with H'aanit and her beast summon thing was so much stronger than anything Therion or Alfyn could muster. Eh, depends what powerful means. But you get a party of 4 characters, and of the 8 there's generally 2 that kinda share the same kinda stuff so its more of an A/B choice. Like you're gonna want to have people around for class abilities so you're going to have like either Therion or Tressa, right? I'm not sure if you'd even be able to progress with a party of like, H'aanit and Olberic. Although I guess it also matters if they require you to get a party of 4 to progress or if you're allowed to beat the game with only like 1 dude? Feels like the plot will at times depend upon class abilities.
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Jul 3, 2018 00:28
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H'aanit isn't objectively better, she's just laser focused on physical offense so naturally she does a ton of damage; she's tied for the highest attack, and has the highest crit and highish speed. Downside being she's super fragile. Therion is really good because he has debuffs and does good single target damage and can even be an evade tank, Alfyn is good because he has decent damage and really good, versatile healing and elemental coverage. The only character I'd say is a bit weak on their own is Primrose, and with a subclass to shore up her weaknesses she'll be good too.
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Jul 3, 2018 01:39
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Managed to go really fast and get all eight characters (after getting "practice" actually playing through each scenario normally) and get some other minor bits done (Golden Axe!), but I had to skip going after a lot of chests, path action uses, etc, to fit it all in. So the first thing I need to do with my retail copy (assuming I don't just start from scratch to go at a more leisurely pace) is to backtrack everywhere and snag all the missing chests and such. I took some notes. Assorted thoughts: -I made Cyrus my main character because of a blend of liking his story fairly well (I'd rank it third behind Primrose and Olberic) and thinking he'll end up being the most useful character (AoEing weak spots). I so considered making Olberic my MC because he has the best voice actor, or Ophilia because her story has good MC vibes and she lets you spell OCTOPATH going clockwise. But in the end I just think Cyrus is a more useful "always active" character than they are. (I tend to avoid tanking/healing in favor of zerg-mode alpha strikes when RPGs let me). -H'aanit is amazing in combat because I like playing pokemon in the middle of my game and you can snag some very strong monsters. I really don't like how they translated her speech pattern though. I'm torn between keeping her around always to play with monster friends, or benching her always so that I don't haveth to listenen to her speeche. -The Golden Axe is really funny and makes Alfyn incredibly strong, but I might have to put it aside to avoid breaking the difficulty curve too hard. On the other hand, the prospect of giving it to a multiclassed character to instantly make them good at melee is appealing. I don't particularly care for Alfyn or Concoct so far. -If subclassing works like I think it does, I like a party that's something like: Cyrus - Scholar/Cleric (All damage but Dark, offheals) Primrose - Dancer/Apothecary (Versatile Mega-Support) Olberic - Warrior/Hunter (All the Weapons) Tressa - Merchant/Thief (Vampiric Lootbot) Which also correlates pretty well to the characters I like the most. Overall I am really hyped for this game and can't stop thinking about it. Thanks for reading.
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Jul 3, 2018 09:38
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theshim posted:(is she actually, I need to know more) Max boosted Hired Help bandits are enough to take them out in one go.
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Jul 3, 2018 09:55
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minya posted:It seems certain characters are just objectively more powerful than others, yeah? I started with H'aanit and her beast summon thing was so much stronger than anything Therion or Alfyn could muster. H'aanit's beasts can get mighty powerful, but higher-level beasts are much more difficult to capture (particularly the secret bosses which seems to have a 1 to 3% capture rate depending on HP depleted... and apparently how many weaknesses you discovered on it), have far less uses, and if it uses single-target attacks or heals it will pick an eligible target at random. It's the price to pay for being able to boost it compared to other characters' talents.
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Jul 3, 2018 11:30
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Panic! at Nabisco posted:The only character I'd say is a bit weak on their own is Primrose, and with a subclass to shore up her weaknesses she'll be good too.
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Jul 3, 2018 11:52
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Zaphod42 posted:Just talkin out my rear end, but that's the impression I got. It could go either way, just feels like that is way more likely and that's the feeling I got in the demo once I got past the first stuff, it seemed set up to be pretty neutral to who was in your party otherwise. I'd actually like to be wrong, since we do have more JRPGs with a main plot than without. And maybe it being called 'octopath' is a hint in that side's favor. I think the reason it's neutral to who's in your party in the demo is because you're just doing each character's prologue, and those are always going to go the same no matter what. They (perhaps understandably) didn't write lines for all the other characters for everyone's prologue, even though I wish they would have. Things might change later on. The thing that points to the characters' personal stories being the majority of the game is how you can see each characters' next chapter on the map, and they're sort of independent of one another. That said, I hadn't played Ophelia's prologue and that definitely sounds like a setup for a save-the-world plot the way people describe it. My current bet (if I had to put money on it, which I thankfully don't) is that each character is going to have some thread going through their story, whether it's a prominent one or not, that leads up to the same final boss, but there won't be a big core JRPG plot. It'll be more like, you can go face the final boss after you finish at least one character's personal story or something like that, because they all lead up to the same boss through different paths. You can already see some connections between them (for example, it looks like the evil order from Primrose's prologue also shows up in Cyrus's) so it's easy to see how they might start to intertwine. I just hope that the characters acknowledge when that happens.
