Could you please help me decide who to start with?

[Mittens the Maleficent]

Never played a game in this series before but not new to JRPGs, could you all help me decide who to start with? thank you for your input.

[Kerobe]

You can pick any character you feel like it (for the skin, story, job or whatever reason), there is no bad choice since you'll get all the characters as you play.

[Daniel]

As long as you’re not going for a solo run it doesn’t really matter because you will eventually pick up everyone anyway.

IMO Osvald is a good pick because he can get a ton of items right out of the gate with his info/mug special ability combo and his inherent magic will clear whole screens fast. His starting location also lets him get a certain special job early and he can easily pick up Throne which gives you the ability to steal/mug items both night and day.

Pretty much the only thing is that you can’t boot your main character from the party before you’ve completed his/her story.

[la_nague]

It doesnt really matter, just go with someone you like. The starting char will be locked into the party for a long time.

For example, if you go with the moody thief, you will have a high level thief which means you can steal a bit more easily, you will also always have her debuffs in your party.

If you go with the cheery hunter you can always work on catching the best animal pets for combat usage.

etc.... They all have their advantages, just go with the one you like.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

it's really unimportant - you can use a saveeditor to safely unlock the main character restriction so you can freely swap your party around before chapter 4 - you just have to change the value back before starting chapter 4 with your mc i think. the early game isn't difficult imo enough for it to matter which character can get a little more stuff before forming a whole party or not. once you finish your first characters short intro you can recruit the other 7 fairly quickly.

[abaoabao2010]

Osvald. Evasive maneuver is absolutely vital for keeping your patience from running out.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by abaoabao2010:

Osvald. Evasive maneuver is absolutely vital for keeping your patience from running out.

Good take actually. If you're not a JRPG veteran who's played through the likes of Breath of Fire and other 90s titles you might actually need evasive maneuvers + x2 accelerated combat (which should be a default anyway) to preserve your sanity.

[Iso Koala]

Yeah. Every story is told no matter who you pick.
But Osvald is someone you should get as starter or ASAP, just to get his first skill which reduces the ammount of random battles to half, and makes the game just more fun since you dont have too many battles, and dont get overleveled as easily either.
Other than that, starting character really doesnt matter at all. Just need that Scholar skill soon in the game and keep it on for the whole game.

[Iso Koala]

Game lore wise, I think Partitio is imho the most fleshed out, has most lore for the whole game, and most connection to build up the world. He is imho the biggest "hero" in the game and best as main protagonist if the game did not have a choice to choose character, he should be the one. He also has good support for the whole party.

[Aetemes]

If you are impartial to "a vibe of rp" you wanna go for, and are going for effectiveness, I agree with that I think Osvald is the best to start with.

[SnoLight]

i picked the hunter because it makes me feel like im playing pokemon