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viridiave · 9 months

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Spoiler-heavy thoughts about Crick and how the Game Mechanics treat Temenos’s story

So. yeah if you press ‘Keep Reading’ I should probably let you guys know that these thoughts are just a tiny bit unhinged. And again - spoiler alert! You’ve been warned!!

GAME MECHANICS AND UI

- Gonna preface THIS section by asserting that yes, not EVERY mechanic needs to be taken apart under a microscope and re-contextualized into the greater lore of the game. Not EVERYTHING has to mean something to everybody. Some of my classes in game design disagree though and honestly for the genre that Octopath Traveler is, that being a story-heavy role-playing game where the narrative is half the game, I'd say that integrating lore into the mechanics and vice-versa wouldn't hurt - in fact it ENHANCES the experience. The second game does this pretty handily through the EX Skills (the first of the skills being Divine Blessings, and the second being earned at the end of the story.) and the Latent Powers.

Okay the Latent Powers? Honestly that part's mostly for Hikari. Shadow's Hold/Light's Radiance is STILL one of the best examples of Gameplay and Story Integration that this game has

No I swear I don't have a bias for 'other selves'/'deep parts of yourself made manifest' what are you talking about -

I swear I can write an entire separate post JUST about the EX Skills. Mostly for Osvald, Castti, and mOTHERFUCKING TEMENOS AGAIN

aND THIS IS WHY I GO FUCKING BONKERS WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE DEMO VERSION OF THE GAME LIKE WHAT THE FU-

- Literally the fucking emblem for Temenos's story is a staff and a sword over the Sacred Flame like - they REALLY want you to know how important Crick is to this tale

- tHE FACT THAT CRICK IS THE ONE WHO HAS COVER. NOT EVEN HIKARI OR THE WARRIOR CLASS. IT'S CRICK - DOES THIS COUNT AS FORESHADOWING???

I'll like - write here what I should have written in the bath - and that's me being like 'oh it's because he's recklessly protective. OH SHIT IT'S BECAUSE HE'S RECKLESSLY PROTECTIVE'

I fully acknowledge that it doesn't have to be that deep. MAYBE I'm pulling stuff out of my ass. But allow me to go bonkers over Crick and his for-some-reason-worryingly-appropriate moveset

Man I wonder how bonkers I'd go over Malaya if she was allowed to throw hands. I want her to complement Castti's moveset so bad

- Also the fact that both of their kits complement each other. Crick's bulkier build was made specifically with supporting Temenos in mind.

My guy's Sacred Sword reduces the enemy's elemental defense. Wonder if that implies that the Sanctum Knights normally work with magic and/or magicians

aGAIN HE HAS FUCKING COVER which is PERFECT because early-game Temenos can and will faint if a monster blinks at him too hard

Then there's his OTHER skill Godsblade's Shield which RAISES his physical defense to SO HE CAN COVER FOR TEMENOS BETTER LIKE. AT SOME POINT I SHOULD JUST ASK WHY THEY TRIED SO HARD FOR HIM SPECIFICALLY

And I mean. It makes SENSE but I don't think any of the other helper characters really had this level of chemistry in their mechanics as these two do

Emerald and Gus both have healing moves for better survivability considering how squishy Osvald and Agnea are

And it makes sense, Temenos already has access to a healing move because he's a cleric

The thing that separates Crick from them is that neither Emerald nor Gus really have moves to further support their leads on the level that Crick does. Emerald is fast and he breaks well and Gus is clearly meant to be the DPS of Agnea's Chapter 1, but again - Crick has moves tailor-made for Temenos to go off and do his thing

You lose Pirro and Scaracci/ Rai Mei and Ritsu after the intro and none of them really complement the Throné and Hikari and vice versa as much as Crick and Temenos do with each other

The difference with them too is that they have established relationships with their lead characters prior to the story, sometimes even encountered as antagonistic forces

Pirro, Rai Mei, and Ritsu are all bosses that were once considered close comrades of Throné and Hikari

Scaracci displays mutinous traits throughout Throne's Chapter 1

Emerald subverts this by acting mutinous - which, his conflict with Osvald amounted more to a sacrifice of goodwill

