So Octopath has flat character models, and Bravely has flat backgrounds. Octopath has lighting/shadows, and Bravely has 3D mode. I'd say they're on equal footing. I'm mainly concerned about the $60 asking price, being too much. Lighting/Shadows usually don't cost much time or effort to do these days. Just hit a few buttons in whatever engine you're working in, and place your lights for desired effect. This is especially true when your game is as simple as Octopath. 

Again, I'm still going to buy this game, because I desperately want these type of AA games to continue to have a home somewhere, other than mobile. If I have to pay a little more to convince Square and other companies that these types of games are worth making, so be it. If Octopath doesn't do well in sales, then we won't see more of these games in the future. 

I don't care about your pricing views but objectively what you claimed earlier is flat out untrue, if lighting is that easy how come none of the game you mention manage it, none of them have the same level of texture quality, none of them have the same level of shadows etc... Octopath has not only a full 3d world but the areas are also larger than those in the games you mention. Claiming that having 3d character models equals the same effort as having a 3D world is also incorrect.

Because the 3DS simply doesn't have the processing power to do lighting. Texture quality is often better with the 3DS games. This is because pixel style textures aren't as good as regular textures. Once you get into the dungeons, Etrian Odyssey, SMT IV, and other games have larger areas than Octopath. Right, 3D character models have to be animated, and look good at multiple angles. Backgrounds for a game from a 2D perspective don't. 

Wyrdness said: 

Yet you claimed it's easy to do but here you've just admitted it's now not and what kills two birds with one stone is you've indirectly admitted they're not graphically better than OT because the latter does something the games you mentioned can't because of graphical power this shoots down your whole claim from before.

3D can be a lot of work yes but not the games you mentioned as they use simple 3D models with simple and reused animations, OT's areas are larger and are full 3D so the game has to render full on 3D assets in the area regardless of perspective this means lighting and shadows reacting correctly to the assets and the textures all the while at a higher resolution. While on the topic of perspective a number of the games you mentioned are a fixed perspective as well only some like the Bravely games don't have 3D areas for many places like towns.

Easy to do as in it takes hardly any development time. Not easy to do as in computationally demanding. The 3DS games also do something Octopath can't, 3D mode. That puts them on equal footing as far as I'm concerned. Simple 3D models are still harder to implement than simple 2D Alphamaps. You're confusing wasting computational resources with graphical superiority. At it's heart Octopath is a budget AA title, and they want a full on $60 for it. Or do you think that Octopath took just as much time and effort to develop as most other $60 games on Switch? 

Easy to do as in it takes hardly any development time. Not easy to do as in computationally demanding. The 3DS games also do something Octopath can't, 3D mode. That puts them on equal footing as far as I'm concerned. Lots of 3DS RPGs like Etrian Odyssey, and SMT IV don't have fixed perspectives. You can look around with the circle pad. Simple 3D models are still harder to implement than simple 2D Alphamaps. The background 3D assets in Octopath have the same polycount as the background 3D assets in the 3DS games. And as I said before the textures are in a pixel art style, so they are lower resolution then the 3DS games. You're confusing wasting computational resources with graphical superiority. At it's heart Octopath is a budget AA title, and they want a full on $60 for it. Or do you think that Octopath took just as much time and effort to develop as most other $60 games on Switch? 

No it doesn't because many games don't make use of 3D so when you turn it on it not only makes no difference on what you're seeing those resources aren't being used up so those games would drop even further down graphically if they did so that doesn't salvage your incorrect claim,  if a game has better lighting, textures, shadows etc... it's graphically better you're likely talking about your own preference in art direction and mistaking it for graphics, graphics are an objective factor based on the prior mentioned feats whether you prefer something else doesn't really change that objectivity for example a number of people may prefer BOTW's look to Horizon but the latter is still graphically better.

Shaunodon said: 

As already mentioned 3D-mode is a function of the 3DS not the game.

The games we are talking about, do make use of it though. The 3DS games I mentioned have better textures, and often a higher polycount. Those are the two things that make the biggest difference in graphics. Lighting and Shadows are secondary. Yes, they take up a lot of resources, but that doesn't put them to the forefront of this argument. I can render an 18 sided cylinder, or I can render an 1800 sided cylinder. After smoothing groups, both cylinders look identical. But the way you are approaching graphics, you would argue that the 1800 sided cylinder is graphically superior. In the same sense, dynamic real-time lighting can look equal to or worse than baked in lighting. If I throw a single blaring light into a scene (a sloppy lighting technique that looks awful), but make it real-time, does that make it better than a scene with half a dozen meticulously placed lights that are baked in? Of course not, but again, you seem to be confusing wasting resources with graphics, so maybe you would way yes. 

Yeah, I get that Horizon is graphically better than BotW. And yeah, I do like BotW better, but I know the difference between graphics and art direction. For example, Octopath's textures are pixelated, because that's their art direction. I like it, but I still have to admit that it is graphically worse than many 3DS games' textures, just like I have to admit that BotW's textures are graphically worse than Horizon's. 

Edit: Alright man, we're taking this thread waaaaaaaay off topic. If you want to respond to me go ahead, but I'm just going to write my responses on your wall. Same goes for if anybody else wants to keep talking about this. 

False. 3D-Mode is built into the game's code. It takes the 3DS' layered screen hardware to implement that code.