Windows Octopath Traveller 1 & 2?

[Vardalis]

I've had my eye on both for a while and they're on sale on Steam at the moment. Would you recommend them? Why or why not?

For me specifically I've not played many JRPGs before. FF, DQ, all of those sorts of franchises are complete unknowns. Not sure if that'd impact the recommendation.

 

[PSVitaForever]

It may impact it in the sense that the menu managing can be quite complex later in the game; I've (watched a family member) played the first Octopath, if I remember correctly for every character you can choose a job and a secondary job, and then you can mix different abilities that you have learned from different jobs. There are also many equiments parts; also, the battle system is more complex than simply "attack with melee or magic, heal, do damage": you have to break defenses with the right elements (with a magic or a weapon) and then you can inflict lots of damages.
If possible, you should try a demo (also for the second one, I tried it and they are quite similar - of course the second one will have improvements over the first title, but you can understand more or less how the gameplay is, especially in battle).

If you will decide for the yes, I hope you will enjoy this first experience with a (J)rpg. If you're not totally new to rpg in general, you will probably have no problems.

 

[coyote1k]

I was not as much of a fan of 1 but I really got into 2 and I highly recommend it. The art style is gorgeous in both. The combat in 2 is one of the best, most fun turn-based combat systems I've played in years. It's kinda similar to Live-A-Live in that you select from different characters and play from their perspective. If you're a fan of classic FF's and DQ's, you'll definitely feel at home with 2.

I originally played it on Switch but I used this as a chance to buy 2 on Steam so I can play it again on my Steam Deck.

 

[KaiserMk7]

Tressa best girl.

 

[Tonberry]

I've had my eye on both for a while and they're on sale on Steam at the moment. Would you recommend them? Why or why not?

For me specifically I've not played many JRPGs before. FF, DQ, all of those sorts of franchises are complete unknowns. Not sure if that'd impact the recommendation.

I think Octopath 1 is one of the worst JRPGs I've ever played in my life. While the combat and some of the music is alright, I thought everything else was just abysmal and dropped it after a short while.

I haven't played Octopath 2 for more than a few minutes, but I can't imagine it could be worse. I'm actually kind of hoping it's better when I finally hunker down and give it an honest shot so that I don't have to walk around being a stubborn hater lol

 

[freebie#47]

They are on gamepass(also you don't need a xbox to play them this way) If you want to try it. Though it will cost you a monthly fee. Also they are ok, difficulty is similiar to old school computer games. Little difficult but easy to manage once you get the hang of it.

 

[KaiserMk7]

I'd suggest starting with Cyrus in Octopath Traveler 1. He gleans info from NPCs, and some only either exist in specific chapters or move as you advance their sidequests. For that reason, I'd also advise claiming the thief or merchant next. The scholar can also gather enemy weakness information without having to hit their weaknesses, bosses are only able to be fought once, some enemies only appear in specific locations in the first ring if your total completed chapter 1s are less than some number up to 4, meaning weaknesses can be missable. This also means earlygame enemies captured and released in battle by the hunter class can be unrecoverable... I forgot whether it's a passive of Cyrus or the scholar class, but either the encounter rate is lower or the escape rate is higher, so you can wander into the second ring and escape once on the way to a cave in order to unlock freely changing characters to any of the 8 starter classes early, and you can loot endgame chest loot from side areas you have no business exploring yet, and it's beautiful. I mean one of course must obsessively 100% to the best of one's capabilities, but these developers seem intent on making that difficult for reasons wholly urelated to git gud.

 

[Kremiso]

very hardcore titles both
i liked them very much, but probably not perfect for an entry level jrpg player

extremely challenging boss battles, and grinding required
old school, frustrating in some parts

 

[Ne0Griever]

I've had my eye on both for a while and they're on sale on Steam at the moment. Would you recommend them? Why or why not?

For me specifically I've not played many JRPGs before. FF, DQ, all of those sorts of franchises are complete unknowns. Not sure if that'd impact the recommendation.

