



It's time to recruit our final companion. We'll find him in the tiny desert settlement of Ryu.

It seems he's a bit preoccupied. Might as well wait for him to finish his business first.






It looks like the swordsman probably has this, but why not join in the fun ourselves? We're getting pretty good at putting arrogant morons in their place.


They were as pathetic as they sound.




The citizens are saved, and the soldiers promptly humiliated. All is well.






Hikari is a loyal ally and also pretty damn strong, so we'd be foolish to turn him down.


With that, it's time for our final origin story, and to learn more about Hikari.






Things start off in a far away land, in a place far grander than any we've seen on the western continent thus far.
Also, sorry for the longer-than-usual video. As you'll see, there's no good stopping points for quite a while.













And, just as suddenly, we're thrust in the midst of a massive battle.
If you want to see just how big a step up OT2 is to its predecessor, just compare the opening flashback of Olberic's Chapter 1 to this battle scene. The sheer scope alone is a massive step up, as this feels like an actual major battle. And it gets more intense from here!

As we progress, various battles trigger with our party.






Hikari the Warrior specializes in swords and polearms, while Ritsu just uses swords.


Ritsu's skills include a three-hit sword attack and a blinding attack, both of which are pretty useful!

Hikari has the usual Warrior skills, but also Learned Skills.


I'll go into more details a bit later, but for now he has just one, which is a powerful sword attack that is more than enough to take out this grunt.


Meanwhile, close to the battlefield...















Kazan is Ku's tactician, while Mugen is Ku's most fearsome general.


And I am not saying that lightly.








Of course, Mugen's not going to have all the fun.

Mugen is not only a fearsome warrior with possibly no equal, he relishes in war.


Meanwhile, Hikari and Ritsu advance through the battlefield.




We're interrupted by yet another battle, though there's at least one welcome surprise here.




Rai Mei specializes in polearms.

She has a useful "attack all" spear move, but even cooler is Thunderous Stab, which deals a polearm attack followed by a separate lightning attack.

With Rai Mei, these soldiers are a joke.




Since he's the noble good guy, Hikari doesn't believe in striking down those defeated in combat. But on to more pressing matters.







This is the southern army's general. Defeating him is naturally going to be key in winning this battle.


Granted, this is still basically a tutorial so it's not like we're in any real danger here.







Meanwhile, Mugen is clearly not the type to leave any survivors.














That was King Jigo, father to Mugen and Hikari.





Keep that in the back of your mind for now.





The brothers (or rather, as Mugen just alluded to, half-brothers), while both very skilled in combat, have very differing views on war in general.


























The fires of warfare that once raged were reduced to embers,
and former comrades-in-arms such as Kazan and Rai Mei...
...went their separate ways, far from the deserts of Ku.




Ku, and its people, have greatly changed in the past three years of peace.


























Hikari is the type of prince who actually cares about his subjects and views everyone as equals. He's a fearsome fighter, but also one who'd prefer to use combat as a last resort, though he certainly loves to spar.






It's not the most exciting work, but I'm sure Hikari doesn't mind if the most exciting thing he has to deal with are settling down drunkards.




There's a good bit of dialogue from the locals, but here's the highlights, or at least what I deem are highlights. Your highlights may vary.















Now we get to Hikari's Day Path Action, Challenge, where he can challenge random NPCs to combat. Much like OT1's Olberic, Hikari is probably a bit too into fighting people in honorable duels, but that's just part of his charm.


Of course, in this case, beating this guy up would be doing everybody a favor. I for one cannot stand the experience of a pleasant meal being ruined by buffoonery...




It's just like fighting people with Osvald or Ochette. No penalty if you lose a fight.






OT2 adds a nice wrinkle to Challenges by giving Hikari the Talent of Learned Skills, which allows him to learn up to five skills from the various NPCs he defeats in Challenges. This gives Hikari a ton of versatility and access to a ton of powerful skills outside the Warrior job, resulting in one of the game's better talents overall. He'll always have access to these skills unless he chooses to forget one or overrides one with another.
Double Slash is already a decent grab since it's a cheap way to hit with swords twice without spending BP, though it's not as useful as you'd think for shields for reasons I'll get into next update. Still, definitely not turning this one down!


Our work here is done.





I mean, Hikari certainly seems better-suited to oversee the citizens of Ku than Mugen...









Before we take care of said business...


We pick up a couple of learned skills from the citizenry. Hikari has the worst E.Atk in the game, but it's still coverage.


And some cheap healing too! I mean, a grape is still better, and it's not like grapes are hard to get, but might as well grab this while it's still useful!

OK, let's see what Benkei has planned for us...



























Hikari's kind heart and compassion for his people sets him apart from his elder brother, enough so to be deemed a better candidate to become king. But do we really think Mugen would go down without a fight...?




Next time, Hikari works to reveal Mugen's machinations, and we'll see how the succession ultimately falls...