He knows Osvald and how he acts even prior to the beginning of Chapter 1, so he's in this category of having an established relationship

Gus averts this completely by just being a genuinely supportive part of Agnea's life

Mechanically, you never have anything to do with these characters again past Chapter 1 - save for Rai Mei and Ritsu being bosses. Hikari's companions also play an integral narrative role in his final chapter, with Ritsu being encountered as a boss again for the final time

Crick is a subversion of all of them in that he doesn't have any direct relationship with Temenos prior to Chapter 1, and though we never use him as a helper character ever again he consistently shows up as an integral part of Temenos's story up until his death in Chapter 3: Stormhail

Weirdly Crick is also the only one out of all of them where the use of Path Actions is required more than once - Osvald has to Scrutinize Emerald at one point

AND GODDAMNIT OF COURSE THE FIRST AND LAST TANGIBLE INTERACTION WE HAVE WITH CRICK IS TO FUCKING GUIDE HIM I'M SO MAD ABOUT THIS BOOKEND IT'S SO MEAN AKSJKAS

And this in itself makes complete sense given that he has larger roles to play outside of Chapter 1 - just not in the same vein as Ritsu or Rai Mei, but the fact is that Temenos's story is VERY good at establishing and building up chemistry between its characters

bUT FOR MECHANICS WE NEVER HAVE TO USE AGAIN AFTER CHAPTER 1?? THEY WENT SO HARD AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY

- It's not as big of a deal as it looks but I also find it funny just how much fun the devs seemed to have with Crick's introduction and entry into the party - using the Path Action to fucking TROLL with him.

- ON THAT NOTE, LET ME FREAK OUT OVER GUIDE AS A PATH ACTION A LITTLE MORE

I saw a post on Reddit earlier about the 'summoning townspeople' Path Actions and it kind of shook my world a little, so I'll just put my response to it here

For a guy who makes it a point to tell people not to follow anything blindly it's INCREDIBLY hilarious to me that Temenos's Path Action is getting people to follow him blindly.

MECHANICALLY, it's because he's the designated cleric. Temenos has Guide, because Ophilia has Guide. But thematically it's interesting to think about just how antithetical it is to his central creed of doubting, and how this specifically applies to Crick.

I did go back and check and yeah - Crick's one of three individual people I was able to find over the course of the stories that has a required Path Action used on them more than once.

Malaya is one other example with Inquire, and she even one-ups him with one use of Soothe. And I'll get to HER when I get to Castti's essay - I mean infodump - because it's like. Somehow even MORE heartbreaking than this instance of Guide

While I'm here I'll also mention Roque, who also has two instances of a Path Action used on him, namely Purchase and Hire in Partitio's Chapter 5

But back to the dramatic aspect of it it's like. I really want to shake the devs because it's so mean of them to have Temenos's relationship with him begin by guiding him towards not only the cathedral but to a healthier way of thinking, and to end with Crick's fucking GHOST leading Temenos to the crucial truth that he's lost so many people to find, including Crick himself

- I won't scrutinize everything about the cleric class itself but I WILL talk about the EX Skills, because to me it's ironic just how mean they are. I'm glad that the irony isn't lost on the fanfic writers like I see you guys use these as fanfic titles - bless you all

First - Prayer for Plenty, the sequel's answer to how absolutely fucking broken Saving Grace was as a passive in the first game. Limiting it to JUST Temenos's natural moveset feels like it should be sending a message honestly - it's a way to prolong the lives of his comrades and he couldn't do that for the ones he held dear in his own story. Can't help but feel like the fact that this is the one he gets from AELFRIC'S SHRINE rubs salt in the wound - no pun intended -

Secondly is Heavenly Shine and it's like. It's a holy nuke filled with divine power that drains Temenos's magic reserves completely. He invokes Aelfric's name when he uses it to and to this day I think the reason it feels cathartic to use is because it feels like a manifestation of Temenos's wrath

Unlike Osvald's own magic kamehamehadouken nuke where he learned it out of a need to protect Elena, Temenos learns this AFTER his story - and maybe it's just my concern speaking but man I really want this to represent his sheer need to go absolutely fucking apeshit like my man is NOT in a good place after his story is done

- This is the part where I go into the tinier, 'definitely stretching this past the realm of MATTERING' details that actually have something to do with the game mechanics

Some of Temenos's class lines are reminiscent of Crick's own. We've drawn the comparison with Temenos's Sweeping Cleave line already and it's adorable

Temenos Sweeping Cleave [insert handshake emoji] Crick Sacred Slash: I'll cleave you in twain!

