Tag: Cyrus

2021 UPDATE: Since I’ve got nothing better to do, I’ve decided to start streaming over on twitch.tv/strongstylesmark. At 2PM GMT Tuesdays & Thursdays I’ll be trying out indie games I’ve never played before, and at 6PM GMT on Saturdays, I’ll be playing games I love. I’ll be starting Saturday 16th January, so please come over and give me a follow to be notified when I go live!

Well, this is one I’ve been dreading…

As of July 13th, Octopath Traveler has been out in the world for a whole year. I absolutely adore this game and as of last week I just finished my second full playthrough on the PC version and I’m still as in love with it now as I was when I played it the first time around.

As I mentioned in my review of the game, one of the main things that makes this game so special is the characters, specifically the 8 travelers who you follow along their respective journeys; I only called them protagonists in the title because “Octopath Traveler Traveler” is a stupid title for stupid people, but I digress.

Design, personality, story, voice acting, gameplay; I’ll be taking all of these factors into account when making my rankings.

Before I rank these travelers, I will say that I love every single one of them, I think they are all well-written characters that I connect to in one way or another, however naturally I’m going to connect with some more than others. Moreso than perhaps any list I’ve ever done, this is VERY subjective, by the nature of the game, everyone will have had a different experience during their playthroughs with what characters they used the most, so I don’t expect this list to look even remotely similar to anyone else’s (especially number 1).

Now I’ve preemptively defended myself, let’s do this, here’s my ranked list of all 8 travelers in Octopath Traveler from worst to best.

…well that was a much better way of phrasing it.

Note: SPOILERS ahead for each of the traveler’s stories.

8 – Alfyn Greengrass

“Let me see to any bumps or scrapes, ya hear?”

I know. Honestly, if I could, I wouldn’t have put anyone last, but the only way to do that would be to not write this list.

Alfyn is a lovely guy, he’ll cure whatever it is that ales you and won’t charge you a leaf, but boy does he seem like a guy I’d get bored of if I knew him in real life.

Alfyn is a character who is extremely well versed in a single aspect of life, but terribly naive about everything else in the world around him. He gives off the vibe of a 10-year-old who’s trying really hard to be an adult but clearly doesn’t have the hang of it yet. His whole attitude to everyone and everything in the game gives off vibes of “Aw shucks, I’m just happy to be here” and while it’s adorable in its way, it doesn’t make for the most compelling of narratives.

Alfyn’s whole story seems to lack direction until the final chapter if you ask me. He encounters a few people, mostly Ogen, who challenge the way he views the world, but for the most part, he seems to just brush them off, almost arrogantly thinking he knows better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s refreshing to see a character who is pure and pure can be, but I can’t help but think things would’ve been a bit more interesting if there was a darker side to him. Coming across someone like Vanessa didn’t really mean a great deal to Alfyn because there were no similarities to be drawn between the two of them, Vanessa used her knowledge for evil, but Alfyn wouldn’t dream of anything of the sort, wouldn’t it have been so much more interesting if Alfyn started slipping down the same road as Vanessa, but sees the extremes Vanessa goes to and waking up? It would’ve provided a lot more growth than what Alfyn actually gets.

As a party member, Alfyn can be incredibly useful. I never really cracked the knack of his “Concoct” skill, but the apothecary class is so incredibly useful with its skill that it doesn’t matter. Not only does it work wonderfully as a support class it has the good offensive coverage that a class like Dancer lacks, making it work for a primary class since Axes are strong melee weapons and seemingly almost every enemy in the game has a weakness to it. In my most recent playthrough of the game, I found combining Alfyn’s apothecary class with the secondary class of Dancer (and later Starseer) made for a fantastic support character that could still pack a punch in a pinch (alliteration is fun!).

Like I said at the top, Alfyn is a wonderful and pure boy who always makes me smile when he comes out with his unadulterated optimism and cheesy quips, but I really would’ve liked to see more growth to the character as his story unfolded. I just don’t feel like the Alfyn at the end of Chapter 4 is a different person to the Alfyn at the start of Chapter 1 and he’s the only traveler I can say that of too. I’d certainly buy him a mug of mead though.

7 – Primrose Azelhart

“May I have this dance?”

I never really warmed to Primrose a great deal and unfortunately, it’s got nothing to do with her story, but more her gameplay. The problem with the Dancer class is that, as great as it is as a secondary class, it’s awful as a primary one. As an almost entirely support based class it isn’t helpful when you’re trying to use the character as one of your main party members, especially in the early game, her Elemental Attack leaves a lot to be desired and the only time I could get any real damage out of her is when I gave her a ridiculously OP dagger for that point in the game. I know that the dancer class isn’t designed to deal damage, but to have one of your four party members be completely defenceless is a pain in the arse early on so I never really kept her in the party for long.

