Board 8 > My impressions as I play Octopath Traveler for the first time.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Got all 8 sub jobs (though there looks like room for more in the job wheel).

I think I'm going to break the group up into 2 teams.

Main Team:
Ophelia - Priest/Dancer
Cyrus - Scholar/Merchant
Olberic - Warrior/Apothecary
Therion - Thief/Hunter

Second Team
Primrose - Dancer/Scholar
H'aanit - Hunter/Warrior
Tressa - Merchant/Priest
Alfyn - Apothecary/Thief

Both teams have the 4 main actions covered, and all 8 jobs represented.

I'll play the main team through each of their stories, and then when I've completed Ophelia's story, if I understand it correctly, I don't need to have her in the party anymore, so Second Team can do their stories.

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I haven't really done much other than explore since finishing H'aanit's Chapter 1, so it's time to focus on at least my main team's chapter 2.

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Yeah, and that's how I played it too. I had Cyrus/Ophelia/Therion/Tressa for the first batch. Yes it doubled up on Purchase/Steal path option, but I figured that way when I went around through towns the second time, there would still be the battling path action to keep things a bit more interesting.

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Lol, I should have said...
Team 1- OCTO
Team 2- PATH

(Tressa and Therion interchangeable)

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You should consider rotating the secondary jobs IMO. The support skills gained from them are permanent.

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I probably will if I need a specific skill later, but JP isnt exactly easy to come by for me at the moment, so I'm not in a hurry to rotate jobs frequently.

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Therion, Chapter 2
Party used: Therion (T/H), Ophelia (P/D), Olberic (W/A), Cyrus (S/M)

Therion's 2nd part is my first step into Chapter 2, and it was rather boring tbqh, though it did open up travel banter which is rather neat.

Most of Chapter 2 for Therion is a rehash of Chapter 1. Stake out the joint, gather information at the bar, and lift a few things off of some local vendors. I actually got caught on one of the pilferings despite the 80% chance of success.

After running around and doing errands, I once again just walk through the front door after being allowed in. That doesn't stop me from being randomly attacked in someone's house again though of course.

The boss for Therion's Chapter 2 was a bit of a wake up call for the ramping up difficulty. The boss fight probably took 20 minutes, and though I didn't struggle, it definitely felt like I needed to play carefully in order to maximize efficiency, and avoid complacency. The game is not "hard," but it's going to just let you button mash through bosses.

The highlights of Therion's Chapter 2 were his flashback with Darius where you can start to understand the meaning behind "No Honor Among Thieves," as Darius attempted to pocket additional spoils, and the ending scene back at Ravus Manor where Cordelia was once again being sweet on Therion.

The story saves the chapter from the mundane tasks, and makes me empathize with Therion a bit more.

I'm going to hold off on ratings until I've completed at least 4 of these Chapter 2 runs.

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I picked up exploring where I left off from Noblecourt since I figured I didn't want to leave stones unturned. I went into Hollow Throne and found it surprisingly easy. The boss barely ever did anything since I broke it every turn, and the turn it recovered it just kept buffing itself, so I did the entire fight only getting attacked maybe 4 times in total. I got a few new pieces of gear for Therion, and then pushed forward north.

I wasn't really expecting the jump in level to be so big, so I opted to start running, but figured I'd go to the town and open up the Fast Travel. I arrived in Wispermill and it seemed kind of dead, but treated myself to a couple of items from the shop. Curiousity got the better of me and went back out to the adjoining area and saw another Job Shrine there for something called a Starseerer and went to go see if I could get it. I was able to escape all the encounters in the Shrine, but then realized I was going to need to fight for this job, so I'll have to come back. Running away gave me the idea to try out the nearby Forest of Purgation as well and see if I could get any useful gear from there too.

I wiped the place clean of chests, running away like a little mouse at every encounter lol, but getting out with an extremely high damage dagger.

That kind of got my treasure hunting dopamine sensors a running and went south to Stoneguard, Goldshore, and snuck my way to Grandport, hitting every chest I found along the way, including the side dungeons. I got a new Staff for Cyrus from the 50 dungeon, Loch of the Lost King, and then treated myself to a Soul Glaive and Adamantine Bow from Grandport, which broke my bank, but I think will turn Cyrus into a beast.

