I’ve finally got some momentum now that I’ve got 4 party members and I’ve just completed Castii’s chapter 2 story. I started with Agnea and it felt a bit aimless wandering around the map. Now it seems like I’ve done most everything I can do on the western continent so I presume I need to take the boat over to the eastern continent? Otherwise, all the story content seems to be locked.
My main criticism still stands, the idea of continuously shaking down random people for their possessions and/or info is just wild to me. I gather from context clues that I’ll eventually have a thief who will presumably be robbing everyone blind. Does it make narrative sense that none of the other party members would take issue with this?
Also, I’ve now visited ~5 towns in the game but I have zero sense of how any of these towns relate to each other. It feels really scattershot. What is the world that these characters are inhabiting? I hope it’s something that will be expanded on as the game progresses but it does a terrible job of world building early on.
Definitely feel a bit out of place with my overall negative impression of the game so far!
My thoughts in order, Mr GT Chris:
- Aye, you'll need to find one of the Anchorages to set out for the Eastern Continent (I think Canalbrine doubles as an anchorage), but after you pay the boat fee once, you can use fast travel from the world map to hop around. You can also fast travel to most anchorages you visit.
- It definitely doesn't make a lot of narrative sense to rob everyone blind, especially when you have a Merchant & a Thief traveling together, but it never really comes up, and the only repercussions are having to pay coin at the tavern if you fail too much. You don't need to do it, but it's there to lighten your financial burden. You're not wrong in that it feels weird to do.
- A lot of the towns don't really get their narrative beats until you have character chapters to pursue in town, but you can get some interesting ambient stories and knowledge by picking the brains of townsfolk. With Western Continent crew only, you should be able to do this with Castti during the day and Hikari at night. However, that's all mostly peripheral. Part of this I suspect is due to the loosey-goosey nature of the game in that you start from a variety of locations on the map, and so there's no firm order of operations or world chronology determining when you arrive in a given city.
My personal advice is to laser-focus in on some party members you really like and follow their chapter paths, that's where you'll find the most juice the game has to offer.
Thank ya for your thoughts!
Small Update:
Finished Osvald's story! Got his little closing card and some seeds for the overarching plot. Currently starting Ochette's Chapter 3, then with the exception of Agnea, I have everyone else parked on the cusp of their Chapter 4. I intend to try and knock out Chapters 4 & 5 in sequence for everyone going forward.
I will, eventually, get to Agnea.
So, have been sniffing after Partitio's Scent of Commerce routes and have found a legendary Merchant. I really enjoyed both how the quest required the path actions to be used and what the reward was. I now have access to a nice little storage of lore that was actually pretty entertaining to read. I nice bit of world building there that lent some greater sense to why certain things are the way they are in this game's world.
I'm missing one more Scent of Commerce route quest and I should be back on track to get the rest of the CH2 episodes done.
So, have been sniffing after Partitio's Scent of Commerce routes and have found a legendary Merchant. I really enjoyed both how the quest required the path actions to be used and what the reward was. I now have access to a nice little storage of lore that was actually pretty entertaining to read. I nice bit of world building there that lent some greater sense to why certain things are the way they are in this game's world.
I'm missing one more Scent of Commerce route quest and I should be back on track to get the rest of the CH2 episodes done.
Thank you for reminding me I need to go back and re-read through that Manuscript! I gave it a glance when I unlocked it but I'd wager it'll catch my eye more now as I pick up endgame threads.
Barely any progress lately. I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't get this one wrapped by the end of Q3 even though I'm quite enjoying it. The big problem is that due to other circumstances I'm so exhausted all the time that I can't seem to get more than about a half hour on this game before I'm literally falling asleep sitting up on the couch. (And no, it's not Octopath Traveler specifically -- I've tried a couple more action-y games too and same problem)
I haven't found/unlocked secondary classes yet, not sure when that's supposed to happen, but I also haven't unlocked all of anyone's primary classes skills yet either. My crew is still mostly in the mid-late teens in level. Most recently I've finished Throne's other chapter 2 entry (Father), kicked off Partitio's chapter 2 quest (hunting down some buyers for a phonograph player) and am pursuing Hikari's chapter 2.
I haven't found/unlocked secondary classes yet, not sure when that's supposed to happen, but I also haven't unlocked all of anyone's primary classes skills yet either. My crew is still mostly in the mid-late teens in level. Most recently I've finished Throne's other chapter 2 entry (Father), kicked off Partitio's chapter 2 quest (hunting down some buyers for a phonograph player) and am pursuing Hikari's chapter 2.
