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  Music: Oasis in the Sparkling Sands  We have three more side stories left. These require all eight character stories to be complete, which is why I saved them for last. This one is its own thing, and a bit of a light-hearted one.   I am just now considering a new entertainment I might offer to my people. People do not live merely to survive each day. They live to see the pleasures they hope tomorrow might bring. That is why one of my duties to my people is to provide them with the pleasures that give them the strength to make it through each day. I have asked for the opinions of my vassals, and come to a decision. I must not please only the rich and the fortunate... But my advisors and I know little of such things. Playacting and the world of the theater. We will need help to make this production a success. I must admit that I have little faith in our success as it stands. So this grand assignment, one that requires all eight main quests to be completed, is to help King Khalim put on a play. You shouldn't be surprised by now if you've read the last ninety-eight side stories!   All that said, King Khalim is a strong and able ruler who really does have the best interests of his kingdom at heart, as H'aanit's tale has shown.   Perhaps if some of the actors and others who work with the theater tried to appeal to the king, he would better see the value of such a production...  Suffice to say, this is probably the person most responsible for giving the king the idea to put on plays.  At any rate, since the whole thing is about plays, it makes sense to go to the one place that's all about plays. To Everhold!   As grand as our own stage is, I know that we are destined for an ever greater stage than this. Someday, I hope we will get to perform our art for the pleasure of all.  And we find the theater manager for Everhold, who talks about wanting to spread theater to the world...   ...and do I know the best place to start!  Y-you are familiar with our modest theater, Your Majesty? That is an honor I would never have dreamed of. Not at all. I feel much relieved to have you here to consult with. You see, I have been considering a new entertainment for the benefit of my people, and the idea of a series of plays was proposed to me. Th-that is wonderful to hear, Your Highness! But constructing a stage and assembling all we will need will cost a fair deal. That issue is one we must resolve to move forward. -----  Yes, Your Highness. The stage and props are naught but tools made to make an illusion easier to maintain. But a skilled player needs neither to captivate his or her audience. So all we truly must provide is a space for the plays to be performed by able actors... If I'm not mistaken, Your Highness, it seems that you wish to host more than one play...? The joy...of creating great theater... Indeed! This is something I had overlooked! Yes, the pleasure of the theater is not restricted to those standing in the audience. Merely watching another's acting and nothing else is to experience only half of the wonders the theater offers.  And in the process, supporting the development of skilled artisans who may continue to support the theater arts going forward... Nothing would please me more than being able to open the door to the world of the theater to more people. I already have decided the topic of the first play, in fact. Have you indeed, Your Highness? You have traveled the wide expanses of this continent. Your grand adventure should surely be the subject of our first performance!  Say, I think such a play could very well work! But what would you call it...?  At any rate, we get adequate compensation for selling the life rights to our adventures, though Tressa made sure our travelers got sizable royalties as well.    I still believe that your story will bring hope to the many. I look forward to the day when it may be witnessed by all my people.And this is the moment where everyone, including me, realizes "Let's Play Octopath Traveler" was a double entendre all along. Next time, the beginning of the end of the end, as we meet up with some more familiar faces and see some unlikely paths cross in the penultimate side story.
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Sep 19, 2019 23:18
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Counted the votes, and the winners are Heathcote (7) and Lianna (4). Erhardt (3) was a close third, with King Khalim (2) and Vanessa (2) also getting multiple votes. Thinking I'll record the final updates tonight, just in case things go wrong due to a really dumb design choice they decided to make with this final part. I should be prepared for the final battle, but I'm also tackling it ten levels lower than I did last time (~L60 now rather than ~L70 my first time). Hopefully everything goes well!
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Sep 19, 2019 23:25
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Aaaaaand the final updates are recorded. Last three updates should go up Friday/Saturday/Sunday if all goes well. That final battle gave me a really good scare at one point, but I managed.
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Sep 20, 2019 02:05
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 Music: The Woodlands  This side story's a bit weird, mostly because it's a set-up for the game's finale. It takes place in the area between Bolderfall and S'warkii, and involves another familiar face, the Impresario of the traveling actor troupe that Kit was involved with earlier.  The troupe is all doing fine, though we do still miss Kit. A traveling swordsman passed by not so long ago. Once we told him the rumors, he said that he would defeat the monster. But he has not returned... I do hope he's all right.   Please, do not trouble yourself on my behalf...hm? You there...! Do you know one another? ...Responsible for bringing me to the lovely Flora, my true love and other half.Naturally, in a side story named "Alphas and the Impresario", Alphas is also involved.  I feel quite the same. For all that you have helped us in the past, I hope we might ask your help once more. I would also be glad to leave the task to one as able as you. The monster is a fearsome one, but I know your strength. If even you cannot defeat such a monster... I don't know who would be able to. So yeah, kill a monster, you know the deal.  I hope you will be able to help do something about it. Approach it with care and keep yourself safe.Just as long as it's nothing like that drat direwolf, we should be fine.  Music: Battle I   Our foe is a giant Azure-eyed Tiger.   It doesn't even get a single action. I break it with my first action and kill it in two rounds. Music: The Woodlands  Astounding! You are even stronger than I knew! You took the very words from my mouth! My friend, you put my skill with a blade to shame! I remain grateful for your aid in this fight! Thank you from me and the troupe, as well. You've done us a great favor again.It's your bog-standard side story. However, there's a couple little wrinkles to the end of this one...  He is headed now to the place where he is to meet the woman who knew of his father. Oh, are you speaking of a common acquaintance? And what a coincidence... It seems she was headed for the land once known as the kingdom of... Wait... Lyblac and Kit are heading to the former kingdom of Hornburg? What are the odds?  A coincidence...? I suppose stranger things have happened... And...that's the side story. The Impresario will begin the final side story of the game.  Of course I have my Flora now, but I still do admit to a certain curiosity! Hoho!So assuming these two are traveling together, what does Lyblac know about Kit's father, and why are they traveling to Hornburg? Next time, many truths will be revealed to us, as we begin the final side story and take our final journey to none other than the fallen kingdom of Hornburg, where we will face trials far greater than what we've overcome so far. The final two updates are upon us!