Reaching even further here. His lines for Lux Congerere and Sacred Effulgence also somewhat invoke Crick's declaration of 'cleaving the shadows from this world', but it's not exact and I'm just indulging

Lux Congerere: Banish the shadows from this world!

Sacred Effulgence: Aelfric, banish the shadows from this world!

I'd also be extremely remiss to NOT mention the recruitment of Ort in postgame and it physically hurts me to summon him because of the way he says 'I will avenge you, Crick!' like DUDE. Oh well at least he's grieving healthily

Sacred Slash brothers let's gooo

There's like. No way that I'll be able to fit all of this in my other thoughts about Crick that are dedicated mostly to his and Temenos's arcs so. It's like not even in a ship sense anymore even if I do think they're fruity as hell

Honestly I'm just glad to get this all out of my system EXCEPT THERE'S MORE, because Temenos's story loves to torture my brain and its themes resonate with me a bit TOO much

#octopath #octopath traveler 2 #temenos mistral #crick wellsley #vir rambles about octopath yet again #this time - FOR WAY LONGER THAN IS NECESSARY #these aren't even like half the overall thoughts i have about crick #let alone TEMENOS #i honestly don't know why it matters to me this much #it's kind of scary lmao #this is why i should talk to people more #shoutout to jae for some of the lines here because there really was no better way of putting it #temenos why are you such a STICK #ot2 spoilers

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viridiave · 2 years

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So I may have overanalyzed Octopath again

Cut me some slack I’m still salty from my Duopath run earlier-

major spoilers btw so proceed with caution

> FROSTLANDS - WAKEFUL STONE - Awakening the minds of the devout/ the First Guardian rising from slumber to perform the Kindling (Flamesgrace) - Frostlands Dragon awakening from slumber to defend against intruders upon the Whitewood/ 'Wake-up' call to the villagers via the infiltration of the Obsidian Manse (Stillsnow) - 'Wake-up call' for Darius that MAYBE being a dick all the time isn't good for the soul. Or the body./ Therion's 'wake-up call' to the realization that trust is a sentiment worth fighting for (Northreach)

> FLATLANDS - ANTIDOTE STONE - Yvon and Lucia's reign over the Academy is akin to a malaise that's 'poisoning' the Academy (Atlasdam) - The Dragonstone was poisoning Orlick's mind/ The Obsidians' existence is like a parasite upon their town (Noblecourt) - The citizens were 'poisoned' with Mattias's promises and ideals (Wispermill)

> COASTLANDS - ARTICULATE STONE - Standing up to the pirates in defense of those they've robbed (Rippletide) - Speaking the truth about Vanessa's toxic and dishonest ways/ Coercing the truth out of Daniel and Bishop Donovan in order to prevent tragedy (Goldshore) - Gathering the courage to present and speak in front of the crowd in order to reach Noa Wyndham (Grandport)

> HIGHLANDS - BRIGHT STONE - Olberic's eyes 'lit up' when he saw Erhardt's blade in Gustav's possession (Cobbleston) - H'aanit's resolve was 'clear' to her once she saw Z'aanta/ Cyrus's philosophy is a 'bright' one compared to Yvon's 'dark age' (Stonegard) - The ampitheater; 'lights', camera, action (Everhold)

> SUNLANDS - CALMING STONE - Primrose endures Helginish's abuse with perfect calm and grit (Sunshade) - Erhardt's Blazing Blade inflicts terror/ Therion maintains his calm until Darius shows up (Wellspring) - H'aanit's determination does not waver once in her quest to kill Redeye in Marsalim, delivering her promise to the King (Marsalim)