When exploring the world, keep an eye on the minimap for an icon with a 2x2 checkerboard shield. If you can see that icon on the minimap, follow it and that will lead you to a job guild. Talk with the head honcho and they'll give you a job license that'll allow you to swap around.
Minimap icons will lead ya to all sorts of treasures!
Thanks for the tip! I do try to investigate minimap icons, so perhaps I just haven't run across one of those job guilds yet 
Well, I just played through Agnea's Chapter 2. That was a nice little change of pace, feeling like a lifetime channel type of drama. I kept expecting different characters to stab her in the back, but they ended up being quite wholesome all together, save for the little twist at the end. I don't know which CH2 to go for next, but that can wait until my next play session next week. I am very happy to see that there are now crossed paths... don't recall if I mentioned it before, but it adds that extra degree of party member interaction that was missing from the first game and that the party banter simply did not do justice to.
I've gotten quite the formidable team going, with Throne having the Inventor secondary job, and a few passives that really give the party a leg up at the start of fights. Have found all secondary's save for one which is apparently in Ku, which I cannot enter right now; I assume it is barred until I advance Hikari's story far enough. I also haven't gotten all the additional licenses but that will come later. Much later, I suspect.
I realize my chapters are taking forever because I am robbing everyone blind, challenging them to duels, and knocking them out every chance I get.
My hourly count is at 41 and change at this junction. I suspect some of the events coming will play out a bit faster until I get to doing optional high level stuff again and grinding out some JP for jobs and getting the second and third licenses.
Thanks for the tip! I do try to investigate minimap icons, so perhaps I just haven't run across one of those job guilds yet :)
I've found 3 so far on the Western continent, but 2 of those were pretty out of the way so I could understand why you wouldn't have encountered them.
My thoughts in order, Mr GT Chris:
Thank you! On the positive side, this might be the best turn-based combat I've experienced in a JRPG. It's not like a tutorial is feeding me what to do, just that I'm encountering strategies, or realizing things on my own, even well into the game. Why turn order is so important, how multiple jobs work together, when to save your points or use them, etc. Even skills that don't look interesting or useful, but then I try them once and like, why didn't I use this before?
Of course, the game looks amazing. And by virtue of the type of game it is, it plays flawlessly in remote play and pretty well on my phone's connection on the cloud.
After some time off, I've been back in a little over the last couple of days! I've finished the Clock Tower sidequest, Partitio's Chapter 2, and the crossed path for Partitio and Osvald. Next, on to Agnea's Chapter 3!
Small Update:
Finished Osvald's story! Got his little closing card and some seeds for the overarching plot. Currently starting Ochette's Chapter 3, then with the exception of Agnea, I have everyone else parked on the cusp of their Chapter 4. I intend to try and knock out Chapters 4 & 5 in sequence for everyone going forward.
I will, eventually, get to Agnea.
Congrats on knocking that out!
So, have been sniffing after Partitio's Scent of Commerce routes and have found a legendary Merchant. I really enjoyed both how the quest required the path actions to be used and what the reward was. I now have access to a nice little storage of lore that was actually pretty entertaining to read. I nice bit of world building there that lent some greater sense to why certain things are the way they are in this game's world.
I'm missing one more Scent of Commerce route quest and I should be back on track to get the rest of the CH2 episodes done.
I loved that too and I thought the lore was interesting -- definitely made me think there's more going on in this world than the game initially reveals. I'll have to go back to the lore after the overarching plot starts to come together, and see if it sheds any interesting lights on those threads.
I haven't found/unlocked secondary classes yet, not sure when that's supposed to happen, but I also haven't unlocked all of anyone's primary classes skills yet either. My crew is still mostly in the mid-late teens in level. Most recently I've finished Throne's other chapter 2 entry (Father), kicked off Partitio's chapter 2 quest (hunting down some buyers for a phonograph player) and am pursuing Hikari's chapter 2.
I think it was around the late teens when I really started to find the job guilds. I think three or four of them are in towns, but not anyone's starting towns - rather, the sorts of towns you'll reach in Chapter 2 or 3 of different people's stories thereabouts. And I think several others are in parts of the map with danger levels in the high teens. The Inventor one is reachable very eearly but it'll be a long time before you can actually unlock many of the job skills.
