Quick Links
The beauty ofOctopath Traveler 2is in its ability to give us eight playable characters, each with their own unique storylines, all of which can be completed in whichever order we prefer. You could hypothetically choose your first character, then recruit and fulfill every other character’s story before so much as finishing a single chapter of your initial hero’s.
Related:Games To Play If You Like Octopath Traveler 2
But there are certain stipulations worth taking into account. And indeed, there is reason to consider doing things in somewhat specific order. We’ll mull over all this to help you decide whether to stick to a particular approach or just go completely with the flow - just know in advance, there’s no ‘wrong’ way to play!
The Protagonist Rule
Something to bear in mind before we go any further - when Octopath Traveler 2 is first booted up, and you’re tasked with selecting your starting character, it’s important to understand that this character is henceforth designated the game’s ‘protagonist’. This term comes with a rather loaded requirement, namelyyou cannot remove the protagonist from your party until you’ve finished their story chapters.
Let’s say we started with Hikari. Why Hikari? Because we chose an image of Hikari for this section of the article. Why did we do that? Luck of the draw, really. Anyway, presuming we picked Hikari,we cannot remove Hikari from our party at any point until we’ve done his content. In this case, that means five chapters. That’s around the average for Octopath Traveler 2.
It’s not so bad being stuck with someone in the party 24/7, mind you. Everyone’s pretty good in their combat roles. But the recommended level for the last of Hikari’s chapters is 45. Consider this: once you have four or more party members,Hikari has to be one of those four at all times until you’re at a good enough level to tackle his fifth chapter.
It’s just food for thought, and if you should happen to find Hikari’s battle mechanics less compelling than you’d wished, hey, so it goes. You’ve still got those other three slots!
Our Personal Recommendations
Now, this is just our two cents. But we appreciate that you’ve picked our guide to aid your Octopath deliberations, so we’ll do our best to present these two cents of ours.We believe the best overall character to start with is Osvald, asmagic attacks are quite powerful in Octopath Traveler 2.
It’s not that Osvald outclasses everybody else by default (though to be sure, heisgood). Rather,you will find ample reason to have Osvald’s spellcasting as part of your regular lineup,so there’s inherent value in choosing him as the guy you can’t actually remove from your team in the first place.
Put another way, suppose we went with Hikari - we will always have Hikari’s robust physical attacks, but those are easier to come by to varying extents through other party members. Meanwhile, the Scholar class' spells are singularly useful, and even when you acquire licenses so that other party members can use that class, no one else’s Elemental Attack stat is quite as high as Osvald’s.
Other than Osvald,Throné is a prime pick. Throné’s talent, Blessing of Darkness, grants the whole party three turns worth of substantial buffs at the start of every nighttime fight.you may level up more swiftly, and just generally have an easier time with random encounters as a rule, courtesy of her special perk. Perhaps the single best play for early Octopath Traveler 2 recruitment, then, is either Osvald followed by Throné or vice versa.
Regardless of the order you choose for character recruitment, we advise you to spread everyone’s tales out as best as possible.The recommended party level climbs are all fairly consistent from characters' earliest chapters to their latest, ranging from single digits up to 45. (You’ll see a bit higher than 45 for the final chapter, which unlocks after all eight travelers' tales are completed.)
While you’re able to totally just grind a ton and do all of Agnea’s stuff before anybody else’s second-chapter fare (though good luck doing it all without at least recruiting three more people for a full party of four!), this is more of a slog, you know? Isn’t it more fun to engage in the nifty storytelling on a more regular basis?
Plus, there’s sort of an unspoken beating heart to Octopath Traveler 2, if you’ll pardon the poetics -this is a story about eight people who happen to band together while on their own individual journeys.It’s more in the spirit of the game’s presentation to imagine those journeys being walked simultaneously, incrementally. The gang makes it to a city - let’s say Montwise, for example - and anybody with business there takes care of it. Then it’s off to the next unexplored route, and so forth.
More than anything, this approach helps to prevent Octopath Traveler 2 from ever feeling stale.Think of it like a semi-anthology anime series, where every viewer has a favorite character, and they can look forward to a spotlight episode on said favorite every eight or so episodes. It’s exciting, because it keeps things fresh.
