16/04/2019

Octopath Traveler: Meet the crew


Here we are, dear fellow gamers: my own personal ranking of OT's eight characters, from my least favourite to my uttermost favourite — because we want to keep le meilleur pour la fin, don't we? I'll judge them based on their personalities (if such a word can be used to describe bunches of pixels), stories and, last but not least, on their class and abilities — because heck, we're role-playing here after all. Without further ado, let's get down to it!


H'aanit: I fully expected to adore OT's fierce huntress, I really did; and yet there she stands, at the bottom of my personal ranking. So what went wrong, pray tell? I wish I could claim that her voice and dialogue get on my nerve; but alas, her stiff middle english is the least of my concerns. I'm much more aggravated by her atrocious aiming, which sees her miss half of her hits as a rule and makes her multi-targeting abilities utterly pointless. So you're supposed to be a top-tier huntress, and yet you cannot fire a bow without missing? I wanted Robin Hood and I got Baby's First Archery Lesson — thanks for nothing, Squeenix. And my, are her Pokemon-ish abilities way too complicated and unwieldy for my taste: nearly all foes are Legendaries to her, and the only creatures she can capture with any degree of certainty are weaklings that are good for little to nothing on the battlefield. Granted, her passive skills are awesome; but alas, it's not enough to make me dig her battle prowess.


Primrose: Let's be clear: I don't actually dislike Primrose. In fact, there are plenty of things I like about her, from the sheer grimness of her own personal tale to her husky, low-pitched voice. But alas, the RPG player in me simply cannot be satisfied with her near-uselessness in battle and on the field. Not only is she painfully weak on both physical and elemental fronts, making her exclusive mastery of Dark kinda pointless, but she has the nerve of wielding a mere single weapon, making her virtually useless as far as weapon coverage go. Her Action Path is bound to come in handy only a measly couple of times over a full run, and her Talent... Heck, what's her Talent, already? Oh yeah, summoning NPCs in battle. Like Tressa, basically — only more tedious, because Prim has to charm those NPCs first. Sure, she has good buffing abilities; but serial buffing has never been my playing style, and thus I have little to no use for Primrose in my party setting.


Olberic: I'm usually a sucker for the brave ole Warrior in RPGs, and I love myself a good story of honour, bravery and knighthood. That should have made Olberic a surefire hit; but if you read my first post about OT, you know already that it's not the case. His voice and signature lines grate on my ears, his bulky and poorly dressed sprite stings my retinas and, last but not least, his fighting abilities leave me cold. Sure, he's strong as all heck, and he boasts a couple of neat and deadly moves; but that is definitely not enough to make him a true battle asset. Being the only character wielding no elemental skill at all doesn't do him any favour, and I cannot help but think that he should have been a bit more powerful on the physical front to compensate for that absence. He should also have been more notably sturdy to function properly as the tank he's supposed to be.


Therion: I like and despise the resident thief, all at once and in turn. I love him to pieces when I trot down the streets, swiftly getting my paws on NPCs' possessions as I go. I bow to his awesomeness when I'm unleashing his devastating Divine Skill on the battlefield. I delight in his tale of broken trust and wandering and his lone wolf quality during the story segments. But oh gosh, do I want to slap him hard every time he opens his crude mouth — and never more than when he spits "Come on, I've got better things to do" or "Where's the nearest tavern" with that cocky accent of his. And never, ever do I despise him more intensely than when I roam a dungeon and encounter yet another bloody safe that he alone can break open. I truly hate how Squeenix tried to make him indispensable by peppering the whole darn game with those cursed safes, and I now feel a pang of anger every time I spot a flash of purple around IRL.


Alfyn: We're reaching the upper half of my ranking, and thus the characters I really want to stick with — and very much do stick with, actually. Alfyn's Apothecary talents are a mite too random for me, and I've never managed to craft any remotely useful — let alone outstanding — salve on the fly; on the other hand, I'm totally sold on his strength and his mastery of the axe. It certainly doesn't hurt either that he's the only character with innate status effect healing abilities, and that his Divine Skill gives him access to the only instance of status effect multi-healing. I'm also quite fond of his Inquiring talents, which are more pleasantly diplomatic than Cyrus' Scrutinizing ones and allow me to get my paws on hidden items, discounts, new gear and other niceties. Cherry on the cake, his shonen-ish personal pursuit of mastery of his craft really resonates with me, and his mountainous, pine-studded homeland completely stole my heart.


Ophilia: Aaah, dear Ophilia. How I love your prime and proper demeanour, your quiet and unassuming badassery, the crystalline snowy lands your hail from. But as enticing as all this is, it certainly wouldn't be have been enough to grant you the third spot in my ranking. You gained said third spot because of how utterly indispensable you are on the battlefield. You're a natural born Healer, and a stellar one at that. Even the meanest of your healing spells can put a full party back on their feet, and you saved the day and my arse in battle more often than I care to count. That would already be more than enough to make you awesome; but you also reign alone over Light skills and you wield a Divine Skill tailor-made for boss fights, and that makes you even more impossibly awesome. You're the holy RPG party member par excellence, and even your useful-once-in-a-blue-moon Path Action cannot tarnish your light.


Cyrus: I'll be honest: I have a near-tie between the resident scholar and Tressa. Cyrus didn't impress me much at first, I must say; but it wasn't long before I learnt to appreciate his talents and became truly infatuated with him. He can Break foes and wipe the battlefield clean like no other OT character with his double-hit elemental skills, and his Divine Skill can wreak havoc on bosses' HP bars — add Ophilia's Divine Skill on top, and you get a true warhorse and a harbinger of doom for everything standing on the wrong side of the battlefield. His ridiculously stylish sprite and deliciously snobbish tone and signature lines make him even more endearing to me; and I'm not even talking about his cluelessness in romantic matters, his insatiable curiosity and his ability to get lost in nerdy conversations — all things I can totally and completely relate to. Cyrus Albright, you're the sh*t.


Tressa: All hail my MC and absolute favourite OT character! Heck, I've not encountered such an endearing and irresistible riches-obsessed character since I became a diehard fan of Scrooge McDuck as a kid. Funnily enough, I expected to somewhat dislike her before playing the game; and oh boy, how utterly wrong I was. I adore everything about her, from her cheeky demeanour to her saucy signature quips, from her kickass Action Path to her dope Talent, from her simple-yet-charming story to her stellar battle prowess. She's the most delightfully versatile OT character, both on the battlefield and out of it: strong physical hits, elemental skills, self-healing, stealing, buffing, filling in the coffers — she can do it all, and she can do it like a boss. Heck, she's the sole reason my party is currently swimming in money and able to pimp themselves with the very best gear available. She literally saved my run, and I definitely wouldn't love OT as much if she weren't around. Tressa Colzione, you're my spirit animal.


There you have it, dear fellow gamers: my very own personal ranking of the OT cast. This is a pleasantly diverse crew, and I can safely claim that there is not a single rotten apple to find here: I like them all to various degree, and I'm interested in all of their stories — if only remotely. Feel free to share your own ranking in the comments; and as usual, thanks a lot for stopping by!

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