From a personality standpoint, it’s also a little difficult to warm to a character who actively tries to shut herself off from everyone around her. Her whole MO is that she’s out for herself and that’s pretty much it, you get the sense that there’s a softer, kinder side to her in various travel banter scenes and perhaps that comes out of the character more once she’s avenged her father’s death and made peace, but we don’t get to see that part of the story, so we’ll never know.

While I don’t warm to Primrose as a person, I respect her as an individual. As she says at different points in her story, she dances for herself and herself alone, she’s easily had the toughest life of any of the travelers, yet she gives the impression of someone who hasn’t let it get to her all that much. She has her moments of weakness like anyone would in her situation, but she uses her tough life to bolster her motivations and stand stronger than she did before. Those looks back to her as an innocent child growing up in a wealthy household give a depressing window into what kind of a person she could’ve become because it contrasts so heavily to the Primrose we see on her journey.

Primrose is a character who keeps her emotions under wraps as much as possible and soldiers on no matter what awful things are happening to her, unfortunately, that makes a character that is hard to connect with, even though they are a very deep person when you view their life as a whole.

6 – Olberic Eisenberg

“My blade is UNBENDING!”

Olberic is the closest thing to a celebrity we encounter in Ocopath Traveler (not counting royalty), but he never acts stuck up or arrogant because of it, in fact for the most part he tries to hide his identity.

While at face value, Obleric’s story is one of vengeance, as it unfolds you slowly see that it’s more about an identity crisis. A warrior like Olberic associated his identity so heavily with the king and country he wields his sword in protection of, so without that, what is he supposed to do with himself? While he does seek out Erhardt for revenge, he also seeks him out for answers, to understand why he did what he did, the tournament was a great way to bring this identity crisis to Olberic’s attention, he sees each man he fights is fighting for something or someone and it takes a while for Olberic to realise what that reason is for him.

Olberic’s story ends with him in the same place as he started and he’s not necessarily changed a great deal as a person, except for one key difference, he understands who he is now and he knows what he wants to spend the rest of his life doing. The Olberic we saw at the start sees living in Cobbleston as a stop-gap until he can discover Erhardt’s whereabouts, but the Olberic that returns to Cobbleston at the end sees it as a home with a duty to protect those who live there.

When it comes to gameplay, the Warrior is definitely the best offensive non-advanced class. The sword strike are powerful and have the option to target one or all foes, along with lance attacks that provide great coverage for weaknesses, combined with the Hunter class (or eventually Warmaster) you have an all-out power character that can also tank a decent amount of damage to boot.

So, I’ve done nothing but praise Olberic in this entry, so why is he so low? Well honestly, it’s because I’ve never really played with him in my party very often, in fact, he’s the only character that’s never spent an extended amount of time in the party over my two playthroughs. Both times I started far away from Olberic on the world map, so by the time I got to him, I already had other characters that filled his roll so he was a bit redundant. With more time I’m sure I’d grow a larger fondness for Olberic, but as it stands, I haven’t had much time to get to know the guy.

5 – Therion

“Come on, I’ve got better things to do.”

Unlike most of the other travelers, we never find out Therion’s surname, which in a weird way adds to his character. Therion is a man who had tried very hard to build an aura of mystique around him, he works alone, doesn’t make friends and simply does the job he needs to do. He has a very bad attitude towards other people, which is why it was key to his story to strip away that aura so we could see the man that lies beneath.

While it would be so easy to dismiss Therion as an edgelord who just wants people to see how cool he is, there’s so much more to it than that. Finding out about Darius’ betrayal is a key point to this story because watching all of the flashbacks you realise that the Therion before Darius betrayed him, is almost unrecognisable from the Therion after the fact. That betrayal changed him into a cold, untrusting man who believes the whole world is out to get him, and really the first couple of chapters of his story seem to confirm that belief.

He’s baited into a trap by Heathcote and Cordelia and then blackmailed to go on a journey he couldn’t be bothered with, before being shown multiple examples of friends and brothers turning their backs on each other for one reason or another. The whole world seems to be reaffirming Therion’s idea that no-one is to be trusted, which is what makes Cordelia such a key character to Therion’s story. Here we have someone who suffered a similar betrayal to Therion and yet is still just as open and trust as ever and watching Therion try to deal with it makes for such a good story. He just can’t comprehend how someone could still believe in other people after what she’d gone through and while we don’t see him fully open up and trust people again in his story, it’s clear the attitude of Cordelia has wormed its way into his mind and you get the impression that he’s going to slowly change his ways.