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Jul 3, 2018 13:25
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Zaphod42 posted:Just talkin out my rear end, but that's the impression I got. It could go either way, just feels like that is way more likely and that's the feeling I got in the demo once I got past the first stuff, it seemed set up to be pretty neutral to who was in your party otherwise. I'd actually like to be wrong, since we do have more JRPGs with a main plot than without. And maybe it being called 'octopath' is a hint in that side's favor. At the very least, from what we can see in the demo every character has a different location to head to for their chapter 2, and they're all spread out across the world, generally on the other end of the map from where they started. I guess it's possible that all of those chapter 2s will point towards a single chapter 3, with a single main plot continuing from there, but that's not really the impression I've gotten from the way they've talked about the game. (Plus, the characters have very different motivations and goals after the prologue - those chapter 2s would have to work pretty hard to put them all on the same path)
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Jul 3, 2018 13:40
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I suspect subclassing is going to make the "who is most useful I'll make them my MC" considerations largely moot.
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Jul 3, 2018 13:45
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Evil Fluffy posted:I suspect subclassing is going to make the "who is most useful I'll make them my MC" considerations largely moot. It's also possible that it just doesn't really matter at all. I forgot who, but someone said that the only character who has to be in your party is the main character for whichever chapter you're currently doing. If that's the case, then all eight characters will have roughly equal time being a required party member (y'know, assuming you do all eight stories).
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Jul 3, 2018 13:50
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Kotaku thinks your first character is your main character and they never leave the party. https://kotaku.com/help-i-can-t-decide-which-octopath-traveler-character-1827054044 When you meet other characters, you can play their prologue if you want but you can skip it and go straight to continuing the game but for a period you are stuck with them until you finish their next chapter. There are taverns around where you can “hear a story” which seems to let you play through a prologue after the fact of meeting them.
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Jul 3, 2018 14:46
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I hear people talk about not recruiting any characters but I think that's going to an effort in futility since the second chapter for most characters has a recommended level in the 20s, and grinding out 15 levels with the enemy pools from one character (assuming that it doesn't just go up naturally to enemy groups of 3 or 4), coupled with that fact that one character can't cover even a quarter of the possible weaknesses AND sub-classing is likely tied to gathering party members (Olberic can't learn to be a dancer without someone to teach him) - well, I think that it'll be like swimming up a waterfall. I wouldn't be surprised if subclassing was something that was unlocked upon finishing the first chapter for all characters. Still probably locked for the demo, but a requirement for players to actually participate in the OCTOPATH. Maybe you can put off getting H'aanit for a few hours but her story is still a core part of the game. One thing that I think is really interesting about the concept of each character having their own storyline to follow is that none of the characters look like they are going to fade into the background. There are countless examples of RPG party members that take the spotlight for a few hours while you recruit them, and then they kind of sit in your party for most of the game, maybe chiming in with a line here and there or having a side quest focused on their ultimate weapon. In Octopath Traveler, each character will always be the star of their story. I don't think that there will be a unified ending, but I suspect that paths will cross over each other as the game goes on. People mentioned Primrose and Cyrus appearing to having similar elements, so that's an opportunity for them to cooperate for a chapter. Of course, evidence against this is the Story/Record option in the menu, where you can watch all the cutscenes for each character. Having a joint chapter doesn't appear to be supported by that design. I feel like I end a lot of my posts this way, but while I love to speculate I know that I'm going to enjoy this game no matter how the systems shake out. . I could be wrong about everything I've posted here and I'd (probably) still be happy.
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Jul 3, 2018 14:53
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Xalidur posted:I so considered making Olberic my MC because he has the best voice actor, or Ophilia because her story has good MC vibes and she lets you spell OCTOPATH going clockwise. This is what I'm doing explicitly for the OCTOPATH.
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Jul 3, 2018 18:41
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that one's too obvious me, I'll be going Primrose, Olberic, Tressa, Alfyn, Therion, Ophilia I won't actually, you know I'll be starting with my friend Tressa
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Jul 3, 2018 18:53
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LawfulWaffle posted:One thing that I think is really interesting about the concept of each character having their own storyline to follow is that none of the characters look like they are going to fade into the background. There are countless examples of RPG party members that take the spotlight for a few hours while you recruit them, and then they kind of sit in your party for most of the game, maybe chiming in with a line here and there or having a side quest focused on their ultimate weapon. Lol, khimari
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Jul 3, 2018 19:01
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Your Computer posted:that one's too obvious I say potato, you say topato...
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Jul 3, 2018 19:08
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Pre-ordered. Not sure if I'm going to use my save or a new character order. I did H'aanit, Therion, and Ophilia.
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Jul 3, 2018 20:00
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This will be my first turn based RPG since Chrono Trigger. I'm excited but you guys gotta help me finish this thing when it gets hard cause I'm a noob.
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Jul 3, 2018 20:38
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