I was actually able to play a fair bit tonight. Got through two of the 1st "pair/cross" chapters, a bit more of Partitio's 2nd chapter, and ran through Castti's 2nd chapter which was surprisingly affecting.
The more I play this game, the more I find that it has taken basically everything I love about classic 16-bit era JRPG's and polished them to a modern shine. The mechanics and tropes and world/story structure are all there, the sense of exploration and adventure, the secrets (and not-so-secrets) to unlock and find, all the nooks and crannies to poke around in and find treasure, it just hits all the things that made me love the genre so much back in the 90's.
I wasn't really expecting it to be, but this is turning out to be a real contender for my favorite game I've played this year already. The last time I loved a JRPG this much was Dragon Quest XI, and Octopath II is making a real earnest effort to hit the same heights that one did.
Played a bit more tonight, found the Inventor sub-job, which I am not sure how I even missed before. Guess I just did not explore that map at all on my way through. Also did Ochette's 2nd chapter, Cacteracta route, which since she has three sections, makes sense on how short it is. Wrapped up a few more sidequests, and plan to make my way over to Casttii chapter 2 next time I play.
Clocking in at 81:17 on my final save, I have rolled credits and seen the True Ending of Octopath Traveler II.
Since I've posted last, I finished Temenos's story a day ago, then this last day I blasted through Castti's ending, Throné's ending, my remaining Crossed Paths, and the big cumulative endgame.
Rough thoughts in order:
Temenos's ending was solid, but unfortunately he has to compete with recency bias and maybe my favorite character in the game: Castti! Castti's ending was tremendous. I hooped, I hollered, I cried for 20 minutes, it was great. I will relay my Castti finale anecdote in the spoiler below (spoilers also for character story final act structure):
So something I observed about character story final bosses is that just about all of them have a second form or a twist during their fight that triggers once they hit a certain health point. Classic move. Because these form changes are paired with plot-relevant character dialogue in the transition, the boss can't be fully beaten until they've changed form. However, the transition doesn't begin until the boss's next turn after hitting the HP threshold, meaning if you Break the boss and deal massive damage before their next turn, the game will seemingly let you bring the boss down to 1 HP before you kill them with one blow in their second form.
This brought me to the cathartic moment where I'm fighting Trousseau atop the Timberain Palace Roof. I break him and Throné blasts off about 67K with Aeber's Reckoning, plus Temenos & Agnea chip in as well. Castti wraps the free break turn with a Poison Axe, leaving Trousseau poisoned as he changes forms, unleashes his new desperation moves, and then immediately dies from poison damage.
How deliciously fitting~
The endgame was fantastic by my read, and I'm excited for folks to clear the threshold so we might talk about the structure of it. I don't think it's too spoiler-y to say that the endgame brings all of the travelers together, and just having them all together in voiced cutscenes alone set my heart aflame. The journey to the final boss tied all of the lingering disparate story threads together, & the final boss fight does some Pretty Cool Stuff.
Overall, I'm coming out of OT2 feeling strong about it! I never got any of the bonus/secret jobs beyond Inventor, but I had a fantastic time mixing & matching the 8 base classes. There was something I liked about each of the travelers by the end of the game. Even the bitter brew that is Osvald ends up getting complimented by the sweet cream that is Partitio.
Looking forward to seeing where everyone lands!
EDIT: Fixed a typo under the spoiler, but while I'm here, some extra closing thoughts after a smidge of slumber:
- This may be the game I've taken the most screenshots of on my Switch. Lots of laughs, lots of moments that made me shout excitedly, a chronicle of my travels to remember fondly~
- I remembered to use the Merchant's Hired Help in the final boss fight, which was incredibly helpful and simultaneously hilarious. The stakes have been raised, but if the money is good, the folks come through! See below the spoiler tag for how to replicate these results, because I did an extra step during my travels:
Just outside of Merry Hills, if you exit the city and head up the north path, you'll find a Foreign Assassin hanging out. If you talk to him, he'll issue a warning. Should you persist, you'll enter an optional fight with 4 Foreign Assassins. It's an optional mini boss of sorts, but I was vastly over leveled by that point so I can't give you an accurate gauge of difficulty. Once beaten, the Assassins will think you're a cool crew and offer to lend a hand, for a price. This adds Foreign Assassins to your Hired Help options at 50,000 leaves per call, 5 times more expensive than the most expensive standard option but well worth the price. They produced so many screen effects when summoned at Full Boost that it made my Switch chug. Fantastic stuff.