> RIVERLANDS - CLARITY STONE - The information Alfyn gleans from Lily allows him to find the cure for Nina (Clearbrook) - Ophilia helps 'clear up' a misunderstanding and miscommunication between a group of friends/ Alfyn gets his dose of reality when he faces Miguel in combat after his betrayal (Saintsbridge) - Olberic is finally able to realize his purpose in perfect 'clarity' when he faces Werner/ the truth behind the Fall of Hornburg comes to light (Riverford)

> CLIFTLANDS - CONSCIOUS STONE - Therion's lack of 'foresight' led to his servitude under Cordelia Ravus (Bolderfall) - None of the miners are aware of the injustice behind Morlock's schemes/ Cyrus finds 'unconscious' citizens in the sewers (Quarrycrest) - Alfyn has to tap into his 'consciousness' to remember the cure to the illness he'd contracted as a child (Orewell)

> WOODLANDS - VIVIFYING STONE - H'aanit educates the player about the nature of 'life' in the forest (S'waarki) - Olberic figures out the truth behind Erhardt's 'life' and motivations for bringing down an entire kingdom/ Leon lost his dearest friend after having been asked what his life's treasure is (Victor's Hollow) - Cyrus faces a monster of functional immortality- one who cannot 'die'/ discovers that From the Far Reaches of Hell contained the secret arts of life and death (Duskbarrow)

#octopath traveler #octopath #8path #status ailments are fun #they're less fun when they happen every turn and you don't get to move a muscle before dying to spark #captain's bane i'm looking at you #vir rambles about octopath yet again

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viridiave · 2 years

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Octopath and loose ends

so as much as I want these travelers to just have a happy ending and live peacefully after everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING)

there are. several things. that I feel like in-universe they really need to address and it has been driving me nuts for weeks

oh yeah MASSIVE spoilers btw so proceed with caution it’s gonna be a long ride of a LOT of loose ends that I REALLY want to see get addressed by the characters in some form

OPHILIA’S TALE - Just. Ophilia- you know. the Flamebearer.- was drugged in Chapter 3 by her sister after the passing of Archbishop Josef. After the Bishop of Goldshore's daughter was fucking kidnapped by cultists. - And it turns out the fucking Bishop didn't fall ill he was fucking murdered and oh my god an investigation needs to be fucking launched - Speaking of investigation- Wispermill in its entirety was almost wiped out by a cult led by some merchant they had in the Lionel Consortium. Whatever the hell that is.

CYRUS’S TALE - Quarrycrest and the blood rituals in the sewers. Cyrus has also killed the culprit, by the way. In self-defense, so it's all good- but there were fucking blood rituals happening in the fucking sewers man what- - sO YOU WOULD THINK THAT CYRUS KILLING HIS EMPLOYER AND HIS ASSITANT WOULD LET HIM GET OFF SCOTT-FREE. TO BE FAIR, IT WAS ALL IN SELF-DEFENSE, BUT THERE IS NO WAY THEY AREN'T INVESTIGATING THIS. ESPECIALLY SINCE THERESE IS A NOBLEWOMAN RELATED TO THE ROYAL FAMILY. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK. - And there's no way that Cyrus is going to keep his mouth shut over the tomes in the Ruins of Eld. Somehow I don't doubt that there's going to be messy politics surrounding those books given that apparently they don't have a fucking printing press yet.

TRESSA’S TALE - So Quarrycrest doesn't just have a fucking kidnapping problem, but it also has economic problems- which doesn't really sound good when most of the town's economy hinges on the provisions that the person who owned that territory gets sent packing by a tiny merchant. It's great that they don't have someone who deals in slavery anymore but there ain't no way people aren't freaking out over this sudden lack of management. - The Grandport Merchant's Fair was infiltrated by Obsidians. I don't have any real idea how much of a problem this really is, but dang a person could have died that day in the sewers so