I'm probably taking the challenge away from the game lol, but now I have a beefy Cyrus and semi-beefy Therion, though they are still wearing the teens level armor. I opted to call it quits for tonight, my dopamine hit satisfied, and will pick up on Ophelia's Chapter 2 tomorrow.

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I've been saving every one of these nuts I've gotten. I assume they are permanent stat boosts?

Operating under that assumption, I didn't want to waste them, but I feel like I should start using them.

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Haha yeah, one of the great things about the game is that it's essentially open world and you can go explore a lot of towns and optional places before you're supposed to. It probably is too easy to escape and cheese through it though. Like combining Scholar's Evasive Maneuvers and the Cleric's skill to run from battles makes the danger practically non-existent.

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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

I've been saving every one of these nuts I've gotten. I assume they are permanent stat boosts?

Operating under that assumption, I didn't want to waste them, but I feel like I should start using them.

They are permanent.
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Should I use the nuts to further exaggerate character traits (like boosting Cyrus's Elemental Attack), or boost stats to elevate character's to match their peers (like boosting Primrose's Elemental Attack)?

I'm not sure if base stats are strong enough as is, and the nuts are designed to alter other characters to even the playing field for a character in a different class.

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I'm not sure and I'm not sure it matters

I saved every nut (lol) all the way to the secret boss and then dumped them all into each character's most necessary stat (usually defense) and the difference was ultimately negligible

Another question...

I would assume that all Elemental Attack on every weapon stack together for when I use a Spell, but would I be correct in assuming that only the weapon being used for a physical attack uses it's attack strength only?

So for example, Cyrus has:
Sturdy Sapphire Rod - EA: 176
Soul Glaive - EA: 252
Adamantine Bow - EA: 209
So casting a spell gets a 637 EA bonus.

Therion has:
Moonblade - PA: 115
Forbidden Dagger - PA: 285
Argent Axe - PA: 122
Soldier's Longbow - PA: 98
But, instead of getting a 620 PA boost on all attacks, he only uses the PA bonus of the weapon he is using.

Correct?

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Physical attacks that use a specific weapon will use the attack power of that particular weapon. IIRC magic just uses the highest stat.
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No, elemental attack skills are based on the single weapon with the highest elemental attack that character has equipped. So in that scenario, Cyrus' elemental attacks will be based on the 252 from the Soul Glaive. Boosted of course by any armor/accessories that also raise elemental attack.

And physical attacks/abilities are based only on the specific weapon used for the the attack/ability. So a standard sword attack is based on the sword's attack power, the Thousand Spears attack is based on the equipped spear's attack power, etc...

The only exception to the elemental attack rule is for a lategame job you don't have yet: Runemaster. It has abilities that add elemental damage to physical attacks, and in that case the elemental damage is based on the attacking weapon's elemental attack power.

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So, I don't really need to have a ton of EA weapons on Cyrus. I'm guessing just full PA weapons in the slots with the lowest EA is better.

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Ophelia, Chapter 2
Party used: Ophelia (P/D), Therion (T/H), Olberic (W/A), Cyrus (S/M)

I generally liked this Chapter. It wasn't exciting at all, but there was a good deal of charm in it showcasing the type of person that Ophelia is. Very cute how she ties in her backstory with the handling of children, kind of like a GUIDEance Counselor :p.

If that "dog" was the one that stole the brooch though, I have to wonder why it didn't cause more of an uproar in town. Also, I Guided the Archbishop for the fight, so it was funny about his asking me what I was up to and what I thought of Saintsbridge.

The Dog wasn't particularly tough, but I almost "Beat the Snot," out of myself when I attempted using Bewildering Dance for the first time with Ophelia. I ended up doing 1600 damage to all my party, and the only person still standing was Oelbric with 400 HP lol. Luckily, he rebounded quickly, healing himself up with First Aid, and then got Ophelia up and I was able to get things rolling again. I'm guessing Bewildering Dance is a gamble, but that first use really put a sour taste in my mouth that I may not use it again any time soon.

I didn't mention it in Therion's Chapter 2, but I really like the Travel Banter. It's the only time you really get to see your characters interact with each other, and you can see how they play off each other during each Chapter.

In regards to Ophelia's Chapter, I do hope that we start to see some more mystery with her story. It's very open at the moment, but if I'm halfway through, I feel like there should be more than just "Travel to city, light fire, help resident with problem." I'm still waiting to see what Mattias was all about in the first Chapter too. While Therion's Chapters seem pretty evident on the direction they're taking, Ophelia's still seems to lack any real antagonist to be worried about and thus far appear to just be homages to herself as a character.