- Gil, from Agnea's story, feels like a Tim Robinson character to me. Listen to him talk about "turning up the heat" every sentence and you can picture the Tim Robinson version, yelling about how he's "heating up" as he badly slams on a piano, top hat flying off as he thrashes around trying to do a bad Tom Cruise Cocktail behind the bar. This enhances my OT2 Experience.
Congratulations, then, to brokenclavicle, for finishing his protagonist's main story, and TheMostRad, for finishing the whole game! I'll get you guys leveled up.
This morning, I finished Partitio's Chapter 3. I loved the way this wove together different threads from the places I'd traveled, so far. Partitio's really growing on me, and damn, that saxophone theme gets me every time. I also love how
the department store becomes a really high-end shop! I've been making out, so far, with not buying much gear for my characters, instead "acquiring" it through various means, or finding quest rewards. But I think it's about time I trade in my selling partner for someone who'll help me get a discount, and get after some shopping!
The boss fight was very tough, in part because 3/4 of my party were pretty under-leveled for it. The summoned help made for a great twist on the shield / breaking system and I made it out -- barely -- with the help of some great healing items. I also keep forgetting to change up my passive skills right before boss fights, which I've got to stop doing. I wish there were an easy toggle between two setups, I'd definitely keep an "exploring" setup and a "boss fight" setup.
Next, on to finishing up Castti's Chapter 2, then the last part of Ochette's, and we're finally on to some high-level content!
As y'all make your way towards the end chasing levels, remember there are at least 2 Support Skills you can equip that will keep your EXP gains rolling in: "Extra Experience" from the Scholar and "Life in the Shadows" from the Thief. Because the skills boost gains for the whole party, you only need to equip each ability once across your full active party. Keeping those abilities on across the majority of the game brought me to around Lvl 76 at highest for the endgame.
Also, hard agree on Partitio's theme, love that sax.
That’s a good reminder. I basically keep the Scholar one on all the time, plus the merchant skill that boosts leaves and the one (Dancer?) that boosts JP. But I forget about Life in the Shadows. I think it’s on when Throne’s with me, and off when she’s not.
I took my party north to Timberain to explore and gain some levels, and I’ve discovered a few things that I’ll note here for future reference:
- A little gazebo on the water that has no purpose right now, but sure looks important.
- A horse thief outside Wellgrove, who also seems significant. And, I know I’ll want to duel him for his sweet 1,000 blades skill.
- A mysterious voice west of Timberain, which seems to relate to that weird “what’s in the box?” quest I got on the other side of the world.
As y'all make your way towards the end chasing levels, remember there are at least 2 Support Skills you can equip that will keep your EXP gains rolling in: "Extra Experience" from the Scholar and "Life in the Shadows" from the Thief. Because the skills boost gains for the whole party, you only need to equip each ability once across your full active party. Keeping those abilities on across the majority of the game brought me to around Lvl 76 at highest for the endgame.
Also, hard agree on Partitio's theme, love that sax.
Bah. Just minutes ago, I spent a lot of JP for everyone getting them Extra Experience, thinking each person needed it individually. And then saved. That'll teach me not to read the descriptions. At least everyone is close to mastering Scholar now, at least. I definitely have more physical attackers than mages, so I can at least balance that a bit now.
I did some grinding in the Seat of the Water Sprite (a level 26 cave), and now Ochette is over Level 30, and I have Castti at 27 and Throne at 28. The latter two are the next up for missions, and Throne's next couple of chapters on her revenge tale are both at 31, so I might be able to get a big chunk of her story done very soon.
Did Castti's chapter 2 - Sai Route and Throne's chapter2 - Mother Route. Also reviewed the missed travel banter for my main party chapter 2 sections (Agnea, Hikari, Ochette, Castti). I just love Castti and Agnea so much. Agnea is a sweet little buttercup that just wants everyone to be happy and Castti is team mom.
