#''I love this character so much!'' I say about literally almost every character in Octo2...

[loregoddess]

Osvald for the ask meme

Hecking love this guy...

how much I like their personality: Very much, which was a surprise to me. For a variety of reasons, I'm not fond of the "emotionless or emotionally stunted intellectual who prizes their lack of emotion as proof of their intellect (or else the intellectual with an utter lack of understanding of emotion in general)" as a trope (I am not summarizing that trope well, but, y'know, that trope), so I started off a bit wary every time the narrative made it seem like Osvald didn't know what love (or other emotions outside of revenge) were, but his narrative dovetailing into "actually he has known love (and other emotions) all along and just didn't have a name for them bc he was so preoccupied with his research, but actually he has loved and loves very deeply and this is a key aspect of his characterization" was a really nice subversion of my expectations and fears, and as a result Osvald ended up being a really interesting character. I love the duality of his focus on his research and rather blunt way of speaking being juxtaposed with how deeply he actually cares, and how despite at the beginning of his story where he believes himself a hollow shell of a man who can only seek vengeance, that he's actually so full of care for his family and the other travelers, and he actually does understand emotions even if it's not like, in a conventional way and not quite to the same level or type of emotional intelligence as a few of the other travelers. I just think Osvald's a really interesting, great character!

how much I like their design/aesthetics Overall, I love his character design! I think leaving the prison chains around his neck was a weird design decision, esp. after his main story arc is beaten (hey if they could take the cuff thingy off Therion after story completion, Osvald could have gotten some new clothes...), but overall I feel like his design reflects his characterization very well. He has this big, tall, hulking figure, and comes off as rather intimidating at first, which is fitting because he starts off as hellbent on revenge and also he can literally mug people at night, but then we learn that Loving Father is deeply ingrained in his core personality, so that the hulking figure becomes more like that of a protective mother bear (or Juvah, to quote Ochette). I felt like the designers also did a good job having his general appearance change to reflect his life circumstances (i.e. before the murder of his family, his hair is kept tied back, he's always dressed nicely, it's very heavily implied this was partly Rita's work but we still get the sense that his life is "together" as a result; whereas after breaking out of prison his hair is unkempt and he wears his old prison rags because he can no longer focus on living, with all his energy going towards his vengeance quest; and then of course we get how he's dressed in his ending art which I feel speaks for Osvald's entire character arc and growth very nicely). The overall choice for a color palette focused on browns and beiges was a nice touch too, because brown can very easily be made to look like a cold color in certain lighting, but likewise can be a very warm color depending on the light, which reflects the duality of Osvald's characterization very well too. I'm uh, gonna wrap this up here bc character design actually is my passion and we'll be here all day if I try to go over every aspect of his design, but as an artist with an interest in character design, I think Osvald's got a strong design overall and I like it a lot.

how interesting I think they are As stated in different ways above, I think Osvald's very interesting! Would probably write up an entire analysis of his arc and characterization and other stuff if I had the energy and time.

how well-written I think they are Overall I liked Osvald's writing quite a bit. His narrative arc was one of my favorites from the game, and I felt like the story beats and his characterization came through very clearly. I also felt that the turning point in his narrative (Ch4) was one of the strongest narrative turning points out of all the travelers (only being beat out by Castti's for my personal favorite of the mid-story turning points). Despite my love of a good ol' fashioned revenge tale, I was delighted by how Osvald's arc subverted my expectations without any of the plot twists or reveals feeling contrived or out-of-place. Especially on my second run with The Knowledge Of What Happens, I have an appreciation for how his story is being set up and how certain things were hinted at earlier if not outright foreshadowed. Very enjoyable writing overall!

(if applicable) how much I like their mechanics in-game Octo2 has some of the best game mechanics of any jrpg I've played (for my personal tastes), and Osvald's definitely one of my favorite characters to play. He starts off a bit of a glass canon, but with the right setup of equipment he becomes pretty sturdy quickly enough. I like having him in the cleric class because of the access Mystic Staff, and Holy Light is a useful single-enemy offensive skill to use for when Osvald's latent ability isn't full, but he does well in pretty much any class I stick him in, and his personal EX skill is one of my favorite EX skills from the entire game (although as to the divine EX skill well...I've literally never needed to use Teach so uh...that one was more of a miss for me). One of my main damage-dealers in endgame teams, and I used him specifically to churn out high damage hits in the fight with the optional superboss (that's all he did the entire battle), that's how powerful he ended up for me.

if I think they are a Good Person(tm) I'm not really invested in fictional character morality, but sure, even with the mugging and stuff Osvald seems like a decent enough person. Probably wouldn't be one of the main protagonists sort of implied to be chosen by the gods themselves to safeguard the world otherwise.

[loregoddess]

oh oh, I just finished my last main character arc for Octo2, and all of them are so, so very good. I love "the power of love and friendship" in stories, and there's plenty of that to go around

I still have all the final(?) crossed path chapters to complete, as well as a ton of side quests and all the other post-main-routes quests and exploration, so I'm nowhere near complete yet, but damn, the stories and characters are really good...

(some thoughts under the cut about my "Octo1 was probably incomplete" theory in comparison with things from Octo2--vague spoilers about some of the endgame details, nothing specific about the story, I'm more focused on things that did or did not appear in the telling/showing of the story, but still spoilery for people who want to go into the final chapters without any knowledge; also spoilers for the end of Octo1)

honestly, I feel now more than ever that my weird "Octopath Traveler (the original game) wasn't complete in that the developers were running out of time/resources and polished it up before release the best they could" isn't so weird. The main basis for that theory was "it's really weird that Ophilia gets voiced dialogue with her final boss, and Therion has unvoiced dialogue with his, and then no one else has any dialogue with theirs" along with some of the post-game stuff feeling like it was meant to be an entire additional set of interlinked, developed story content (also some assets are really weird for optional or secret content like, Galdera's boss sprite is literally one of the most complex 2D sprites I have come across for any game ever, there's no way he was meant to be just an "optional superboss", I really do think he was meant to be the final boss). But looking at how much Octo2 is able to accomplish, how much more there is in terms of...basically everything, and the fact that I now know that every final boss fight has voiced dialogue (the key thing Octo1 was inconsistent on), I'm like okay, the first game might have been a proof of concept that the developers didn't get the maximum amount of time or resources for, and now that SE knows they can make money off the series, the dev team was allowed to go wild. And it's wonderful honestly, so many "second or sequel" games are so lackluster, but Octo2 really is improvements on almost everything when it comes to depth of story and characters, and so many other things. Not saying the game's perfect (I've heard some people are having trouble with the lighting/colors and eye strain or headaches, which, considering how the contrast and lighting is handled, I could see, and I hope SE patches that). But like, overall, there's so much more and it's really fun.