What are your top 3-5 favorite RPGs?

I put about 200 hours into Xenoblade and plan on going back. I am at 60 hours with Octopath, and will probably do a second playthrough (because I messed my party up a bit with the use of the nuts that increase different attributes).

Octopath's main problem is a lack of scope and epicness in its stories. As far as I can tell all 8 stories are unconnected, and end quickly after four chapters that each last about an hour. Also, as far as I can tell, Octopath really lacks any endgame bosses that let you take your level 3 classes and truly test their might. I beat all the endgame bosses with just my party at level 50. Once you get the secret level 3 classes, every boss in the game is a joke. Octopath has a great combat system, and fairly good pacing, but random battles occur a little too often for my tastes. In Bravely Default you could turn off random battles when moving through areas of the game to avoid fighting enemies that were too low of a level to bother with. Octopath doesn't really have this, so when you're moving through an area, which you've already mastered you are made to fight enemies that pose no threat to you. Some of the sidequests in Octopath are really obscure and confusing. A quest giver might mention in passing that they have a long lost mother, and its your job to go through the scores of towns trying to find said mother, and then bring them back to the quest giver. This sort of "I don't know what I"m supposed to do, until I randomly stumble upon it" quest structure is a bit annoying. Don't get me wrong, Octopath is a great game, and I'll list the good things about it when I write a review on it, but for now, I'm just listing the things that got on my nerves.

Xenoblade on the other hand has a much longer, much more epic story. The combat system is just as good as Octopath's if not better, and there's tons of late game bosses to test your party's skills to the limit. You can just avoid enemies that you don't want to fight in Xenoblade by running away from them. Sidequests are fun and rewarding because many of them often give you a whole new blade (character, not weapon) or something else useful. There's a sidequest marker that gives you a general idea of where to go next. The voice acting is fine if you're british, or if you just turn on Japanese voice acting (but don't know the langauge enough to cringe at it). Xenoblade is also, much much longer than Octopath. Like three times longer.

You couldnt go wrong with either, but XC 2 is the better game.

I recommend Xenoblade 2, I sometimes feels like Xenoblade Trailers are bad/really bad, but playing their games are really Epic and Beautiful.

Xenoblade 2 is up there with the best games of this gen

Xenoblade 2 if you care more about the story, or are an anime fan. The combat is kinda MMO-ish and boring. Technical issues pop out from time to time.

Octopath has a much better battle system, although the story is just serviceable. Also looks and sounds amazing.

For me, Octopath is the obvious choice. Spent ~50 hours in X2, while I have already clocked ~75 in Octopath. I keep coming back to Octopath from time to time, finding the last few secrets, while I have not touched X2 in over 6 months. Both quality games, and solid options, though.

Both are incredibly disappointing games. Xenoblade 2 is slightly less disappointing though...

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is superior in every way, and it’s not even close.

Basically the only thing that really shines with Octopath Traveler is it’s throwback art style. Otherwise it is lacking in substance, much like most other throwback RPGs. I found the battle system grew old very very quickly due to high amounts of religion, it is much less streamlined than classic RPGs, and the number of encounters is noticibly higher.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 offers up a gigantic amount more content, a far more satisfying battle system, a significantly more creative setting, and the story begins with a very light-hearted almost Skies of Arcadia-like quality, but ends up in an epic Xenosaga-esque style story. Also, the battles are far more streamlined and have significantly more depth to them... and it’s a bit of the opposite experience to Octopath traveler, as battle system mechanics and depth is introduced over time (in an attempt not to overwhelm the player, since mechanics also factor into difficulty balance - although, IMO the enemies prior to chain attacking and combos should have less HP), so it becomes more interesting... also, the encounter rate is MUCH lower, particularly since the enemies can all be seen on the map. Another thing I like is that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is actually a lot of fun in New Game+, maybe even more fun in some ways that the first time through since there’s even more content and features available - as the game allows you to maintain what you gained.

Also, not sure about the voice acting concern, IMO it has one of the best voice acting of any game ever. One nice touch is that they gave each culture its own unique accent. There’s also a lot more personality in the voice work than is usual for games...

Unless you really hate the modern real time RPG combat of XB, XB2 is superior. And that extra 20 dollar content is so worth it.

Xenoblade is of course the bigger game. Octopath is much better for on the go and for shorter sessions. After finishing all chapter fours, I'm no trying to do all the side quests and after that, the secret final boss. If you want, you can still put 100 hours in Octopath. Octopath is more repetitive, Xenoblade has a better story, but side quests are longer, so it depends if you like doing side quests. Overall I prefer Octopath.