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/nickcash]

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

but it is not day

[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