Octopath Traveler: Session 14

Took a couple days' break there to relax and make sure I wasn't falling too far behind on YouTube videos.

This session started off with me going around making a note of the sub-areas in each explorable area and whether or not I'd cleared them, which is something I'd neglected to do up until this point.  I cleared out the Tomb of Kings, but it didn't have a boss in it.  It did, however, have a gravekeeper NPC at the end who told me to bugger off, and I suspect this area might be used in the story or something.  Since that sub-area is along the path that connects Stonegard and Wellspring, I explored that path and got chests.  At this point, I think I've explored everything except for the areas that contain each region's third town, and any other connecting areas between them.

In the process I got a bunch of JP and had Primrose learn Scholar.  Switched her over to it from Hunter, so now I have someone in the party who can use Analyze on bosses and so forth.  Should make things go more smoothly at the beginning of fights with new enemies.  She obviously doesn't have the Study Foe ability that Cyrus has, but Analyze is cheap and she regenerates 10 SP per turn anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

I've basically stopped actively trying to grind JP at this point, it seems to be much more worthwhile to explore and get JP as a byproduct of that than to stay in an area and run in circles.

After a bit of jumping from town to town, buying equipment as necessary so I'd be ready to start Chapter 3, I decided to actually explore one of the areas I had yet to explore: East Duskbarrow Trail.  Enemies there are definitely higher-level, as the fights took a bit longer than I'm used to, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.  Then I happened upon a shrine.  A ninth shrine, entitled Shrine of the Archmagus.  This gives off Scholar vibes to me, so... more Scholar stuff, somehow?  Likely another Divine skill?  That means there's probably a second shrine for all the other jobs as well.  Anyway, what sets this one apart from the eight I've been in thus far is that it contains enemies.  Especially at the end, where you get talked to by Dreisang, the Archmagus.  He offers up juicy "lost secrets", but you have to prove yourself worthy first.  Okay, a fight, let's go, right?

Well, first off, he hits like a truck.  He does the "strengthen my guard every time I recover from being broken" thing as well as the "cycle my weaknesses when I recover from being broken" thing.  No problem, I say to myself, I've got a variety of weapons, access to all elements via spells, and Primrose knows Analyze.  Analyze also shows you a foe's HP, but I have this nasty habit of paying more attention to the foe's weaknesses than the HP box that briefly shows up, so I didn't notice Dreisang's HP for a while.  I randomly decided to analyze him while I had him broken, just to see what I had left, and... it was over 131,000 HP.  A hundred and thirty-one thousand.  Yeah no, with my damage being in the hundreds when not boosted, and my largest sources being 5000-7000, there's no way that's happening any time soon.  It was only a small consolation that all my efforts thus far had succeeded in knocking ~40k off of him (if memory serves, his max HP is around 171,000...).  You can't flee the fight, but fortunately, there's a save point just before it, and I'd saved there.  One reload later and I'm free to roam the continent in my next session.

I say "next session", because I need sleep.

SERIOUSLY THOUGH, A HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE THOUSAND.  I mean, I'd settled into a rhythm and was handling the stuff he was throwing my way relatively easily, so I know I could've done it, but I was just too tired to whittle through that much HP.  Definitely later.