Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the day/night actions

[Daemok]

I'm a big fan of FFVI, really enjoyed JRPG's for awhile. The older I get though the less I want to fumble around with managing multiple character's inventories and equipment. Nowadays I tend to stick with RPG's where I just focus on one character.

I was hoping Octopath Traveler II might be a game that could get me back into the genre, with some modern QoL and such. I just got my second character though and made it to the first big town. So I've learned that every NPC has a day and night action, and that you can use multiple characters actions on a single NPC. With 8 characters does this mean every NPC has 16 actions that can be used on them? That idea is turning me off to the game, as it sounds like it will end up being extremely tedious.

Is there a way to know which NPC's are worth performing actions on? I love the graphics, music, and combat in this game. Story seems decent too. Spending time in inventory menus and talking to townsfolk feels like it's going to take the majority of my playtime though and that has me worried that I won't end up finishing it.

[Nibbie]

I can certainly understand it being overwhelming initially, but it actually isn't that bad. There are actually only four path actions; get information, get items, take someone with you, and knock someone out. There are simply four ways to do each of those actions. For example, Osvald gets information in the day via chance, Castti gets information in the day via being a high enough level, Temenos gets information at night by combat, and Hikari gets information at night via payment. Getting information about an NPC via any of these methods completes it for all methods; you only have to perform the 'get information' action once per NPC. The same is true for getting items from them; Throne, Osvald, Partitio, and Agnea can all get items from NPCs, so you can use any of them to get those items.

You can only use four characters in a party at a time, so if you want each of the four path actions available at both times of day, there are only two combinations of party members that fulfil that requirement. All the characters from the western continent (Agnea, Hikari, Castti, Partitio) and all the characters from the eastern continent (Osvald, Throne, Temenos, plus Ochette). If your party is one of these groups, you have access to all path actions you need at all times. Of course your party can end up being whatever you like, but this path action versatility is worth keeping in mind. As for knowing which NPCs are worth using path actions on, there isn't a way to know for sure, but generally speaking the harder it is to perform a path action on them (low chances, high level requirement, high battle difficulty) the more worthwhile it is.

[Gronmor]

Hi! So I'm gonna try to reassure you a bit: Yes, there are 16 Path Actions, and said just like that, that might sound overwhelming. HOWEVER, there's only 4 "brand" of Path action, if I may say so like that.

For example: Throné can steal items at day, Partitio can buy items at Day, Agnea can convince NPCs to give you those items at night, and Osvald can fight people to take those items at night. Those are 4 different Path Actions, sure, but they all do the same thing! If you stole the items from an NPC, you don't have to buy them afterwards, since they don't have it!

Not only that, one of the "brand" of Path Action is only so that NPCs will follow you around. That one can be used to do sidequests, but beyond that it's not necessary to use it a lot.

Basically, there are two brands of Path Actions that are really useful and you should keep around: Those that allow you to get items from NPCs, and those that allow you to gain information from NPCs. You might also want one that allow you to stun NPCs, but you can do that one day or night, your choice, get in and switch between day and night again, so that one is not a big deal. And the one that allows NPCs to follow around, like I said, you only need those for sidequests, it's the least important one.

Beyond that, every character's first chapter will teach you how to use both Path Actions!

So, 'hope that helped out! Have fun! :)

[Daemok]

Yeah, that certainly helps the whole mechanic sound less cumbersome. Keeping the parties split by continents sounds helpful. Thanks for the replies. Got a few more questions that might make the game more enjoyable for me.

1. How does evasive maneuvers work exactly? I feel like I should always have this on, as the random encounters seem a little frequent. Will I end up under-leveling with it on? How much does it reduce encounters by? Does it still reduce encounters will running? Is Osvald the only character that has such a skill?
2. If I ruin my reputation in a town, how much does it cost at the tavern to fix it? Can you fix it an unlimited amount of times?
3. Is the optimize option in the equipment menu reliable? Would save a lot of time micromanaging, but I'm only around level 15 and already found an instance where it equipped a sub-optimal weapon.
4. Is there a way to mark NPC's or locations that you want to come back to later? I found an NPC that I want to knock out, but I'm too low of level to currently do so. Seems like it will eventually become difficult to remember all the NPC's and locations you want to check out in the future.

[john absa]

Originally posted by Daemok:

Yeah, that certainly helps the whole mechanic sound less cumbersome. Keeping the parties split by continents sounds helpful. Thanks for the replies. Got a few more questions that might make the game more enjoyable for me.

1. How does evasive maneuvers work exactly? I feel like I should always have this on, as the random encounters seem a little frequent. Will I end up under-leveling with it on? How much does it reduce encounters by? Does it still reduce encounters will running? Is Osvald the only character that has such a skill?
2. If I ruin my reputation in a town, how much does it cost at the tavern to fix it? Can you fix it an unlimited amount of times?
3. Is the optimize option in the equipment menu reliable? Would save a lot of time micromanaging, but I'm only around level 15 and already found an instance where it equipped a sub-optimal weapon.
4. Is there a way to mark NPC's or locations that you want to come back to later? I found an NPC that I want to knock out, but I'm too low of level to currently do so. Seems like it will eventually become difficult to remember all the NPC's and locations you want to check out in the future.

1. you won't be under leveled, it's very easy to overlevel in this game, so keeping it off is not a problem.

in this game encounters are based on a step counter, after a certain amount of steps it throws you into a battle. this skill increases the amount of steps required before an encounter.

anyone can equip this skill, you need to give them the scholar subjob first though (the same applies to any support skill from any job)

2. Im not 100% certain but i think the prices scales with level. you can restore reputation infinitely.

3. personally i don't have experience with it as i always prefer to fine tune everyone's loadout myself

4. nope

[Daemok]

Ah, thanks for the clarifications!

[saideron]

To add on to what @kamui said:

2. I believe the prices also scale with the town level. Towns at the end of a Danger Level 36 path will have higher costs for reputation than ones at the end of a Danger Level 16 path.

3. You can lock a specific item if you don't want Optimize to replace it. That's usually the best way if you don't want to manually equip. Just note that Optimize usually makes decisions based on the characters base job. So, for example, Osvald will get optimized for E.Atk and Temenos will get optimized for M.Def and E.Atk.