#gave warrior to ochette so she has access to more weapon types

[randomidiocyncrazies]

i do try to keep my team (somewhat) evenly leveled, so that means swapping out when i can

i have trouble deciding on secondary jobs though, since with the exception of inventor and arms master the levels are tied to each character

[felikatze]

why is ochette just so insanely good. in octo1 i never really interacted with the supplementary combat systems (i.e haanit's beasts, the lead ability, alfyn's concotions) AT ALL but the octo2 prologue chapters make a much better effort of introducing these as actually useful by forcing you to use them in tutorial combat encounters

i went to a lv20 area early and caught a frog which does 2 instances of aoe bow damage and it's so fucking good. keeping a good stock of monsters basically allows you to have Every Damage Type on Ochette, so you're never struggling for breaks. Additionally, her latent potential abilities are also just insane, allowing you to do quadruple digit damage with some setup insanely early

castti is also really goddamn good because her latent potential ability lets her concoct without using up ingredients, so you can do wack shit like do aoe of every magic type, or give every character 4 bp and stat boosts, all without spending a time

hikari's ability is also a huge boon to the warrior class and encourages use of the duel path action even without the niche benefit of entering houses without npcs in them. comparatively the various lead abilites are way less useful than all of these, but still have a lot of utility since calling on a follower only consumes one action, with the follower performing an additional action for like, what, five turns?

latent potential is all around an AMAZING addition to the combat system. they generally compliment well to the specific character's style, like osvald's synergyzing specifically with the aoe damage of scholars, giving him a single target attack for increased damage, which is hugely useful for bosses. temenos' ability to reduce shield points regardless of damage type is obviously intended to work for the interrogation mechanic, which relies on breaks, but is still insanely good to whittle down bosses about to go beast mode on your ass if you dont break them in two turns. agnea's ability lets her convert any spell action to aoe, which not only is amazing for the dancer's inherent buffs but also gives her aoe access to subclass magic attacks at a reduced sp costs.

ochette and hikari are brothers in arms of Big Number Physical Damage, but still have different flavors. Hikari can do big damage of various weapon types whereas Ochette's damage is physical neutral, but she also has access to an aoe debuff instead.

Partitio being able to refill his bp with a snap of the fingers is fucking insane even if it provides no other benefit. he gets 5 bp but only 3 can be consumed in a single turn, so he still gets to keep another 2 bp for another action. combined with the merchant's ability to refill sp at no cost, you can get so funky with this. i am going to make the subclass scholar partitio a god.

if you've taken anything away from this it is that while i still love the original octopath combat, i think the twist octo2 added to it improved it by leaps and bounds, and opens up so many more avenues to get silly with it. from a warrior temenos build that can raze any shield point to insane castti concoction setups to cleric agnea full party damage reduction- the new system is amazing at differentiating every character beyond their base job's abilities.

better tutorial design encourages the player to make full use of supplementary optional battle systems in a way octo1 fails to really do for the casual player uninterested in bashing their head against a brick wall (i.e. the secret boss)

also can i mention THANK GOD for the new system of temporary party members. starting with more support oriented characters like primrose or ophelia in octo1 was utterly grueling due to the sheer difficulty of beating the boss solo. almost cried in relief when i started with temenos and the game gave me a temporary physical damage dealer who wont keel over if someone breathes on him. playing a support character with another character to actually support made the entire experience wholly more pleasant. on the other hand, characters who could hold their own didn't get temporary party members, like ochette. with her, the chapter 1 boss was extremely doable with only one failed attempt because i was geniuenly playing like a fucking moron.

tldr. octo2 improvement 👍