For the same reason the majority of people don't pay $60 for mobile titles. There are lots of titles with 100s of hours of great gameplay that are priced based on the budget of production. 

Some Switch games just seem like a rip off when you consider what you got for $40 on 3DS in its first year or PS4/XBO where competition is more intense. 

Maybe it has to do with the game being a turn-based RPG. Turn-based RPG's are honestly kinda boring for many people including me. It also has to do with the fact that it's a JRPG, their stories are sooooo slow paced and it takes a long time to get to the good stuff.

I mean this game being turn-based and all shouldn't really be 60$, to me it's not worth it. Plus I played the demo and it was mehh. It was just as I thought, slow and kinda boring.

Also, chill out, everyone is entitled to their opinion, just because some people don't like it doesn't mean that it has to hinder your enjoyment of the game. Why do their opinions matter?

I have no issue with this game being turn based like some others say. I very rarely buy games at full price though and this is definitely not one of them. It's ultimately the archaic game design that is the problem.

From what I'm hearing this game has a really high random encounter rate with a need to grind a lot to get past certain places, and with 8 or so different characters; jesus. There are ways to reduce the encounter rate, but then there's the issue of the need to grind so why turn the encounter rate down? It's a poor game design decision and ultimately a deal breaker for me and I'm sure many others not blinded by nostalgia who would just throw true game breakers like this under the rug. I have had my fill of high random encounter rate games and I tolerated them then, but no more; we're waaaay past this. It's sad that there are so many Japanese developers stuck in the past with horrible RNG/balancing issues for stuff like this. It's so simple to improve upon.

It's a misconception you need to grind, what it comes down to is if you pick a first character who adds utility or power to the party grinding becomes heavily reduced because when you go get the other characters your first choice is over levelled or equal to the boss in power and levels up during it. People who grind do so to gain access to certain abilities which when learnt overpower the party, the game balanced it self by having a rolling requirement in order to unlock abilities but people get around it by grinding. 

The problem isn't different opinions. I have no problems with people disliking the game. The problem is people saying it isn't worth full-price, because they don't like it. If a game with 84 Meta hasn't enough value for full price, what does?

And the genre is no reason for that. I dislike some genres, but I don't go around saying all sports-games should be discounted, because they have no value.

IF I pick one of those characters.  Sounds like I'll need to use a game guide in order to bypass some things..but I prefer not to use one.  I'd rather no spoilers before I get to them and to keep the surprises coming as long as they aren't mechanically needed for me to better enjoy the game.  

Honest question for folks that think $60 is fair price for this game - in your opinion, what is fair price for alternate universe Octopath, with same content, just with AAA production value?

Exactly the same with AAA visuals?  60 dollars.

You forget that we live in a world where a barebone game like Starwars Battlefront is priced the same as Witcher 3.  Treating this comparison any differently would be cherry picking to prove a point that does not exist.

60 as is, or 60 with better visuals and same content.  Either way, the game is worth the 60 dollars.

Just follow the quest lines as recommended by level.  You will not need to grind and you can do them in any order you like.  You will have all 8 characters at that point as well, so you can form your party how you see fit.

No guide needed.

Octopath Traveler is a game designed specifically to look and feel like a classic JRPG, if it had AAA production value it would be a different game/concept entirely. Other than adding some more voiced lines and some animated cutscenes, they pretty much already pushed the limits of everything they could.