Current Events > Just ordered Octopath Traveler. Which character to start with?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Primrose looks to have the most interesting story.

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The prostitute

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Primrose was my choice.

Don't forget that the character you start with will remain "the protagonist" and not removable from your party until their story has reached completion.

Not that that's really much of a liability. Just FYI. At the end of the day, every character is viable.

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Primrose it is!

Are there characters the synergize with her best or is any partner good?

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imo, the best main character is Therion the edgy thief, because then you're automatically given purple chests and stealing goods is easier when he's at a higher level

Prim is fine an as MC. She's more a buffbot by default, so she works well with anyone else and will boost their mag or atk accordingly.

Around Act 2 (once you've gathered up your other 7 friends) you'll unlock subclasses, which lets units branch out into the others' job classes. Prim can become your main damage dealer (by virtue of her being a higher level than anyone else) and then someone else can dance for her
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Do you need the other 7? I'm curious if it's possible to entirely skip them lol. Not that I'm planning a solo run for a first playthrough

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Good candidates are Alfyn (because his personal ability is broken), Therion (because you pretty much need him in the party all the time in new areas for chests only he can open), Cyrus (because he has an extremely strong early and midgame, although he becomes very heavily outshone later), and Tressa (mostly for speedrun purposes; Hired Help is extremely powerful). It ultimately does not matter too much, though.


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Ivynn posted...

Do you need the other 7? I'm curious if it's possible to entirely skip them lol. Not that I'm planning a solo run for a first playthrough

Possible, yes. Recommended? Nooo.

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Ivynn posted...

Primrose looks to have the most interesting story.

She does and I started with her but I kinda regret it because she's a very narrowly focused character that you won't be able to remove from your party for a long time. I recommend starting with Ophelia and then going straight clockwise in your recruitment -- Cyrus, Tessa, Olberic, Primrose, Alfin, Therion, and H'aanit so you can be like OCTOPATH

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Tyranthraxus posted...

She does and I started with her but I kinda regret it because she's a very narrowly focused character that you won't be able to remove from your party for a long time. I recommend starting with Ophelia and then going straight clockwise in your recruitment -- Cyrus, Tessa, Olberic, Primrose, Alfin, Therion, and H'aanit so you can be like OCTOPATH

Holy shit, I never noticed that. I thought the name was because of Octo = eight and there are eight paths lol. That's awesome.

Actually, does it even matter who you start with? Like is there different story content based on who you start as? Or exclusive scenes?

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By choosing one character at the beginning, do you only get to see the other character's stories by starting an entirely new game? Or do their stores get told later on in the game?

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That game baited me in because Therion is hot then he had a bottom 3 worst story

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Ivynn posted...

Actually, does it even matter who you start with? Like is there different story content based on who you start as? Or exclusive scenes?

Same story vignettes the whole way. You can skip (or view) everyone's prologues when you gain them. Only difference with the MC is is they're locked in your party until they resolve their Act4. Rotating my other characters around last playthrough, my main was about 10 levels ahead at endgame. I think it was either 60-70, or 60-50...
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good piece of advice here: after you complete the first chapter, split your playthrough for the remaining 3 chapters by completing with a team of 4 at a time. It will be faster that way. you can get powerful items from your first playthrough and give them to your second set, once you finish all 4 chapters for the first team of 4

I do recommend a healer, therion (thief), Cyrus or Tressa (or both) and a warrior if needed. You will get subclasses too, so don't fret too much.

one healer per set is obvious. Tressa is actually good the first round. Therion for opening purple chests (also great for boss fights with his status), but you will need to occasionally switch him in your second set. Cyrus will help scan enemy weaknesses and that remains permanent, and could get information from villagers (so no point in alfyn if cyrus is in).Tressa can get you powerful items vis buying as a merchant. One warrior is optional for each set (Olberic and Hannit). It's mostly their challenging special that you use to fight villagers and get good items, and their strong physical attack.

Primrose is the support back up. She helps raises party attack, magic and defenses, and other things.

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Ivynn posted...

Holy shit, I never noticed that. I thought the name was because of Octo = eight and there are eight paths lol. That's awesome.

Actually, does it even matter who you start with? Like is there different story content based on who you start as? Or exclusive scenes?

The person you pick first can't be removed until you beat their story. Ophelia is the healer so you're going to want her on your party at all times anyway.

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IMO you'll want Alfyn on damage duty. He hits like bonkers. Time he spends healing is time he's not spending doing what the fuck axe Damage.

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Conflict posted...