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Sep 20, 2019 21:05
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I am very excited for the postgame finale.
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Sep 20, 2019 21:11
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And now, finally, all the stories will tie together.
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Sep 20, 2019 21:55
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It's strange how much they buried this part of the game really, considering they clearly put a lot of thought into how all this tied together. Then again, I guess trying to trick the player into grinding a lot to get here is probably for the best.
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Sep 20, 2019 22:07
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For anyone else who forgot this plot thread, these are the relevant updates: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3873061&perpage=1&pagenumber=1138 https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3873061&perpage=1&pagenumber=1157
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Sep 20, 2019 23:11
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Yeah, burying the final boss behind an obscure and unassuming series of side stories is one of my bigger sticking points with this game. The biggest is a gimmick with said final boss that we’re going to be seeing in short order.
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Sep 20, 2019 23:16
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I loved this game and actually stopped it at the very final boss for reasons that may seem understandable. I didn’t wanna level grind. Maybe I was just playing bad, but it was too much imo.
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Sep 20, 2019 23:43
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Grand Gigas posted:I loved this game and actually stopped it at the very final boss for reasons that may seem understandable. I didn’t wanna level grind. Maybe I was just playing bad, but it was too much imo. Octopath is the rare RPG that understands how their ability/class system can be broken and plans the hardest bosses accordingly without merely making them walls of stats. They did however create another, not actually related problem, as has been alluded to and I'm sure will be subject of much discussion by Mega64 in the next update.
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Sep 20, 2019 23:56
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Aha, so that's why Kit was a sidequest you can't miss.
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Sep 20, 2019 23:57
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This is a neat twist. I kind of like the idea that the main game is just people's individual stories while the end boss is a sidequest with an optional superboss. It's like an inversion of how it's usually done and I'm looking forward to see how all the loose threads tie together and how much of a kick in the junk this infamous final mission is. I might've been surprised by this development if people hadn't shaken their angry emoticon fists at Kit the moment Mega completed his first sidequest. I was expecting him to show up again after that and the moment Lyblac described his sprite as the man she was looking for... Welp!
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Sep 21, 2019 02:25
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Massive respect to the devs for doing something different and not following the same old formula, but for me personally once the focus shifted from the main cast I started to lose interest. I've been trying to follow along with the side stories because they're well written and do good things but I end up losing track of who's who and why we're meant to care and can't keep all the threads straight. I think if I were playing I'd also get sick of trekking back and forth across the map to the same few places, there doesn't seem to be a way to have multiple stories in progress at once unless I'm missing something. This is obviously a good game and I'm glad Mega's showed it off, but it's not for me. I'll stick around until the finale though.
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Sep 21, 2019 09:02
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It's neat as a subversion but it has it's weaknesses. Especially when you're doing everything and thus can lose the plot thread without some sort of journal to keep track of things. Signposts are handy things indeed.
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Sep 21, 2019 09:35
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Black Robe posted:there doesn't seem to be a way to have multiple stories in progress at once unless I'm missing something. Actually, you can have as many sidequests as you want active at one time. I think Mega's just sticking to one at a time because keeping each sidequest to its own update makes it easier to follow along with.
