The story of the hunter Ochette in octopathic traveler 2 begins with a tough question, which is whether to befriend a malamaowl or a jackal as your first animal. Juvah, his mentor and guardian of the island and the Beast People, offers him the choice between the two. This ally will stick by your side as a character that you can taunt at any point in battle, and that’s pretty handy! But which one do you choose?
What are the benefits of deciding to befriend malamaowl or jackal for Ochette in octopathic traveler 2?
Essentially, every animal is a “safety” animal. When you summon a creature with Provoke into a fight as Ochette, you will see in the list what type of damage it will deal. It can be a single-target or multi-target AOE. Can inflict physical, weapon-type, or magic elemental damage.
The malamaowl and the jackal in octopathic traveler 2 cover two bases for Ochette. The lajackal, which ends up being called Akala, deals weapon damage. It is guaranteed to hit one of the weak points of a single opponent’s weapon. This serves to both reveal one of the enemy’s weaknesses and still deal damage to their shield. During this time, the malamaowl launches a magic attack on an enemy against an element against which it is weak. Again, this reveals a weakness and removes a shield point.
So which animal should I make Ochette befriend? octopathic traveler 2?
Good. So, I chose Akala. I thought the character was cute, I thought it would be more useful for me to get a guaranteed weapon weakness reveal, since all characters can use weapons, but not everyone will always be guaranteed users of magic, and it seemed that I encountered a lot of enemies, that they had many weapon weaknesses, but few elemental ones.
And it worked for me! Especially since many monsters that Ochette may end up capturing during the game deal AOE magic elemental damage. (Getting a large magic ability without MP cost is a blessing.)
However, after spending so much time with octopathic traveler 2, I would say that deciding to have Ochette befriend Mahina the malamaowl would be the wisest choice. Magic can be expensive, and it’s a guaranteed free magic attack.
But then again, both allies are pretty good cute pets, and each will serve Ochette well as a BFF as you play.
octopathic traveler 2 is available for Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC. A demo is available.