Don't, this games were not made for a new player to the genre.

If you do not like Turn based combat, inventory management, and reading you are out.

By all means they are excellent games but it will not present you its content in a silver platter.

i will recommend you get the games form a certain site that prepackage this gaming stuff, Yar! and see if you like it, if that is the case buy them.

 

[Netra]

I just played the first one and it's trash, it has all the bad things that an old jrpg have.
People say it's a hardcore or it's harb but no, it's just a game with an annoying gimmick in fights.
I buy it because I love the 2D pixelated graphics and the music but the gameplay, the battle system, and the class (or jobs sorry I don't remember how it was called) system is pretty bad thanks to the grinding process.
I can't recommend this game.

 

[RuckusMcGuckus]

i will recommend you get the games form a certain site that prepackage this gaming stuff, Yar! and see if you like it, if that is the case buy them.

i agree with @Ne0Griever
You said you've never played FF or DQ, have you played any turn-based rpgs or jrpgs for that matter? If not personally id play something else first, not because I think Octopath Traveler is bad or anything (never played it), but there are a lot of great rpgs you could get from here to try out
Oh and thanks for the steam sale alert

 

[Ne0Griever]

I just played the first one and it's trash, it has all the bad things that an old jrpg have.
People say it's a hardcore or it's harb but no, it's just a game with an annoying gimmick in fights.
I buy it because I love the 2D pixelated graphics and the music but the gameplay, the battle system, and the class (or jobs sorry I don't remember how it was called) system is pretty bad thanks to the grinding process.
I can't recommend this game.

Exactly my point, if this turns you off OP @Vardalis then save yourself the hassle, again they are good games but the systems behind them are not for anyone born after 1998.

 

[Cantarella]

I only played the first one. Did not enjoy it.

Pretty bad writing, combat's both simultaneously time-demanding and really easy to trivialize, and the game looks ugly to me.

 

[RuckusMcGuckus]

Its kind of disappointing to hear how bad the game is, Its always looked so appealing to me.

Where's the contrarian/devils advocate's opinion. I wanna hear their side

 

[Ne0Griever]

Its kind of disappointing to hear how bad the game is, Its always looked so appealing to me.

Where's the contrarian/devils advocate's opinion. I wanna hear their side

Its not, but honestly they are a bunch of characters the truth is that it is not a pinnacle of the genre.

Its better if you experience it, the thing is we should establish standards the bottom of the barrel being Borderlands 3 story and going up, i think this lands on a 6/10 you might as well go to the prepackage site i was casually mentioning mate!

 

[RuckusMcGuckus]

Its not, but honestly they are a bunch of characters the truth is that it is not a pinnacle of the genre.

Its better if you experience it, the thing is we should establish standards the bottom of the barrel being Borderlands 3 story and going up, i think this lands on a 6/10 you might as well go to the prepackage site i was casually mentioning mate!

ahhh I misread earlier, maybe in the future then

 

[KaiserMk7]

Note: It's 8 4 chapter stories that are not interconnected at all; no one speaks or is present during another character's cutscenes. Granted, other characters do have optional unvoiced conversations with the main character starting from chapter 2 onward, although you don't know you have an opportunity to see these conversations unless the right characters are already in your party. There may or may not be deeper connections between the eight stories than are at first apparent, but the progression structure certainly isn't good at conveying that. Also, there's a true final boss.

 

[Vardalis]

i agree with @Ne0Griever
You said you've never played FF or DQ, have you played any turn-based rpgs or jrpgs for that matter? If not personally id play something else first, not because I think Octopath Traveler is bad or anything (never played it), but there are a lot of great rpgs you could get from here to try out
Oh and thanks for the steam sale alert

Yeah, I've played a few Shin Megami Tensei games and Persona through and through. I guess I meant more I haven't played much of the more "traditional"/fantasy JRPG type games.