You can experience everyone's story in one playthrough (and you need to complete their first arc to get them in your party so the game pretty much encourages playing them all)

Nice, think I might play this soon

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Hm I dont remember how I built them but I feel like my characters were the opposite of what people have said here, with Therion and Ophelia being my strongest and Alfyn being one of the weakest.
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AlCalavicci posted...

Nice, think I might play this soon

Ayyy, if you get it soon enough we could compare playthroughs!

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I'm going to have to give this game another shot. I got kind of confused because it felt like all the enemies were too strong for my level all the time and there were way too many battles for how long it was. I just felt like I didn't understand the systems somehow.

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AvlButtslam posted...

Hm I dont remember how I built them but I feel like my characters were the opposite of what people have said here, with Therion and Ophelia being my strongest and Alfyn being one of the weakest.

Once you unlock subclasses anyone can be built to do anything but Alfyn's Amputate & Last Stand are the hardest hitting physical skills in the game.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

IMO you'll want Alfyn on damage duty. He hits like bonkers. Time he spends healing is time he's not spending doing what the fuck axe Damage.

Alfyn hits hard early game, but honestly his best duty once you get access to his better components is "give everyone 2 or 3 BP every single turn" duty, passing around full-party status immunity, multihitting weaknesses, etc. His personal is completely insane. Amputate is a pretty good move and stronger than what the other physical characters get early on, but it's not THAT amazing and boosted tier 2 magic from Cyrus will probably be most of your damage until you start getting the stronger abilities that aren't available at the start.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Once you unlock subclasses anyone can be built to do anything but Alfyn's Amputate & Last Stand are the hardest hitting physical skills in the game.

Out of the ones you can immediately access, and not counting monster attacks from H'aanit or Hired Help, yes. But they aren't better than the stuff you can unlock later.

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Jabodie posted...

I'm going to have to give this game another shot. I got kind of confused because it felt like all the enemies were too strong for my level all the time and there were way too many battles for how long it was. I just felt like I didn't understand the systems somehow.

Oh right

How is the grinding in this game?

Not too much I hope. But since this is supposed to be a throwback to PS1-era JRPGs, it would be kinda appropriate lol

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People have said you didn't really have to grind much, so I think I was just confused lol. I got all 8 characters then stopped.

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I think I did Olberic > Primrose > Therion > Ophelia > Alfyn > Cyrus > Tressa > H'aanit.

I never really felt the game was difficult, but in retrospect, having Cyrus a little earlier might have made some things simpler. Just because he has access to multi-hit, multi-target elemental spells, which is good for breaking the enemy's guard and dealing with crowds.

Having a tanky character like Olberic helps with Primrose, because I recall her initial chapter being the most difficult to solo. Primarily due to he class being mostly a buff bot.

the_rowan posted...

Alfyn hits hard early game, but honestly his best duty once you get access to his better components is "give everyone 2 or 3 BP every single turn" duty, passing around full-party status immunity, multihitting weaknesses, etc. His personal is completely insane. Amputate is a pretty good move and stronger than what the other physical characters get early on, but it's not THAT amazing and boosted tier 2 magic from Cyrus will probably be most of your damage until you start getting the stronger abilities that aren't available at the start.

Out of the ones you can immediately access, and not counting monster attacks from H'aanit, yes. But they aren't better than the stuff you can unlock later.

Cyrus is OP and has an OP unique ability and magic damage is OP.

I think the only one who can put out more damage is Tessa w/Runeblade

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I started with Olberic. Cool story but unfortunate that he is the stereotypical warrior archetype

Tyranthraxus posted...

Cyrus is OP and has an OP unique ability and magic damage is OP.

Isn't his unique ability to just show you a weakness at start of combat? It's nifty, but it's one of the weakest ones. Compared to Alfyn having ridiculous heals/revives, ability to grant turn priority, AoE leghold trap, AoE buff removal/prevention, AoE debuff prevention, AoE status ailments, and handing out massive amounts of BP like candy, all without using his own BP, Cyrus is just a nifty convenience. H'aanit also can do some ridiuculous things with captured monsters.

Scholar is busted as all hell until you get what is basically Scholar+, though, and a setup where Tressa/another Merchant gives 2 BP to Cyrus and Cyrus triple boosts a tier 2 spell on turn one will instantly clear most fights for a long time.

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the_rowan posted...

Isn't his unique ability to just show you a weakness at start of combat?

Yep but it's soooooo good for the early game.

Late game it doesn't really matter but IMO chapters 1 & 2 are the hardest. Once you get past those the rest of the game is really easy until you get to the postgame boss.

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i want Therion to press me against a wall and shove his tongue in my mouth

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I forgot to say that the thief steals as well, which is similar to tressa buying items from people outright, except that the thief has a chance of failing and ruining your town reputation... which costs money to build back if you ruin it.

