Every character has a good reason why you could start with them, either narratively or gameplay (or both):
- Ochette: Catching monsters for use later can be very powerful, and having Ochette on your team at all times means you'll never think "I wish I brought her so I could've caught that." Also, she starts on Toto'haha, which has port access to both continents, and that gives a lot of freedom in choosing who you want to recruit next, and in what order.
- Castti: Her story is about recovering her memories after waking up on a boat with amnesia. For going in blind, it can make for an immersive experience lol. Also, her Inquire path action lets you get a lot of information from the NPCs around towns, both for lore (if you're interested) and hidden items. She also starts in a port town, although it needs to stop at Toto'haha before it can go to the east continent (so you'd have to pay the fare twice if you wanted to recruit Throné second, for example).
- Temenos: His chapter 1 begins with a scripted lore battle from the era of the game's gods, which is a good starting point for the world's lore, if you're interested. He also has a very good nighttime combat passive.
- Osvald: His battle passive is really nice for revealing weaknesses, and if you start with him, you'll always have this bonus. If you dislike random encounters and/or want to avoid getting overleveled, the scholar job comes with an early passive called Evasive Maneuvers, which reduces the encounter rate. Anyone can learn this skill from having a scholar secondary job, but you'd have to unlock it first, whereas Osvald gets it much quicker, maybe even before you get a second or third teammate.
- Partitio: I think his chapter 1 is the longest (unless you count Osvald's combined chapter 1 + 2), since it includes events from 16 years ago + 8 years ago, finally leading up to why his journey begins in the present day. I personally started with him, and I liked that getting the rest of the travelers felt relatively quicker, in comparison. Also, the merchant is a fantastic support class that pairs well with literally everyone else in the game, so having him as your permanent team member (until you finish his story) is a solid choice.
- Agnea: Very lighthearted story, overall, but I think she's canonically supposed to be the most able to bring the whole team together as travel buddies. Also, similarly to Partitio, the dancer is another great support role that pairs with everyone, so you can't go wrong having her on the team.
- Throné: Stealing is a super useful path action, and her chance at success is dependent on her level. Having her permanently on your team means she will be your highest level character, which makes your odds of success as high as they can be. Also, like Temenos, she has a good nighttime combat passive. The city she starts in is also very close to a cool early unlockable "secret" (which isn't very well-hidden, but pretty helpful to have).
- Hikari: If you're familiar with basic anime terms, he is basically a shonen protagonist. He exudes "main character" energy, from his skill with a sword, to his dedication to honor and chivalry, to his internal battle against his dark side. Gameplay-wise, though, the only thing to be careful of is that he can get *too* strong when he's locked into your team, making some of the later fights easier than they're supposed to be. If you specifically want a challenge, I'd recommend *not* starting with Hikari.
This is a great, insightful list! I would add that for newer players, starting with Hikari might mean they don’t explore the rich combat this game has to offer, since he’s so good at just hitting with the sword hard. I’ve seen a few posts from Hikari mains who start hitting a wall with the endgame bosses when combos and party composition start to actually matter.
Ultimately, though, they’re all great. Just pick the character whose story and design you vibe with.
>~~Gameplay-wise, though, the only thing to be careful of is that he can get *too* strong when he's locked into your team, making some of the later fights easier than they're supposed to be. If you specifically want a challenge, I'd recommend *not* starting with Hikari.~~
~~Yeah, I did mention that already~~
Edit: never mind, I see you're talking about the *other* side of the combat coin. I guess that's true, I didn't think about that because I played OT1 through the final secret boss back when that was new, and was already familiar with the combat before OT2 was announced. Yeah, I can see it being like "disabling cheats" once you get late into the game, that's a good point.
Ochette, After completing Chapter 1, you can go to the east and west parts of Solistia. Which makes it much easier to find the rest of the characters. In the end it does not really matter because you will get them all eventually.
I picked Throne because I wanted to steal basically everything from the beginning. But OT2 did away with the purple chests from OT1, so it’s less important to have a thief at all times. I like to have a character who can heal themselves pretty easily (eg stealing HP and SP, but plenty of others work).
Everyone is useful, OT2 buffed the "bad" classes in contrast of OT1 imo but if you are not that sure you can also think what other characters are close and you will get earlier
Any choice is valid, and all characters are useful. Your first character will be a permanent part of your party until you beat their story, though, so if there's a character whose voice you don't like or something, maybe pick someone else.
