I'm now very deep in, having just crossed the 40 hour mark. I've been playing a lot, and it's helped that my wife's been out of town a bunch, for work, over the last few weeks. That's gotten me through Chapter 4* for Osvald, Chapter 3 for Temenos, Throne, and Hikari, Chapter 2 for Agnea, parts of Chapter 2 for Castti and Ochette, and Chapter 1 for Partitio. While I'm loving it, I'm probably going to take a break from it for a week or so. I have been playing it enough that I'm feeling a little burnout.
*Having finished Chapter 4 for Osvald, it looks like his progress bar is as full as the people for whom I've done Chapter 3. I don't know why the game broke the prison escape up into two chapters, they really just seem like one slightly longer intro that naturally go together.
Apart from the story, I've been on the open sea and have cleared a bunch of those islands, which is really nice. I find I'm enjoying the game the most when I'm pretty close to the recommended level and am facing some challenge and risk. That's what led me to ignore the western-continent crew for a bit and push on through the stories of my main party: I was having less fun blazing through the sections where I was over-leveled. The side quests are also great, and I kind of wish that more of the main story were organized like the side quests: with more exploration and figuring out solutions through path actions, and fewer mandatory path actions leading to cut scenes.
I'm also starting to find that my main party -- Osvald, Temenos, Throne, and Ochette -- is not quite working as well for me as it used to, and I think I may have to tinker around with things. As bosses get tougher, they seem to have more shield points, fewer weak points (and ones that aren't often aligned well with this party), and sometimes have shifting or locked-down weak points. And I'm finding that I just need a lot more multi-attack moves than I currently have access to -- which is especially a problem for Osvald and Throne. Temenos is a good breaker, but now, I have to use him for healing more often, and he's really only good at breaking when I am able to use his latent power. I'll have to do some rearranging.
The boss fight at the end of Temenos' Chapter 3 was really fun and really, really hard -- I came close to wiping, but brute-forced my way through. I think I made it harder by playing poorly and, in one case, making a really ill-advised test of the boss's reflective shield.
The other fun thing is that I managed to break the damage limit with Ochette. She hit 12,515 in a recent boss fight!
my main party -- Osvald, Temenos, Throne, and Ochette
Hey, that's my main party! 
Only difference is Ochette is my "main" character.
They're really great at night, aren't they? When I'm out exploring, I love the way all their skills stack up to make random encounters go smoothly.
While clearing Temenos' Chapter 2, I finally uncovered my first bit of Party Banter where Throné lent her assassin's expertise to Temenos' investigation, and it's some fine dining! Excited to see the potential banter combos that may arise as the stories continue. Also added Castti to the crew and started (re)playing her Chapter 1.
Now currently have Castti & Hikari in the crew, and I got more worked up to tears by Hikari's Ch. 1 than I anticipated. That Ku music hits. I also found an ominous journal in the Ku Castle basement before wrapping up the chapter, and what would've happened if I hadn't found that? It was mighty ominous! Another omen of the "coming night".
Only 2 Travelers left to pick up at this point, Partitio & Agnea. Partitio will probably be first since Oresrush is home to Throné's "Mother Route" Chapter 2, which is what I'm really aiming for. Current party comp. is Throné, Osvald, Castti & Ochette, but I might swap Ochette out for Hikari so he can pick up some levels & learned skills on the journey.
So, raised up enough money to buy a ship through Partitio's commerce route. Went to some islands that kicked my arse enemy encounter-wise. Will be back later. On the "doing stuff by the book" realm, I am about to start Hikari's chapter 2.
Dropped into Delsta planning on doing Agnea's chapter two, but while exploring the town, stumbled into Throné prologue. I think I am about halfway through it, interested to see where it is going since do far everything has been fairly stereotypical then twists at the end.
Throné prologue
I will say I called Scar bring the traitor immediately. He just has all the tells and markers for it. That is assuming Father is telling Thronè the truth.
I actually thought that prologue had a really interesting twist!
I actually thought that prologue had a really interesting twist!
Same.
Just finished Hikari's Chapter 2. I'm enjoying his story so far and none of the characters have let me down yet. 1 down, 7 to go.
Going through Partitio's prologue and trying to wrap my brain around who would pick this guy as their primary Traveler.
A trader, maybe? Or someone in the midst of getting their degree in Economics? I started with Throné and this guy is as polar an opposite as you can get, from outfit to outlook.
EDIT: I finished his prologue and I take it back, Partitio's a nice young man who wants to do his best. Only Agnea left to pick up before I'm fully octo'd up.
After playing the first Crossed Paths between Throné & Temenos' and getting more banter between the 2 during Throné's Ch 2 Father route, I am having a Wonderful time. I'm an absolute mark for when the detective & the thief have to work together. Add in that I've now got Temenos part-timing as a Scholar and I think my night shift pair are thick as thieves.
