I exaggerated there, to make a point. The game having a retro style aesthetic doesn't mean it doesn't offer value in spades. Many go as far as to call it an indie game, lol.

No no, from the 2 demo's it's very clearly not an indie game, but I do not think it can possibly offer the same huge experiences which the games I listed can do on the same system. For me a €60 game has to be big bucks all round, graphics, sound and story and imo (just an opinion of course) this game falls down in 2 of those area's to where it shouldn't be a full AAA game asking price.

Would love to see it do great though, I'm rooting for it for a number of reasons, just would love to see SE do more work with the platform, maybe consider porting their Secret of Mana trilogy over to the West since it's already out in Japan for months now.

No no, from the 2 demo's it's very clearly not an indie game, but I do not think it can possibly offer the same huge experiences which the games I listed can do on the same system. For me a €60 game has to be big bucks all round, graphics, sound and story and imo (just an opinion of course) this game falls down in 2 of those area's to where it shouldn't be a full AAA game asking price.

Would love to see it do great though, I'm rooting for it for a number of reasons, just would love to see SE do more work with the platform, maybe consider porting their Secret of Mana trilogy over to the West since it's already out in Japan for months now.

But your requirements kinda affect certain games negatively. Was The Order (not going to get into detail like the last couple of times) worth the original $60? Was No Man’s Sky? Were Splatoon or Titanfall?

There are other examples in which games fulfill your requirements but don’t necessarily feel worth $60 to some.

Yeah, anybody can look at those screenshots and clearly see that Octopath Traveler is made with pixelart textures, while the 3DS games are not. Pixelart is straight out of the 4th generation of videogame systems. 3DS on the other hand is using textures well beyond 5th gen. 

Of the games you mentioned only one of them (or the sequel to it) was bought by me at launch, that's Splatoon 2 it ticked the boxes for me in a way those games are, same with Overwatch (even though that was €40 not 60) but splatoon's Graphics, sound, controls and matches are phenomenal in what they offer for €60 on top of that, even though it is an arena shooter that game still offers a full single player campaign along with some hilarious stories and some giant boss battles. I don't see where in my criteria the game wouldn't make the list.

No mans sky had fuck all content (story)

The order was a terrible short story (story)

Titanfall was on a platform which at the time I wasn't using for online play so even if the game was €60 I would have needed to pay a further €50 for the ability to play it online, so while the game might have been something I could justify being worth 60, I couldn't pony up 110 for what it was offering.

Don’t get me wrong, Splatoon 1 and 2 were worth their $60 price tags to me. Though Some would argue that Splatoon 2’s graphics weren’t that much improved from the original and the single player wasn’t as good as the original (though the Octo Expansion seems to make up for that).

im just citing examples of how some believe otherwise of what you’re saying in terms of what game deserves (or not) to release at $60.

No no, from the 2 demo's it's very clearly not an indie game, but I do not think it can possibly offer the same huge experiences which the games I listed can do on the same system. For me a €60 game has to be big bucks all round, graphics, sound and story and imo (just an opinion of course) this game falls down in 2 of those area's to where it shouldn't be a full AAA game asking price.

Would love to see it do great though, I'm rooting for it for a number of reasons, just would love to see SE do more work with the platform, maybe consider porting their Secret of Mana trilogy over to the West since it's already out in Japan for months now.

I never played it on the Wii-U so I don't have that comparison, just the amazing looking Switch title.

You could be right indeed, there will be people who buy the game when it launches and I'm hoping it does great like I said, love SE's work and would love to have more of that on my Switch. I just mean for me personally, I find that price tag to be a thing stopping me from getting it day one, see at the moment I've got close to 80 Switch titles, so I'm not at a loss for something to play, so if something is out which could interest me, I have a backlog that I can go and enjoy while waiting to pick up the game at a reduced price down the line or see if there is a sale on it @ Amazon or other stores. Kinda invested a ton early so I can be a cheap ass now :D

First off, you can't just look at the "texture", which is the 2d image itself.  You have to look at how the textures react to light.  This is how you spot bump maps, normal maps, etc.  The materials in Octopath feature more of such maps than the 3DS games you mention.  And quite detailed ones at that, as the cave screenshot shows.  The texture itself is based on pixel art but the materials feature use of much more modern elements.

Also, polygon counts for the environment actually can climb higher than some of the games you mentioned very easily.  The Bravely games especially.

You are also ignoring the presence of a far, far, far more robust post processing pipeline than any 3DS game can even have.  The lighting, rendering, effects, shadows, all these are in an entirely different league than the games you mentioned.  This is made in Unreal Engine 4 and they are making use of it's capabilities in the area of post processing quite well.  The gap in this area between Octopath and those games you mentioned is far beyond anything you can brush off with the 3D mode.

Octopath is just plain graphically more advanced than any of the games you listed.  Except maybe a couple where the advantage in polygonal complexity is really really high but even then, those games come up extremely short in other areas.