OLBERIC’S TALE - Erhardt. Just… Erhardt. The man. Is an actual war criminal. Who has committed the highest form of treason. The guy killed his king and was directly responsible in some way for the fall of an entire Kingdom. And you're gonna tell me??? He's not gonna get charged??? For any of this??? Erhardt I love you but wHAT THE FUCK MAN- - Riverford had public burnings at the stake and this has been going on for several years- long enough that the town got fed up with it and finally got enough ball to start a revolution. A whole-ass revolution that the Unbending Blade- who is alive and has been walking around and should be legally dead at this point and is also the wINNER OF A WELL-KNOWN TOURNAMENT IN VICTOR'S HOLLOW- has assisted in, alongside the Blazing Blade who may I remind people has committed fucking REGICIDE on WERNER'S ORDERS

PRIMROSE’S TALE - Primrose's entire kill quest is her taking down a whole-ass criminal organization that has been terrorizing the continent for presumably decades. This should be investigated for more reasons than just her charges of first-degree murder. - Stillsnow??? Should really be investigated??? Because what the fuck the Obsidian Manse is a whole fucking human trafficking site??? And the entire town is privy to this information?? IT'S SO CLOSE TO FLAMESGRACE HOW MUCH BALL DO THEY HAVE TO KEEP UP THIS CHARADE - Man if Noblecourt wasn't already such a political mess then it'd be an even worse mess by the time Primrose leaves it- the Obsidians may be shitty but it's implied that they were pretty much running Noblecourt. There's gotta be SOME form of anarchy going down in that city even if it's ultimately better off without the Obsidians running the show - AND SPEAKING OF RUNNING SHOWS THERE'S EVERHOLD AND IT'S NOT LIKE SIMEON'S BODY TURNED TO DUST AFTER THE ENTIRE THING LIKE MATTIAS'S HAD AKSJAKSLAS

ALFYN’S TALE - Surprisingly clean but Goldshore has got to be extra wary of passing apothecaries ever since Vanessa came and fucked them up with the Gaborra Evergreen - Alfyn himself is kind of sus because what even is slumberthorn that sounds like a hell of a sedative- aND WHY DOES HE JUST CASUALLY HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT

THERION’S TALE - sO NOT ONLY IS WELLSPRING HOME TO AND DEPENDENT ON A WAR CRIMINAL'S PROTECTION BUT THEY ALSO HAVE A BLACK MARKET. EITHER BALE AND ERHARDT ARE JUST CONSTANTLY DRUNK OR THEY LEGITIMATELY HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE THAT THIS MARKET EXISTS. OR MAYBE IT WAS CUZ OF THE LIZARDMEN BEING REALLY CONVENIENT DISTRACTIONS??? EITHER WAY THIS MARKET NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED JESUS CHRIST - So if Darius is a formal lord of Northreach. Shouldn't. People be investigating his death. Or at least his disappearance. Namely at the hands of the guy that has actively been a thorn in his side and has been featured in Wanted posters. Bro-

H'AANIT’S TALE - Surprisingly H'aanit's tale is the most legal. She's literally on a church-sanctioned hunt so pretty much everything she does in her tale is legal. I mean excluding the siccing of various monsters against her obstacles, her record is just clean as fuck and that amazes me.

POST-GAME - SO IS NO ONE GOING TO TALK ABOUT GALDERA AFTER THE FACT??? THIS SOUNDS??? LIKE A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO TALK ABOUT WITH EVERYONE IN THE CONTINENT? THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE GATE OF FINIS IS GOING TO BE KEPT A SECRET ESPECIALLY IF IT CONTAINS A THREAT LIKE GALDERA INSIDE OF IT, EVEN IF RIGHT NOW THERE'S NO FEASIBLE WAY FOR HIM TO BE RELEASED. THIS WAS WHY THE KINGDOM OF HORNBURG FELL FOR GOD'S SAKE. - AND KIT- WHERE THE HELL DOES KIT GO??? AFTER HIS FUCKING BLOODLINE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE CAPABLE OF RELEASING WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY SATAN UPON THE WORLD??? HE'S ALSO THE ONLY REMAINING CROSSFORD SO IS HE JUST BANNED FROM HAVING KIDS SINCE THAT'D JUST MEAN MORE POTENTIAL KEYS TO UNLOCK THE GATE WITH???

