In a deep RPG affected by your choices, Octopath Traveler puts a spin on the genre early on by allowing you to choose different characters with different abilities and attributes. Although these may resemble choosing classes before embarking on your journey, the gameplay style will be altered drastically depending on the character chosen. Check out our Octopath Traveler Starting Characters Guide to see which character will best suit your style and resonate better with your aims.
Octopath Traveler Starting Characters
Before you can take on the adventure, you will be given eight options of characters to choose from, each one of them being distinct in what they can bring to the table. Some characters will have a higher learning curve than others, while some will have deeper backstories.
Whatever character you choose, the rest 7 will join up in your party of 4 and can be swapped in and out freely as you progress through the game. Therefore, it is not as you are missing entirely on the plots of the other characters.
Below you will find out each character’s unique ability that determines how they will affect their environment. Choose the one that best relates to your views and the one you would find more enjoyable to play with. Each character comes with their own unique job and special talent while path actions may share some commonality between two characters.
Olberic
He is the tank/warrior class of the game. A better-rounded character, he boasts strong attack, some decent defensive measures, and is easy to use. He is quite reliable for most of the combat scenarios. He has the ability to challenge the normal town folks to a duel. His unique ability allows him to shrug off heavy blows and gives him a fighting chance.
You can choose from three subcategories for this character i.e. Hunter gives him more offensive tools, Thief uses daggers and Life Steal attack to deal damage, and Warlord to double down on the weapon usage and power output. Warlord is unlocked mid-game so it is for the more experienced players.
Therion
Being a master thief and the only one who can unlock the chests in the game, you will need him either as the protagonist or as a party member. Since you cannot miss any loot, this is an essential character to have yourself involved in. Furthermore, he can also pickpocket citizens to steal their valuable belongings. Lastly, he can steal weapons from enemies while in combat.
The Huntress subclass allows the character to have more damage potential while the Warrior class increases Therion’s physical stat. The Warlord class gives him even more tools to deal massive damage. Daggers and Swords will be your way to a fight as Therion.
Ophilia
Being a Cleric class, Ophilia has tools to provide massive healing boosts for both the player and the party members. Since some fights can be rather long and tough, you will need a healer in your party always. Ophilia has the unique ability to summon a town folk to aid in a fight while she can also hire the people who will follow her to her destination.
The Dancer subclass allows her to carry out dark magic spells and improve the defenses while the Scholar class has an emphasis on the usage of elemental attacks to deal decent damage. Later in the game, Augur subclass can be unlocked which adds even more healing options to Ophilia’s list and some offensive tools as well.
Tressa
Though this character is more about resource management and money matters, you can still deal some good damage when using her wing magic abilities and the regular bows and arrows. Being a Merchant class, Tressa can purchase items from NPCs at discounted prices and collect coins off corpses of other NPCs.
The Dancer class grants her more weapons and support skills while the Hunter class deals primarily with boosting damage output. Overall, this is one of the less action-oriented characters and it may be more suitable to have as a party member than an actual protagonist. Do note that when the gear and items become rather expensive, you will need her.
Primrose
She has the highest mobility out of all other characters. Belonging to the Dancer class, Primrose is the main character responsible for providing buffs to defense and offense stats to other party members in the midst of combat.
Her double-stun trick can manage to break the opponent even before their turn. In talents and skills, she is similar to Tressa in how she can lure townspeople into following her and summon a town folk in a fight to help her.
Scholar subclass grants her elemental powers while the Merchant subclass is a little less offensive of the two subclasses that work quite similarly. The Enchanter and Rune Master later on in the game, allows her to boost her skills when it comes to buffing up other characters.
H’aanit
A Hunter class oriented character, H’aanit can tame creatures and use them in combat. She can provoke the local people into a fight. Her bow couple with her ability to summon her companion, Linde can deal good slash damage. Moreover, she can apply debuffs on the opponents to slow them down or make them lose their turn.
Both the Warrior and Thief subclass give her more offensive options with the latter making room for some support choices as well. The Warlord subclass ups her attacking game considerably. Being a character that has a variety of abilities and move-sets; she can be quite interesting for experienced players.
Alfyn
He is more support-oriented similar to Ophilia because he can use the Concoct ability to mix and match ingredients that allow him to either heal allies or take the fight to the enemy. He can also revive an ally at a time. His path action allows him to learn information from people about enemies, quests, and chests.
Going with the Warrior or Warlord class allows him the use of more weapons. The Merchant is a good option that works similar to Tressa while the Rune Master class in mid-game helps him provide a greater deal of support to party members.
Cyrus
More of the Mage/Scholar class, Cyrus can use the spells he learned from the black-mages to deal massive damage. However, this comes at a huge cost of mana points. Moreover, since some enemies will boost strong resistance against these spells, the usefulness of Cyrus can only be described as circumstantial. Like Alfyn, he can also acquire more info about the world from the local townsfolk.
What makes him useful is when he is able to point out the weakness of a particularly tough foe. The whole team can then focus on that point and use only attacks of that kind to quite whittle down the enemy. You can add a healing option to his move-set by opting for the Cleric subclass.
The Merchant subclass brings him additional weapon types and the Apothecary class can help him perform actions similar to Alfyn with his support skills. The Enchanter class is for the ultimate Mage who is looking to let the spells do the talking in battle.
Best Party Composition
Now that you are aware of the workings of each character, you need to know which one you will be having as your party of four. Of course, you don’t have to sweat a lot when making the decision because you can swap the members at a given time, but you could still use some planning beforehand for the best possible results.
Having a healing member is essential in any team-based RPG and so this should be your first choice without any reluctance. For this reason, choosing either one from Ophilia, Alfyn or Cyrus depending on how much healing you will require and in what cases. Now you need either someone who can buff your party members’ attributes or debuffs the opponents’. Primrose and H’aanit come to mind, so weigh your options.
Now that you have two supporting units, make your offense game strong. Both Therion and Olberic boost abilities in offense with Cyrus also being a viable option. Therion can be extra useful because of his path action of stealing from chests and people.
Therefore, you need to have him nonetheless. The last member can be decided to be another offense type so it should be Cyrus preferably if you have not already taken him since he will also give you the Merchant option to purchase gear at a lower price.
When it comes to choosing the right party, make sure you are not missing on the essential path actions while also covering options that could provide a strong offense and some good support and defensive options as well. If you are still not entirely sure, you can use Octopath Traveler tool to plan on what should be the ideal party of characters for your adventure.
This is all we have in our Octopath Traveler starting characters guide. If there is anything else that you would like to add, let us know in the comments section below!
