Part 134: For Truth

Video: Lucia's Dark Schemes

Music: Pure Evil



I did not come here for false flattery.
Oh, but I was being quite sincere. A shame the purport eludes your grasp.
To think you were the one pulling the strings...



...Very astute. Yes, it was I who maneuvered to install him in that position in the first place. To my dismay, he had a willful streak that got in the way.



One might say that, yes. Now, let us proceed to the matter at hand.



In finding me, you have displayed some measure of knowledge and acumen. More than anything, you have shown a pure and unrelenting passion for seeking out the truth. I hold that particular quality in the highest regard.
...





If that is a jape, it is a poor one.
A jape? What a curious reaction from a scholar like yourself.



Did your heart not race when you saw the countless lost tomes in my study?
......





Yes, any true scholar would feel the same!



Your mind--no, your very soul burns with an all-consuming desire to know. This is what separates you from the rest, Cyrus! We are true seekers of knowledge--you and I!



...

SILENCE





You covet the mysteries of the universe. You yearn to know the truth!



Heh...that's it exactly.



Music: Cyrus, the Scholar



You don't care who you use in your schemes. What of Headmaster Yvon?
Don't be ridiculous. He was devoid of the passion you have. He was nothing but a pawn to the end, incapable of envisioning an ultimate goal.
On what grounds do you base that assumption? Can a man not grow his mind?



Teach him...?



Ha! Preposterous. You speak the impossible.



Knowledgeable as he was, his own actions prevented him from ever approaching genius.



That's where you and I differ. I haven't given up on mediocrity.



What do you mean to do with the knowledge you amass? The secrets you unravel? Carry them to your grave, content that they are inscrutable to all who do not possess your genius? You would call them simpletons...fools...feeble minds...





A true scholar does not look down on others for what they do or do not know. Those who know impart knowledge to those who do not. If something is wrong, those who know the answer correct it. The process repeats, bringing us closer and closer to enlightenment.





I long for the day when I will have the chance to learn from them.

This scene is so amazing. It's Cyrus laying out what truly drives his passion for knowledge while simultaneously rejecting Lucia's offer and finding all sorts of ways to call her out as a bad scholar. And all to his amazing theme. It truly is the most Cyrus scene imaginable.

And it's capped off with one of the best line deliveries in the entire game.

SILENCE





I bet she's not the first woman to say that to Cyrus.



I have already synthesized a perfect blood-crystal, precisely as detailed in the original tome. With it, I will cast off the shackles of humanity. A human can only learn so much in its short lifetime. I will gain the time, the power to understand everything.





Music: For Truth



But know this: when I emerge victorious...





Video: Boss - Lucia

Music: Battle at Journey’s End





Enjoy the music! This is the final boss music for all eight chapters, and it's pretty damn good!





Lucia is one of my favorite bosses due to how unique a fight she is. She starts off with no weaknesses, but shifts to a form with thirty shields!



To make things more difficult, all of these weaknesses are physical. She's weak to all weapons but the staff, which means Scholar Cyrus has no way to break her. Hopefully you've learned a thing or two from all the jobs you've picked up along the way!



And of course, she gets two turns a round, and she hits like a damn truck.



For some reason I forgot I have Thousand Spears, opting for Guardian Liondog as my shield-breaker. Probably because I stuck with the weakness I saw rather than gamble (I don't have weapon order completely memorized like I do the elements). Either way, both those abilities as well as Rain of Arrows are invaluable here, as that's a lot of shields to break through.



Therion's an alright healer, but he lacks a bit of that extra oomph Ophilia has. Good thing I have a ton of these!



So you may wonder why I don't just trivialize this with Transfer Rune and Sidestep. Simple, that'd be too easy and I want to make these actually interesting.



Wallop does big damage and inflicts Unconscious. Not a fun attack to deal with.



Lucia also has some high ElemDef right now, so it's hard to really damage her beyond breaking her. Multi-hit moves and BP management is invaluable more than ever for this fight.





While I won't abuse Sidestep, I will make judicious use of buffs and debuffs.



Besides, it doesn't mean Transfer Rune is useless here! Party-wide Rest is very useful for this first, both to help SP management for Olberic and to help out a small bit with healing.



Lucia's final attack in this form is Pulverize, which deals damage and removes all BP. Nasty, though luckily Tressa only had the one.





This first part is really killing time while I slowly whittle her shields down, throwing what buffs and debuffs I can between heals and attacks.



Eventually, those thirty shields are finally broken, and work can begin.





Brand's Thunder is ridiculous, and honestly I'm kinda glad I didn't have Surpassing Power because otherwise this fight would be a joke.



Though otherwise I still throw all I have at her.





Lucia swaps to a more magical form.



Which means all her weaknesses are elemental. Naturally, the one weakness she doesn't have is Dark.





This also means Runelord can shine a bit more.





Shadow Slash is a nasty rune-like Dark attack that inflicts Silence.



And Shatter Soul obliterates the target's SP.



I didn't really think this one through, as I never did have anyone give him an extra BP.







With only fifteen shields (still a lot!), it doesn't take as long to break her again.