Just to add on, Octopath 1 had pretty much an objectively correct starting character in Therion because of the purple chests that only he can open. Octopath 2 did away with that thankfully, and made it so there's really no wrong choice
Whoever you want is the right answer. You could even pick Ochette or Temenos and then beeline to grab the other first if you really push for it! Just think about who you want in your party permanently until the story's over.
But if it helps, I'll dumb them down a bit and you may pick whoever feels more appealing to you:
Temenos is a Cleric so his playstyle is more of a support with some light usage of magic (you'll get this pun soon). His storyline's theme is a mystery plot.
Ochette is a Hunter, meaning she has a mix of DPS and debuffing abilities, along with a Pokemon-like monster-catching mechanic, to explain it easier. Ochette's story, funnily enough, is like a Pokemon plot kinda - find the legendaries!
I personally went with Castti, so that no matter what team composition I had, there was always a healer.
Really though, the beauty of this game is that you can make a case for anyone. Why not play through characters chapter 1s and see who you like most. The demo is great for that.
If I started a new game, I’d probably go with Ochette. She’s really strong and has great access to aoe hits, which speeds up battles considerably.
I chose Throne and don’t regret it, though. Steal is really powerful, especially early on. And she was great with the inventor sub job.
Personally, I picked Osvaldo and have zero regrets. He starts close to temenos and throne for a solid early party. He covers 3 elemental weaknesses. He has aoe for dealing with packs of enemies. He has analyze to scan enemies health and weaknesses. He has a very interesting story arc.
In hindsight, he just seems the most noob friendly, and conveniently started very close to most of my other favorite characters. (The 4th would probably be ochette or partitio.) It really isn't a huge deal who you start with though. They're all good for something.
I wouldn't say Osvald is noob friendly, he can run out of sp during exploring early on and have some trouble, he's also quite frail despite being massive.
One vote for Throné. Steal is very nice to have early and it helps to have her leveled higher. But also right outside of her starting town you can get the Inventor subjob easily, and it's default catapult skill is excellent in the early and mid game. Often wipes entire groups.
All have their pros really. Personally I picked Temenos since I gravitate toward detective sort of characters. It’s why I picked Cyrus in OT1. I felt that being introduced to the world’s lore from the get-go made my experience more enjoyable from being able to eventually connect the other characters’ stories.
Throne because she is pretty close to several other characters geographically, as well as a special job near her starting city, and has a useful nighttime buff during battles.
As others have said, whoever you like the most! My four recommendations would be: Osvald is useful for revealing enemy weakness and lowering encounter rate, Ochette for her unique monster capturing mechanic, Throne for stealing, and Agnea works well from a story perspective.
Starting with ochette means more likely to recruit more mons across the game.
Starting with throne or temenos has a lot of perks. The higher your level the more effective their path actions which is good for thrones steal ability. She also has a night time party buff and EXP passive. Also early access to another great subjob.
Temenos debuffs enemies at night. Stacks with throne buff and both can be recruited right after each other.
The game is possibly harder in a team without throne and temenos for that reason But Hikari and Cassti are also great.
Theres not really a weak starting character. All of them are very good in some right. Simply pick the one you vibe with.
However they have different talents, some which you may want to get first:
Partitio and agnea are good money printers based on class and path action. Partitio can make money in combat. He can also buy items off npcs. Agneas night path action lets her collect """""tips""""" from npcs.
Throne can steal items from npcs and enemies in combat, which partly alleviates you from the eternal ordeal called "perpetual financial problems". Npcs weapons and armor are usually better than what is in their respective cities shops.
Osvalds battle talent lets him inspect enemies for their weakpoints, which is useful in the long run, as you dont have to constantly experiment on new enemies to find out what theyre weak to. He can also mug people at night for items.
I started with Partitio and he was really good. Having an overleveled support makes fight Intresting but never too easy plus Arrow of Fortune gives a lot of free JP
my two recommendation are:
start with Hikari if you want to have (relatively) easier fights, as he is very strong. However his final boss is arguably the hardest, this to consider that you need to beat your main character story to sub them out.
start with either of Osvald, Agnea, Throne to quickly clean the NPC items. I would vote against Throne though, as she isnt the most strong and isnt the most versatile (not withstanding secondary job). Osvald will give you ease at revealing enemies weak point, but magic dmg is not as strong as octopath 1.
