Octopath Traveler Series Thread - Octopath Traveler II Out Now!

[1451]

Of course you have to grind. When you want to start the act 2 for a traveler that wasn't in your party, they will be under leveled and useless. Therion's last encounter in act 2 made me postpone it and do side quests and travelling to level up. Before that it was simply impossible.
The jumps in level requirements from act to act are extreme.
Octopath, like any other Asian game, expects from players to grind. This however doesn't pass as decent content in Europe and America. I don't include weebs because they don't matter.

 

[Reinhardt]

The jumps in level requirements from act to act are extreme.

I don't even started doing chapter 2, just unlocking new towns right now and just from running from town to town i've already overleveled all chapter 2 quests.

 

[Reinhardt]

Enemies have set level scaling.

For instance:
Area 1 Level 5-9
Area 2 Level 8-13
Etc.

fucking scale in level after progressing through the story

Also, the game does not have level-scaling. The enemy levels are static for every area in the game throughout. It's alright if you don't like the game, but at least be accurate in your criticisms.

So I'm confused, does it have some sort of scaling, or none at all ?!?!

It have but there is upper limit. For example chapter 1 enemies are lvl 1 if you have only one character and up to lvl 11 if you have full party but they can't be higher than 11 no matter how much you grind.

 

[Jinn]

It have but there is upper limit. For example chapter 1 enemies are lvl 1 if you have only one character and up to lvl 11 if you have full party but they can't be higher than 11 no matter how much you grind.

As far as I know that's only true for Chapter 1, and it's based on the amount of party members you've acquired. I think it only does this in the "opening" areas of the game too - if you venture too far out in the world, you'll get demolished even with one character. This is effectively the "tutorial" period of the game. So once you get 4 party members, scaling in the game ends.

 

[thesecret1]

Also, the game does not have level-scaling.

I never said the game has level scaling, I said enemies scale in level as you progress through the story. As in after you recruit a character, the other locations (including the ones you already visited) jump in enemy level.

 

[1451]

My go to party consists of Olberic, Cyrus, Alfyn and Therion. With secondary classes it's like having eight characters all the time. But it sucks that it forces you to pick certain characters for certain quests. It was bad in Neverwinter Nights 2 and it's also bad here.

 

[Jinn]

Therion's last encounter in act 2 made me postpone it and do side quests and travelling to level up. Before that it was simply impossible.

I forgot to respond to this. If you attempt to plow through a single character's story chapter after chapter, yes, you would have to grind. It should become fairly quickly apparent, however, that while you can play the game that way, it's not really meant to be. I outline this in an above post.

Two Separate Parties of Four: You are urged from the beginning to collect each individual party member, play through their starting story, and fight every battle that comes your way. You should do that, but it's going to involve some patience from the player and an interest in the world being presented to you. While you're doing this, stick to a primary first party while switching out someone for their origin story each time. This will get each new character you don't want in your initial party to about level 6-7, while your main party gains the experience they need to tackle the 2nd chapters coming. You can decide pretty easily with basic knowledge as an RPG player which members you want in party 1 or party 2 with a quick glance at their class names. I decided who I wanted in my first party mainly arbitrarily by looking at the characters on the world map and assuming what part they would play. Either way, the dual-job system allows for a fair amount of freedom in your party composition regardless. By the time you get around to starting to play with your second party, they are going to be extremely under-leveled, but you should have a lot of leftover equipment to set them up with. At that point, you'll be able to level them quickly to the point where you can set off without being overpowered juggernauts. With your parties separated in such a way, you'll basically just be going to each character's 2nd chapter before you move on to each character's 3rd, and 4th, ie - you'll be completing chapters as a party rather than b-lining through a single character's story.

The game really gives the player the freedom to approach it in a number of different ways. It just wasn't executed and communicated in the best way, which leads to a lot of these comments about grinding. Playing the way that I suggest in the post I quoted left me with a consistent challenge throughout the game without the need to grind. Make sure to check out that Evasive Maneuver skill I mentioned too.

But yeah, if you just go from Therion chapter 1 straight to Therion chapter 2, there will be grinding and it'll actually destroy a lot of the fun in the game because of not only the grind, but how overpowered it'll make your party for following character chapters. It's not a game meant for a b-line to a single character's end, thus its name "Octopath."

 

[Tigranes]

You do NOT need to grind. It's not a fantastic game and ultimately somewhere between 'not worth it' mediocre and 'good for what it is', but specifically, it's not your stereotypical grind-heavy JRPG.

I optimised travel routes whenever I could, skipped combat whenever I could, IIRC one character has a skill to make it far rarer - e.g. you might do something like 5-7 random fights and 1 boss to finish a quest. And I was fine.

The problem with the game is that (1) it's too easy to accidentally get caught backtracking and grinding, and (2) unless you systematically avoid grinding, the game is easy as motherfucking fuck.

So it's almost the opposite of 'needing to grind'.