I take back everything sassy I ever said about Partitio. He has a beautiful purpose in life as a BP Farm that can use a Merchant class action to pass that BP onto fellow travelers. Add in the class passive that starts him off with 1 extra BP every fight and you can start firing off Divine skills early. I just used that method to have Throné finish a boss fight with my first 9999 of the game.
Knocked out a couple Chapter 2's and itching to crack into some Chapter 3's. Throné (doubling as Inventor) & Temenos (doubling as Scholar) have been my party mainstays while the rest of the crew rotates through. Next stop is Throné & Hikari's Chapter 3's!
Checking in again. I’m around the 16 hour mark, and I now have the full crew of 8 after I’ve gotten everyone on the western continent now.
Agnea and Paritio’s stories were whatever, but Agnea is already useful since a random person tagging along heals when she does dances, so she was a replacement for Temenos. Hikari has big main character energy, and considering he’s out to gather allies may have been a reasonable primary hero.
I also love that there were some reasonably higher level dungeons on the western continent that I could get people leveled in. One was level 15 and the other was level 16, but both were good when picking up new people to get everyone grinded up a bit.
I think Temenos, Throne, Hikari, Osvald, and Castti are the most interesting so far. I also found a shield in a cave that restores SP every turn, so that went straight onto Osvald so I can spam spells just a bit more.
Next objectives are probably going to all the towns I’ve visited so far and robbing everyone blind then fencing it with Partitio (I got a sales booster companion), and then maybe try to go get a few more subclasses before continuing on with everyone’s stories.
I also really like having Ochette as a main party member – she has three weapons so will usually have some physical weakness to hit, plus the owl picks up all sorts of elemental weaknesses on the other side. So she’s pretty much always useful for knocking down shields or doing big damage.
I've actually been wondering about this -- now that I have been running into tougher bosses, do I need Partitio? As I recall, his latent power just gives him max BP, right? So you could use a maxed-out BP gift, hit the latent power, and use it again?
Oddly enough, as I've come to rely on Osvald and Ochette as my heavy hitters, I've given Throne the merchant subclass. Sometimes, I use her to break enemies, sometimes for healing (the 2x turn from her latent is great for this) and sometimes for sharing BP with others. But I have a nagging sense that in the role I've designed for her, she's just less good than Partitio would be.
How'd you manage to hit 9,999 with Throné? She doesn't do that kind of damage for me, so I'd love to hear your setup.
Next objectives are probably going to all the towns I’ve visited so far and robbing everyone blind then fencing it with Partitio (I got a sales booster companion), and then maybe try to go get a few more subclasses before continuing on with everyone’s stories.
I love this move so much.
How'd you manage to hit 9,999 with Throné? She doesn't do that kind of damage for me, so I'd love to hear your setup.
For starters, I have Throné decked out in speed-enhancing gear, as a chunk of her Thief abilities deal damage tied to her Speed stat. Add in that I was using her Divine Skill, Aeber's Reckoning, which uses that high speed for damage. The key with Throné is using her latent power to give her 2 turns, one for setup and one for knockdown. Use the first turn to debuff the enemy with Armor Corrosive to lower physical defense, then max out boost and have her clean up.
It's probably more conventional to have Hikari or Ochette pulling these numbers, but Throné's my main character, so I'm making her work as best as I can.
Oh nice. I don't think I've really tried Aeber's reckoning because I've been focused on other characters as major damage dealers, but I'll have to give Throne a try there. I definitely have some good speed-boosting gear for her.
I've also been able to do more than 9,999 with a couple of multi-hit moves, like with Osvald: full boost + magic attack buff + latent power + Alephan's Wisdon. I think I've gotten that one up to about 18,000 damage across the three hits. I also topped my previous single-hit level with Ochette: about 15,000 off her Deadly Fangs when fully boosted.
With some of the higher-level bosses, I love how much this crazy damage output is necessary to keep ahead of the hurt they can put on my guys!
I've maxed out Hikari's Warrior Support Skills and found the "Deal More Damage" skill (Damage cap raised from 9,999 to 99,999), which I haven't been able to interface with, but seems like it could be wise to start training some folks in Warrior to have that handy.
Throné's been seconding as an Inventor from the get-go, so I actually have a hearty stockpile of JP for her, I could probably teach her Deal More Damage right now...
So after doing a couple chapter 2's with the main crew, I swapped out most of the party to start tackling some of theirs. Ochette's my main so she stayed, but I swapped in Agnea, Hikari, and Partitio and proceeded to play Agnea's Chapter 2.
Now, it did say it advised level 14, and these three were level 6, so I knew I had a little catching up to do, but Ochette was already 16 so I figured she could carry them a bit, and that more or less worked out as planned. Once the crew was level 12 and Ochette was around 18, I figured that Ochette was overlevelled enough to tackle the boss fight.