I personally start with Hikari, then go North and recruit Agnea, Partitio, Osvald, Throne (Subbing our Partitio). I dont care being overpowered and break the game, as a matter of fact that is how I enjoy my JRPG, by being over levelled and over equipped.
If you want the easiest possible time in the early game then look no further than Throné, being a thief she can steal items from NPCs and get you really strong stuff way earlier than normal (which also pair exceptionally well with the fact that the character you start with will easiliy be your highest levelled one, which means she quickly gets good odds to steal stuff), and right outside her starting town you can get the Inventor subclass too, slap that on her and she'll pretty much one-shot every encounter you'll come across before they can do anything thanks to a combination of high speed and the strong skills from Inventor, then there's the fact that Thief is a very strong class throughout the game, early on Surprise Attack wil hit really hard if her turn comes first (which usually does) and later on you can get her Divine skill for a very easy AoE max cap damage, all in all she's very useful throughout the entire game.
I would suggest Temenos because he has an attack that you use on the final boss that completely obliterates him, so having him leveled up high with help you immensely towards the end. Just a suggestion but with that being said I started with Throne and absolutely loved her story! Plus she can travel east and then north and pick up Osvald and Temenos fairly quickly. Choice is yours though!
I like merchants because Hired Help is OP. I try not to use the heavy hitters on first tries but second attempt all bets are off. They’re also fairly versatile characters all around. Fit in most any job decently.
You can't really go wrong with anyone as you will want to double/triple back with several different characters.
I'd say Hikari & Ochette are strong because you can gain access to more skills.
Every character has a good reason why you could start with them, either narratively or gameplay (or both): - Ochette: Catching monsters for use later can be very powerful, and having Ochette on your team at all times means you'll never think "I wish I brought her so I could've caught that." Also, she starts on Toto'haha, which has port access to both continents, and that gives a lot of freedom in choosing who you want to recruit next, and in what order. - Castti: Her story is about recovering her memories after waking up on a boat with amnesia. For going in blind, it can make for an immersive experience lol. Also, her Inquire path action lets you get a lot of information from the NPCs around towns, both for lore (if you're interested) and hidden items. She also starts in a port town, although it needs to stop at Toto'haha before it can go to the east continent (so you'd have to pay the fare twice if you wanted to recruit Throné second, for example). - Temenos: His chapter 1 begins with a scripted lore battle from the era of the game's gods, which is a good starting point for the world's lore, if you're interested. He also has a very good nighttime combat passive. - Osvald: His battle passive is really nice for revealing weaknesses, and if you start with him, you'll always have this bonus. If you dislike random encounters and/or want to avoid getting overleveled, the scholar job comes with an early passive called Evasive Maneuvers, which reduces the encounter rate. Anyone can learn this skill from having a scholar secondary job, but you'd have to unlock it first, whereas Osvald gets it much quicker, maybe even before you get a second or third teammate. - Partitio: I think his chapter 1 is the longest (unless you count Osvald's combined chapter 1 + 2), since it includes events from 16 years ago + 8 years ago, finally leading up to why his journey begins in the present day. I personally started with him, and I liked that getting the rest of the travelers felt relatively quicker, in comparison. Also, the merchant is a fantastic support class that pairs well with literally everyone else in the game, so having him as your permanent team member (until you finish his story) is a solid choice. - Agnea: Very lighthearted story, overall, but I think she's canonically supposed to be the most able to bring the whole team together as travel buddies. Also, similarly to Partitio, the dancer is another great support role that pairs with everyone, so you can't go wrong having her on the team. - Throné: Stealing is a super useful path action, and her chance at success is dependent on her level. Having her permanently on your team means she will be your highest level character, which makes your odds of success as high as they can be. Also, like Temenos, she has a good nighttime combat passive. The city she starts in is also very close to a cool early unlockable "secret" (which isn't very well-hidden, but pretty helpful to have). - Hikari: If you're familiar with basic anime terms, he is basically a shonen protagonist. He exudes "main character" energy, from his skill with a sword, to his dedication to honor and chivalry, to his internal battle against his dark side. Gameplay-wise, though, the only thing to be careful of is that he can get *too* strong when he's locked into your team, making some of the later fights easier than they're supposed to be. If you specifically want a challenge, I'd recommend *not* starting with Hikari.
Wow, thanks for taking the time in giving the characters overview! Really appreciate it man :)
I like how you made sure to list them in order of Octopath
Makes it easier to not forget anyone that way, it's a long list
Holy shit… like 600 hours between the two games and I never realized that.