Castti chapter 2 - Sai Route
I love Castti taking this grumpy, jaded soldier to task. She sees right through his bluster and bullies him into being helpful. Definitely a woman with a caring heart but also will not let people get away with their nonsense. She's a true healer, of both body and hearts.
I am curious, when people picked up Ochette, did anyone go with the fox instead of the owl?
Edit: I have been running from fights recently trying to keep at least somewhat close to the level requested by the chapters. Agnea I got to like only 1-2 levels ahead, but by the time I finished the loop on my main party, everyone was like level 20 when the quests were level 16-18 and I reached 24 by the time I finished their quests. Does the exp really slow down later?
I am curious, when people picked up Ochette, did anyone go with the fox instead of the owl?
Edit: I have been running from fights recently trying to keep at least somewhat close to the level requested by the chapters. Agnea I got to like only 1-2 levels ahead, but by the time I finished the loop on my main party, everyone was like level 20 when the quests were level 16-18 and I reached 24 by the time I finished their quests. Does the exp really slow down later?
Curious to hear about fox folks, because I, too, picked Mahina the Owl, figured having a magic-weakness-detector would help round out Ochette's largely physical skillset.
Re: leveling, the experience continues to scale as you move into higher-level areas, so there's not really a slowdown, especially when the encounter rate really keeps the exp rolling in. The slowdown/rush to earn EXP in my playthrough came from when I'd have to cycle through my party to pursue other story threads. When I needed to get Agnea from 16 to 32 to 45, haste was preferred. Personally, I'm also just a fan of over leveling when I can in RPGs, me like number go up.
I picked Akala the fox. I had heard that Mahina makes Ochette a bit more well-rounded, but I also figured that she was mostly going to be a physical fighter, so if Akala's power is based on her stats, Akala might be more useful. Who can say, as I don't use Akala much anymore. He primarily comes out when I provoke people, but I figure Akala and Mahina are probably equally as useful when Provoking.
In a normal battle or boss battle, at this point, I doubt I'd use either of them. As I have her set up, Ochette's got most of the weapon weaknesses covered, and almost every monster is weak to at least one weapon. Plus, she has a lot of multi-hit skills and that's what I have her use the most.
I like the vibe of his character. He comes across as very noble and a bit of a wise older brother.
By the way, I cleared Ochette's Glacis route today!
I'm a bit upset that the hunter NPC is only in his cabin at night, because I'd definitely want Hikari to challenge him for Squall of Arrows. Guess I'll have to find it elsewhere.
I finished Hikari's next chapter, too! Now everyone is ready to move into their finale except for Castti, who's still stuck in Chapter 2. Still, I'll probably press on for a couple characters, first, before I bring her forward.
And then after I finished Hikari's chapter, I went exploring and walked into Timberain for the first time. It's the only high-level area not to have a person's chapter attached to it, yet, so I assume it'll be Castti's. I cleared two of the side quests involving trials -- really liked this mechanic, where you have to sit and watch the trial for clues! -- and now have a final one that pulls things all together. That sent me on some exploration which ultimately sent me, inadvertently, to a place I wasn't prepared for ...
The last trial is of one of the courtroom guards, for the murder of the judge. Clues from the onlookers tell you that the guard was raised in New Delsta, and that the murder weapon was likely thrown in the river and washed out to the ocean. So, I went back on the ocean. There, I found that the shark which I fought earlier is now, apparently, a random encounter -- or, at least, that you can fight it once more. What a surprise! I didn't find the murder weapon, but I did remind myself that there was a ghost ship out on the waters and a high-level cave gated behind the shark, which I never explored. So, I thought, why not try that cave? The boss, a Tyrannodrake, made very quick work of me. I'm not ready for that yet!
I never realized there were side-quests involving those Timberain trials, that's cool as hell!
Also, saving Castti for last is a delectable treat, her story hit me the hardest of the whole bunch.
Yeah, they proceed in a nice little trilogy:
First two are given by the guy standing guard outside. In the first one, he thinks that the defendant has been wrongfully accused. If you listen to the trial, you learn that the defendant has an alibi — he was helping some lady at the time — but doesn’t know her name. So, you have to find her and bring her to court.