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I've been trying to make sure I steal and collect from the bosses every time I can, but I've only ever gotten Grape Bunches or something similar from theft. The Collect is worth it for sure, but I'm questioning whether the stealing is worth it. I was hoping of maybe getting a weapon or armor or something, but thusfar, nada.

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Cyrus, Chapter 2
Party used: Cyrus (S/M), Ophelia (P/D), Therion (T/H), Olberic (W/A)

Jinkies! This was a rather short Chapter, but there was a lot of character development and story handed out in that short time. Cyrus is rather famous for being an unknowing womanizer, the plot thickens on the missing tome about Necromancy, and apparently... dun-dun-dun... it just so happen to go missing when the last Headmaster "mysteriously" died.

I know the stories are only 4 Chapters long, and I'm sure the direction the stories are taking are going to always try to mislead the player, but I don't need to be a Scholar from Atlasdam to see where this story is going lol.

My first Banter came from Ophelia and played off of Cyrus' unintentional flirtations, and then after the Chapter ended, Olberic casually reminds me that an unknown individual (who can't possibly be Therese) is following us, but Cyrus says not to confront them and let them make the first move (Hint: Cyrus... she already made the first move you blind dolt!).

The logic puzzle aspect of Cyrus' Chapters seem to only be present to make a mockery of the players who don't actually read anything or have the memory of a goldfish, but at least it's fun to play Sherlock Holmes.

The boss of the Chapter was ridiculously easy, which might simply be because I haven't changed my party at all since starting the Chapter 2 runs and are all high 20s at this point. Cyrus is a beast with spell damage, I don't need to fully exploit weaknesses on most mooks and a 3x Burst can usually kill most of them by the time his turn comes up. Therion is similarly dealing some pretty massive damage (around 13k) on single targets, which makes him a boss killer at the moment. Both of these characters are easily benefitting from the side trips into areas I shouldn't have been, and additionally making the boss encounters not last 20 minutes like Therion's Chapter 2 boss did prior to my explorations.

I like Odette as a character. When Cyrus knocked and she came out and saw him only to do a 180 and go right back into her home actually made me laugh out loud (a little :P). I hope we see more of her later.


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Bewildering Dance is very useful for levelling and getting more JP, FYI

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It nearly wiped my entire party out first time I used it. What's the trick?

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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

It nearly wiped my entire party out first time I used it. What's the trick?

The trick is that it's entirely random, so you have to be prepared for that. But you can get crazy boosts to JP/EXP by using it.

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I was just noticing my game file says I've been playing 38 hours, which is kind of an impressive length of time for only 11 out of 32 Chapters done.

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Olberic, Chapter 2
Party used: Olberic (W/A), Cyrus (S/M), Ophelia (P/D), Therion (T/H)

This Chapter took me by surprise since it was a departure from the formula that had been used in every single Chapter up until now (Enter town, get some story, do some content that requires use of Path Action, do Dungeon, defeat Boss, Chapter closure). There was no dungeon this go around, and instead it was just a series of Boss fights. Also interesting, Cyrus was able to tell me the weaknesses of each boss before I even got into a fight with each Boss, so no guess work was needed other than the occassional minion clearing.

The Chapter was rather long comparatively to the previous Chapters I've done, and there was even a bit of an intermission in the Chapter before it continued. I wasn't disappointed in the way the story delivered this Chapter, no RPG is complete without a good old fashioned Arena brawl anyways. I was surprised by the lack of a real villain though; I thought for sure that the Black Knight was going to be an asshole and we needed to beat the information out of him.

Olberic's story is actually unfolding in a bit more complex way than it originally was selling itself. I think we are going to empathize a bit with Erhardt, and I'm very interested to see how Olberic proceeds going forward. It seems we are going to meet Erhardt in Chapter 3, which means Chapter 4 might end up a bit of a mystery too, maybe the person who motivated Erhardt might be our final journey.

Doing Olberic's Chapter got me wondering about solo character game runs, and the plausibility of it. From what I read, the game only gets harder the more characters you recruit, and to be honest, I felt like all of Olberic's Chapter 2 should have been done with just him in the party, so I wonder how much of a chore only using your first main character would be through the entirety of the game, and if it were even possible (well, without massive amounts of grinding).