If I recall, Dancer and Merchant are at least 20+. If you're trying to uncover every part of the map you'll find them but, otherwise, you'll need to wait till the appropriate story content (I say, not actually having done the story content).
Thank you! On the positive side, this might be the best turn-based combat I've experienced in a JRPG. It's not like a tutorial is feeding me what to do, just that I'm encountering strategies, or realizing things on my own, even well into the game. Why turn order is so important, how multiple jobs work together, when to save your points or use them, etc. Even skills that don't look interesting or useful, but then I try them once and like, why didn't I use this before?
I agree with you completely! The way combos are opening up before my eyes feels more intuitive to me than my attempts to do so in Octopath's predecessors of Bravely Default & Bravely Second. Something about a core job being locked to each traveler and subsequently having to interact with each core job as you round out the party really helps me grok the capabilities & boons from each of the jobs. I'm only really starting to interact with Agnea now and seeing things in the Dancer that make me feel silly for having neglected her so long.
Also, re: job guild chatter, I only recently discovered that, for the sickos, if you revisit a job guild and talk to the guildmaster, they'll have bonus side quests available to earn extra licenses (up to 3 total), meaning you can have multiple folks equip the same job. Plus, they've got diagetic hints on where to find their related class shrine & each class's legendary weapon, which I didn't know existed previously, but of course they do.
Re: gameplay: Been trying to wrap up my vacation time with a bang, so I've knocked out 4 character stories as of this writing in the order of Osvald, Ochette, Hikari & Partitio.
Light spoiler for general chapter structure:
From the other side I can confirm, the chapter structure isn't uniform. Osvald & Hikari wrapped up on their Ch. 5, Partitio wrapped on his Ch. 4, and Ochette was done by Ch. 3. The unifying thread on all of them is that the Recommended Level is 45 for all of them.
Light thoughts:
- Ochette had the hardest boss fight of the bunch for me and maybe the most emotionally moving for me thus far.
- The music continues to own bones.
- I have come all the way around on Partitio, his story is the delicious comic relief that helps the Osvald go down smooth like coffee. Love this Tom-Sawyer-ass son-of-a-smith. Spoilers for Partitio's finale:
When you have to use Partitio's barter function to seal the steam engine deal with Roque and the game lists out the zeros on the 80 billion leaves that have been placed in your inventory for this one moment, I lost my shiz laughing. Also, we love to fight a train. I was expecting an Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger moment and thinking Roque would come out in a steampunk supersuit. Nope, fight the train.
I am now finding the joy in Agnea's chapters as she's escorted around the world by an entourage of Lvl 55-70 professionals. We shred through Chapter 2 like wet paper, currently sitting on Ch. 3. Once she's done, Ochette will resume her rightful slot in the party to close out character chapters with my 3 favorites saved for last - Temenos, Castti & Throné.
Travel on!
Hehe, I have my 3 licenses for warrior and dancer, only 2 for merchant. The 3rd merchant license is rather expensive! Still just 4 party members but all ~lv 50 and I can’t find any better equipment to buy so we just boarded a ship to the eastern continent. Game on!
Mr GT Chris, now that I'm remembering how you completely filled out the map first thing in Dragon's Dogma, I am impressed at the feat of reaching Lvl 50 without leaving the western continent while not surprised in the least. Hell yeah~
Apologies for double-posting, got another Travelogue:
In getting Agnea progressed, I've now cleared her second-to-last chapter & her Crossed Paths chapters. Before setting out for her final chapter, I decided to pursue a couple of those Legendary Arms, and in pursuing the Stone of Truth, I encountered a sideboss that delivered unto me my first Game Over. I may return to that in time, but I don't necessarily need it when my prime party is sitting at Levels 60 - 72.
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.
LastSurprise, you were absolutely right. I found the "Novice Warrior", and I'll tell you some specifics below the spoiler tag:
I found the guy hanging out on a slightly raised platform just south of the gates of Ku. As such, you can't find this guy until after you complete Hikari's story and have returned to Ku. He starts at Difficulty 1, and after you beat him with Hikari's challenge, he knocks out. When you cycle day/night, he stands back up and comes back 2 notches stronger. I last beat him at Difficulty 7 and picked up Level Slash for Hikari, but I couldn't beat the Difficulty 9 fight to get Crimson Blade. His inventory & name also changes with each increase, telling the tale of the warrior's growing arrogance as he gets stronger.