#octopath traveler #octopath #8path #vir rambles about octopath yet again #THE POSTGAME IMPLICATIONS #OF EVERYTHING #I MEAN DON'T GET ME WRONG THEY ALL DESERVE TO LIVE HAPPILY AFTER GALDERA #BUT SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE JUST #THEY NEED TO BE QUESTIONED AT LEAST #octopath spoilers #spoilers for pretty much every chapter after 1

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viridiave · 2 years

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It's been biting at me since I first played the game but that scene where Cyrus gets sent away on sabbatical is the most infuriatingly hilarious thing I've seen in my life

Because the voice-acting for Yvon in both English and Japanese just switches tone when Cyrus is like 'yeah you know what? I WILL go on a journey, thank you'

Cuz he sounds genuinely perplexed

Like Yvon in his mind right now is 'this- this isn't how you're supposed to react to news like this Cyrus. Why are you like this. That's not what someone says when they're being sent on unpaid leave on account of alleged p*dophilia. Cyrus. Why.'

And I wanna think Yvon is concerned for Cyrus on this specific front and nowhere else cuz he's probably watched this man flounder at academy balls and reunions and not even he's immune to Cyrus being a total blockhead

Cyrus doesn't care he just wants to get out because this is all balderdash

#vir rambles about octopath yet again #octopath #octopath traveler #8path #cyrus albright #octopath cyrus #the way the music changes just SELLS it #cuz yvon and lucia switch gears when Cyrus inevitably did the weird thing #it's amazing #i have an intense love-hate relationship with this scene

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viridiave · 2 years

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i finished the main 8 stories finally and i'm cleaning up the sidequests and part of me can't stop thinking about Cyrus being forced on vacations by his students

Princess Mary probably made it happen with some kind of royal political loophole abuse with Therese's help

And Cyrus just wanders into Cobbleston because he figured he might as well gather more info on Hornburg because let's be real that entire journey concerning From the Far Reaches of Hell combined with Werner's part in the Fall of Hornburg would have invited more discussion with arguably the biggest victim of the fallen kingdom than Cyrus would know what to do with

Basically this boils down into Cyrus inviting himself into Olberic's house every other weekend

Somehow this turns into him becoming the local tutor for the young-in's because his ramblings are so detailed they're basically impromptu lectures for any kid listening in

He gets into heated debates with Noelle about literally every detail

Cyrus doesn't skimp out on complimenting Olberic in any of these lectures either so every other weekend Olberic has to deal with Cyrus in max Hornburg fanboy mode

(he can't even stop the man- in his eyes Cyrus is too godsdamned endearing like this so he just settles for vigorously polishing the town's armory as a distraction)

Philip is convinced Cyrus is now his rival in being Olberic's number one fan

#vir rambles about octopath yet again #octopath traveler #cyrus albright #olberic eisenberg #octopath cyrus #octopath olberic #olberus #i'm disappointed they never actually discuss what they know about the freaking gate #like yo those runes were written in high hornburgian for crying out loud #erhardt's own visits from wellpsring probably overlap sometimes #and he just sees cyrus passionately and very loudly connecting the dots #suddenly he wishes he could have had a go at stabbing werner's shambling horse fucker body

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viridiave · 2 years

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THE SLOW ROAD TO THE END OF THE WORLD

FEATURING A MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING

AND A CRACKHEAD WARNING

I STARED AT A GRAPH FOR TOO LONG COMING UP WITH THIS

and really it’s just me rambling about how the chapter 4′s segue into the post-game

i’m pretty sure i got a lot of things wrong I’m not caught up with COTC I’m sorry-

Going by the order of 'OCTOPATH' because uhhh just because- we're starting with Ophilia and the Mattias encounter

Nobody knows anything going into this fight

But by the end of it they come into this gradual realization that maybe starting here they're all collectively part of something much bigger than themselves

Because surprise they find out after this fight that Mattias is semi-immortal and while they brush it off at first given his devotion to the literal dark god Galdera they have an inkling this isn't where that trail ends