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Sep 21, 2019 14:42
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   Before we begin, I asked the thread what NPCs they wanted me to bring to the final event, and they suggested Lianna and Heathcote. They actually won't really show up too much (I didn't Summon either for the final battle, partly due to every action counting for that fight and partly due to forgetting to do so), but at least you can read along these next two updates knowing they're along for the ride this entire time!  The Impresario is the one who starts our final side story.  I hope he will find what it is he seeks there...  And...that's it! We've done everything else we can possible do (besides explore some side dungeons, but eh, you can probably guess how they look and work).  Appropriately enough, our final adventure takes us to none other than the Ruins of Hornburg. SILENCE   And...that's pretty much it. There's nothing here but a long path through nondescript mountains as we hear nothing but the lonely howl of the wind...   ...until we get to this ominous location.   Trust me, Kit. He is there. Waiting for you. I see. Very well, then... Is something the matter? Pray forgive me. I'm not feeling so well. Why don't you go on ahead? I'll catch up soon. I'll be waiting for you. And so Kit wanders alone into that massive, foreboding gate... There's no voice acting at all for this final side story, which seems a bit of a waste, but whatever.  I trust you came for Kit, yes? I'll thank you not to interfere. ...That's assuming you could interfere, even if you wanted to. Follow us if you so choose. But first, be certain that is truly the path you wish to tread. Lyblac isn't kidding here. Once we enter the Gate of Finis, we cannot leave. This is a problem for a reason we'll see shortly.  But somehow I get the feeling Lyblac wants to do more than reunite Kit with his father, and whatever it is, it probably ain't good, so... Into the final dungeon! Music: The Gate of Finis  That's actually misleading, as this isn't really a dungeon. Once we enter, we cannot escape except by completing this side story.  We can change our party and gear at will at least, so that's good. Hopefully you stocked up before entering here!  Up the stairs is this altar, which...has nothing else to it at the moment.  Otherwise, the only thing of note are these eight crystals  So here's the issue. These eight crystals house eight boss fights we need to do to access the final boss, which is itself a very difficult and challenging fight. And as you may have noticed, there is no save point. Thus, if you die at the final boss, you have to repeat fighting all eight of these bosses again before fighting the final boss again. While I kinda see where it amps up the tension of the final boss fight, it is still probably the dumbest design decision in the entire game. Really, it's not worth attempting the final boss except for the thrill of that fight anyway, as all the neat stuff is in this first part. Anyway, let's check out these bosses...  The music for each of these fights switches between Music: Decisive Battle I and Music: Decisive Battle II, so pick your poison here. There are no character lead-ins for this music, sadly. The bosses themselves are basically reskins of bosses from characters' Chapter 3 or 4.  In this case, Ophilia's is a shadow of Mattias. These foes have more HP, hovering between 150k and 200k, and buffed stats but otherwise use the same attack patterns and gimmicks as before, so I didn't really bother making videos or spending much time talking about them since I blow through them easily enough.   Though I'm sure Lianna probably appreciates getting to vent out her frustrations a little bit.  I'll go into my load-outs in the next update, but I've got Patience (25% chance of getting an extra action at the end of a turn) and Saving Grace (can overheal to a max of 9999HP) on all eight characters. Patience on everyone means I'm gonna average five actions a round instead of the usual four, which really adds up considering how long these fights can take.   With buffs, debuffs, and the Scholar Divine increasing Primrose's damage (fun fact, it even changes the animation of the Sorcerer spells, which is a neat detail you'll probably never notice otherwise), Mattias? goes down easily.  We'll get some consumables and basic EXP and JP from this, but hopefully you have what you need by now. I spent some time grinding my team to L60 and to get all the JP I need for my loadouts. Music: The Gate of Finis   Once you defeat a boss, they'll drop a journal...  These books are basically massive lore dumps written by people who have died, and they pretty much tie everything together. The main reason I split this side story into two updates was to let the plot stuff breathe without getting overshadowed by the final boss stuff (and vice versa). I'm not going to post any of these screenshots since they're all text, so instead I'll post all the text here. I grabbed these texts from the Octopath Traveler Wiki and double-checked for spacing and typos and all that. quote:- From the Diary of Mattias, Prophet of the Accurst Flame - Mattias was a devout follower who lost his faith when his village fell in an accident of nature. He wanted to have power so he could grant the miracles the Sacred Flame did not, which is when Lyblac came along and told him of the power he could gain from the dark god Galdera. Gifted with a lengthened lifespan, he began his cult and even managed to infiltrate the church. He was the one who poisoned and killed Archbishop Josef, thanks in part to his association with Simeon and the Obsidians, and was just about to get the power he sought when Ophilia stepped in and, well, you know. A tragic figure who ended up corrupted by the very power he craved, and now for him there's only darkness... ...But it was the poisoning of Josef that sent Lianna into such a state of shock and grief that led Ophilia to become Flamebearer instead, and her strong heart and caring nature is what prevented Mattias's ritual from being executed, ending his terrible plot once and for all.  Like everything else, this dungeon is set up in, and best done, in OCTOPATH order, so Cyrus is up next.  This time we're facing Headmaster Yvon? and a couple of lackeys.   Steorra's Prophecy does more damage the more BP the party has. Of course, only half my characters have Surpassing Power... Otherwise, there's nothing of note for this fight.  quote:- From the Diary of Headmaster Yvon of the Royal Academy - Lucia was apparently in league with Lyblac all along, and manipulated Yvon into usurping the old Headmaster and taking his place. Of course, Lucia used his knowledge to learn the secrets of From the Far Reaches of Hell, and conveniently disposed of him after he served his purpose. A man as proud and arrogant as Yvon, naturally, is not taking his death well. Of course, Yvon taking that book is what set Cyrus off to find out why the book was stolen, and in the process he uncovered Yvon and Lucia's plot and stopped both of them, learning of the existence of the Gate of Finis in the meantime...  