Octopath 2: I am 90% finished and there is only 1 really big flaw with it

I have really been enjoying my time with this game but it is evident to me due to the lack of things remaining on the map that I am getting very near to the end of everything that the game has to offer outside of unimportant side-quests that are too cryptic to really even figure out what is to be done and the ones I have finished have mostly been accomplished by accident anyway.

This major flaw was something that I have been told has been rectified in the most recent release of this game that is entitled Octopath Traveler 0 and it was likely something that the fans of the game gave feedback on and the devs actually listened.

I'll get straight to the point on this one rather than weaving a web of mysterious text that leaves you guessing what it is that I am talking about.

There are 8 potential characters that you get to choose can be in your part or not at any given point in time. Only 4 of them get to be in your party at any time. The ones that you leave back at the inn are going to gain no experience when you travel around without them and by the time you go back to them because some mission requires you to use them, they are going to be many levels below the ones that you have grown accustomed to using.

I recently found myself in a situation where the party I had grown accustomed to and had gotten up to nearly level 60 or beyond with them and the only missions left on the map that are labeled were places where the members I had left at the pub because I liked them less were still in their early 20's as far as levels are concerned and everyone else was at or above level 60.

This 40 levels of disparity results in a LOT of grinding areas to get them caught up and in my opinion, they do not gain levels fast enough to reach the same level as the rest of the folks that you have been using. This results in you walking around certain areas that are a cakewalk for your toon in the 60's but can kill them really quick should an enemy somehow survive the first round and decide to target them instead of one of your tougher members.

The XP does scale in that the lower level characters do gain levels a lot faster if you bring say a level 20 to a level 45 danger level, but they get hit at all, they are going to die.

I have a certain attack with one of my main favorite characters that can wipe the entire enemy party in one go but if for some reason my "party is caught by surprise" I can be guaranteed that the rest of the crew is going to be near death or already dead by the time his turn comes around.

I painstakingly got 3 of my 4 left behind characters up to around level 40 from 20 last night and it took me several hours of not really having any fun at all in order to make this happen.

I do like that you have the freedom to choose which characters you want in your group at all times but I do NOT like the fact that they don't gain at least some level of passive XP back at the pub. The developers had to have known that this was going to be an issue when they were making the game and this is probably why they rectified this in the latest release of the game.

Grinding is something that we used to do in nearly every RPG back in the 80's and 90's and we got used to it back then. It was just a part of life but these days I feel as though there should be some sort of quality control built in so that you don't have to do that sort of thing.

I have on multiple occasions contemplated simply not finishing the game because of this but instead I just mindlessly walked through a level 30-35 area with a crew that has all characters around 20 and one guy who is near 70 and when the low level guys' turn comes up I just hit "defend" as the option in the hopes that they are able to survive getting hit. If the enemy decides to do an area affect spell, that defend isn't going to mean squat and the 20's are going to die right then and there. Then you have to spend your turn rezzing them only to potentially have them immediately get wiped again.

The best thing to do in this situation is just have the level 70 person finish the fight solo and then try again on the next one.

This sucks a lot of the fun out of the game and I know that a lot of fans of the game have had a problem with this and nearly everyone has had to go through this at some point or another because there are around a thousand tutorials online about where the best places are to farm XP.

I don't want to farm XP... ever

I didn't read the guides but instead just laid back on the sofa with an item equipped that makes you encounter enemies more frequently and then stopped looking at my phone when an attack happened. Several hours later the lower characters in question were nearly at a level high enough to enter the areas that are next on their line of quests.

At the moment I have only 2 character main stories left to complete and after that, as I have been told, there are still several hours of post-main-story things to do and I can say right now that I have no intention of doing them.

This game is extremely long by my standards and I think that after I complete these last 2 storylines, that this will have been enough for me.

I still think this is a great classic RPG for people who are older to relive their youth, but this is a very big problem that I think they could have done a lot better than they did.

Just know that when you start playing this game that this situation of needing to XP farm at some point, is almost unavoidable.