In the second one, a criminal is going to go free because there isn’t sufficient proof. You have to find a key piece of evidence. I solved this one prematurely, by mistake, because I obsessively use Osvald and Throne to gain intel on everyone and steal from everyone. So I had the key item and presented it before I even got to watch the trial.
In the third one, the guard who gave you the first two quests is accused of murdering the judge who presided over those two trials.
Did Temenos and Throne chapter 2 and cross path for Ochette/Castti and Temenos/Throne chapter 1 over the weekend. These two cross path stories seem a lot more plot oriented than the more character centered story of Hikari/Agnea. Interested to see how these two new cross paths play out into the wider story or if they are just self contained stories.
Also made my way to Clockbank and am ready to start Partitio's chapter 2 after which I can start on the round of chapter 3s as a couple people are already at level for those. Still missing the guilds for Dancer, Hunter, Merchant, and Thief. Hoping one of those will be in Clockbank and I can grab it as I do Partitio's story.
Also did two of the world dungeons that were level 16 and 20. Neat little side areas for some cool loot. I wish I could get Osvald's "Study Foe" passive on someone else, since so far he is the least interesting character to me and I leave him out the most, but is the most useful when meeting new enemies. The Temenos/Throne combo is absurd for walking around at night, makes it incredibly easy to score those first turn combat clears for the bonus JP.
Temenos chapter 2:
Yay! We run into Crick again! I am a little less leery of the Sacred Guard after this chapter as it seems their captain may actually be on the up-and-up. However, I am puzzled by the murderer escaping on the Sacred Guard ship when Temenos and Crick spoil his murder of the dancer. Even if the ship is completely unguarded, it is not like he would be able to sail the ship himself, making me suspicious of the Sacred Guard's involvement all over again.
Throne chapter 2 (Father Route):
Saw Father getting the better of her as soon as he said she would be making the kill. She just went over how even the best assassins drop their guard in that moment and he immediately springs that on her. The woman going missing makes me wonder if Father took her for some reason, or if he planted her there in the first place.
Also did quite a few sidequests, not sure how spoilery we are being about those though. The one in Winterbloom about the sword in the stone gave me a good chuckle upon resolution though.
You will definitely find one of those in Clockbank!
It’s interesting to me how you aren’t really very keen to keep Osvald around. Given that he’s my main and I’ve been forced (until recently) to have him in my party, I’ve always been planning the other 3 around him. But I can totally see a viable party setup without him and if I didn’t have him, my party composition would probably change a lot. I love that about this game.
In other news, I cleared Osvald’s final chapter this morning, finishing my protag’s story line and making him no longer locked! I was at around 55 hours when I cleared his story, and his level was in the 50s. This evening, I started on Partitio’s final chapter, but wasn’t really digging the dungeon, so I went around and did other stuff.
Kind of incidental to Osvald’s final chapter, I also unlocked the Armsmaster job. And, holy hell, is this job amazing. Before even getting it, I happened to find 2 of the rusty weapons that are the key to the Armsmaster skills, then I found a 3rd later today. I’ve got that job on Hikari and my damage output immediately shot through the roof. With one of the Armsmaster skills, I even managed to do about 65,000 against an optional boss in a single turn!
Hienka (2 x 5,000) + a fully boosted Lionheart’s Axe (25,000 + 30,000)
Congrats on y'all's progress!
I think the only bonus secondary job I interfaced with was the Inventor, and even then I never picked up enough skills to unlock any of its support abilities.
As for Osvald, he's the most grimdark of the bunch, so I get how folks bounce off of him. However, the Scholar role is definitely indispensable. I may have knocked out Osvald's story first so I could have him done with and out of the way, but for nearly my entire game I had Temenos seconding as Scholar for Analysis & Magic Attacks.
Significant progress, around the 33 hour mark.
I’ve settled into a main party of Ochette, Throne, Temenos, and Osvalt, which I feel like gives me really good coverage on most attack types (except wind for some reason). I’ve also been pushing hard on their missions – I’ve done put down a Legendary Creature with Ochette, plus I did both Ch.3s with Throne which means
I have kills on Mother and Father, and both were satisfying for different reasons. But of course, her torment isn't over yet.
