In lots of methods, Octopath Traveler II can really feel like a fairly easy turn-based RPG, however while you bear in mind its eight characters’ unique mechanics, its non-linear storytelling, and the way unapologetic it may be about throwing you into the deep finish, there’s lots of complexity below the hood. Whether or not it’s prioritizing recruiting social gathering members early or making essentially the most out of sure techniques, listed here are some tricks to get you began in your Octopath Traveler II journey.
Common PSA: You gained’t miss out on any content material by beginning with one character
The primary resolution you’ll make in Octopath Traveler II is which of its eight playable characters you need to play first. This has a couple of penalties in that it’s going to act as an anchor level in your introduction to its world, and can decide the primary set of weapons, talents, and particular expertise you’ll have at the start of the sport. Every character has a narrative introduction that takes about an hour or so to finish, however the first one you play by does set a sure tone for the start of your journey. Nevertheless, as you recruit the opposite seven characters throughout the sport, you’ll have a chance to listen to their origin tales as properly. So whereas choosing your first character is an enormous resolution, don’t fear about lacking out on any story content material alongside the best way.
New characters gained’t scale to match the extent of your previous ones
There’s lots of facet content material to do in Octopath Traveler II, but it surely’s most likely a good suggestion to prioritize gathering the complete social gathering as early as you’ll be able to. Whereas some RPGs will guarantee your social gathering’s ranges are about the identical as you struggle by the world, new characters in Octopath Traveler II will begin out at degree 1, no matter what degree the remainder of your social gathering is at. Due to this, it’s price listening to each character’s origin story while you’re prompted to at first assembly, as a result of it gives you each some context as to who this new social gathering member is, and provides you a chance to degree them up a bit in opposition to enemies they’re scaled to struggle. Fortunately, in case you make some extent to recruit characters early, they’ll probably degree up pretty shortly and catch as much as characters you have already got with minimal grinding.
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The origin tales are each narrative and mechanical intros, so do them as quickly as attainable
After I first began Octopath Traveler II, I didn’t play by the origin tales once I recruited new social gathering members, as a substitute planning to play them by visiting a tavern and selecting to pay attention again to an previous story later. I used to be busy and had tunnel imaginative and prescient on enjoying by Partitio’s story, who I selected once I began the sport. Nevertheless, once I lastly received round to listening to new characters’ tales on the tavern, it was not solely useful to lastly have funding in a number of tales, but it surely helped me contextualize how characters like Agnea and Castti’s unique mechanics, reminiscent of soliciting for data from an area or charming them into serving to us out, could possibly be helpful. So when you won’t be instantly enthusiastic about a personality upon first assembly, it’s nonetheless price interrupting your quest to listen to their story, as it’ll enrich your total expertise with each story context and information of the sport’s techniques.
Rewatch earlier cutscenes to refresh your reminiscence in regards to the story
Man, extra RPGs ought to allow you to do that. As a result of Octopath Traveler II focuses on eight anthology tales, it may be simple to lose monitor of threads as you’re enjoying and zigzagging by completely different characters’ chapters. Fortunately, the sport has a helpful function that may make it easier to refresh your self on massive occasions, characters, and motivations: rewatching cutscenes. To do that, pause the sport, go to the Journal tab, and discover the character whose story you want a refresh on. Right here you’ll be able to learn summaries of every chapter’s scenes, or rewatch them solely. Lots of RPGs hold monitor of issues by quest logs and codex entries, however Octopath Traveler II helps you to simply rewatch a complete storyline proper from its pause menu, and given its construction, it’s a welcome addition price profiting from as you come again to tales all through the sport.
Crank up the sport velocity
Octopath Traveler II is a beautiful recreation, however you gained’t lose any of that visible aptitude by making its battles go by a bit of sooner. Throughout a struggle, press the Begin/Choices/+ button and it’ll velocity up the battle animations. That is particularly useful throughout stretches of grinding, as it’ll lower down on the time for every fight encounter, and because it nonetheless reveals all of its beautiful animation, you’re not likely shedding something by flipping the change.
Prioritize recruiting characters who can fill gaps in your arsenal
If you’re choosing your first character, it won’t solely set you on a particular path for the story, however it’ll additionally play a serious position in what talents and weapons you’ve got within the early recreation. For instance, in case you select to start out as Agnea, your early fights are going to be with a dagger, and that’s the enemy weak point you’ll most simply exploit. However as is the case with each character, one social gathering member can’t strike each weak level on their very own. As you discover new additions the world over, you’ll naturally discover teammates who fill out these gaps, however some characters will help you make up for these deficiencies by bringing NPCs alongside for the journey for a restricted time. Agnea and Partitio each have talents that permit you to recruit NPCs you meet in your travels as non permanent companions, full with their very own talents and weapon units. You possibly can see these earlier than you rent them, so that you gained’t be stepping into and utilizing sources merely hoping a possible recruit can accommodate in your shortcomings. It’s a superb strategic play to acknowledge what weapon weaknesses you’ll be able to’t strike (or can perhaps solely strike with one character who may use some assist protecting your bases), and both beginning with these characters or recruiting them early on will make it easier to exploit weaknesses you in any other case wouldn’t have the ability to with out social gathering members you’ve got but to fulfill.
Take the guesswork out of discovering weaknesses
Lots of battles in Octopath Traveler II begin with some guessing and prodding as you attempt to reveal enemy weaknesses throughout elemental harm and weapon harm. This will take up a couple of turns relying on which characters you’ve got, and is a recreation of strategy of elimination. Nevertheless, sure characters have talents that may make it easier to take away among the thriller. Two characters particularly, Ochette and Osvald, have talents that may reveal weaknesses early on so you can begin utilizing them to do further harm, tearing down defenses, and gorgeous enemies. Ochette’s is extra exact and a bit restricted comparatively, however continues to be useful. As a Hunter, Ochette is ready to summon a companion that you just’ll decide at the start of her story. Whether or not you select the lājackal Akalā or her malamaowl Mahina, Ochette may have a capability that reveals weapon weaknesses or elemental weaknesses respectively. Osvald’s isn’t restricted to both weapons or parts, as a result of as a Scholar, he can use Analyze, which each reveals an enemy’s HP, in addition to one weak point. Having not less than one in all these two in your staff always will shorten battles since you gained’t spend early turns attempting to determine what weak factors to strike.
Stagger your Breaks and use BP strategically
The core technique in Octopath Traveler II’s battles is to assault weaknesses and take down an opponent’s defenses. These are known as Breaks, which can stun an enemy for a flip, and trigger any subsequent assaults to do further harm. Every enemy has a sure protection degree proven by a numbered defend icon, with the quantity exhibiting what number of extra instances it’s a must to strike at a weak point earlier than their defenses will break. On high of this, as every character reaches a brand new flip, they’ll obtain one BP level that permits them to do yet one more assault in a flip per level used. As tempting because it is perhaps to make use of a number of BP in a single flip to interrupt an enemy’s defenses, surprised enemies take extra harm than enemies do repeatedly, so generally it’s price it to spend extra time utilizing single assaults on a flip to slowly break down defenses after which use BP to unleash a number of stronger assaults whereas an opponent is surprised. Breaking defenses is without doubt one of the key components of succeeding in battle in Octopath Traveler II, however doing quite a bit with the brief period of time it provides you is the distinction between chipping away at an enemy’s well being for lengthy stretches of time and doing chunks of harm in a short time.