Square Enix's Octopath Traveler 2 will see eight brand-new travelers embark on a journey across the land of Solistia. Each character seeks a different objective, and the path of their journey will be altered depending on what decisions the player makes. These eight characters are each a part of eight classes, all returning from the original Octopath Traveler. Castti Florenz, the Apothecary, is perhaps the most mysterious of the characters introduced in Octopath Traveler 2, as her amnesia leaves her background and origins shrouded in mystery.
Octopath Traveler 2 will feature some returning elements from its predecessor, including unique character abilities and Path Actions and the option to select which character's story to start the game with. Newly added elements include Traveler Tales, which feature two or more characters interacting during a scenario, a day/night cycle, and player choices with branching outcomes. A recent trailer focusing on the characters Castti and Ochette revealed how this game's Apothecary will differ from the previous one.
Castti Cannot Remember Her Past, Only Her Job
Unlike Octopath Traveler's apothecary Alfyn, who set out on a journey to share his healing skills with the world, Castti travels out of necessity. At the beginning of her tale, she is found shipwrecked, able to remember only her name and the fact that she is a trained apothecary. As she seeks out her missing memories, Castti becomes more and more sure that she has forgotten something big - and possibly dangerous. Her journey begins in a town in the Harborlands region, but she is eventually forced to travel further to discover who she truly is.
Castti's daytime path action is Inquire, much like her predecessor Alfyn. It allows her to strike up a friendly conversation with an NPC and gain information. At night, she instead uses Soothe, which involves giving NPCs medicine to send them to sleep. Soothe is a completely new Path Action introduced for the first time in Octopath Traveler 2. Its use has not been confirmed, but it may be needed to remove NPCs blocking buildings or pathways or earn trust in new towns. Additionally, the trailer focusing on Castti and Ochette the Hunter revealed that the two characters will share a Traveler Tale, which seems to involve encountering an injured beast and treating its condition.
The Apothecary Class Can Both Heal and Harm
As its name suggests, the Apothecary class in both Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2 has healing abilities. In the original Octopath, Apothecaries focused on single-target healing, as opposed to the Cleric class which could heal multiple allies at once. Apothecaries could also both cause and cure status effects. At higher levels, an Apothecary could even use abilities like Revivify to bring defeated allies back from the dead. Again like Alfyn before her, Castti's ability is Concoct, which lets her use herbs, fruits, nuts, and other gathered items to create potions that heal, cause and remove status effects, and even regenerate the BP used in the game's Boost and Break system. Unlike Alfyn, however, Castti possesses the Latent Power Every Drop Counts, which lets her sometimes Concoct without using up ingredients.
Although the Apothecary is a powerful healer in Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2, it is also a surprisingly effective damage-dealer. Apothecaries can use axes and ice-type magic to attack. In the original Octopath, high-level Apothecaries could access the ability Last Stand, which dealt damage inversely proportional to the user's HP. The Apothecary was an excellent sub-job for Tressa the Merchant and Therion the Thief due to their high SP and SP regeneration or stealing abilities. It remains to be seen whether Throne the Thief or Partitio the Merchant will benefit from using Apothecary as their sub-job, but it is definitely possible.
Despite receiving an entire character trailer focused on her and Ochette, Castti's mysterious past means that she is probably the character that fans know the least about going into Octopath Traveler 2's launch. Because of this, many fans are looking forward to playing through the amnesiac Apothecary's story and finally discovering her origins once the game launches in February.
Octopath Traveler 2 will release on February 24, 2023 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