Also, lol I captured Tera (the Legendary Creature) with Ochette. On a whim, I went to the capture option early on (bosses are always a N/A, even the beasts) and saw that there was a 1% chance, so I was thinking “so you’re saying there’s a chance….”. Got him down to red and shields broken, and with a boost it hit 100%. I have no idea if it’s required or not for story purposes, maybe it is. But it felt like I was getting away with something. And I love Ochette’s happy go lucky attitude even when up against these Guardian beasts, especially when talking with the cranky one after waking him up from a long slumber.
I find Throne and Temenos’ quests the most interesting so far; meanwhile, I really haven't done anything with Partitio, Hikari, and Agnea since I got them in the crew. Since Ochette is just pretty close to her next mission (Level 37) but everyone else has a ways to go to be leveled up enough for their Level 30 missions, it may be time to start cycling some of the lower level guys through to get some level ups while I slowly move forward with more chapters. I think Castti at 31 is the next doable one, so going with her and Ochette (36) plus Osvald (35) for the power, and I'll mix someone low level in as well to get them caught up.
Just completed Agnea's story last night. Today I played Throne's Chapter 3 and have been on the hunt for items and rusty equipment to add skills for the optional/secret jobs.
I've levelled up quite a bit and, at this point, I can say I feel like Thief from the 8-Bit Theater webcomic; I pretty much steal anything that's not nailed to the floor. Do I need most of these items? No. Do I want them anyways? Absolutely.
More progress. I got the boat, and then got the experience booster item out in the water. Wish I had gotten that sooner, since it’s great.
I’ve also gotten more progress with my main four – Ochette, Temenos, Throne, and Osvald all have their level 45 missions available which I think is the end. Castti also has her level 45 mission open, but while the main crew is all north of level 40, she’s still in the low 30s and is nowhere close to doing it. I found that just sticking with the main crew seems to be best since the jump in levels at the end is pretty big, so spreading experience around would just be a grind. I also messed around with getting Partitio caught up, but it was going to take too long, so I may just finish up with these guys before moving to the other half of the party. I might have spread the characters out better if they are going to be the second team (like not having both mages in the party at the same time), but I went with the people I thought were most interesting, so can’t really complain. At least the experience booster will help with catching back up, plus I can shuffle the better equipment down to the second string as they go through their lower level missions. And I maybe leave one of the main crew in the team to just steamroll bosses to keep the game from taking forever.
I’m not sure whose story is darker at this point, Osvald or Throne. Both have their moments.
I also hit hit 21k damage on Glacis with Throne – reduced defense, plus boosted speed plus Aeber’s Reckoning, plus extra damage ability to go above 9999. She’s probably my main physical attacker now in terms of max output over Ochette. But I used the boosted Aeber’s Reckoning plus summoned Tera when the shields were down, and that fight was over in maybe 5 turns. Everyone was around level 40 at the time, for reference.
I’m going to maybe level a bit in an appropriate dungeon or route, and then push on to finish the stories for my main four. So that means my official completion should be coming up soon when I finish Ochette's story.
I've levelled up quite a bit and, at this point, I can say I feel like Thief from the 8-Bit Theater webcomic; I pretty much steal anything that's not nailed to the floor. Do I need most of these items? No. Do I want them anyways? Absolutely.
I think by the end of the game the only people I wasn't trying to steal from were the children, something about stealing Candy from babies and what have you. Keep it up and you'll turn up some real (figurative) gems!
More progress. I got the boat, and then got the experience booster item out in the water. Wish I had gotten that sooner, since it’s great.
Y'all keep turning up things I completely missed! What's this about an experience-boosting item in the ocean? Did that have a quest hook attached to it, or did you just find it while sailing around?
Also, hell ye to Aeber's Reckoning, the GOAT of attacks when you set it up well.
I’m not sure whose story is darker at this point, Osvald or Throne. Both have their moments.
