Board 8 > Octopath Traveler II?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Gotta come here because I just don't trust randos on this.

I've seen a LOT of praise for OT2 since it's release, and that's still going on today. It's more than enough to have me interested.

However, the first Octopath got a decent amount of praise too, and I thought that game was truly horrendous. I reaaaaaally didn't like it. A lot of the people I'm seeing praise OT2 are people who also thought the first one was good, so that makes this hard to take at face value.

I really wanna know if that could maybe change here for the sequel. Here's what I disliked about OT1 for reference.

• Voice acting was terrible, script was dull, repetitive, and generic. Nothing in the game gave me any drive to continue forward whatsoever.

• Party dynamic is extremely important for me in a jRPG, more than even the main plot. OT1 basically didn't even have party due to it's structure, for all intents and purposes it was just people who happened to be together on your combat screen. I want my characters to talk together, feel like they're meant to be together in scenes, actually feel like a group. Preferably it's indistinguishable from a game where you don't add characters into your party at undetermined points in time. For the extreme comparison, I felt even Cold Steel 2 suffered harshly from being able to take a limited number of characters of your choice to any particular event.

Anything other than this was a nitpick I could get over.

You can use Japanese voices in OT2, the English voices are still pretty bad. There are more efforts to connect the characters with one another, but by and large is still 8 individual stories. The combat is a lot more polished, and I never had to grind, plus you can speed up animations. It's pretty similar to the first, so if say it's unlikely you'll like this one. It's still way too long tbh, but I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first (which I thought was fine, but dropped about 60% through

I thought OT2 was great for its gameplay, mainly. The stories were fine too. The characters didn't interact with each other much, though. It's better in OT2 than OT1, but still way less than a typical RPG. I didn't mind the voice acting, but on the other hand I'm not too sensitive to that, so probably not the best one to judge.

Based on what you've described, I'm not sure OT2 would be the best game for you.

I wasn't excited about 2 because it's crazy to me that they used the exact same 8 classes for the new characters. Is it different gameplay-wise?

One major improvement is to the party chat system. Before, you had to constantly swap characters during chapters to get all the party chats, but now they're added to your recollections even if those party members aren't actually in your party at the time, so you can't miss any.

I thought the writing was a good deal better than OT1's, too.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Party dynamic is extremely important for me in a jRPG, more than even the main plot. OT1 basically didn't even have party due to it's structure, for all intents and purposes it was just people who happened to be together on your combat screen. I want my characters to talk together, feel like they're meant to be together in scenes, actually feel like a group. Preferably it's indistinguishable from a game where you don't add characters into your party at undetermined points in time.

don't you like Fire Emblem

Cybat posted...

I wasn't excited about 2 because it's crazy to me that they used the exact same 8 classes for the new characters. Is it different gameplay-wise?

There are plenty of new moves and some new bonus classes too. The gameplay is similar, but it feels different enough imo.

It's an improvement on the formula, but it is still the same formula.

This topic is the first place Ive heard people smack talking OTs voice acting, although I havent played it since it came out.

Really? I thought it was pretty unbearable. Same for what little I've played of Triangle Strategy so far, still haven't gotten past the second mission because there are sooo many flat, uninteresting cutscenes (though I do have a strong drive to get back to that one, just have to get past that barrier).

Both games have pretty good VA. I think you're conflating the voices with the dull writing.

KamikazePotato posted...

Both games have pretty good VA. I think you're conflating the voices with the dull writing.

Mainly an issue of directing yeah. The actual voices themselves aren't the problem, they're just reading completely flat.

Yeah agreed that OT2 is basically just OT1 but better. It executes what it sets out to do much better than 1, but it still sets out to do a very similar thing.

It doesnt sound to me like you would enjoy it.

Thanks for all the takes. It sounds like maybe it's just not for me. I had a feeling that was the case, but wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing.

Fiop posted...

The characters didn't interact with each other much, though.

thank you, I'm glad to see this spelled out because this completely kills the game for me and I was also intrigued by the praise surrounding this one

Character interaction tends to be the main character with the NPCs in their quest. So there is decent interaction there, just not as much between the playable characters. There is more interaction with playable characters than OT1, thanks to paired stories and the end game, but the game is still mostly structured around each character doing their quests separately.

I think Trails games really shine in their character interaction. I enjoy that, though I still liked OT2 for being its own thing.

I haven't played either Octopath Traveler game, but Triangle Strategy's voice acting is pretty mediocre. Thankfully, I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing because TS is really good, but yeah, it can be rough.

Yeah, I had the same question when OT2 came out. OT1 has the dubious honor of being the worst game I've spent 100 hours on. Based on what people said about OT2, I decided to skip.

I love this game a lot but I've mellowed out in my old age and I think it's totally fine if it's not your thing.

If "party dynamic" as described in the original post is the only way you like your parties, you'll probably never enjoy the series. The comparison I make is that most rpg's nowadays are Fellowship of the Ring but Octopath Traveler is the Canterbury Tales. It works best if you imagine the characters sharing their individual journeys together rather than being on one grand journey together. I actually like that it's a different way of storytelling than most games these days.

That being said, the ending/epilogue to this game is much more of the whole "band comes together and banters" style and the payoff is pretty good.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Thanks for all the takes. It sounds like maybe it's just not for me. I had a feeling that was the case, but wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing.

Any reason you're into FFV but not this sort of thing?

I haven't played FFV in 20 years and I'd rather it stay where it is in my memories.

OT2 is way better than OT1.

The stories are more interesting and they connected a lot better than the first one. My husband and I when we compared characters we all liked the Octopath 2 characters more. (even Agnea, who everyone else hates) (okay he liked Cyrus more than Osvald, but I liked Osvald better)

I recently replayed both games and 2 also feels less grindy.

Yeah to be clear, OT2 is a *lot* better than OT1 in terms of writing. It is mostly still 8 separate stories, but the stories and characters are much better quality over all. I didn't like the low levels of party interaction either, but I was actually invested in like 6/8 of the stories to at least some degree, and probably 3 of those I'd say were really stand out interesting and even emotional.

And they tie it together at the end much more effectively than 1 did.

Its possible the improved strengths it does have may make up for the down sides even if you weren't super into OT1. It did for me. That said, there are so many games out these days to choose from, it might not be worth the attempt for the 'maybe'. Up to you.

Cyrus is way better than Osvald

trying to find a way to pass the week before unicorn overlord?

it is better than OT1, and since you didn't play OT1 long, it won't bother you so much that the combat skills are very reused!

but i bounced off OT2 at the same point i bounced off OT1, which was:

very soon after i completed the main story for the character i originally picked, without getting to the "band comes together" endgame

because at some point, the gameplay started to feel stale

which, to be fair, is the same reason i'm stuck around floor 100 of tartarus and just turn the game off whenever i try to start again. too repetitive. so that might not be a problem for everyone

Thankfully I've got Rebirth to pass that time lol.

Repitition certainly gets rough.

I was only able to make it through that part of Reload because I watched YouTube the entire time I was in Tartarus.