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no spoilers here, but you're going to want to make sure all 8 of your characters are leveled relatively equally

Main Party Chapter 2 Rankings.

Having now played the first four Chapter 2 locations for my main party of Ophelia, Olberic, Cyrus, and Therion, it's time to rank them on my impressions. I won't be getting to the other four characters until I wrap up Chapter 4 with Ophelia at the very least, so I'll have to reflect back on these rankings at a later time for the whole group.

Cyrus - 9/10
-Easily the best of the four Chapter 2s so far goes to Cyrus. His story contains the most mystery and is keeping me engaged in his journey. As a character, Cyrus is also quite eccentric comparatively to the other three members, who all currently appear to be fairly cliche versions of their template archetypes.

Olberic - 8/10
-The departure from the formulaic approach in Chapter delivery was nice, and all the character engagements were well written. Even the no name Arena competitors had personality. What once appeared to be a straight forward story about confrontation with a traitor has also become a little more cloudy in it's possible resolutions, which makes for great story telling.

Therion - 5/10
-Fairly average and expected playthrough of a Chapter involving a Thief. While there have been moments of interest, like his past with Darius, or his relationship with Lady Ravus, the nature of Therion's character and whether he is a good, neutral, or bad person is still a mystery and leaves me ambivalent to caring for him or his resolution.

Ophelia - 4/10
-I wish there was more going on with Ophelia. Thus far, the only potential and unknown adversaries to her character development and story arc are her adoptive father's illness and the mystery character Mattias. There's just not enough meat in her story yet to make me invested in her journey, which is sad for my main heroine.

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colliding posted...

no spoilers here, but you're going to want to make sure all 8 of your characters are leveled relatively equally

Do you think I'm making a mistake doing four characters to Chapter 4 before working on the other four characters?

I suppose I could continue Chapter 2s for the other four characters by just rotating them a bit with Ophelia always being in. I just thought doing two teams would make things less "complicated."

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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

Do you think I'm making a mistake doing four characters to Chapter 4 before working on the other four characters?

I suppose I could continue Chapter 2s for the other four characters by just rotating them a bit with Ophelia always being in. I just thought doing two teams would make things less "complicated."

Don't worry about it and just play how you want. There is nothing egregiously wrong with the plans you have laid out for the future. Even if there was, it would be fixable later on anyways.
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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

Do you think I'm making a mistake doing four characters to Chapter 4 before working on the other four characters?

I suppose I could continue Chapter 2s for the other four characters by just rotating them a bit with Ophelia always being in. I just thought doing two teams would make things less "complicated."

The rest of the board can help me out but if you get one character to chapter 4, does that raise the difficulty of the overworld enemies all over the world map? I honestly don't remember.

Right now, my Character levels are:

Ophelia - 30
Therion - 29
Olberic - 28
Cyrus - 27
Alfyn - 16
H'aanit - 16
Primrose - 15
Tressa - 15

Equipment wise, I would probably just unequip everyone before picking party members and redistribute gear. If the game has a FF6-esque dungeon where all 8 party members are used between two parties, I still have plenty of gear that can be spread between them, but the game hasn't given me any indication that this is a thing yet.

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Cyrus will likely be around level 50 by the time I finish the first four Chapter 4s by my guess (and even better equipped to boot). I'd imagine with his nuking capabilities, I could go into a 25-30 dungeon with a couple teenager characters and Olberic or Ophelia, and he could easily nuke the mooks in there and power level the lower characters relatively easily before they head into their Chapter 2s.

I'll just keep at it and adjust as necessary.

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My next goal will be to explore and open much more of the map. If I find any 30-35 caves, forests, temples, dungeons, what have you, I'll go in and see what they offer. I'll try and wrap up these outstanding Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 quests I've obtained so far as well (I haven't done a very good job at closing them out).

As I get the average party level closer to 35, I'll get to work on Chapter 3 for the main party.

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colliding posted...

The rest of the board can help me out but if you get one character to chapter 4, does that raise the difficulty of the overworld enemies all over the world map? I honestly don't remember.

I believe it does to a degree, but it's really not an issue.

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Leveling all 8 characters equally is a mistake. You're doing it the right way.
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I don't see why it would be a mistake. I used my lowest leveled characters (plus Therion until I could remove him from my party) for every chapter and I didn't run into too much trouble.