Agnea chapter 2 Boss spoilers:
Holy shit I got splattered. I gave it a few tries and ultimately just couldn't quite power through, so ended up going back to town to replace equipment, then grinded out xp to get the party up to 14 other than Ochette who was 19 at that point for sure.
I finally managed to take down the boss but my particular party combination was just not equipped with the skills to effectively deal with phases 2 and 3 of the boss fight very well. I was solid on varied weapons, but really underprepared for dealing magic/elemental damage. I ended up burning through the few consumable offensive items I had to break through shields, as well as burning through a fair bit of healing consumables that I would normally save in a JRPG. I'm trying to not be quite so bad of a hoarder this time around though!
Anyway, yeah... that battle was brutal but in all the right ways. It wasn't unfair, just very challenging, and I quite enjoyed it. I was not expecting to be pushed that hard on difficulty and mechanics so early in the game!
Currently wrapping up Hikari's Chapter 3 and realizing that I'm once again echoing an all-timer tweet with how much I'm enjoying this:
PSA for something I just found out: In the Journal menu, when going through each of the Traveler's chapter breakdowns, you can press + (or the Start button equivalent) to pull up Travel Banter segments, including Travel Banters you missed due to your party composition! I'm gonna need to spend time going through these eventually...
PSA for something I just found out: In the Journal menu, when going through each of the Traveler's chapter breakdowns, you can press + (or the Start button equivalent) to pull up Travel Banter segments, including Travel Banters you missed due to your party composition! I'm gonna need to spend time going through these eventually...
Ooooh, that's a nice nugget of info I did not previously have!
Me neither! And I know I've missed some, so I'll have to go back through these.
I'm at the all important 24 hour checkpoint. Full party, everyone has a subclass now, and I'm working through the chapter 2s for everyone. Ochette is level 28, and everyone else is about level 20 or so. So all these level 14-18 missions are not super difficult.
I'm finding the normal combat to be getting a bit boring at this point. I've more or less got the puzzle figured out, of "use unboosted multi hits to break shields, and then drop big attacks", which I use in most battles now. The only challenge, except in battles where I'm underleveled, is can I get the win before I take any damage at all or not. The boss battles have enough wrinkles so far to be be more interesting, which is nice.
I also appreciate the flow of the game. There's a burst of exploration and pushing the boundaries out and it seems to take 30-60 minutes to get through a new route to a new town, but now I'm at the point where I can do a lot of story missions at towns I've already been to, and each of those take....about 30 to 60 minutes. It's all feels almost episodic with the way things take approximately the same amount of time to get through, and so I can play for a bit and have a good chance of completing something and having clear forward momentum. It's basically perfect on the Switch for this reason.
I also appreciate the flow of the game. There's a burst of exploration and pushing the boundaries out and it seems to take 30-60 minutes to get through a new route to a new town, but now I'm at the point where I can do a lot of story missions at towns I've already been to, and each of those take....about 30 to 60 minutes. It's all feels almost episodic with the way things take approximately the same amount of time to get through, and so I can play for a bit and have a good chance of completing something and having clear forward momentum. It's basically perfect on the Switch for this reason.
The naming of game segments as "Chapters" feels apt!
I also feel you re: the drollness of regular world field combat. Since I started as Throné, I found the Inventor job very early on, so I've been breezing through most field combats with a boosted Changeable Catapult. I don't mind the drollness, though, it lets me get caught up on my podcasts when I'm working my way to a new town.
Gang, these stories are hitting for me. I've just completed both halves of Throné's Chapter 3 (Mother & Father are dead! LastSurprise was right! It feels great!), and I'm currently paused partway through Castti's Chapter 3. At worst, some of the beats are maybe a touch corny/melodramatic, but this team knows how to deliver on these tropes, and High Melodrama is the space we're playing in here. I may be the type who's easy to cry when engaging with media, but this game has done a tremendous job of courting my emotions through the highs and lows of these journeys & tales.
My main pairing in the party remains Throné & Temenos, but I've been trying to laser-focus on Castti & Hikari as well. After wrapping Castti's Ch. 3, I may swap her out for Osvald, then swap out Hikari for one of my most neglected party members, Partitio or Agnea. I have a bunch of "Scent of Commerce" quests that still need addressing, so those may be next on the agenda while trying to bulk Osvald up for his Ch. 4.
A couple small notes that I can't seem to weave into a larger thread of thoughts:
- Broke a new high damage record w/ Throné while fighting Father: Dealt roughly around 18K in one strike by reducing Father's defense, boosting Throné's Phys. Attack & Speed, and maxing out Boost to use Aeber's Reckoning. Mahvelous~
- Castti's flashback mechanic still gets me amped every time her inquiry glitches out into memories.