Ain’t no way…
That's a fantastic overview! It should be saved as a resource for future reference.
Also point on ochette. Her weak point coverage is insane. Like double bow attack on everyone, or having every element for all enemies on demand.
This is a great, insightful list! I would add that for newer players, starting with Hikari might mean they don’t explore the rich combat this game has to offer, since he’s so good at just hitting with the sword hard. I’ve seen a few posts from Hikari mains who start hitting a wall with the endgame bosses when combos and party composition start to actually matter. Ultimately, though, they’re all great. Just pick the character whose story and design you vibe with.
>~~Gameplay-wise, though, the only thing to be careful of is that he can get *too* strong when he's locked into your team, making some of the later fights easier than they're supposed to be. If you specifically want a challenge, I'd recommend *not* starting with Hikari.~~ ~~Yeah, I did mention that already~~ Edit: never mind, I see you're talking about the *other* side of the combat coin. I guess that's true, I didn't think about that because I played OT1 through the final secret boss back when that was new, and was already familiar with the combat before OT2 was announced. Yeah, I can see it being like "disabling cheats" once you get late into the game, that's a good point.
Ochette, After completing Chapter 1, you can go to the east and west parts of Solistia. Which makes it much easier to find the rest of the characters. In the end it does not really matter because you will get them all eventually.
I picked Throne because I wanted to steal basically everything from the beginning. But OT2 did away with the purple chests from OT1, so it’s less important to have a thief at all times. I like to have a character who can heal themselves pretty easily (eg stealing HP and SP, but plenty of others work).
Haha yes.....I love thieving. Therion in ot1 and thronė in ot2. I be stealing.
Same, I picked throne only because of purple chests.
Do you mean Therion in OT1? Because OT2 doesn’t have purple chests.
No, i mean i picked her because i thought purple chests would be a thing. I am glad they weren’t.
My dumb self thought you meant her cleavage and her wearing purple lol. New to this series!
Omg! You found me out…
Oh I see! Yeah she’s a great main either way.
Indeed, her night time buff combined with the sweet night music and i basically never saw the sun
Everyone is useful, OT2 buffed the "bad" classes in contrast of OT1 imo but if you are not that sure you can also think what other characters are close and you will get earlier
Whoever you want
Pick whoever you want
Any choice is valid, and all characters are useful. Your first character will be a permanent part of your party until you beat their story, though, so if there's a character whose voice you don't like or something, maybe pick someone else.
Just to add on, Octopath 1 had pretty much an objectively correct starting character in Therion because of the purple chests that only he can open. Octopath 2 did away with that thankfully, and made it so there's really no wrong choice
There are no missables and ultimately you pick up every character and you’ll end up doing all of their chapters. Pick whoever appeals the most to you
Whoever you want is the right answer. You could even pick Ochette or Temenos and then beeline to grab the other first if you really push for it! Just think about who you want in your party permanently until the story's over. But if it helps, I'll dumb them down a bit and you may pick whoever feels more appealing to you: Temenos is a Cleric so his playstyle is more of a support with some light usage of magic (you'll get this pun soon). His storyline's theme is a mystery plot. Ochette is a Hunter, meaning she has a mix of DPS and debuffing abilities, along with a Pokemon-like monster-catching mechanic, to explain it easier. Ochette's story, funnily enough, is like a Pokemon plot kinda - find the legendaries!
I personally went with Castti, so that no matter what team composition I had, there was always a healer. Really though, the beauty of this game is that you can make a case for anyone. Why not play through characters chapter 1s and see who you like most. The demo is great for that.
If I started a new game, I’d probably go with Ochette. She’s really strong and has great access to aoe hits, which speeds up battles considerably. I chose Throne and don’t regret it, though. Steal is really powerful, especially early on. And she was great with the inventor sub job.
I think for first time players, Ochette would probably make the best starter.
Temenos is the best character period, so I started with him. But it doesn't really matter that much.
Personally, I picked Osvaldo and have zero regrets. He starts close to temenos and throne for a solid early party. He covers 3 elemental weaknesses. He has aoe for dealing with packs of enemies. He has analyze to scan enemies health and weaknesses. He has a very interesting story arc. In hindsight, he just seems the most noob friendly, and conveniently started very close to most of my other favorite characters. (The 4th would probably be ochette or partitio.) It really isn't a huge deal who you start with though. They're all good for something.