How to fight abominations for fun and profit.







Lucia now has a reasonable number of shields and a healthy mix of weaknesses, but she also has three turns and much more punishing moves.

She can also recover a bit of HP, and she ends up with a boost move that lowers all characters to 1HP.



Naturally, she never gets a chance to show those off.





As Olberic softens her up...





...and Cyrus deals the finishing blow.

SILENCE



If nothing else, your devotion to the pursuit of knowledge is admirable.





And that is the end of Lucia.



How many lives have been lost to the dark knowledge in these pages...



I will use all the resources at my disposal to decipher this work for myself.



Normally, finishing the boss kicks us back to town. But this time, we're not quite done yet.

Music: Beneath the Surface



...Yes, I should return.



After all, Cyrus still has a mystery to solve!



Luckily, it's a short walk back to said library.







At this point, we have to Scrutinize several books.





A forbidden, yet tempting, power of the gods...





...sealed away at the world's edge...





...holding the power of life and death, waiting to be unsealed.

Also, yes, we had to walk back to this book to Scrutinize it.



And there's still encounters.





Otherwise, an uneventful trek back to the mural, where our final required Scrutinize check awaits.







...Well, then.

SILENCE







Indeed, the power of life and death. That is the forbidden secret held within these pages. Trial of the Twelve tells the tale of how the twelve gods sealed this power away. The author of Forbidden Gold compares this power to a golden fruit. Like a golden fruit, it calls out to and tempts the human heart. Into the pages of From the Far Reaches of Hell was this power sealed...







(A warning of the calamity that awaits us if the gate is opened, and the forbidden unleashed.)



Yes...the mural was left behind as warning. I am sure of it.



(It can, however, serve either purpose. All depends on the heart of he who would use it.)

Music: Determination



"For the sake of our future, be not tempted by the darkness..."





......



(And as long as that darkness exists, people will find a way to work evil. I must preserve this knowledge, that we might put it to use for good, not evil.)



There was a nice bit of conversation after the last update about how Cyrus would deal with information that could cause terrible things to humanity, and this is your answer. To Cyrus, evil will always find a way, and all knowledge that may be used for evil is just as valuable in being used to stop that evil.



...And pass them on to those who would follow us.





(First, I must return to Atlasdam and file a report on what I have seen here. Then I must begin my analysis of the material I have collected.)



And at this point, since we have essentially completed Cyrus's story (one cutscene remains), we get the credits.

Video: Credits

Music: Ending Theme



Usually, I'll give my final thoughts and all that during the credits, but we're maybe 2/3's through the LP proper at this point. We still have everyone else's Chapter 4's to go through, plus a ton of side stories, and the post-game is extensive. So I'll save that for after the final boss.





The credits aren't anything special, though they're clever enough. You get one screen from each chapter...



...and get to watch the final blow delivered during each story boss battle you participated in. This was the main reason I wanted to do our main character's story last, to get every death blow in there.



That said, it doesn't really make up for having our already-overleveled main character stay in the party soaking up more EXP and trivializing combat further, so I'm fine getting it done early. Besides, several other characters have significantly more fitting finales for the end.



Though it's fun to watch some of these death scenes again, like Gideon dying of poison.



And Olberic defeating Gustav with a mere Fireball spell.



Also my Switch went dark from inactivity, sorry.



The music is a nice medley of the eight area themes played while exploring the world, followed by the main theme of Octopath Traveler. Sets the tone of a general sense of going on a journey and exploring the world around you.





And after that final blow, we hit the title screen.

But we're not done yet! We've still got the epilogue for Cyrus's story!

Video: Knowledge Illuminates All

Music: Enveloped in Kindness



We're back in Atlasdam, where a familiar face greets us...



Over here, Therese!



And I'll need twice again as many to have any hope of translating this ancient tome!



Fascinating, is it not!?



...and I could not help but notice a parallel to the mural I found.
I see... Hence these books on local folklore?
Just so. Considering your subject from all possible angles is a fundamental principle of scholarly research. Ah, but I forget myself!



Er, yes...





-----



Music: Cyrus, the Scholar





"As long as people live, there is always something to learn... And so we learn, we record, we speak... Points connect, thus forming our history, our agency, our identity... This world we live in is not for, or of, any one individual--and neither is knowledge."



"To plant seeds of knowledge that will be harvested by those who follow me... To you who have found my writings, real well these words..."



And so Cyrus has begun work solving a new mystery, with a newfound purpose to spread knowledge to all.

And I get the feeling "Susanna Grotoff" is implied to be the same Susanna in H'aanit's Chapter 3. Small world, and all.

Music: Cyrus Motif



(Click here for larger version)

The motif doesn't actually play here, hell I'm not sure where it actually plays if anywhere, but seems fitting to put it with the ending screen, huh?

Anyway, we have finished our first of the eight main stories within Octopath Traveler.





Cyrus has earned a break. He can take some time off to learn all that he desires.

In the meantime, we still have seven other tales to complete. So who next?

Next time, we'll check out Duskbarrow and then knock off some Side Stories.