The Thief class is surprisingly versatile, there are abilities like Armour Corrosive that are great at assisting others in their striking capabilities, but skills like HP/SP Theif and Aeber’s Reckoning still pack quite a mighty punch. I’m not sure what secondary classes work best, although I had some success with both Merchant and Runelord, nothing has quite lept out at me as a perfect fit for the class just yet; not to mention, the fact that you need Therion to open purple chests means he pretty much has a reserved slot in the party.

Therion is a guy who’s exceptionally closed off and moody, but unlike Primrose, the story goes to great lengths to strip that away and show us the soft person that lives underneath that armour. He’s a fascinating look at what can happen to people who try to be something they’re not, but God I wish I could be even half as cool as him.

4 – Cyrus Albright

“Now the true lesson begins!”

Cyrus is my kind of guy, someone who is unabashedly obsessed with something and that passion for it comes out in every single word he says. Cyrus could quite happily sit in the library studying tomes for days just to translate a single sentence of ancient text and he wouldn’t have a care in the world about how much time has passed.

When Cyrus speaks about how he believes knowledge is something to be shared and passed on, not hoarded I truly believe in his sentiments because of vigour with which he says them. His confrontation with Lucia is absolutely perfect at framing this, the debate those two have over how knowledge is supposed to be treated is honestly one of the most rivetting cutscenes in the whole game because of just how well performed both parts are, it genuinely felt like two opposing ideologies clashing in a major way.

Cyrus’ dedication to his studies does, however, lead to a lot of unintentional comedy at his expense however since he seems to be totally oblivious to everything else in life. I normally don’t care for every female character in sight swooning over a guy, but the fact that it’s Cyrus, who probably doesn’t even notice a difference between men and women, makes it absolutely hilarious. I can’t help but smile at scenes like his one with Ophilia where he just doesn’t understand what the problem is with stating a woman’s beauty in the flowery, over-flattering way that he does, to him it’s just a fact and facts must be shared with others, it’s adorable and I wouldn’t want him any other way.

The scholar class is an interesting one, it’s very useful early on in the game, but once you have the Sorcerer advanced class it becomes pretty useless since it’s entirely focused on elemental attacks, which Sorcerer does much better, although Cyrus’ talent that instantly reveals a weakness of an enemy is very useful indeed.

Cyrus is a man who is driven by his passion for knowledge and the desire to be able to pass that knowledge on, while his relative naivete about many other aspects of his life makes for a character that always makes me smile whenever he talks.

3 – Tressa Colzione

“Now to seal the deal!”

Tressa is everything about the joy of youth captured in a character. Almost nothing gets Tressa down, even in her lowest moments, it doesn’t take her long to pick herself up off of the ground and push forward full of determination. She takes the time to find the joy in everything she does and as she rambles on about all of her passions and travels, I can hear the smile in her voice.

Having her as a merchant was a very interesting idea for the character too, because it means she’s very smart and savvy – she doesn’t let much get by her – but she’s also still got that level of naivete that comes with being that young. She does all she can to see the best in people, sometimes to her detriment but she refuses to let any bad experiences sour her view on the world. She meets someone like Ali who totally undercuts her profits, which she’s salty about, but when he needs help, she won’t hesitate to lend a hand because the joy in her life comes from the people around her and bringing the smiles and joy out them; be that through being a good friend or selling them something they’ll truly treasure, it’s what makes her tick.

There’s not a great deal of complexity there, but there doesn’t really need to be. In her journey, she has her view on the world challenged, but she sticks true to herself and finds exactly what she was looking for out of her time away from home; she knows what she wants, and she keeps going until she finds it. Tressa doesn’t change as a person all that much in her story, but that’s because her story is about her changing everyone around her. She gets a softer, more sensitive side out of Ali and inspires Noa to stay strong and go on a journey of her own, despite her condition.

On top of that, the Merchant class is a deceivingly powerful one. The Transfer Rune & Sidestep combo is well known by now of course, but you’ve also got the invaluable skills of Donate BP which is always useful and Hired Help which can be extremely powerful if you have the cash to spare.

I always like a character that is unabashedly happy and joyous all the time, but the difference between Tressa and Alfyn is that Alfyn’s happiness seems a little forced and like nothing ever phases him, but with Tressa that happiness is built into her character and absolutely flows out of her whenever she’s on-screen.

2 – Ophilia Clement

“The flame guides us true.”

Ophilia is quite simply the purest human to ever live.