It's not perfect, ut My playthrough after chapter 1 was

Cyrus, Tressa, Therion and Ophelia for my first group, and completed all 4 chapters with them before completing chapters 2-4 for my second group.

and

Primrose, Aflyn, olberic and H'aanit for my second. I switched Therion in my second group occasionally for some dungeons that have a purple chest.

First set gave me really good items through bartering and stealing and purple chests. and a good mage + straightforward healer (Alfyn's healing is more complicated and via items..). Not to mention Cyru's scout ability showed enemy weaknesses, so my second set I completed much faster. I didnt have a warrior class to challenge people in with my first set, but it was okay.

There are secondary jobs available for all characters btw. I don't want to spoil too much. Part of the fun is just finding out what works best for you as well

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Cyrus is OP and has an OP unique ability and magic damage is OP.

I think the only one who can put out more damage is Tessa w/Runeblade

He's not OP. He's good at completing the game to end of chapter 4, but post game with the secret jobs and bosses, he doesn't have as much damage magic potential as Tressa as sorceress

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I think you already picked your character, but the four characters I usually reccomend for gameplay reasons as your main characters are either Therion (you have the potential to get powerful early game or late game weapons/armors with his steal, plus purple treasure chests that only he can unlock), Alfin (his concoct ability is fucking OP), Cyrus (he's who I started with because I get OCD not knowing all the weakness of a monster, but if you're using a guide then don't bother with him), and Tressa (she basically rains money for you allowing you to buy some powerful stuff and her hiring ability is fucking nuts).

With that said, I didn't enjoy how segmented the story is even though yes, all 8 stories eventually come together at the end. I also didn't enjoy that your party doesn't really talk to each other in the stories... well other than those travel banter (that are unfortunately missable). Yes, I understand why they don't have it, but I honestly see it as a missed opportunity. But the reason I played until the very end is that the gameplay was fun and engaging enough for me to stick with it long enough.

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the_rowan posted...

Scholar is busted as all hell until you get what is basically Scholar+, though, and a setup where Tressa/another Merchant gives 2 BP to Cyrus and Cyrus triple boosts a tier 2 spell on turn one will instantly clear most fights for a long time.

Yup. But that's not Cyrus exclusive, that's anyone with Scholar skills and elemental gear, augmented by a dancer and/or merchant. On my recent playthrough it was Ophelia who also got Scholar skills, so one of those two was pretty much always in the party.

Personally I think doing the two-party split is excessive. Just do it all together, and make your team the MC, unit who's chapter you're on, and your two lowest units. There's a lot of side/fetch quests to gain along the way, which call for a variety of path actions and so it's easier to do them live instead of backtracking a whole bunch.

Doe posted...

i want Therion to press me against a wall and shove his tongue in my mouth

I'm ready, are you!?
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God this game ended up being awful, and I really wanted to like it too

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I liked the game a lot tbh. I liked the art style, and the music was really good.
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bump

Should be coming today or tomorrow and I might still have questions

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well i dont remember much about the story but i remember the combat is damn fun, and that the theif's voice actor is absolute garbage.

DMX99 posted...

well i dont remember much about the story but i remember the combat is damn fun, and that the theif's voice actor is absolute garbage.

Therion sounds hot in JP voice acting. You missed out if you played in English. It's unspeakably obnoxious to hear everyone say a phrase that isn't their dialogue every sentence.

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more like octopoop traveler mirite

I've been meaning to play this game for awhile since I heard my roommate playing it, sounds like a lovely soundtrack. But I've never gotten around to it. Even this topic has tons of ideas on who to start with, how about if I want the most OP start, who to start with? lol

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Revnir posted...

How good is the story in that game?

It's a little clich and predictable, imo. Everyone of the eight characters has four chapters and each chapter gives them some progression or character growth or flashback or something. Three of them is just outright "get mission, go do task A in chapter 2, task B in chapter 3, and task C in chapter 4" while the rest are a little more dynamic and you don't know what chapter 3 is going to do until you see how chapter 2 plays out.

It culminates at literal endgame when, surprise surprise, most of them were intertwined the whole time.

Not that it's an amazing baseline, but despite this the story is still better than 90%+ of the SNES jRPGs. There's a few dark scenes too like a dude stabbing himself with some blood pixel splatter.
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Eh they're still pretty superficially intertwined. One or two of the stories are nearly offensively bad and none of them are particularly clever or original.

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to keep the game interesting, i forced myself to rotate in the lowest level characters and adjust which job each character had based on what i needed. it was fun. it also helped keep things interesting my forcing me to use unique job combos.

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