There's an answer to this, but not until the end of their character stories, and I find it interesting. I forgot to muse over this earlier, so spoilers for the end of Osvald & Throne's tales:
While Osvald held the banner for me most of the game as the most grimdark of the bunch, Throne's story ends on a much harder note. While Osvald gets some sliver of redemption in getting to both murder Harvey and save his daughter, Throne reflects after killing her true father, Claude, and thinks, in short,
"Finally, I'm finally free. But it doesn't smell as sweet as I hoped...no...
...It reeks of blood."
Way more despairing by my read. Great stuff, hell of a hit.
Sundown wrote:More progress. I got the boat, and then got the experience booster item out in the water. Wish I had gotten that sooner, since it’s great.
Y'all keep turning up things I completely missed! What's this about an experience-boosting item in the ocean? Did that have a quest hook attached to it, or did you just find it while sailing around?
Spoilers in case anyone wants to find it on their own.
Nope, no quests. It's just floating over by Frigid Isle, where Osvald started.
I just finished Throne’s tale, and …
W….T….F….
That last chapter really went in a direction I did not expect.
So, lots of progress in the past few days...
Lessons about skills learned with Hikari as I played through other character stories:
Do NOT replace Diving Dual Edge. It is only obtainable in his story Ch3 and, if replaced, it doesn't seem like it can be obtained again.
Unfailing Speed is a must if you're going with the Arms Master secondary job, or even not.
Find it in Merry Hills, to the left of the promenade before the coliseum/theater. A Townsperson has it. Dude was pretty tough but weak to daggers, which played nicely into my stats. He was 7/10 in-game.Frenzied Fire is another great one. Found in Timberain. You have to go three screens up and then take a stair down the left to a lone guard blocking a door. 8/10 but didn't feel as tough as I thought he'd be. Was weak to spears and axes... I think bows as well but can't recall entirely.
Twin Serpents in Stormhail, from a sanctum guard in the sacred guard headquarters, axe, bow and staff, iirc (I messed up my notes hahaha). If you get through that guy, the other sanctum guard, behind the guarded door, is week to bow and staff and gives you Limb from Limb, which is also pretty badass.
Thoughts: Some of these character banter interactions are so wholesome.
Finished a couple more story paths.
Throne's story is much more layered compared to the usual rpg story. Who do you trust, who gets to rise... And how it all plays out in the last chapter. Good stuff.
Went into an unfinished tunnel haunted by a monster reminiscent of old school Marlboro's from FF. Loved the fight, super tough as I didn't quite have all the protections I should have... But what about the end of that quest? I kill the beast, boss comes in and orders the recently rescued and clearly beat-up workers back to work. Exploitation much?
Partitio's story is simply good feels all around. It also made me chuckle a few times. Nothing but kindness and I philosophy I actually agree with.
4 stories down, 4 to go. I have also completed all the secret job skills - that took some doing - and found all 30 records from Partitio's Scent of Commerce quest path. All this traipsing around means I've levelled up considerably, with Hikari now at level 80 and the rest of the crew spanning from 60 to 76. While I do have some balancing to do to get others up to speed if I feel like, I know that the real challenge is after the character stories are done, so I may hold off on any grinding aside from just finishing stuff up.
Will I got for the Platinum trophy in this game? I'm heavily inclined to do so, for now. I'll revisit the idea when I get to post-game.
Slowly but surely, I'm making progress. But, I'm also putting emphasis on slowly. I'm definitely finding that I'm slowing down and less interested in going back to the game to clear out some new area or story beat. Part of that is the length, I think; part of that is the fact that once you've cleared several Level 45 areas, the rest aren't that challenging any more. I do find the battle system really great so I wish the difficulty had continued to scale up a bit, maybe with a slight bump to each remaining story once you finish one of them.
In terms of finishing, I'm now at __TOP_TH, and I've got OC___A__ left. That is, finished Osvald, Temenos, Partitio, Throne, and Hikari. I've also done a lot of the side quests, probably more than 80% or so. And I've finished Temenos & Throne's side story. As I've checked in with the guilds about the legendary arms, I think I happen to have stumbled on 2 of them, the Vest of Joy, which is great and I've kept on Hikari, and the Double Tomahawk, which I haven't touched.