The path is clear from here: Final chapters for Agnea, Castti, Temenos & Throné, then whatever awaits in the endgame. Travel on, gang~
Apologies for double-posting[...]
Personally, I don't think it counts as double-posting if it's on a different date
Thanks for the info on the Novice Warrior. I was wondering why I hadn't found him and I've pretty much been everywhere at this point.
I've cleared Agnea's Chapters 3 and 4. My party was pretty under-leveled for that last one: a level 45-ish Osvald with Agnea, Hikari, and Partitio each in the 20s. I actually had to stop and level Agnea a little bit, through some random encounters, to make sure she could actually use her path action to progress the plot.
I hear you all on the subject of cool new abilities that you haven't tried, and then you try, and think "why haven't I been using this?!" A couple of great ones, which I will spoiler-tag if you want to experience them for yourself:
$15,000 to cancel the the boss's turn. Not bad! This feels like those endgame Gil Toss / high cost skills in Final Fantasy and Bravely Default that I never use, but here, I actually have cash to burn.
This looks like a random event thing, kind of like using slots in Final Fantasy or casting Hocus Pocus in Dragon Quest. I used it with a full boost, and got: full SP recovery for every party member, full BP for every party member (!!), Agnea's SP drained to 0, and some sort of multi-hit light attack. I don't love randomization so I probably won't use this a lot, but the full BP thing was very useful.
So, Rad, with your info that Level 45 is the recommended level for everyone's final chapter, I'm about knocking on the door of the final chapters for Osvald, Temenos, Throne, and Agnea. I haven't yet seen any of the second crossed-path events open up, though. Do some of these only open after you complete a story, or do they open before that -- like, after I get both people up to the final chapter? I'm tempted to finish off Temenos and Throne's stories, but if I can get to a crossed paths storyline I might wait a little bit.
And I'm glad to hear that there were some tough challenges in getting those legendary arms! Some of the later, harder bosses feel great, so I'm excited for some real high-level content.
I haven't actually been using Agnea's "Bewildering Grace" that much but the first time I did use it, something spawned, did 9999 damage and checked off one the (Xbox) achievements. Very funny. Other times I've tried it have been pretty hit and miss.
Re: Negotiate Schedule:
I only ever tried to use the move one time, actually, and it was during that optional side boss fight that killed me.
Let's just say the Dreadwolf's schedule is non-negotiable.
Re: Crossed Paths, it does seem to me that the chapters are gated based on character progress. I know for sure that most/all of the Part 2's are gated behind completing a specific character's story, so you haven't missed anything. As of right now, I've finished 5 character stories and only finished 2 of the Crossed Paths, but if the Side Stories tab of the Journal is any indicator, I'll be finishing those segments soon enough between these last few character stories.
Just finished Agnea's story on my end. The real story is that, with apologies to Ochette, I think I have to keep Agnea in my party now. The Dancer's Stimulate move (move a party member's turn up a notch) has become essential to my toolkit, and Agnea's EX moves have too much utility to pass up: (spoiler for both Altar ability and End of Story ability)
Her Altar ability, Windy Refrain, does a wind attack to all enemies and moves all of the party's moves ahead of the enemy for the next turn. This, alone has been tremendous.
But then you get her end of story ability, Song of Hope, which prolongs All Active Buffs by 1 turn per boost. Pair this with my constant Throné night buffs and this is a match made in heaven.
And so now, I head into Temenos' final chapter with the party I intend to keep for as long as possible: Throné (Hunter), Temenos (Scholar), Castti (Cleric), & introduuuuuciiiing, the timekeeper Agnea (Merchant)! A healthy balance of physical & magic damage, healing & support, all parts of a balanced octopuff pot breakfast.
Wrapped up Osvald's chapter 1/2 (really weird that it's split in two like that as most of you mentioned) and then went over to do Hikari's chapter 2. Found my first guild hall on the way there and got a cleric license! So now Agnea is rocking the Dancer/Cleric combo which makes her kind of a support savant. Hopefully I can find some more licenses soon as I am feeling the pinch on breaking enemies with my current party. I currently have to use Ochette's beasts to cover a lot of gaps in my element coverage.
Also went and did my first cross-path chapter, the one I got is between Hikari and Agnea (who would actually make a pretty cute couple). Now I am on my way to Ochette's first chapter 2 and got my first EX skill!
