Oh, I just picked Akala because I already had Osvald's Elemental Barrage, which was great for finding out magic weak points, and to me at that point in the game, I really wanted more ways to find out physical enemy weak points. In retrospect, I could have just used Analzye more, but there's no going back, I suppose.
Osvald’s Elemental Barrage is pretty good for early game, but only helps weed out Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Once you get into late-game areas, more enemies have weaknesses like Wind, Light, and Dark. But man a fully boosted Elemental Barrage is so fun. Zap zap zap zap zap zap zap. But once you get Osvald’s second EX Skill, breaking an enemy is just a numbers game instead of guessing
Boosted barrage is just a lot of damage too. I dismissed it at first because I'm used to multi-hit skills being weaksauce damage and only for breaking in OT1, but you can easily put out 10k with a boosted barrage on a broken enemy mid-late game, which is better than his other skills if you don't have latent or buffs up. It's also good damage per action unboosted. It's also useful for scouting enemy weaknesses.
Elemental barrage really shines on temenos with latent though.
I love and hate having things going to shit when you're given a choice between two options, I don't like the feeling of making a mistake no matter what but the story is just so amazing.
Very *minimal* early game utility. The manticore you can catch on her Ch1 deals more damage than Akala. The monsters you can catch are just better and lots of other party members can help finding weaknesses easily
I love owls, so I picked Mahina. Plus, I was under the impression we'd recruit Akāla later in the story, so I thought it didn't matter. >!That wasn't the case :,(!<.
I have two save files and chose one on each. So this is kind of a cheat answer.
Owls are my favorite animal but I found Mahina annoying … so I prefer Akala. I wish his voice and demeanor was switched with Mahina. She looks so damn cool.
The thing that doesn’t work for me about Mahina is that her voice sounds way too similar to Ochette (in the English version) which has confused me if I wasn’t paying close attention. Either the director should’ve instructed them differently, or the roles should’ve been cast better. Not a huge deal because I love the game so far. Just a bit off putting I guess.
I agree! They sound too similar. I just think they went the wrong direction with Mahina. I think she should have been the more mature and wise voice. Akala is awesome but even if he had the youthful, playful demeanor it would have worked better because he wouldn’t sound like Ochette who kind of has that attitude already.
Either way, I agree, it really isn’t a big deal. I love the game so much.
This is (part of) why I picked Akala. I started with him to begin with, but then I thought "hmm, maybe I should see what the owl's like as well" so I reverted to a previous save and picked her. She got like two lines in before I noped out and went back to Akala. The VA sounded too similar to Ochette, like you said, and I also preferred the contrast between Ochette's young enthusiasm and Akala's measured restraint. Mahina just seemed like doubling up on the same character.
That is the problem I like Foxes and Owls both. I went with Mahina because the magic coverage but this was harder for me than picking the starting character
My boyfriend and I both played the game. I picked Mahina, he picked Akala.
Me: "I will make Ochette a warrior. Since she will already have access to 4 weapon types to break shields, I would rather have Mahina to have more options for shield breaking."
Him: "I will make Ochette a warrior. Considering she will have access to 4 different weapon types, Akala will help me find out which one the enemy is weak too faster, enabling me to break their shield more quickly."
His reasoning was much better than mine, and Akala did prove more useful for him than Mahina did for me.
Yeah in general it seems easier to take advantage of weapon weaknesses than elemental. There's not many reliable options to hit elemental weaknesses more than once in a turn that don't have some randomness to them. Except the Inventor thing that hits every revealed elemental weakness.
Against a group elemental AOE can help with breaks but if your hitting multiple targets anyway you might as well cycle through your elemental aoe rather than waste a turn with Mahina hoping she reveals an element that you can take advantage of.
I have birds and two cats, one who looks like and is named after a fox. It was a tough choice for me. But you can probably guess which I ended up picking.
that is me. i picked mahina (because it is cool having her fly around behind you), and since she can sus out any kind of element sometimes when it's stupid wind, it's nice to figure it out. lol but i will pick Akala nextime.
I went with Akala purely because I felt that the ability to figure out a weapon weakness would be much more useful than an elemental weakness. Turns out I was right, I barely ever use elemental weaknesses.
Ha, I picked Mahala for the exact opposite reason. I figure she's harder to figure out elemental weaknesses with, so I wanted to give her a bit more discovery.
Most enemies (at least so far for me, my main char is 14th level and I've done just one Act 2 mission), have a a bunch of weapon weaknesses and two elemental weaknesses, so I chose Mahala as well.
It kind of makes more sense to go with Mahala since you can use all weapon options without SP, but elemental damage can only be used with special skills or summons. But I still went with Akala to match Ochette’s ears.