And it isn't until Cyrus and the others fight Lucia in the Ruins of Eld that he starts thinking that the tome's fucking contents matches up eerily well with what Mattias has shown them- alas he can barely translate the High Hornburgian texts on his own

And even then he only has the very ominous frescos to go off of concerning any of this

He sees a gate. He sees the tomes. The dots aren't connecting together at all, but he has a suspicion that if he keeps following the party then eventually the stars will align

He keeps his concerns about this to himself for the moment though and everyone feels weird about it because a quiet Cyrus is a sussy Cyrus

Travelling right back around to Grandport though they make a stop at Stonegard and they come across Russell and Dominic again so Cyrus opts out of the mission to try and haggle them for information about the tome

Which means he's completely missing out on Primrose having a feral mom moment for Tressa once she realizes that the person who stole Tressa's precious journal was a motherfucking Obsidian

The name Graham Crossford pops up for the first time here and for a moment they think 'hey what was the name of that guy we brought to a circus again'

Nobody remembers for now since Kit has only ever introduced himself by his first name

But all they know at the moment is that 1) Tressa Colzione is now an actual fucking billionaire

And 2) this Graham Crossford guy is being targeted by a dangerous group and they think 'damn what did this guy to do piss off those motherfuckers'

They hoof it to Riverford next- without Tressa this time, she's decided she'll stop by her place first and catch up with them soon enough with Cyrus in tow and promised to meet up with them in Everhold

And Riverford is a shithole. Nobody agrees that Riverford should stay like this for another minute so they immediately track down the rebel group to help them get that bastard Werner off his high horse

Literally

They still don't know why he rides his horse indoors

Erhardt shows up and Olberic swears that he'll fucking kiss this man if either of them survive this encounter with Werner

They survive and smooch like once over a candlelit dinner like seriously what was that sequence they're sharing wine and everything alone in Olberic's room in the inn

But more importantly is that Erhardt tries elaborating more on what Werner might have actually been after and they both feel like there's missing pieces of it that they haven't quite gotten yet

All he and Olberic know is that Werner did it for a gate and they're both pissed about it

They try making it to Everhold next and while Primrose is in the middle of sizing herself up for her encounter with Simeon, Tressa and Cyrus regroup with them

And they catch them up to what happened with Olberic and Cyrus almost faints on the spot at the mention of a gate

Nobody really questions it at the moment but as soon as they step foot into the weirdly huge Ampitheater they're bombarded with Simeon's fucking play and resolve to take turns stabbing him and promising themselves that they'll let Primrose toss his body off the fucking cliffs afterward

But in the process of stabbing Simeon they get this weird familiar feeling that they got with Mattias and none of them like that

Simeon is a Leader of the Obsidians and they pay extra attention to the 'a'

As soon as they make it back to Noblecourt Primrose starts digging for answers as to why Geoffrey Azelhart became a target- partly to divorce herself from the idea that Simeon really is just a maniacal asshole who wanted to mess with her

In the time she spends with the others though she eventually settles for a great reason for moving forward and that would be finishing whatever business her father had

The moment they step foot into Noblecourt Revello Forsythe comes busting out from the Azelhart Manor to welcome Primrose back but also to inform her that they rounded up the remaining Obsidians in the shadows

Along with the information they coughed up regarding the murder of Geoffrey Azelhart and certain recent events

Including whispers of someone eerily resembling Mattias being in partnership with Simeon

Ophilia and Primrose are pissed needless to say but there it is again

A fucking gate

Cyrus keels over on the spot and tells the others about this gate that these bitches seem to be obsessed over- at least, all that he can at the moment

Because translation is slow and confusing

At the moment the most anyone knows about it is that there's a literal dark god lying dormant underneath the ruins of Hornburg

Olberic has a bit of a crisis trying to piece all of it together for obvious reasons

This is the thing they destroyed his fucking Kingdom over

This is all on their minds as they travel to Orewell and help Alfyn out with killing this giant fucking bird because his apothecary not-friend was apparently carrying every disease known to man and

And again the name Graham Crossford popped up once Ogen was cured and they're even more confused because they had no clue what people like the Obsidians might have wanted with a traveling apothecary

It's at this point that Tressa and Alfyn start spilling what they know about the dude