Osvald chapter 1/2:
Harvey is a very cartoon level of evil here. He murders Osvald's wife and child solely for the purpose of "I've lived in your shadow too long, my turn for the spotlight." And having no other information on Harvey, it seems really strange that the entire trial just immediately pins everything on Osvald. Harvey is also a scholar, so presumably can cast magic, is at the scene of the crime, and yet, he's just completely absent the entire intro?
The Emerald scene at the very end is kind of interesting. Osvald wonders why Emerald decided to set the ship on fire. I wonder if Emerald realized the same thing Osvald was pondering, that even if they escape, their escape is known and they will be hunted down, so he decides to fake getting cold feet so he can go back and steal the inspector ship and burn it so they think both him and Osvald are dead.
Hikari chapter 2:
I at first believed Kazan's story about being in debt, as it is a pretty standard trope for the brilliant strategist to immediately fall into debt through gambling once they leave war. But as soon as the first fight, I started to think something else was going on, and I sure was right. Even though I saw the take down of Borneau coming, it still delivered it well and quite believably. I wonder if anything more is going to come of Bandelam, or if this is the only time we will see him. Hikari besting him and not killing him may have opened his eyes to a different way of living.
Crossed Paths (Agnea+Hikari)
Cute little episode between these two, that really feels like a date. After the first night, I was totally convinced that Yomi was going to run off with the money and Agnea/Hikari were going to get a rough lesson in trusting people. But instead we get a somber scene between the three characters, hinting a little more at Hikari's past.
I did half expect Agnea to not be able to contain herself listening to the music and break out into dance during the performance.
Edit:
I am a little disappointed in the path actions. It seems like a really neat system and more character uniqueness, but it just boils down to four actions with four gradations of cost/success. You have: gains a follower, gain some information, gain some items, gain access to a blocked area. The success factors are: guaranteed but level locked, scaling chance based on level, get in a fight, pay some leaves. The only wrinkles seem to be Ochette instead of fighting pays monster drops for followers and the blocked areas are all fights except Castti who uses a limited resource item.
If you want to be a little better at breaking, I'd recommend picking up Temenos! Also, the Thief and Cleric jobs, which provide the 2 elemental attacks that your current party lacks, are over on the eastern continent.
The Thieves' Guild is in Clockbank. I forget exactly where the Clerics' Guild is -- I think in a church on the way to Winterbloom?
If you want to be a little better at breaking, I'd recommend picking up Temenos! Also, the Thief and Cleric jobs, which provide the 2 elemental attacks that your current party lacks, are over on the eastern continent.
Spoiler:The Thieves' Guild is in Clockbank. I forget exactly where the Clerics' Guild is -- I think in a church on the way to Winterbloom?
Re: the Cleric's Guild, b/c I just went through this myself when trying to revisit the guilds:
The Cleric's Guild is in Borderfall, East of Flamechurch on the way to Montwise, in the Northwestern corner of the zone. It is obscured in a way that I don't think the Guild icon pops up on the minimap until you get close.
The guild is also home to the Cleric Altar in the basement (the guildmaster will tell you as much if you ask) via a green door in the back-left, so be sure to bring Temenos along when you visit if you haven't already.
Oh that's right. I remember, now, that I was actually surprised how long it took me to find the Cleric's Guild (vs. the others).
Cleric guild was the first one I found since it's directly on the way to the first non-starter town I went to.
Cleric guild was the first one I found since it's directly on the way to the first non-starter town I went to.
Funny enough, that was me tonight!
So, decided to go for it with Hikari and finished his story. Fairly satisfying how it all played out. Once done, I went to get the last of the secondary jobs and, let me tell you, that boss was the hardest I've faced in the game so far. Took a bit of grinding after biting the dust on my first attempt, but it was worth it, I think... Will find out once I actually use the class I unlocked.
Got the trophy for knocking out 100 npcs, so that was nice, too.
I think that you started with Hikari, right? Under the criterion I picked — finish your main’s story — that means you can call it done!
I mean, I’m guessing many of us are in it for the final boss and the true ending, but I’ll level you up now if you want.
I think that you started with Hikari, right? Under the criterion I picked — finish your main’s story — that means you can call it done!
I mean, I’m guessing many of us are in it for the final boss and the true ending, but I’ll level you up now if you want.
Yeah, I did start with Hikari, so I'll take the level up if it meets the criteria. I will, however, play through all of the paths and get that big bad post-game true boss at the end, regardless. In my eyes, I am still on the way to actually beating it 
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