It was annoying to complete 8 stories (chapter 1) till you get all your party members.
It's done cheap, they are placed in towns and you have to rush from town to town, it's not connected to a story line to meet you other members.
Maybe you can play on story after another without collecting your party but this would make combat boring.
When you got them, you can focus on one storyline of one character and do the rest later.
The combat lockdown mechanics are easily turned into your favor, you stun enemies and finish them off. But they give you tons of options how to do it.
Combat mechanic are basically a ripoff from the Persona games. Spot an enemies weakness, use skills to stun then finish em off.
The only difference between Persona and Octopath is the shield system, you have to hit a enemies weakness multiple times till you stun, in Persona it stuns on the first hit.
Nothing new but also not wide spread, Octopath and Persona...haven't seen other games using those mechanics.
This kind of combat is not a challange for me but I'm the hardcore player who is bored in Persona5 playing on Merciless, even in the first run.
Others complain it's too difficult...but not me.
But you can make it challenging from time to time when you enter caves which have a higher lvl rating than your party.
Final thoughts:
Good game but it could have been made better. Like game difficulties, connected story lines etc.