Up next, Tressa and the Venomtooth Tiger?.  I finally unlock the Warmaster Divine, Winnehild's Battle Cry.   It's six strikes upon all targets, one with each weapon.  And since it's a weapon skill, it also triggers a rune proc! Just the one, though. This foe goes down like any other.  quote:- From the Diary of Graham Crossford: Part the First - This tale is about how Captain Leon came to be in possession of Graham Crossford's journal, as he was desperate to obtain the final ingredient needed to save his wife's life. This journal, of course, is what kickstarted Tressa's journey, where she helped many people out, stopped some of the Obsidians, and even inspired others to take their own journeys as she has.  Werner? is the boss for Olberic here.  Runes are wonderful.  quote:- From the Records of Lord Werner of Riverford - Taking down an entire kingdom like Hornburg is a very impressive feat for anybody, and at least here we get as good an explanation as any as to how one man could bring down an entire kingdom. Lyblac of course wanted the kingdom gone because she wanted access to the Gate of Finis, and Werner was all-too-happy to help with this since it helped his own dreams. He managed to raise a mercenary group, use underhanded tactics to win the people's trust, and even lured Erhardt into killing the king that had failed his town. He wisely cut and run from Lyblac after he did his part, and enjoyed the fruits of his labors for awhile... ...Of course, not all of Hornburg's soldiers were killed that day, as though Olberic laid dormant for years afterward, the sight of his former comrade's sword relighted the fire that burned within Olberic all those years ago. And so he went on his journey until it led him to the man who ended an entire kingdom, and thus the end of that man.  Simeon? is up next.  He was more of a pain than the rest of these due to his love of inflicting Silence, but I get 'em otherwise.  quote:- From the Diary of Lord Geoffrey Azelhart - Of course Geoffrey conspired to end the Obsidians as soon as he learned of their motives, but they got the jump on him and ended his life, allowing them to spread their influence unimpeded. At least until Primrose, furious and driven solely by revenge, found and killed the men responsible for murdering her father, helping many others hurt by the Obsidians in the process. At least there is no doubt here that Lord Geoffrey truly is proud of his daughter, as he should be.  Up next, we've got Miguel? for Alfyn. Nothing of note here.  quote:- From the Diary of Graham Crossford: Part the Second - Sadly, Graham could not make it in time to save his wife, and stricken with grief, he was tempted by Lyblac to come to the Gate of Finis in the vain hope he might bring her back to life. Along the way, he met a child stricken with the same sickness his wife had, and since he was not able to give the elixir to his wife, at least this child could benefit from it. He did take comfort in the child being grateful and wanting to follow in his footsteps as an apothecary. That child, of course, was Alfyn, who did indeed follow Graham's footsteps to heal the sick and wounded, already able to replicate the elixir Graham made to save his life, this time to save the life of a man wounded inside and out. Alfyn's actions saved many, many more lives than he can possibly heal alone.  Darius? is up next, so why not include Heathcote in the fun? Otherwise, same stuff as before.  quote:- From the Records of House Ravus - The dragonstones, surprise, house the power of dragons. It was these dragonstones that sealed Galdera, the Dark God, behind the Gate of Finis, and of course the sorcerer who did this was none other than an ancestor of Graham and Kit. The Ravus family stems from the loyal knight of the founder of Hornburg, and they safely guarded the dragonstones for generations until distant relatives killed Cordelia's parents in an attempt to steal the dragonstones and other valuables from her. She's fortunate enough to have Heathcote to turn to... ...and also Therion, a thief looking for a big payday only to get roped into helping steal the other dragonstones back. He eventually achieves this, even defeating his former partner-in-crime and friend, and together Cordelia and Therion are able to overcome the feelings of betrayal that haunted them for so long.  The final of these eight bosses is the dragon that H'aanit defeated in Chapter 3.  Losing a character made the fight take a bit longer, but otherwise it was manageable.  quote:- From the Diary of Graham Crossford: Part the Third - Lyblac and Graham reach the Gate of Finis, whereupon Graham discovers the truth: Lyblac needed a descendant of the man who originally sealed the Gate of Finis so she could unlock it and release Galdera. As Graham's body was slowly transformed, he suddenly thought of his family, giving him the brief moment of strength and clarity to strike Lyblac and interrupt her. As he chased after her, he lost control of his body and most of his mind, transforming into some hideous creature. This creature would cause wanton destruction, leading to H'aanit deciding to fight it to save her master. After a long journey, she finally faces what remained of Graham, a foul creature known as Redeye that has lost almost all its humanity, and kills it. This finally sets Graham free, no longer causing destruction and no longer having to live life as a chaotic force of destruction.   And with all eight bosses defeated, the way forward is now open.  For the next and final time, we face the final boss and try to save the world. See you all for the final update!
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Sep 21, 2019 15:01
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Rebonack7 posted:Actually, you can have as many sidequests as you want active at one time. I think Mega's just sticking to one at a time because keeping each sidequest to its own update makes it easier to follow along with. Pretty much this. You can't have multiple main story quests going on at once, but you can get a ton of side stories queued up and knock them off as you play the game. I opted to go the route of showing off every side story as an individual update, which is why I've been doing them one at a time. EponymousMrYar posted:It's neat as a subversion but it has it's weaknesses. Especially when you're doing everything and thus can lose the plot thread without some sort of journal to keep track of things. There's a journal that keeps track of all the side stories you've accepted and completed, but it's a bit of a mess since you can't sort it and it automatically sorts by side stories you've most recently selected, and usually it won't give you any hints as to how to actually complete said side story. Mega64 fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 15:03
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I just find it bizarre how H'annit gets Graham's final journal, but we don't actually refight Redeye.
