I spent 80 hours making the most overpowered JRPG party I've ever had, and then a secret boss kicked my ass for 3 days

2024-02-17

GamesJRPGOctopath Traveler 2I spent 80 hours making the most overpowered JRPG party I’ve ever had, and then a secret boss kicked my ass for 3 daysWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Square Enix)

Octopath Traveler 2

Octopath Traveler 2 is a fabulous but disappointingly easy JRPG. I finally got around to finishing it this month, and I enjoyed it even more than I did the original, with the caveat that the game only actually challenged me like three times in the 85 hours it took to fully complete it. Two of those times I was purposely under-leveled and still not in much danger. The third and final big challenge was Galdera, the game’s proper, secret, for-real-this-time boss battle which, if you were to plot the game’s difficulty curve, would be a line that goes straight up.

Warning: Octopath Traveler 2 spoilers ahead

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(Image credit: Square Enix)

Octopath Traveler 2

Much of that time was spent in menus theorycrafting the optimal gear, jobs, and passive skills for my party. I know, I know; JRPG fans will stare at menus and unironically say the gameplay is peak. But sometimes it’s true! After each defeat, I’d walk away bruised and bloodied but with a fistful of lessons to bring to the next attempt, tiny optimizations slowly inching me toward victory. This character needs more HP, this one needs more mana, this one can go all-in on damage, and so on. I also wiped out in the fight many, many times, with my final, skin-of-my-teeth attempt running upwards of 30 minutes. It was one of the most frustrating, confounding, andsatisfyingexperiences I’ve ever had with a game.

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(Image credit: Square Enix)

Octopath Traveler 2

That is phase one. I beat it with Throné as a Thief/Cleric, Partitio as a Merchant/Apothecary, Agnea as a Dancer/Inventor, and Osvald as a Sorcerer/Cleric. I genuinely don’t see how you do this fight without Agnea. You need a lot of healing, if you couldn’t tell, and Clerics can crucially grant extra turns with their Divine Skill. It also quickly became clear that one Apothecary per side would be essential for the Divine Skill that makes items affect the whole team instead of one character. This was one of the coolest bits of this fight, actually, because it meant I finally had a use for the zillion consumables I’d hoarded in classic gamer fashion. I kept telling myself I’d need them later, and later finally came; I had to use dozens of items to refill my team’s resources every turn.

Speaking of which, I had to move Temenos and Castii, arguably the two strongest characters in the entire game due to their team-wide healing and buffs, to the second half because Galdera’s phase two isso much harder. I managed it with Temenos as a Cleric/Merchant, Castii as an Apothecary/Cleric, Hikari as a Warrior/Armsmaster, and Ochette (the real MVP) as a Hunter/Dancer. Obviously, everyone’s jobs were totally maxed out (all around character level 60, if you’re wondering), and I still nearly wiped multiple times even on my best attempt thanks to mechanics like these:

That lizard guy on the far left was, believe it or not, key(Image credit: Square Enix)

Octopath Traveler 2

I managed to beat this crock of horseshit primarily with multi-hit attacks from Hikari and Ochette, with Temenos and Castii healing the team with all the energy of sailors frantically bucketing water out of a flooding rowboat. With certain learned skills for Hikari and the right captured monsters for Ochette, I could reliably break at least one body part each turn, and then break the main body in only two turns despite his ludicrous armor stockpile. If phase two wasn’t weak to dagger attacks, I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done.

Galdera was, in many ways, what I always wanted from Octopath Traveler 2: a brutal challenge that felt like a final exam for every aspect of the combat system. I used all of the character builds that I’d painstakingly refined, emptied the valuable items that I’d saved up, and actually had to experiment with new strategies because I stubbornly refused to turn to the internet for help. It was jarringly, excessively hard compared to everything else in the game, and I reckon a more consistent middle-ground difficulty would’ve been more fun, but this is definitely a boss fight I’ll never forget.

What did I get for my troubles? What priceless loot did Galdera drop? An amulet that totally prevents random encounters. It’s handy for exploration, but it did not get any use. I’d already finished the main story, so immediately after beating Galdera I ripped the game cartridge out of my Switch with the might of Zeus. That’s enough of that, thanks.

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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

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Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”

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5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

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