From her flowing blonde hair to her pure white robes, everything about Ophilia is clean, soft and elegant. Every single one of her actions in her story is motivated by doing kindness for other people: She takes on the kindling so Lianna can stay with the dying archbishop; the only reason anything happens in her Chapter 2 story is simply because she wanted to chat with some children and help them out; She puts herself in harms way to rescue the Bishop’s daughter in Goldshore and she does everything she can to pull Lianna out of the pit of despair she falls into.

Nothing sways Ophilia from her belief that the is kindness in every living creature, no matter how bleak things look for her. The irony in the way Ophilia acts is that it’s motivated by an incredibly traumatic childhood, she lost her parents and was taken into a family that she could never truly call her own, even when they welcomed her with open arms. She can never bring herself to call the archbishop “father” because it just doesn’t feel right to her and yet at the same time she’s dedicated herself to expressing the kindness to everyone else that these people have shown to her.

What’s more, is she’s willing to stand up and fight for those beliefs when they’re challenged. I feel that emotion in her voice as refuses to let Mattias get the better of her, as she defends her belief that kindness and love will always win over the darkness, she refuses to be moved because the highs and lows in her life have made her so much stronger than anyone could imagine.

Not only is she a wonderful person, but she’s an extremely strong party member to boot. Cleric is a fantastic class with widespread healing, reflective counters and powerful elemental attacks, I find Ophilia tends to have the most powerful elemental offence of anyone on my team, especially when she’s given the Sorceror class, she’s an absolute mainstay of my team.

Ophilia is a character with many layers to her past and her motivations as to why she does what she does and she stands firm when those motivations are challenged or called into question. No character in the game is kinder or purer than Ophilia, but you’d also be hard-pressed to find anyone mentally stronger than her.

1 – H’aanit

“Standest thou against me? Then be hunted!”

Thy may speakest liken a twat, but goddamnest I loven everything abouted thou.

I did consider writing like that for the whole thing, but that one sentence took 5 minutes so sod it.

H’aanit was the first traveler I picked when starting up the game, so I don’t think it’s that surprising that I like her as much as I do, since across my two full playthroughs there’s literally never been a time when she wasn’t in my party and that’s the kind of thing that tends to endear you to a character.

I know most people hate how she speaks, but I find it pretty cute. It’s so unnecessary that I can’t help but wonder how such a speaking pattern evolved in S’warkii. Did one guy just start doing it one day and everyone caught on? Did they just never move on from a time where it was commonplace? Either way, I think it helps exemplify who H’aanit is a character, someone who doesn’t quite fit in with the world around her.

She’s a respected village member in S’warkii of course, but I always got the impression that she didn’t have a close connection with anyone there other than Z’aanta. Immediately the story takes away the only person she had a real connection with in the world and it makes it so interesting to watch her try to fit in with all of the other characters in the world because you can tell she feels a bit out of her depth, yet soldiers on anyway.

Even things like the travel banter with the other travelers shows us that she doesn’t understand a great deal about the world outside her village, constantly asking questions to understand why many of the other travelers do what they do in their stories. Even when she starts to understand, she can’t help but draw parallels to hunting, because that’s all she really knows, it’s the only context she has with which to understand the world and I can’t help but find a character like that extremely endearing.

The changes in her at the end of heE story are subtle, but when you think about them, they’ll make a huge impact on her life. In her early chapters, it often feels like she’s feigning confidence in unfamiliar situations and towns and there’s always that small sense of nervous energy to her, but by the final chapter that’s gone; it’s not fake confidence anymore, it’s the real deal. H’aanit was forced to experience the world without the one person she could rely on to teach her and it’s made her an infinitely better-rounded person. Saying she “becomes the master” is a bit of a stretch, but I definitely get the feeling that she’s got a new outlook on both the world and herself by the time her story comes to an end. It’s so subtle and yet so powerful.

Looking at the gameplay side of things, H’aanit is an absolute powerhouse if you build her correctly. Combining her abilities with that of the Warrior job makes for an extremely powerful physical attacker that can buff the rest of the party in the process; not to mention Leghold Trap is one of the most vital skills in the whole game. In the late game, giving her the Warmaster skill makes her pretty much unstoppable, easily being able to deal out over 50K damage per hit with WinnehIlds Battle Cry. I don’t know where I’d be without her on my team.

H’aanit is a character that I feel like very few people like as much as I do and I can see why, but my personal experiences with the character have made me connect with her so much that I can’t help but draw myself towards her whenever I can.

Oh and also, she has a Snow Leopard that’s one of the most beautiful animals I’ve ever seen, so shove it.

So that’s it! Those are my rankings of every traveler in Octopath Traveler. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article, let me know what travelers you like best either in the comments below on Twitter @10ryawoo. Make sure to come back next weekend, where we’ll be going back to the world of Doctor Who!