I always heard that the first 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Octopath Traveler had great combat, but the reviews being mixed on everything else meant that I never got around to checking it out. I'm currently playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Octopath Traveler 2, though, and the combat is indeed very gooౠd. My only issue is how often the ღgame asks you to do it.
I'm still early in the game, having just added a second main character to my party, so the battles haven't gotten as involved as they eventually will. Even now, it's a lot of fun. Each time you encounter a new enemy type, they have the word "Vulnerable" and several boxes displaying question marks displayed beneath them. If you use a thunderbolt and it's effective on them, you'll get a little lightning symbol in one of the boxes to remind you, in future battles, that electricity is one of their weaknesses. If you do the same with a melee weapon, you'll get a little ax, or sword, or bow and arrow symbol in the box. It's a cool way to keep you thinking about the game's key combat mechanic, breaking, which requires you to hit an opponent with an attack they're weak against. Once you do enough damage, they'll "break," and become more vulnerable. But these boxes also help you keep track of your research. It's like if a Pokemon game put your 'dex information right up there on the screen.
I'm enjoying the combat a lot and am excited to see how it evolves. The problem isn't the battle system itself. It's the sheer amount of combat encounters the game throws at you. Anytime you're outside of a town, you can randomly encounter an enemy. It doesn't matter if you're rowing a boat or running along a path, baddies can spring up anywhere and there's no tall grass equivalent to delineate safe areas from dangerous ones. If you're outside, you're vulnerable to attack. Even at ports, you can be attacked while walking from a save post to a market and that makes the game a little exhausting to play if you're spending a long stretch outside of a town.
This is more noticeable because I recently played through the excellent 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sea of Stars demo. That game, from Sabotage, is also a turn-based RPG continuing the design tradition of Square Enix's '90s classics. But Sea of Stars draws more from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Chrono Trigger, in that that enemy combatants are always visible and can be avoided if you aren't looking for a fight. That felt like the best possible solution three decades ago when Chrono Trigger and Earthbound did it, so it's a little frustrating to see Octopath Traveler 2 tack so hard in the other direction.
Random encounters aren't always a bad thing. But their sheer frequency in Octopath Traveler 2, combined with the fact that safe spaces are rare, has made me feel as if I'm always on edge during my early hours with the game. It feels like having a conversation at a party, but constantly being interrupted by your most interesting friend. They have good things to say, you just don't always need to hear from them. Sometimes you just want to listen to someone else.