They have these exact thoughts in their mind until eventually they hit Northreach and go to town on Darius mostly on behalf of Therion who they've grown very attached to much to his chagrin

As soon as they pay a visit to Ravus Manor to give the lady the gems she drops the fact that these things were apparently used to seal Galdera away at the Gate of Finis and before Therion can say this has nothing to do with them the rest of the party just screams

Heathcote has the patience of a saint not to give in to the urge of just tossing Therion's ragtag bunch out of the mansion for being so uncouth

But their reaction clues in both Cordelia and Heathcote to how much they actually know about the dragonstones and the Gate of Finis

Really they were probably worried for the very distraught Olberic Eisenberg and a Sister Ophilia Clement having a seizure

So the information that they were stolen some ten-odd years ago probably freaked them out more so Cordelia just sighs like 'listen if something was supposed to happen it would have happened already'

'lADY A GALDERA-WORSHIPPING CULT ALMOST KILLED US LIKE THREE MONTHS AGO THEY WERE THIS CLOSE TO DESTROYING THE FUCKING CHURCH'

'…oh dear.'

But other than this they don't exactly have much to go off of so wearily they make the trek to Marsalim but not before giving the dragonstones the most intense side-eyeing

Lady Eliza greets them all and leads them straight to Redeye- no shits, no giggles, just the massive fucking sleep paralysis demon

They get petrified once or twice but they defeat Redeye pretty handily

What actually gets them is what's inscribed on the side of the pillar

The name Kit pops up and they're just tugging their collars cuz 'shit man wasn't that guy looking for his dad'

'so when we meet him again-' 'he could be anywhere on this fucking map dude' '-who's gonna bite the bullet and tell him that his dad became an eldritch abomination'

At this point they split up so Tressa and Cyrus with maybe Primrose and Olberic make their way back up north to Atlasdam to try and make sense of the information

Eliza recognizes Ophilia and offers to conduct an investigation on the surviving members of Mattias's cult so that's Alfyn, Therion, and H'aanit joining the Knights on smoking out the cult

They meet Harald on their way back to Stonegard and he hands them a few documents from Werner's office that he dug up

With mentions of the name Lyblac

And they all collectively have flashbacks to that simp guard from Bolderfall that H'aanit beat up

'didn't she say something about blue eyes and golden hair or some shit' 'that. That doesn't help. You know how many blue-eyed blondies are running around right now'

Meanwhile Tressa and crew run into one of those blue-eyed blondies- Leon- again in Rippletide and she asks him what he knew about Graham Crossford

'oh he's a lovely man- he can sure swab a deck' 'bESIDES THAT, CAPTAIN.' 'I know he has a son? His name was Kit I think' 'excuse me' 'you should have heard him back then he showed me all of his son's baby pics'

This is where it clicks for them fully that 1) Graham Crossford became the abomination that was Redeye and 2) Kit is a Crossford and might have something to do with the Obsidians

2.5) if he doesn't it's extremely likely that he'll be in danger because of them soon enough

Atlasdam doesn't do anything to soothe their souls because one sifting session through the secret archives tells them that the Crossfords are descendants of the sorceror who made the dragonstones to help seal away actual Satan

The other half of the party went the long way around so up on the S'waarki trail they meet the Impersario and the simp guard Alphas again

About to get mauled by what looks like the same tiger that Z'aanta casually killed in Stonegard

So they do the same

Extremely casually

And the Impersario plus Alphas drop the bomb on the travelers that Lyblac and Kit are both headed to the Ruins of Hornburg

And everyone has a spiderman moment

They meet up in Atlasdam and pretty much have a meltdown

Especially Olberic

And when they all get to the Ruins they all had to physically hold him back from giving the enormous gate to hell a teeny tiny max boosted Winnehild's Battle Cry

#octopath traveler #octopath postgame #octopath #8path #ophilia clement #cyrus albright #tressa colzione #olberic eisenberg #primrose azelhart #alfyn greengrass #therion #h'aanit #kit crossford #vir rambles about octopath yet again #i cannot and will not shut up until i finish this game in its entirety

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