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Sep 21, 2019 15:24
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It's really cool how they wove the eight stories together, but it feels like it comes far too late and ends being a really awesome, but overwhelming infodump.
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Sep 21, 2019 15:38
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BisbyWorl posted:I just find it bizarre how H'annit gets Graham's final journal, but we don't actually refight Redeye. It makes a little more sense when you realize that each boss is the spirit of a person or creature killed by the corresponding Traveler during their story. While Graham's body may have been transformed into Redeye, it's unlikely that such a transformation would carry over to his soul after death.
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Sep 21, 2019 16:10
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That would explain why we get the Shadowtooth Tiger for Tressa, and not!Miguel for Alfyn; none of their other bosses died. ...okay, the Tiger still feels like a cop out.
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Sep 21, 2019 16:37
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It's me, Octopath Travelers! It was me all along, Octopath Travelers! All of this backstory feels like something out of Macbeth. Kinda surprised we have Yvon's account, though, and not Lucia's.
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Sep 21, 2019 17:20
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BisbyWorl posted:I just find it bizarre how H'annit gets Graham's final journal, but we don't actually refight Redeye. It's probably to prevent you from accidentally getting into a no-win situation in the event that you used up all the anti-petrifying tonic during the fight with Redeye in H'aanit's Chapter 4.
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Sep 21, 2019 17:34
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I’m reminded of how FF3 had a rather lengthy final dungeon where your last chance to save was at least an hour back, and it also had a rather lengthy boss rush before the final battle. Plus both versions were still working off of the old D&D “you get this many spells per level” system to continue making it a royal pain in the rear end, too.
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Sep 21, 2019 17:53
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Regalingualius posted:I’m reminded of how FF3 had a rather lengthy final dungeon where your last chance to save was at least an hour back, and it also had a rather lengthy boss rush before the final battle. Plus both versions were still working off of the old D&D “you get this many spells per level” system to continue making it a royal pain in the rear end, too. At least here there's no real dungeon before the boss rush so you can dive back in. If you wipe in FF3 you had to do the entire final dungeon to get back. 
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Sep 21, 2019 18:01
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Of all of the things you think they'd fix in the DS remake.
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Sep 21, 2019 18:09
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I've followed this LP on and off for a while, off for a few months while I was playing the game myself. I finished it all last week and I'm eager to see your thoughts on everything after the last boss. It's... well, it exists.
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Sep 21, 2019 18:13
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Blueberry Pancakes posted:
I thought the exact same thing. We already knew Lucia betrayed Yvon, and that's what his entry boils down to. Maybe they thought redoing Lucia's fight was a bit much when you couldn't save? 50 shields is tedious to break through.
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Sep 21, 2019 18:33
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So, “villain engineered their own defeat by uniting the heroes against them” is a classic trope, not too surprising here. It’s interesting though that the travelers specifically were the ones Lyblac screwed over to unite against Galdera. Since between them they represent the powers of 8 of the 12 gods. I mean, we don’t see THAT many other folk in each one’s class y’know...
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Sep 21, 2019 19:04
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Except Merchants. 
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Sep 21, 2019 19:28
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Some Numbers posted:It's really cool how they wove the eight stories together, but it feels like it comes far too late and ends being a really awesome, but overwhelming infodump. Yeah, just getting the whole thing as a big blob of text at the very end of the game blunts the impact a bit, especially when half of the journals are from characters we never directly interacted with during the course of the game (I'm including Graham/Redeye in that, since he's barely a person any more by the time we meet him).
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Sep 22, 2019 05:08
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BisbyWorl posted:I just find it bizarre how H'annit gets Graham's final journal, but we don't actually refight Redeye. Each battle is prompted by "face the evil presence" or something, but Graham wasn't evil maybe?
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Sep 22, 2019 14:48
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Rereading all of this information about how Lyblac was behind everything makes me wonder what if Lyblac was behind literally everything, even if it served no purpose to her plans with the Gate of Finis. She could've told the kids in Alfyn's Chapter 1 to play in the woods, causing them to get attacked by the giant snake. Or even been the reason why Meryl was separated from her mother! 
