Octopath Traveller- blog

[Heathcliff]

I've recently been playing this RPG on the Switch and thought it might be fun to blog my progress. There's a bit of catching up to do- I've now got all eight characters, so let's review:

Cyrus the Scholar - This man is clearly an over-educated, arrogant ponce. As such I immediately identified with him and chose him as my starting character. I think he's trying to track down some lost books or something; I wasn't paying attention.

Ophilia the Cleric - She was nearby and I immediately fell in love with her (not literally). Every party needs a white magician, she has healing and light powers. She's on some kind of religious pilgrimage.

H'aanit the Hunter - I almost put "H'aanit the sexy hunter". The art is a bit silly. But this character is awesome. She is powerful as all hell and can summon a pet leopard in battle.

Therion the Thief - Apparently all theives wear a shawl and scarf and look a bit camp. One would think that would tip the police off, but whatever. Therion can steal from monsters in battle, but why would a frog monster be carrying a magic potion?

Primrose the Dancer - She has one of the best backstories. She saw her father killed by three hooded men and is on a quest to track them down.

Alfyn the Apothecary - A simple but touching backstory. His brother's child was bitten by a snake. Alfyn hunts the snake down and kills it, in order to produce antivenom to save her.

Olberic the Knight - A fairly rubbish backstory but this guy is a powerful fighter. He's on trial as the ongoing fourth member of my party.

Tressa the (rubbish) Merchant - Well, this was an anticlimax as the last of the Fateful Eight. Tressa is a merchant's daughter who fights some pirates, blah blah blah I don't care. Her power is (would you believe this) stealing money from monsters in battle. Again- would a bat or a snake be carrying cash?

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Highlights so far:

- The Ghisarma - dribbly cat monster in H'aanit's home town. That sod gave me a lot of trouble and made me learn the game's battle system.

- Primrose's story - just really cool. When she works as a dancer she has a nasty sexist boss, who you get to fight at the end of the chapter (and my party was a bit overpowered then and blew him apart).

- Alfyn's story and the snake-filled cave.

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Where do I go?

Having gathered the eight, I wasn't sure what to do next. I tried to go South of Sunshade, but got my ass handed to me by super-powered monsters. The game was telling me I was going the wrong way.

I think as Cyrus is my starting character, I must go to his chapter 2. So next we are going to Quarrycrest (it's on the map and everything).

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Seriously

I know this game is pricey and not everyone can afford to buy games or consoles shortly after release (before I had a proper job, I could never afford it). But if you have a Switch and like RPGs, I would recommend it. If you don't, I hope this can be a bit of fun.

 

[Heathcliff]

Nice pic of the Ghisarma:

[Heathcliff]

Octopath 2 (or- "a good walk spoiled (by shrines)")

Okay, here we are at Quarrycrest. Cyrus is trying to find a book called something like "The Far Reaches of Hell" and is then shocked that this book is related to black magic.

We seek help from another scholar, Oddette, who Cyrus knows- who immediately slams the door in his face when she sees him. I'm not surprised.

Can I just point out? The voice acting in this game is not great. Some people appear to actually trying to do a good job (I'm not certain why) but others, like the man playing Cyrus or the woman playing Oddette, seem to have gone to the House Of The Dead 2 school of acting. If you don't know what that is see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWxw0wmeNQ

So, we have to investigate some missing people who have been taken into the sewer. I went into the sewer and got my ass handed to me by some skeletons- I'm not good enough for this area.

I looked online and saw some advice saying "Take a scholar with cleric as their secondary job." Job?? What's this? Could this be the ominous question mark on the pause screen? Yes, it turns out you need to find a series of shrines around the world so you can give each person a secondary power- basically blend two types of ability.

So I set off on a very long walk to try and find the shrines. I cheated online at first until I realised you can actually see most of them on the map. But here's the thing- you can know you are near a shrine but the way the roads work make it very hard to actually find it.

I was looking for the Cleric shrine in the snow-covered area, and a little song started going through my head. It goes something like this:
"Where are the fucking shrines?
Where are the fucking shrines?
I hate you Nintendo!
Where are the fucking shrines?"

Here it is! Oh no, it's a ridiculously hard dungeon. Ages later I found it. I have as many weapons as I could have now, I must fight the boss in Quarrycrest. He's an evil man making gemstones out of people's blood. Sooner or later we'll put a stop to him.