So, Smash Ultimate... might... Get a rep from Octopath Traveler.

[ShadeStrider]

Regardless of what you may think of the game, there is no doubt that Octopath Traveler sold well, and maybe Nintendo will consider adding a rep from the game.

 

I personally thought it was good... just very flawed. The Storytelling was disjointed (going from one traveler to the next, and then when you get back to that traveler you are sort of lost), but the gameplay was great. It felt satisfying, even if some fights dragged out too long.

 

Obviously it has to be one of the eight travelers: Aerith Gainsborough, Robin, Anna, Hector, Samus Aran, Sabin Rene Figaro, Cloud Strife, and... Lara Croft but not really?

 

So, which one would you want in the game?

 

 

 

[Autumn Zephyr]

Personally, I doubt that we'll be seeing an Octopath rep, but not for the reason listed in the poll. The way I see it, their problem lies in the simple fact that the game is made by a team in Square Enix, which presents two major hurdles in and of itself:

1) Square has been very uncooperative with its involvement with Smash this time around, for some bizarre reason, so the chances of getting one of their characters in this DLC wave are rather slim by default

2) If we did get a new fighter out of ol' Squeenix, there's a long line of potential candidates that are more likely to show up than one of the Travelers. Sora, Neku Sakuraba, a Bravely character (probably Tiz), Geno, another Final Fantasy rep... There's some pretty steep competition here!

 

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That said, if some miracle occurs and we do wind up with an Octopath Traveler joining the battle, the it's almost certainly going to be either Olberic or Primrose. Those two were the first to ever be revealed, and the only characters available in the original demo- in a sense, they are the closest the game has to mascots. Olberic would naturally be a heavy swordsman (perhaps a little beefier than Ike?). Unlike the rest of them, however, he has access to Spears by default (Chrom and Lucina have to Promote to get theirs, so they don't quite count). This gives the dev team a few more options for his basic skillset, since using just the sword would be quite boring. Thousand Spears (Side B), in particular, seems it work pretty nicely at doubling as a horizontal recovery, which isn't something you see very often on swordsmen! His Nuetral B would probably be Cross Strike, which would function pretty similarly to Cloud's similar-sounding Side B. Sadly, his Path Action and Trait aren't terribly conducive for Smash, however; Challenge does little more than start fights (though that may be translatable as a Counter here? Feels a bit weak, though), while Bolster Defense is nearly useless (since Shielding already blocks damage anyway). None of his default Class' passives work well with us either, so that's a bit of a let down as well.

 

Primrose would be a light skirmisher with a little bit of a projectile game thanks to the Night Ode/Moonlight Waltz. Primrose's Summon trait might be usable as well, by way of letting her summon some hapless chap (or miss; she isn't picky in the game) to aid her in a similar fashion to Duck Hunt's Gunman or Zelda's Guardian. An odd twist the game has is that while there are warrior-type classes in the game, Primrose's Dancer is the one that got handed the counter ability- thus, she almost certainly would get Eye For An Eye as her Down B. Makes things a bit simpler, no?

 

A troublesome detail both characters deal with is that a significant portion of their active skills are buffs (3/7 for Olberic, 5/7 for Primrose). While we know that something like that could be incorporated into Smash thanks to Shulk's Monado Arts, they aren't the game's mechanical focus; rather, it would probably be best to look towards the Subclass System to fill in their movesets. The most elegant way to do that would probably be to have them pull from their mirror character's Class; thus the Noble Olberic would pull Hunter Skills from the Rogue Ha'anit, and the Rogue Primrose would pull Cleric skills from the Noble Ophelia. Olberic gets some pretty nice things from this deal: it allows his empty Down B slot to be taken by Leghold Trap, giving him a potential stun/ bury skill to work with instead of the usual counter, and potentially Thunderbird as his Up B (used similarly to Robin's Elwind in order to justify its position). He technically also gets access to Bows and Axes, but since he already has two weapons by default, it's probably fair to leave those out. Primrose, on the other hand, gets access to Holy Light/Luminescence and Reflective Veil as potential Specials, though she really only needs one to fill out her Specials. Instead, the big thing she gains is access to staves, allowing some of her Tilts and Smashes (though her daggers should probably deal more damage to balance them out).

 

As for unique mechanics, they have things pretty easy: in Octopath Traveler, characters gain a BP each round they don't use any, which in turn can be used to power up or extend their skills (or basic attack multiple times, I guess). An easy-ish way to incorporate that would probably be to give them a meter that fills up over time, and both depletes and stalls further filling when they charge an attack up, allowing them to either speed up the attack's charging or improve the attack in question (turning Primrose's Night Ode into Midnight Waltz, for example). It'd probably be a tad wonky to program and balance, but it isn't the first time they've done something so wonky either, so... it should be doable. 

 

Final Smash-wise, Olberic has two options while Primrose really only has one. Every Class has a seventh 'Divine' Skill that can only be learned when every single one of the others already have, and require three BP to use (in addition to the usual SP); For Olberic, Brand's Thunder works wonderfully as a Final Smash or the 'full-charge' version of Cross Strike, while the one Primrose gets, Sealtigce's Seduction, doesn't fir the game very well at all due to it being a buff spell. The other option, then, would be to have them temporarily take on one of the 4 Hidden Classes and use those to assault their foes: Olberic would become a Warmaster and use Winnehild's Battle Cry to bring the full brunt of the weapon system to bear on the poor souls that stood against him, while Primrose would probably go Starseer and cast either Shooting Stars (she already has two of its elements, so why not?) or Steorra's Prophecy to free the field of the opposition!

 

TL, DR: I really doubt an Octopath Rep will crop up, but have a fairly solid idea of how that'd function if one did manage to make it against all odds. Expect the worst, prepare for the best, I guess?

[ShadeStrider]

@Autumn Zephyr Truth be told, I'd prefer it to be Primrose. We already have a lot of Swordies (I main one and secondary another.) Do we really need another one? A dagger user could be nice.

 

 

But If I had to choose anyone, It would be Therion. Yes, I know, he's another Pretty Boy with a Sword, which goes against what I said above. But He's still my favorite character of the eight, and for that, I'd make an exception. Plus, He uses Daggers.

[Autumn Zephyr]

I mean, I'd prefer to see either Tressa or Cyrus myself, but the second O and the P do have that marketing going for them over the rest of the cast, which kinda gives them more of an edge. I'm definitely with you on preferring Primrose between those two, though: as much as a like Olberic, Primrose slots into a less worn archetype and is more elegant to build around as a whole, especially with the Moonlight Waltz-> Night Ode tying into the BP mechanic thing being a possibility. On the other hand, she is a quick and light character with daggers, dark magic, and potential summoning shenanigans, which would make her uncomfortably similar to Joker...

 

Speaking of summoning shenanigans, I had an idea come up as I was typing this. Instead of throwing out some Allure'd NPC, she called upon one of the other Travelers when she used Summon? That'd allow all of them to be represented in Smash while still letting Primrose take the spotlight! Granted, that's more work for the modeling department, but having Summon in her kit at all already did that, so it probably wouldn't change the workload that much, right?