Octopath Traveler: Session 9

This is also two sessions combined into one, as the first session I was just running around fighting things around Wellspring, identifying weaknesses, levelling up Alfyn so he could Inquire about things, getting JP (Southern Wellspring Sands looks better on the surface since you can regularly get JP rewards in the 130 range, but battles take FOREVER due to weird sets of weaknesses, so I still feel like Carrion Caves is better), and debating what to do next.

The only real thing of note is that I finally decided to swap around some support abilities now that people have access to a few jobs' worth of them.  Currently popular is Inspiration, which has the effect "With each successful standard attack, gain SP equal to 1% of the damage you deal.".  When you boost a character's standard attack to get multiple hits, Inspiration applies to each individual hit, so while the amount of SP gained is small, it adds up.  This gives a virtual boost to any given character's max SP since I can just do regular attacks to recover smaller amounts of SP.  I also discovered that the Thief job makes an excellent SP battery with its Steal SP and Share SP abilities.  If you boost Steal SP, you can usually recover close to 100% of what you shared to another character (plus Steal SP's cost of 6 SP), and Inspiration can recover the rest.  There's a big caveat to Steal SP though, that may also apply to HP Thief now that I think about it: if you kill the enemy with Steal SP, you don't get any SP.  It still pops up the SP gain text, but the value is zero.

Also, everything about the Apothecary ability Amputation paints a rather grim view of what amputations must have been like before anesthesia and other modern medical technology.  It's just a really powerful axe swing with a big wind-up...  You get the picture, right?

Between the first bit and the rest of this, I decided to not go as gung-ho on the early-game grinding as I have been.  It was getting exhausting and kind of turning me off from playing the game because of how slowly it goes.  The later areas will surely have better rewards, and this way I actually get to continue the story.  First order of business: find the other four shrines so I can unlock the other four secondary jobs.  Second order of business: Ophilia's Chapter 2.  Also, somewhere in there, make sure I have non-makeshift equipment for people now that their available weapon range is expanding.  I love that the game throws you that bone, but as the description of the makeshift weapons implies, you'll want to replace them with a real weapon before too long.

In the process of running around locating the other four shrines, I noticed that it's kinda easy to get lost in Western Stillsnow Wilds, which is going to make finding all the chests in that area fun.  If not for the icons on the radar I don't think I would've found the sub-area or the shrine, or at least, not without a lot of walking around fighting random battles because the area is large, open, and completely covered in snow.  As in, there are no paths to help you find your way.  Western Noblecourt Flats is almost the same thing, but without the snow.  Nevertheless, I do now have access to all secondary jobs.  Unfortunately, weapons cost money, and the good ones cost a lot, so I kinda had to stop buying the good weapons before I'd replaced all the makeshift equipment.

Anyway, with my party all decked out with secondary jobs that they either mostly know or completely know, it was well and truly way past the time to do Ophilia's Chapter 2.

The first part of her Chapter 2 is as easy as I expected it to be: no enemies, just dialogue as Ophilia performs the Kindling in Saintsbridge Cathedral.  Then, while she's taking a walk around the city, she encounters some kids having an argument.  Long story short, one of the kids recently lost his mother, and highly values her brooch, which another one of the kids "lost" by bumping into him.  In typical "kids being dicks to each other" fashion, blame and insults are thrown at the one who is somehow responsible for "losing" the brooch by bumping into the other.  Seriously, kid, if the thing means that much to you, keep it secure!

Anyway, this sets up Ophilia trying to help the kid locate the brooch.  They're unsuccessful, and Ophilia goes to have a talk with the kid whose mom died.  She eventually convinces him to sort of begrudgingly apologize, but then the kid who's still busy looking for the brooch runs off after a dog who apparently has it in its mouth.  Said kid follows said dog straight into a forest full of monsters.  Combat time!

This area was fairly easy, both in the "it's still early game and the recommended level is 20" sense, and in the "two of my characters are level 50+ and two are high 30s or low 40s" sense, but also thanks to having secondary jobs set on everyone, I have a lot more weapon options available and can hit weaknesses much more often.

I love how this game incentivizes using regular attacks.  In a lot of RPGs, each character's regular attack is kind of lackluster and you only use it when you're low on magic or whatever, but here, you need to use regular attacks in order to break enemies' defenses so you can deal more damage to them.  Also, support abilities that go into effect on hit further incentivize this, i.e. the aforementioned Inspiration.

Anyway, I forget how to spell the boss' name because it was full of weird foreign characters that I don't even know how to pronounce, but it was a direwolf that strengthened its guard by two hits after every time I broke it.  Even though H'aanit starts out only being able to use a bow and an axe, with Warrior as her secondary the sword is the best weapon for her.  I was using the Warrior abilities a lot, namely Cross Strike.  At one point I threw Ophilia's Divine skill on her so a boosted Cross Strike would happen twice instead of once.  Between me being overlevelled, the extra weapons afforded by secondary jobs, and the relatively low recommended level for the area, the boss went down without issue.

In the end, the kid finds the brooch and they go back to being friends again.

I guess now that I have all the secondary jobs available I should go over my party setup, so here goes:

H'aanit has the Warrior secondary and is using Heighten Senses, Inspiration, Second Serving, and Patience.  Ophilia has the Apothecary secondary and is using SP Saver, Inner Strength, Inspiration, and Saving Grace.  Primrose has the Hunter secondary and is using Inspiration, Eye for an Eye, Second Wind, and Second Serving.  Finally, Tressa has the Thief secondary and is using Inspiration, Grows on Trees, Snatch, and SP Saver.

An interesting thing I've noticed is that the weapon you have selected next to the Attack option matters for the Eye for an Eye support ability.  When I noticed this, I had the bow selected when Primrose got hit, and she countered with the bow, which happened to weaken the attacking enemy's guard.  Also, attempting to target a job skill that uses a weapon will select that weapon.  For instance, with H'aanit with a Warrior secondary, having anything other than the sword selected and then targeting enemies with Level Slash will switch her selected weapon to the sword.

I guess one thing that remains for me to figure out: Does having a secondary job give you access to a weapon that the character already had access to from their primary job shaft you out of a weapon slot, or do you get some sort of attack boost for that weapon since both jobs impart knowledge of how to use the weapon?  If I had to guess, I'd say the former.

Anyway, I'm liking this whole "progressing through the game" thing, so up next will be Primrose's Chapter 2.  I think it's going to be "all story, all the time" until recommended levels for things catch up to where my characters are.