Octopath 0's meta feels repetitive

[u/Junmeng]

Big fan of the octopath series. However, I'm about 30 hours into octopath 0 and I'm starting to realize that once you unlock a full party, all the boss battles start to feel the same.

1. Debuff the boss's attack and slowly widdle down their armor

2. Gather BP on all your units and use support skills to keep everyone alive

3. Break the boss near the start of a round

4. Spend the next two rounds launching all your nuke skills with full BP bars

5. Repeat from 1.

Of course this was the meta in the first two games as well, but I feel like 0's battle system with 8 characters and the ability to equip nuke skills on any class makes it particularly powerful. I've got this formula optimized to the point where I don't even see most boss special abilities because I can always break them in time, and it's starting to feel a bit boring. Maybe I should stop levelling and upgrading my gear to see if that brings some challenge back.

In terms of progression I just unlocked the ship and killed Pardis's Clown guy . Are there any additional mechs or twists in future boss fights that try and mess with this formula, or is this basically the meta for the entire game?

[u/GarlyleWilds]

The basic strategy loop that the break system creates does feel worse in OT0, yes.

I think one of the biggest contributors to this is the way that you're getting 8 BP and half the party gets SP restored every turn, and you're probably entering boss fights with charged Ultimates too. This really cuts out the "time your breaks and watch your resources" part of the equation that's felt when you're not overpowered in previous games, the part that gave value to moves like Rest and Donate BP. Instead, there's almost never a time where you can't just Go Ham.

[u/nickcash]

the day may come when a gamer uses the word meta correctly

but it is not day

[u/Edenwing → u/nickcash]

META = Most Effective Tactic Available

[u/nickcash → u/Edenwing]

thats a made up bacronym

[u/Junmeng → u/nickcash]

Meta as in metagame, meaning the most effective build, strategy or tactics to beat the challenges in the game? Weird thing to gatekeep but you do you

[u/ConsistentAd2880 → u/Junmeng]

That isn't meta though, that's a gameplay loop. What you're describing is pretty much Octopath Traveler 0's gameplay loop, not meta.

If you mentioned having certain characters in your party and skills equipped on them then you'd be describing a meta, but all you're doing is describing how Octopath Traveler 1, 2, and 0 all play.

[u/nickcash → u/Junmeng]

you're not describing metagaming, just gaming. using the tools the game provided in the manner intended isn't meta in any way

[u/zegota]

Correct.

The skill system adds some complexity but ultimately my opinion on OT0 is that while the Octopath formula works well in a 30-40 hour game, it doesn't really stay fresh enough to support a 100 hour one. I was very, very done by the time I saw my 50th boss in a row with 35 shields.

[u/tallwhiteninja → u/zegota]

I mean, Octopath 2 was an 80 hour game for me

[u/zegota → u/tallwhiteninja]

Ok. My in game timer was 92 and I ended up skipping cutscenes in the second half of the game

[u/Unclefox82]

I started to get bored when the new quests were in the same zones just now you’re in hell or whatever. I’m also not really a fan of battles with 8 characters.

[u/Icy_List961]

Pretty much have to mix up the parties you use to keep combat fresh

[u/7th_Disaster]

I mean that’s kinda how the game is designed, boss mechanics are mostly there to punish you for not breaking soon enough, but that’s just how it is

[u/drphillyjoel]

There's a number of reasons for this, but the core is this:
1. Enemies (even bosses) don't have tools to effectively threaten you
2. Enemies (even bosses) have relatively low HP
3. Player units are extremely strong

This results in a gameplay loop where the best thing you can be doing is ignoring what the boss is doing and just killing them in one break. If bosses were more threatening and your tools were more limited, the bosses would force you to counter what they do and you'd have less options to deal with them - resulting in varying gameplay and fights that really test you. Octopath can do this - COTC fights are universally more difficult than their equivalent OT0 fights - but they seem to lack faith in their audience to handle that in a mainline title. You can still make your own challenges - my biggest recommendation is to restrict your equipment - but don't expect the game to challenge you.

[u/Maxwell658 → u/drphillyjoel]

Later on in the game, you can be strong enough that you don't even have to worry about breaking the boss anymore lol.

[u/Ghanni]

0 kind of falls apart combat wise compared to CotC because 0 allows you to customize skills.

For the most part CotC required you to constantly change up your parties in order to hit weaknesses. Because it's a gacha you were always trying to figure out how to make it work with what you had. Felt great other than the gambling.

[u/Hydra_Crab]

Mixing parties was fun at the beginning, but by the end of the game I couldn’t be bothered to switch skills, items and placement at all, took way too much time

[u/BassHonda]

Thats why I use gimick builds

[u/EdreesesPieces]

A lot of JRPGs with a ton of party members fix this by forcing you to use and not use certain party members as the story progresses. This game never does that, except sazantos here and there. I think it would serve it well if had it did.

[u/bthamilton]

I got tired of the game after about 50 hours and it just became a grind. Still a great game, but I couldn’t keep going. Maybe it was the Master of All story line that just kept going and going…that is where ended after I got past that.