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Sep 22, 2019 14:56
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 Music: The Gate of Finis  All we've got left is what lies beyond this gate...  Here we are. Our journey's end.   The final boss consists of two parts, which means we'll be using all eight characters for this fight. Beforehand, I grinded them all to around L60 and used the JP to buy the support skills I wanted and to master all skills in each character's secondary job. First off, all eight characters have Patience (25% chance of getting an extra action at the end of turn) and Saving Grace (can overheal to a max of 9999HP). More actions are crazy useful for everyone here, and with max HP averaging around 3500, having over twice that as a buffer is key to surviving a lot of these nasty attacks. Beyond that, I've basically got two groups: Damage Dealers (Tressa, Olberic, Primrose, H'aanit) and Healers (Cyrus, Therion, Alfyn, Ophilia). The healers all get Divine Aura (25% chance to ignore damage) for extra tankiness, and all but Cyrus has The Show Goes On (increase buff duration cast by this character by one), with Cyrus having Elemental Edge (grants ElemAtk and ElemDef buffs). Meanwhile, my Damage Dealers all have Surpassing Power (breaks damage limit of 9999) and all but Tressa have BP Eater (boosts damage when using BP), with Tressa also opting for Elemental Edge since her damage doesn't rely on BP. As for the parties, Starseer is very important for the second fight, and really I wanted to put all my more powerful characters in the second half. Single-target moves work a bit better for the first fight, which is great for the likes of Tressa and Olberic. Alfyn's a Merchant just for added flexibility, Olberic's a Hunter for Leghold Trap and Arrowstorm, and Therion's an Apothecary due to his speed. With all that, let's finish this.  "Where's Kit?" That's the question on your lips, isn't it? SILENCE  The thirteenth god. Galdera, the Fallen. He and Kit are one and the same. And the Crossford family, you see, comes from a long and ancient line that carries the stuff of the Dark God in their veins. I told him that by coming here he could return his beloved to the land of the living. A lie, of course, but one he was all too willing to believe. All was proceeding according to plan. But in the end, I underestimated the strength of the man's spirit. The ritual failed, and Graham escaped somewhere...though he hardly resembled himself anymore. This time, though, will be different. This time I will not fail. You, too, have an important role to play on this historic day. Your flesh, your blood, your very soul will feed the Dark God and give him strength. O, Father! Pray show mercy on these poor, wretched souls... O, Father...at last...we are together...  And with that, Lyblac disappears from sight.     Video: Final Boss - Omniscient Eye Music: The One They Call the Witch   The first half has our party facing off against the Omniscient Eye. The final boss music is pretty solid, so be sure to give it a listen!   The Omniscient Eye will summon adds like the Raging Soul throughout the fight. Whenever any of these souls are active enemies, the Omniscient Eye cannot be damaged or broken. Thus, we'll have to find a way to kill these adds first.  Divine Aura already paying off! This move hurts so good to avoid it here!  Each soul has 50k HP to burn through. Fortunately this one has an easy enough weakness to exploit.  A key Patience proc on Tressa lets me immediately stack Light Runes on the party.  Electrocute's a rather nasty lightning attack.  Therion's no Alfyn, but that doesn't matter when we have access to some really handy items.    Once the soul is broken, the 50k HP is trivial to burn through with Tressa and Olberic.  Of course, the Eye responds by summoning a Screaming and Wailing Soul.  This is handy for adding more stacks of Sidestep and Runes.   The Omniscient Eye can release one of several auras, including this one that buffs poison damage. It can also reduce the party's accuracy and buff its own elemental damage.  This will cause an effect the next round, depending on the aura.  Revitalizing Jam is key for both these fights. Full recovery of HP, SP, and maxing BP is very, very powerful, and especially so party-wide thanks to Dohter's.  Thanks to the Hunter Divine, Olberic does have options for party-wide damage, even if Brand's Thunder is preferable in most cases for its pure damage.  The Delayed Incantation effect flat-out killed Cyrus, which isn't really a big deal.   This, of course, is. It'll take some turns to regain those buffs, and of course we don't want to waste time on this fight because these foes can really screw us up if we take too long.  The nice thing about Saving Grave is that it includes overheal from Olives, and the large Olives heal for 9999HP. So Cyrus actually gained HP from dying, and since he would've lost his buffs anyway, I didn't really lose anything besides an action or two.  This inflicts poison on the party, which of course is really bad with the current aura.  The large Soulstones are very useful for this fight, especially later on. Also I just realized I completely forgot to use all the stat nuts before this fight. Oops!   The poison proc is bad, but fortunately it's still just poison, and a simple herb will take care of it. Even here Dohter's is fantastic.   Otherwise I take down one soul and break another.  So far, we're around seven minutes in and we've just barely grazed the eye's massive 500K HP.  Fortunately, we're about to catch a break and start laying into it.   Olberic is invaluable for this fight as my main damage dealer. Tressa's not bad, but she's also usually spending more time buffing than attacking.  Honestly, Cyrus doesn't have a lot to do since items take away his need to heal, and Scholar's damage output isn't really big here. I instead start making him my Dohter's bot while Therion can work on exploiting the eye's knife weakness and throw some other skills here and there.  Armed with Aelfric's Auspices, Tressa grants everyone a ton of stacks of Sidestep and Thunder Rune.   I also try out the highest-level Hired Help, Veteran, which is...alright, I guess.   All three souls are up now, and they have a weird gimmick where they only have one weakness exposed at a time.   Whenever they take damage, their weakness moves to the next one to the right (or loops back to the first one if at the end), so Fire becomes Ice, Light becomes Fire, and so on.  