 

[thesecret1]

You do NOT need to grind.

You don't need to, but you will, because the game forces it on you in the form of random encounters.

 

[1451]

Of course you do. I completed Haanit's chapter 3 and now I am doing Ophilia's chapter 3. She's level 19 because I never play her. So I have to get her to 30 before I can continue playing.

 

[Tigranes]

Nope & nope.

Use Evasive Maneuvres to lower enc rate. If you're fighting 20+ fights to get one quest done you're running around in some horribly unoptimised way, given fast travel & how tiny dungeons are.

Your Ophilia is underleveled? Why do you need to grind? Just play. The game's primary flaw is how piss easy it is.

Or drop it, you know. I don't see the point of subjecting yourself to that.

The game needs zero purposeful farming/grinding for you to cruise through everything except the secret final optional boss. Even with Evasive Maneuvres, you'll find it easy enough to beat enemies above your level.

 

[Reinhardt]

I've grinded some levels for my thief because his steal chance was too low. But "grinded" is not exactly right word when you are getting lvl up each fight in high lvl areas while backtracking for purple chests.

 

[Delterius]

If you switch characters, always bring the lower level people with you. That way, no one should be terribly underlevelled and your protagonist can carry them.

 

[1451]

In the case of team fights this holds true, but sometimes, for example in the case of Haanit you have to defeat the guy guarding the seer's house. So if you are under leveled you have to grind.
It's not optional since fights are stat based and not skill based like in real time games.
And including characters you dislike just to keep leveling them defeats the purpose of a game, which is to have fun. I'm not dropping it because when I play with my main party I actually have fun. It's the rest of the cases that are annoying and unfun. Clearly a bad design decision, they could simply make party members automatically level up when you take them with you, I think Dragon Age did that.
As it is now, it is not hardcore at all. It simply annoys people and inflates played time, a practice commonly seen in free to play games.

 

[Reina]

Caved in, bought the game and LOVE IT

Probably the best OST in history, to the point it can carry the game by itself. Overall aesthetic value of the game is through the roof, even if I'm not fond of pixel art.

Started doing final chapters, didn't need to grind yet, the stories ain't as bad I as hear too. Overall, strong 9/10.

 

[CyberModuled]

Well this is a first for SE: they actually took off Denuvo

Not entirely sure of the implications here (hell if they take it off for this game but not for their other games, that means even something like the Quiet Man was more of a financial success than this on PC) but hey, here's to hoping they start taking it off of their other games like DQ11.

 

[Modron]

Well this is a first for SE: they actually took off Denuvo

Not entirely sure of the implications here (hell if they take it off for this game but not for their other games, that means even something like the Quiet Man was more of a financial success than this on PC) but hey, here's to hoping they start taking it off of their other games like DQ11.

Considering they haven't even put DQ 11 on sale for 5 months I wouldn't hold my breath until units moved tapers off more.

 

[CyberModuled]

Considering they haven't even put DQ 11 on sale for 5 months I wouldn't hold my breath until units moved tapers off more.

For what it's worth, 11 not going on sale at 50% off anymore I think has more to do with the recent Switch port. Same thing happened with FFX and FF12 when they hit Switch and Xbone, and while they do go on sale again I do definitely remember seeing 12 hitting as low as 50% off on Steam whereas now it's a smaller price cut whenever a sale hits.

 

[Vorark]

Hopefully it isn't another mistake. FFX/X2 remaster was updated for whatever reason and afterwards could only be launched if you were online.

Would be aces if it's indeed true, could eventually remove it from DQXI and FFXII too.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Hopefully it isn't another mistake. FFX/X2 remaster was updated for whatever reason and afterwards could only be launched if you were online.

Would be aces if it's indeed true, could eventually remove it from DQXI and FFXII too.

Square Enix PC ports are fucking terrible. These are the people who still haven't fixed Nier Automata and who put Denuvo on a fucking free to play game.

 

[Vorark]

DQXI was surprisingly smooth tho. Must be the Enix side.

 

[LESS T_T]

They've been working on some updates recently: https://steamdb.info/app/921570/history/

 

[Artyoan]

I'm 30 hours in. Great soundtrack. Formulaic to be sure but not in a bad way. Loving the world building though. Aside from Primrose's story, this game is wholesome. That sounds like a turnoff but I'm loving it. Its just a good natured game and I've cried some bitch tears a couple times already.

 

[Max Damage]

Why is this game so expensive? With 50% discount it costs as much as Doom Eternal without discount, are they high?

 

[cruel]

Why is this game so expensive? With 50% discount it costs as much as Doom Eternal without discount, are they high?

Because of cute graphics, very good music and being an overhyped Switch exclusive for some time. I had high hopes for this, and got quite disappointed (my second game on Switch, first was also disappointing BotW). It's not 'shit' by any standards, just very mediocre (mostly in terms of story, narrative and writing).