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I've done a couple level 35 dungeons and had no issues at all. They've been easier than story bosses in some cases.

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Have any of you attempted a single character run of the game? Whoever you chose as your main character, you just went to Chapter 4 with them, never picking up another character. I'm sure it's possible, but I'm more curious as to how the ramping difficulty changes if you never collect another person.

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Starting to lose track of places I have and haven't been to lol.

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Feels like a single character run would be anti-fun. Probably doable, but just why? Then again, I ask myself that question about a lot of things people do.

I've never tried doing a solo character run. I think only the enemies in the inner ring of areas scale based on how many characters you recruit. So the later areas enemies are just as strong regardless of if you have one character or all of them.
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I can see why this game isn't for everyone. The highlights of the game are doing the story, but each chapter feels disconnected and short, and then to prepare for the next chapter you have to go find things to do. So, much of the game feels busy and not as engaging.

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So I figured out the benefit of Bewildering Grace. I managed to get a x5 Exp bonus off it, and it made a huge difference in experience gains.

Then I figured out that if I use Ophelia's Divine Skill on herself, she can use Bewildering twice.

And then, I realized I could boost Bewildering Dance to go up to 4 times in a row.

So, I started getting Ophelia to Max BP, use the Divine Skill, and then Dance the next turn.

Finally, I realized I should swap my sub jobs around so that my Dancer and Ophelia were different, so (humorously) Olberic is my new dancer if I exp grind lol.

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I have to hang out at save points if I try to level using Bewildering. It's actually killed me 4 times now lol.

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Damn, that seems like bad luck. I think I only died maybe twice to Bewildering in the whole game.

Also, I don't know if this is spoilers, but two of the results for Bewildering are 100x JP and 100x EXP

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3 of the 4 deaths were because I was "brought to the brink of death" which leaves the whole party with 1 hp, but then a following dance dealt damage to me in some way. The 4th was I just nuked my whole party for more health than they had.

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I've been struggling with the Side Stories. I might need to actually look up how to solve a few of them. I Steal/Purchase anything with a quest marker, and Scrutinize/Inquire literally everyone that is 70% or higher, but I'm certain a lot of these Side Stories require Guiding or Challenging and I've probably only managed to figure out the most obvious ones, like the old man trying to get to Clearbrook, or Challenging anyone with a thug or ruffian name.

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My main party is all 40+, so I'll be starting Chapter 3s soon.

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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

I've been struggling with the Side Stories. I might need to actually look up how to solve a few of them. I Steal/Purchase anything with a quest marker, and Scrutinize/Inquire literally everyone that is 70% or higher, but I'm certain a lot of these Side Stories require Guiding or Challenging and I've probably only managed to figure out the most obvious ones, like the old man trying to get to Clearbrook, or Challenging anyone with a thug or ruffian name.

When I got Olberic I just went around beating up everyone. Managed to clear a quest I hadn't even got yet by beating up someone that someone else in a town I hadn't been to wanted beaten up

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Olberic, Chapter 3
Party used: Olberic (W/A), Cyrus (S/M), Ophelia (P/D), Therion (T/H)

What a great Chapter! I arrived in Wellspring with certain expectations of how the Chapter was going to play out, and not only did it surprise me, but it really blew me away. I know the story can't really afford to be overly complex or too many twists, it's only got 4 Chapters per character, but this was very well done.

I also liked how I wasn't given the resolutions of this Chapter in the way I thought I would. I thought Erhardt would be the party boss. I thought we might kill him (before the Chapter started), and I really didn't expect Erhardt to be a voice of reason with Olberic with Werner. I was actually surprised I dueled Erhardt at the end, because I had just done the boss fight and wasn't expecting to fight Erhardt and thought they were going to bro-hug and talk it out.

I like that Erhardt's story mirrored Olberic's journey thus far, and there is almost a little irony in Olberic reflecting on Erhardt's current life and realizing how similar they have become. I'm not 100% sure I agree with Olberic's reasoning that he has to stop Werner, and I feel like Olberic is still being driven by revenge, but he just doesn't see it.

Overall, I think Olberic's story arc is progressing well and keeping me vested. I very much am interested in seeing how his story concludes. I think Olberic still has some self discovery to do since going directly after Werner after all this time, having just learned about him, and prying the information from Erhardt, seems a bit aggressive for a character simply interested in protecting people.

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