This is where the Soulstones really shine, doing solid damage and enabling you to hit a weakness.  This is the aura that boost elemental damage.  One down!  Of course, the elemental aura is followed up by an ElemAtk debuff on our party.  Swords ain't an elemental, though.   After a failed attempt early on when the eye was invulnerable, I try again with Leghold Trap, to better success.  I also remember Reflective Veil exists, which is great since the eye's attacks are all magical.   And since it's weak to its own Electrocute attacks.   Between these buffs and debuffs, Olberic's starting to chew through the eye's HP with ease. That 500K will be gone in no time!    Once the Omniscient Eye is low on health, it will consume the souls and gain all sorts of advantages. Three actions a turn, more shields, buffs on both attacks and defenses, and even a new move that can petrify a character like Redeye theoretically can, though of course I don't see that here either.   Mostly because Olberic quickly takes it down for good.  That's the end of the Omniscient Eye... Music: Moment of Truth  ...but we're not done yet. Video: Final Boss - Galdera, the Fallen Music: Daughter of the Dark God  Behold, Galdera, the Fallen. The music really kicks into high gear here, so give it a whirl!   Galdera is currently immune to damage and shield breakage, not that we'd really be able to with those massive 99 shields. There are three sections besides Galdera. To the far right is the Blade of the Fallen, which specializes in physical attacks and status effects. Next is the Abyssal Maw, which specializes in elemental attacks and debuffs. Finally, there's Lyblac herself, who focuses on giving buffs to the other parts of Galdera, as well as some elemental moves and debuffs herself.  Those buffs are a major problem because the various parts of Galdera will already inflict heavy damage, so the last thing we need is more of it to deal with.  A minor annoyance, which I'll very gladly take over any of the other moves these fiends can use.  I move to overheal immediately. The first part of this fight can be really brutal, and it can get worse before it gets better.  Of course, priority is to get BP up ASAP. I want the Dancer Divine on Ophilia so she can prevent these nasty buffs on the enemies.  Especially since this is what we're dealing with without buffs.  That's part one done.  This adds three shields to whichever part is lowest.   Aaaand this is the point I start screaming obscenities for a minute straight.   Lyblac is able to grant the Blade buffs that will let it inflict Blind or Terror. The latter is especially bad to deal with.  This is basically a tell that Galdera will either remove your party's buffs or his party's debuffs. At this point, I'll gladly take it, as it means Primrose has somehow not died long enough to get her turn.  Now I might have a chance to come back from this.  This sucks, but Alfyn has enough HP that he should survive to his turn. Hopefully...  ...or he could get an incredibly key Patience proc right when I needed it. He very well may have died before his next turn otherwise.  Rather than a full revive, I opt to bring Ophilia back at max HP, because she might be able to revive for more HP with a boosted Revive.  Which, she does. I got a bit lucky, but it looks like I'm back in this fight!  Deceleration can sap BP, though I'm "lucky" in that H'aanit already had no BP.  Though of course I quickly change that.    Finally. Celestial Intervention is a weird one, in that it's the only ability in the game that can be used on both enemies and allies. This is great combined with Sealtgice's Seduction, as it affects allies and enemies both.   Of course, I immediately lose those buffs, but the important thing there was blocking the enemies from buffing each other, and that should stick for a little while.  Now to go on the offensive.  And to really get started on the BP train.   Unfortunately, Galdera can also remove debuffs from his allies, so now I have to get Celestial Intervention back up. Having to cast Sealtgice so much takes away from Primrose spamming elemental attacks.  Even with Concoct, Revitalizing Jam is my most powerful option for recovery and pure power.  Finally, some breathing room.  Five out of six procs for Divine Aura. Wow. I'll gladly take that luck!  Starsong buffs both defenses, speed, and evasion. Great to have until they inevitably get removed.  Also more BP because why not.   Oof.  This simply takes a party member down to 1HP.  Now the Maw is defeated.   You really want to be careful here. Once one part is defeated, the other parts become more powerful. They gain more shields, and can use some really nasty moves. The Blade and the Maw can completely block all physical/magical attacks respectively until they're broken. Once two are defeated, then the last part changes its weaknesses and gets a really nasty move, with the Blade getting two turns a round, the Maw inflicting a debuff that reduces max HP every round until it's defeated (and it stays lowered for the rest of the battle!), and Lyblac granting herself every buff in the book. I get really lucky that I get to evade all that. Naturally, the best strategy is to try to kill all three as close to each other as possible, though it also means dealing with all three of these foes at once. No matter how you look at it, this part of the fight is not going to be easy.  This deals four nasty hits to random targets. This pops up after one section is defeated.   I quickly take care of Lyblac next. The blade's probably the best of the three to leave for last, though those two actions a turn can still be quite nasty to deal with. Of course, I wasn't thinking about any of that while doing this fight, only really going by memory of my last attempt here months ago.  Thankfully, a soulstone is enough to take out the Blade, finally getting past this section of the fight relatively unscathed.   Now all of Galdera's weaknesses are exposed, and he gets three actions a turn.  Fortunately, my assumption that the Dark God may be weak to Light was correct.  I have an army of priests help out to fight the Dark God, for a small fee of course.  This reduces my party to 1HP and saps all their BP.   He then uses this BP to increase his own shields. Oof.  This sucks, but it's not damage so I'll gladly take it.  