Zerpad
Sep 24, 2023
We don't get a lot of turn-base combat RPGs these days, so I hate to give it low score in fear that publishers will think that the solution is stop making turn-base combat game rather than solve the other issues. It's happened with other games series. Deus Ex got low sales because of microtransactions, so instead of making a Deus Ex game without microtransactions, Square Enix stopped making Deus Ex games. So somehow Square Enix will translate a negative review for this turn-base game to mean any game with turn-based combat is bad and only make action RPGs. I can only hope that Baldur's Gate 3 will show that there is interest in turn-based gameplay when it is done well.Overall, I didn't enjoy this as much as the first game. The two are essentially the same game, but you lose the novelty of the first game and the character classes have been nerfed so they aren't as satisfying to play. This game also adds more content, which is generally a good thing, but at 95 hours to beat the main story and side stories, it really dragged on for too long. For me 80 hours is the limit before a game starts to overstay its welcome.My complaints with the first game remain unresolved with the second. The world building is terrible. Each of the towns and each of the characters exist in isolation. The desert nation of Ku is this warlike tribe that repeatedly conquers surrounding nations. But you don't experience this once you leave the Ku's territory. Shouldn't the people in the neighboring towns and nations be terrified of being the next victims of Ku's army? Instead the towns are lifeless set pieces - here's a desert backdrop, here's a forest motif, etc. So much like the first game, you are experiencing 8 mini-stories that are completely independent of each other. In the future, I hope they aren't beholden to the name "Octopath", and will give us fewer story characters but with a deeper and connected story path. Recruitable non-story characters could be used to help fill out the roster of missing classes. I'd much rather play a game with 3-5 good character arcs in a well developed world, than a game with 8 characters and micro-stories.So I've ranted about the world building and story, but I also want to mention the combat and gameplay as well, which aren't as good as the first. You have the same classes as the first game, but they've nerfed some classes and given slight buffs to others. Overall, the classes seem much worse since their abilities aren't as cohesive and more general purpose. That helps if you just want to slap 4 random characters into a party, but worse if you're trying pick characters to fulfill a specific role in the party. There are just some weird classes in this game that don't fit into stereotypical roles because of how general purpose their abilities are. The merchant class is worthless unless you want to build around the hired help ability (Good luck figuring that out at the start without a guide or youtube video). The warrior looks like a tank on paper, but functions better as DPS. The hunter class is terrible, but balanced by Ochette's monster capture ability. They really need to put more thought into how these classes play before you've fully unlocked the class's abilities. The descriptions just don't give you enough info to make an informed decision on which abilities should be unlocked before others.Boss fights are bit of another issue. The first game was a bit easier than I would have preferred. Things are more difficult in this game due to some class nerfs, and sadly some poorly designed boss fights. Some of the bosses will use abilities that take you down to 1 hp and immediately after another enemy can use an AoE to wipe you. RNG just took you from perfect health and buffs to a wipe. This kind of lazy design doesn't make the game more challenging, it just makes it more frustrating. So this really impacted the fun that I was having with the game.In the end, I'll be playing the next iteration of Octopath (if there is one) just because we don't have a lot of turn-based combat games being developed.
By Zerpad
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Nintendo Switch