- Would y'all recall any good recommendations for Hikari Challenges floating around the world? I understand if you don't remember any off the top of the dome, but if you spot any good Hikari challenges out in the world, let ya homie know. The skill set I've got him equipped with right now is paltry and in need of improvement.
Travel on, true believers!
I haven’t come across this NPC yet, but I recall hearing about some aspiring fighter out there in the world, who starts as really weak, but gets stronger every time Hikari “trains” him. I wonder if that guy will be the source of some end-game skills.
I haven’t come across this NPC yet, but I recall hearing about some aspiring fighter out there in the world, who starts as really weak, but gets stronger every time Hikari “trains” him. I wonder if that guy will be the source of some end-game skills.
This is most intriguing. I have run across a few challenges for Hikari that have turned up some very useful skills, but haven't found one that fits this bill, I think.
TheMostRad, I'll try and make a note of any interesting/tough ones I come across and post here.
One thing I'd like to state, even if I have before, and will likely state again, is that this game really does its sequel part as all sequels likely should. It really builds on the systems and mechanics of the first game and just keeps adding and finding new ways to expand upon them. I really hope we get an Octopath III someday.
Got through Agnea chapter 2 and Temenos chapter 1 over the weekend. Going pretty slow on this because I am deep in Elden Ring DLC.
Agnea chapter 2:
I am really liking Agnea, she is quite a refreshing character. She is a sweet girl just trying to make people happy, but doesn't balk from speaking her mind, which is quite refreshing for that type of character. Normally they wilt under pressure, but Agnea will step up and knock them down a peg. I am really liking her story centered around hope and dreams.
I am curious as to where they are going with the Dolchinea plot. She presents a face that Agnea really admires, but we get to see that she is ruthlessly cunning underneath all that and seems to have some sinister plans going.
Temenos chapter 1:
Temenos is a refreshing take on the inquisitor trope. Rather than the slavishly devoted fanatic, he is presented as a person who believes what they do because he has doubted and questioned what he has been told. He is actually inquisitive, apt for someone with his job title.
I am a little disappointed that it seems like that Sacred Knights are corrupt and they are insinuating the Pontiff was killed by them. I am so tired of "church is corrupt" stories, that I find annoying rather than interesting these days. Yes, any belief system can be corrupted by ill-meaning people on the inside. I want to see actual positive portrayals of faith and religion in games, rather than these tropes.
At the 50 Hour mark, here's my progress:
With the exception of Agnea (who will get her world tour escorted by a mighty party surrounding her), I've chipped away at most everyone's stories up to Chapter 3, currently starting Partitio's Ch. 3 after wrapping up all of his Scent of Commerce quests.
I can see how all of the stories are starting to gradually come together at their end points, or at least I'm seeing a unifying link (spoilers for character beats through the end of Chapter 3):
Darkblood. Hikari's brother, Mugen, wields the Darkblood Blade. Temenos' friend, Roi, set out to destroy the Darkblood Bow. Castti's former mentee, Trousseau, is doing mass poisonings that turn folks' blood black. It's all coming together!
Now that I'm pursuing Partitio's story, I'm enjoying the variety of tones the tales in this game take. You have grimdark tales of vengeance like Osvald, and then you have the plucky goofiness of Mr. Aw Shucks himself, Partitio. Bring those 2 together and you basically have a Rorschach & Deadpool vibe, it's great. Plus, Partitio's saxophone theme SLAPS.
Having found all of the primary Job Guilds, my mixing & matching is at full power (most folks are getting the Vigorous Victor passive from Apothecary for traveling/grinding purposes). My current party comp is Throné (Hunter), Osvald (Dancer), Partitio (Cleric) & Ochette (Inventor) as I get some levels up for this odd bunch to pursue their story segments. However, once unencumbered by babysitting, I think I know what I want my ideal party comp to be:
Throné (Hunter/Warrior), Temenos (Scholar), Castti (Merchant) & Ochette (Warrior/Thief). Now that I've found the wombo combo of having a Merchant donate all their BP to Throné so she can unleash Aeber's Reckoning ASAP (she's hitting around 38K now when uncapped, but I swap Deal More Damage out for Vigorous Victor when traveling so she can afford the high SP costs), I can never go back.
Finally, I'll leave y'all with a hunting anecdote: When making my way towards Crackridge a week or so ago, I found a dungeon called Unfinished Tunnel. It had a cool malboro-type boss called Manymaws, compete with a bad breath attack called Foul Odor. I returned to the tunnel in search of an Inventor component, when who do I see pop up in a random encounter but Manymaws! The fight was a pain in the rear without Castti's help this time around, but with Ochette in the party, I managed to capture Manymaws! Unfortunately you're limited to provoking Manymaws once per battle and only at full boost, similar to Tera & Glacis, but now I have that Foul Odor in my back pocket.
Anyways thanks for reading my novel, be back later!
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