Octo 2 vs Chained Echos

[SecularStoner]

Which would you guys say is better?

[DapperGorilla]

Easily Octopath Traveler 2. Doesn't mean Chained is bad though.

[Army of Optimists]

Chained Echoes has a more engaging plot and better pacing - both in narrative and progression. Octopath 2 is a better looking game and has more polished systems. Neither is a bad game.

Personally, having beaten 5/8 of the stories in OT2, I'd say Chained Echoes was more enjoyable overall. The "back half" of Octopath, where you do the other four character stories, really drags. You've already seen most of the classes and locations, plus you have all the gear from your level 50+ party. It turns an already fairly easy game into a blitz through the paths.

On the other hand, Chained Echoes can be hit-or-miss depending on how you feel about its twists on the JRPG formula - notably, some players hate the Overdrive bar - and it has some rough edges. Some of its systems are confusing or underused, like the crystals you slot into equipment.

The big difference is that when I beat Chained Echoes, I felt like I could've kept playing. At my current point in Octopath, I've enjoyed it but I'm ready for it to be over.

[Melodia]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

The "back half" of Octopath, where you do the other four character stories, really drags.

Where YOU do the other four, maybe. Since when is that the intended way to play?

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by Melodia:

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

The "back half" of Octopath, where you do the other four character stories, really drags.

Where YOU do the other four, maybe. Since when is that the intended way to play?

Read between the lines and it's the intended way. The party neatly divides into East vs West, with both sets of four covering all the available path actions, and the chapters are spaced out such that doing four chapters of the same tier sets the party near the level to begin doing the next tier.

Ideally, you'd set up two parties and switch between them so you could clear all the chapters of a tier at the same time, except the game prevents this by locking your first character into the party. All the alternative ways to play end up with at least your protagonist overleveled, if not overgeared, unless you do something very outside-the-box like purposefully leaving them dead.

Anyway, my point is that you're going to have a "back half" of the game regardless of how you play. Unless you go out of your way to finagle things, you're going to progress faster than the content left to do. If you've come up with a novel way to play that avoids this and isn't finicky or weird, I'd love to hear it.

[SecularStoner]

Didn't expect people to be divided. I'll probably pick Octo 2 on sale. I couldn't really get into the first one as the plots and stories between characters seemed very disjointed.

[TCSyd]

Chained Echoes was mid. Check out Crystal Project if you want a cool indie JRPG.

[SecularStoner]

Originally posted by TCSyd:

Chained Echoes was mid. Check out Crystal Project if you want a cool indie JRPG.

Game looks horrible but I might try it out.

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by SecularSmoker:

Originally posted by TCSyd:

Chained Echoes was mid. Check out Crystal Project if you want a cool indie JRPG.

Game looks horrible but I might try it out.

It's a phenomenal game as long as you're into mechanics. Its story is very light and mostly told through background events.

CrossCode, Chained Echoes, and Crystal Project are like the trinity of great indie RPGs, though. Hopefully, Sea of Stars lives up to its hype later this year.

[MrTherandomguy42]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Originally posted by SecularSmoker:

Game looks horrible but I might try it out.

It's a phenomenal game as long as you're into mechanics. Its story is very light and mostly told through background events.

CrossCode, Chained Echoes, and Crystal Project are like the trinity of great indie RPGs, though. Hopefully, Sea of Stars lives up to its hype later this year.

I really wanted to like Crosscode, but I could never really get into it. Might try the other two later though. They are on my wishlist.

[dustin1280]

Originally posted by MrTherandomguy42:

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

It's a phenomenal game as long as you're into mechanics. Its story is very light and mostly told through background events.

CrossCode, Chained Echoes, and Crystal Project are like the trinity of great indie RPGs, though. Hopefully, Sea of Stars lives up to its hype later this year.

I really wanted to like Crosscode, but I could never really get into it. Might try the other two later though. They are on my wishlist.

Just be warned Crystal Project (while absolutely amazing) has significant platforming elements...
And some of them are really really annoying. So while I HIGHLY recommend that game, go into knowing you are going to have some really annoying platforming throughout the entire game...

[nephalim]

Octo:
Better writing
Better graphics
Much more polish

Chained Echoes:
Much better exploration
Better overall story
Better difficulty
1/3 the price

[Sprocket]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Originally posted by Melodia:

Where YOU do the other four, maybe. Since when is that the intended way to play?

Read between the lines and it's the intended way. The party neatly divides into East vs West, with both sets of four covering all the available path actions, and the chapters are spaced out such that doing four chapters of the same tier sets the party near the level to begin doing the next tier.

Ideally, you'd set up two parties and switch between them so you could clear all the chapters of a tier at the same time, except the game prevents this by locking your first character into the party. All the alternative ways to play end up with at least your protagonist overleveled, if not overgeared, unless you do something very outside-the-box like purposefully leaving them dead.

Anyway, my point is that you're going to have a "back half" of the game regardless of how you play. Unless you go out of your way to finagle things, you're going to progress faster than the content left to do. If you've come up with a novel way to play that avoids this and isn't finicky or weird, I'd love to hear it.

I have a way and its not complicated! - just level all characters (except the one that's locked) roughly equally - always do a chapter for a character (out of all 8) as soon as that char is the right level and take with you the lowest levels you have to help raise their levels. - I have done this and have 7 level 37 chars and 1 level 50 char, and never found anything has been over levelled so far due to always doing the chapters at the right time, and bringing mix of overlevelled main and underlevelled others and am now close to last chapter for all now. - This is possible cause of the 2nd jobs, but does mean i move some around when i change chars of course to keep a good set of skills in the party.

[Melodia]

Yup, I did it a similar way to the above, and I think by the end I had my main (Agnea) at level 54 when I took her out after her story, everyone else was in the low 40s.

[8765409]

The only thing chained echoes loses to octo 2 on is polish. Chained Echoes is way better for story, gameplay, and combat.

[Iron Maiden]

Not even close Chained Echoes by far, it exceeds this garbage game in every conceivable way. This game is actually worse than the original and the original was horrendous as well.