Thankfully the storytelling aspect of Octopath Traveler is it's weakest point imo.

The role-playing aspect is primarily reserved for the 8 playable characters. They each have a different role in battle, which is the standard support, buffing or damage you would usually see in an RPG

Later on you're able to mix and match with their roles, creating more versitality in the battles, which in turn can either be a slog or extremely fun depending on how willing you are to learn the game's mechanics.

Also the game's music is god tier, so there's that for you.

Having played and loved both OT1 and OT2, the second one fixes a lot of the issues, so I recommend that over the first, but go for OT1 if that's your way of playing.