Well, I kinda mess up here, as I accidentally did Purifying Seed instead of Dust. Oh well, I'm sure Primrose appreciates it.  Of course, now Galdera has a variety of nasty moves to inflict us with, mostly heavy damage-dealers.  But with Saving Grace to give me a huge buffer, I can weather any hit I take now. Especially once I break Galdera to get some breathing room.   The thing about this fight is that the three parts of Galdera have around 125k HP. This means Galdera himself has lower HP than the Omniscient Eye to compensate, a mere 180k. His moves also aren't really as bad as his other parts, or even the Omniscient Eye, as now he's mostly doing damage, which is easier for me to deal with than buffs, debuffs, and other gimmicks.  He can still remove my buffs, but he's not going to do much else now as long as I can stay topped off, and with Alfyn and Ophilia around, that should not be a problem.  Plus I've got access to buffs like Reflective Veil.   I even try out Nightmare Chimera. Turns out it's kinda OK!   I love Reflective Veil. This is actually the easy part of the fight if you know what you're doing. The various parts of Galdera can combine to do some nasty things that are hard to recover from, and if you're careless you can really get stuck in a bad situation. Here, as long as you mitigate damage, you should inevitably win.   And so Galdera, the Fallen, has fallen once again. Music: Victory Fanfare  We even get some nice rewards from all this. Not that it matters anymore... At this point, there's no more music for the rest of this update, which is a bit of a missed opportunity, but oh well... SILENCE    Congrats, everyone. We just beat a god. Our inevitable jRPG destiny has been fulfilled.  And Kit has also been freed as a result.  ...I see. Thank you, my friends. ...  Father...? Mother...!?  ......... All these years, I had thought my journey a futile one... In journeying here, you have not just found meaning in your own lives... It's really understated here, but we just saved the world from the resurrection of a dark god. No dramatic fanfare for us, because nobody even knows what we did save Kit (and Lianna and Heathcote I guess).    And yeah, that's pretty much the entire ending. Pretty anticlimatic, huh?   Our party walks away, and with that, we have finished Octopath Traveler.     This has certainly been a journey for me, and I hope it's been a great journey for you all! Wait, we're missing something... OK, let's do this proper. Music: Enveloped in Kindness I've been doing Let's Plays for over eight years now, and never have I been so invested in creating a Let's Play to show off a game as I have here. Hell, I spent two weeks learning how to rip the sprites for this game, I was that dedicated. The game definitely has flaws, but there's something about the world-building of this game that grabbed me in a way few others have. It really feels like a fully-realized world, at least in my eyes, and that's probably why I've been so enraptured by it and why I've consistently worked on this LP over the past year. That said, this is also by far the longest and hardest I've worked on a LP, so I'm definitely glad that this is finally finished. This is a game I feel was made for me. A solid, engaging battle system that makes fights require careful planning and attention, a solid cast of memorable characters that I enjoyed spending time with, a huge world with history and culture and famous figures that define it... There's no big plot, the character interaction is hit-or-miss, and there are some really questionable gameplay decisions, but those are things I can overlook due to how well the game's strengths shine for me. I loved both my experiences playing this game, and I look forward to doing so again in the future (though I doubt I'll ever 100% this game again). I'm certainly looking forward to the next Octopath game, and I hope this becomes a strong franchise for years to come. Thank you very much for following along on this journey through Octopath Traveler!  We do get dumped back onto Hornburg after the battle, with some rewards. First, a huge sum of useless money, and in one of the biggest jerk moves I've seen in a game...  ...The accessory that blocks random encounters is only unlocked by defeating the final boss. Of course. Ah well. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
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Sep 22, 2019 15:00
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Yeah, the ending is super anticlimactic, since there's almost no acknowledgement of our party and they have no dialogue whatsoever.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:20
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Truly they were... the Octopath Travelers. Having watched a video of this fight yesterday, I thought it was pretty neat how the phase shift had the screen scroll up to the next boss in a way that felt kind of like the final boss of Final Fantasy VI. That said, the fact you have to beat all of the characters' stories for them to hit this point and they say nothing is pretty lame. Not to mention the lack of a proper fight against Lyblac. At any rate, thanks for the LP. It was great!
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Sep 22, 2019 15:27
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Thanks for the extensive and detailed LP Mega! The lack of character's input outside of their core stories seems to be the game's biggest downside as has already been quickly brought up, even in this post game section when it should be able to assume you've completed all of their core stories/everyone is present etc. Overall the game seems to succeed at what it sets out to do in mimicking the older JRPGs and gives you plenty of content to chase after and a fairly robust job system which I always enjoy.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:37
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Imagine being a mercenary showing up to your first job...and it's fighting Satan Great LP as always Mega!
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Sep 22, 2019 15:43
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Goddamn, that final boss theme rules. Thank you so much for showing this off! I was curious about it, but it's the exact kind of older JRPG I hate playing for myself. It was really a pleasure to read all of this.
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Sep 22, 2019 15:47
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