I completed Osvald's story yesterday; the twist there was very much as I suspected, so this wasn't quite as impactful for me. The shared story between him and Partitio also had a satisfying ending. It did tug at the heartstrings, though, and I enjoyed the battles very much. Explored a good while found a handful of altars for those extra EX skills. Have also found two battle tested weapons - sword and spear - so far.
5 down, 3 character stories to go.
More forward momentum to post, and even a technical club completion (at 51 hours). I took my main four and did each of their final missions (order was Osvalt, Throne, Temenos, and Ochette), with a bunch of random high level dungeons and item gathering mixed in. I got all of the rusted weapons, for example. With Osvalt’s final chapter, I was around level 45-50 with everyone. By the time I got to Throne and Temenos, everyone was now in the high 50s to low 60s, so the fights were pretty easy. This was the EXP booster plus the increased experience ability plus using of Throne’s passives to boost Exp at night. But with my main girl Ochette done, I think that is my official completion of the game for club purposes.
At this point, I have my main team all in the low-60s, and Castii is at 31, and everyone else is in the low 20s. So a long way to go to do the other four. But on the plus side, I have EXP boosts, JP boosts, and some great jobs and equipment, like just sticking Armsmaster on Hikari and giving all the weapons that go with it, plus I have two of the accessories that turn negative stats positive so I can stack more late game weapons with downsides on someone and turn that frown upside down. So hopefully I can just roll through a bunch of these chapters now at the lower end without needing to grind at all, and can pull in a high level killer if I need to level everyone really fast in a random dungeon. So the goal is to still finish the game with everyone, and I expect the the second half will be much faster than the first.
Brief thoughts on the final bosses for each of these stories.
1. Osvald – once we knew the daughter was alive, the story turned for the more positive, compared to the grim fight with the golem with the wife’s blood in it. It felt very good punching Harvey in the face.
2. Throne wins for most messed up story at the end for sure. The fight wasn’t hard since everyone was around Lv.60, so I wound up spending my boosted passive for Ochette and Throne doing all Aeber a little too early since it was before the cutscene conversations, but it went fine. The whole Lostseed town (and the fact that all the hollow shells were all women) got a whole lot creepier post facto, and it was already creepy to start with.
3. Temenos’ tale was just a sad tale of revenge. I supposed that went along with the whole noir thing. And it had the best Bloodborne looking dude for a final boss.
4. Ochette – Not a hard fight with being overlevleled. I just kind of whaled on the boss the whole time, and after we got to the mid-fight cutscene when we were going to “end it”, Throne popped her special to boost speed and then dropped Aeber’s. Did 33k damage, and the battle ended right away. I like the vibe of the fight as being some big epic, island impacting thing, where most of the other final bosses so far were much smaller and more personal.
Congrats Sundown! By the way, where did you score those rusty weapons? I am still missing three: dagger, bow, and staff.
The accessory that turns negative stats positive sounds amazing, and I'm excited to discover that.
I'm in the ghost ship right now, and then I think I'm going to move on with Agnea's story after that. I definitely find that, with all of those boosts and skills you mentioned, characters who are underleveled can catch up pretty easily.
I had to double check where the rusty weapons are. All three of those are in various dungeons. Specifics in spoilers.
Dagger - In the ghost ship (aka Shipwreck of the Empress), out in the ocean
Bow - In Sinking Ruins, which is to the west of the entrance to the Nameless Village. You've done Temenos' final chapter, so you should have been to the Nameless Village already.
Staff - In a waterfall between Flamechurch and Montwise.
Congrats Sundown! By the way, where did you score those rusty weapons? I am still missing three: dagger, bow, and staff.
The accessory that turns negative stats positive sounds amazing, and I'm excited to discover that.
I'm in the ghost ship right now, and then I think I'm going to move on with Agnea's story after that. I definitely find that, with all of those boosts and skills you mentioned, characters who are underleveled can catch up pretty easily.
Sundown beat me to the punch, but I was about to say that I recall one of them being on the very ghost ship you're in.
The accessory that turns negative stats positive sounds amazing, and I'm excited to discover that.
That would explain why items like the Rosary of Redemption (-60 to two stats, I forget exactly which) exist as available items in game, very neat!
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