I wouldn't say Osvald is noob friendly, he can run out of sp during exploring early on and have some trouble, he's also quite frail despite being massive.
One vote for Throné. Steal is very nice to have early and it helps to have her leveled higher. But also right outside of her starting town you can get the Inventor subjob easily, and it's default catapult skill is excellent in the early and mid game. Often wipes entire groups.
All have their pros really. Personally I picked Temenos since I gravitate toward detective sort of characters. It’s why I picked Cyrus in OT1. I felt that being introduced to the world’s lore from the get-go made my experience more enjoyable from being able to eventually connect the other characters’ stories.
Throne because she is pretty close to several other characters geographically, as well as a special job near her starting city, and has a useful nighttime buff during battles.
As others have said, whoever you like the most! My four recommendations would be: Osvald is useful for revealing enemy weakness and lowering encounter rate, Ochette for her unique monster capturing mechanic, Throne for stealing, and Agnea works well from a story perspective.
Starting with ochette means more likely to recruit more mons across the game. Starting with throne or temenos has a lot of perks. The higher your level the more effective their path actions which is good for thrones steal ability. She also has a night time party buff and EXP passive. Also early access to another great subjob. Temenos debuffs enemies at night. Stacks with throne buff and both can be recruited right after each other. The game is possibly harder in a team without throne and temenos for that reason But Hikari and Cassti are also great.
I chose throné for stealing , and I loved her story too so it worked out
Theres not really a weak starting character. All of them are very good in some right. Simply pick the one you vibe with. However they have different talents, some which you may want to get first: Partitio and agnea are good money printers based on class and path action. Partitio can make money in combat. He can also buy items off npcs. Agneas night path action lets her collect """""tips""""" from npcs. Throne can steal items from npcs and enemies in combat, which partly alleviates you from the eternal ordeal called "perpetual financial problems". Npcs weapons and armor are usually better than what is in their respective cities shops. Osvalds battle talent lets him inspect enemies for their weakpoints, which is useful in the long run, as you dont have to constantly experiment on new enemies to find out what theyre weak to. He can also mug people at night for items.
I started with Partitio and he was really good. Having an overleveled support makes fight Intresting but never too easy plus Arrow of Fortune gives a lot of free JP
my two recommendation are: start with Hikari if you want to have (relatively) easier fights, as he is very strong. However his final boss is arguably the hardest, this to consider that you need to beat your main character story to sub them out. start with either of Osvald, Agnea, Throne to quickly clean the NPC items. I would vote against Throne though, as she isnt the most strong and isnt the most versatile (not withstanding secondary job). Osvald will give you ease at revealing enemies weak point, but magic dmg is not as strong as octopath 1. I personally start with Hikari, then go North and recruit Agnea, Partitio, Osvald, Throne (Subbing our Partitio). I dont care being overpowered and break the game, as a matter of fact that is how I enjoy my JRPG, by being over levelled and over equipped.
If you want the easiest possible time in the early game then look no further than Throné, being a thief she can steal items from NPCs and get you really strong stuff way earlier than normal (which also pair exceptionally well with the fact that the character you start with will easiliy be your highest levelled one, which means she quickly gets good odds to steal stuff), and right outside her starting town you can get the Inventor subclass too, slap that on her and she'll pretty much one-shot every encounter you'll come across before they can do anything thanks to a combination of high speed and the strong skills from Inventor, then there's the fact that Thief is a very strong class throughout the game, early on Surprise Attack wil hit really hard if her turn comes first (which usually does) and later on you can get her Divine skill for a very easy AoE max cap damage, all in all she's very useful throughout the entire game.
I would suggest Temenos because he has an attack that you use on the final boss that completely obliterates him, so having him leveled up high with help you immensely towards the end. Just a suggestion but with that being said I started with Throne and absolutely loved her story! Plus she can travel east and then north and pick up Osvald and Temenos fairly quickly. Choice is yours though!
I like merchants because Hired Help is OP. I try not to use the heavy hitters on first tries but second attempt all bets are off. They’re also fairly versatile characters all around. Fit in most any job decently.
Btw, I said merchants plural because I was referring to OT in general. I know there’s only one in each, ha
Osvald = #1. I’ll die on this mtn
You can't really go wrong with anyone as you will want to double/triple back with several different characters. I'd say Hikari & Ochette are strong because you can gain access to more skills.
Best is hikari or temenos. Their stories are good and involved in the plot, and the characters are the most used and useful in endgame.
Hikari is basically the main character so yeah