So now I'm playing Octopath Traveler. First of all, WOW this game is a grind. If you don't like level grinding, this game WILL turn you off. And for a JRPG, it rather lacks in storytelling. While yes, most of the NPCs have specific backstories to flavor them up a little, I find myself just walking up to them, Inquiring, immediately hitting "A" once I see that a new hidden item has been unlocked, stealing everything with an 80+% chance of success, and leaving, never bothering to read their story at all, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything for it, which is sad. The characters do not interact with one another at all until you start to do their Chapter 2s (that phrase makes sense to those who are playing it), and even then, it's completely optional, you don't get to choose who actually interacts with who, and it's only a few lines (in a quest that can take upwards to 2 hours to do). They also don't interact (or even speak!) during any side missions. For those wondering, I started off with the thief, and I feel like I chose wisely. It's very rare that someone has stuff I can't steal, I've never had to buy health potions, and jacking up his evasion stat to ridiculous levels means even bosses have a hard time hitting him. Also, even if you're reasonably leveled, boss fights tend to take at least 20 minutes to do. You may not be in danger of dying and failing, but they have ridiculous amounts of health, even if you're constantly breaking them and hitting their weaknesses.
The graphics do look good, the voice acting is good, the actual battle mechanics is interesting (if you've played a Bravely game before, you know how to play Octopath). I think Primrose, the dancer, has the most interesting storyline, just for how dark and mature it is. I just wish that there was more story to this game, that the eight paths don't feel so separated and isolated from one another, and there wasn't such a HUGE difficulty spike every time you proceed from a Chapter X mission to a Chapter X+1 mission (ex.: level 9 for a Chapter 1 mission, level 22 for a Chapter 2 mission you can take on right away, level 34 for a Chapter 3 mission you can take on right after).
I'm 40 hours in, and just wrapping up all the Chapter 2s, btw.