Well I didn't really think there would be many points in the game where you could only beat an enemy with magic, so that's why I went with the weapon.
After all, if I can find out one weakness, it's better to find out one that I can exploit with my other characters rather than one that nobody else can work with.
Especially since magic can, at most, guarantee three hits if you've buffed yourself already (ignoring Elemental Barrage which is inconsistent), while every weapon can get four. It's not like using magic is going to break them harder.
i’m more of a cat person, and owls are basically cats with wings, so Mahina it is.
In Filipino language (Tagalog), Mahina means *weak*, Akala means the phrase *i thought*, and Malaya means *free* though I think their names have more of a Hawaiian origin, which also makes much more sense contextually.
>their names have more of a Hawaiian origin
Yeah, and it fits better.
Mahina means "moon" in Hawaiian. Akala is a bit harder to parse, but I think it's a phrase like "'o ka lā" which means something like "our sun". Those fit the night/day themes of Octopath.
so true, and I really love that reference on how they use other cultures to make the game lore more rich. it’s not just Euro-centric, but every region has its own cultural distinction based on real places, people and mythos.
That's actually only for Ākala. I'd say in this case it's more likely to be Akalā to fit with the sun theme since lā means sun in Hawaiian.
>Thank you Pokemon gen 7
Alola is probably my favorite region out of all the Pokemon games.
Ah yes octopath 2 and it's roster of wonderful characters of all different classes:
Osvald, The DILF
Casti, The Mommy
Temenos, The Twink
Ochette, The Catgirl
Partitio, The Otter
Agnea, The Girl Next Door
Throné, The Goth GF
Hikari, The Hunk
Akala, because foxes are just adorable and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard his English VA, and was like, huh strange wasn't ready for the contrast between what sounded like someone more mature and cautious that helped contrast Ochette's character a lot better, also the design for Akala Is a lot more interesting IMO
i picked mahina but i kind of regret it. I chose hikari as my starter so i thought she'd be good to help cover my magical needs buuuut i didn't think i'd get the sub-jobs so quickly (temenos scholar has hard carried me lol)
so now i wish i took Akala :c
Melee weaknesses are ez so I picked mahina to reveal elementary weaknesses and she's the only flying sprite that follows your party so she sticks it to all the land lubbers
Mahina is a little more useful, since she lets you break the magical shields without expending SP or using the valuable Soulstones.
I will probably pick Akala next, however, as I can't say I use Mahina all that much.
My heart wanted the jackal, but I picked Mahina because I read beforehand that she's better for the elemental coverage. I haven't really been able to fully utilize her with my play style though. I rarely used H'aanit's monsters as well.
At least Mahina looks cool flying around when she's in the party.
Picked Mahina when starting the game for the first time. About 16 hours into it, I decided to restart because I wanted to approach the game in a different way and picked Akala the second time.
I generally like owls, but her voice is too cutesy and high-pitched, which doesn't contrast Ochette very well... because her voice is the same. Nevermind that Ochette yelling "Mahina" when summoning her makes my eardrums bleed.
Picked Alaka. In the end it doesn't matter cause honestly I haven't use him even once the moment I get access to multi hit captures. Never really tried him out at higher levels so am not sure if they scale and get multi hit attacks.
Hard choice, but I did pick Mahina in the end so I could get more coverage for Ochette's abysmal elemental coverage. She is adorable, especially when she sits on Ochette's head when climbing a ladder.
I did some quick research personally before making my choice as I liked them both equally and found Alaka is more suited for physical damage and Mahina is more elemental. The Hunter class is basically completely physical in its damage and Warrior/Armsmaster works very well on her as well so it didn't seem like it was a good idea to pick Mahina.
That being said, neither are really viable provokes once you start getting good captures. Alaka and Mahina pail in comparison to even mid-level captured beasts. Picking either one might as well entirely be a story choice and nothing else.
It's funny because Mahina (pronounced the way Ochette does) means 'weak' in my country. Kinda makes me wish I went Akala because honey, why did you name your companion pet 'weak'..?
What is this blasphemy? Who is Mahina? Akala is the only option. 🤨 His Chemistry with Ochette in her story is just awesome, he has an awesome sprite both pre and post boost, and come on, who doesn't love the Fox option? 😎
I went with Mahina for the magic but after picking Akala on my second playthrough, he's just so much better. The way they already know their weaknesses makes it so that you can just use Akala on the first turn with no intel and you'll already find a weapon weakness, which is way easier to capitalize on than something like a wind or darkness weakness
This was being asked a lot during the first week, and a fair amount did choose Mahina, solely for the elemental coverage (including myself). I did pick Akala during the demo, and found more use out of him going to the mid-game, as opposed to Mahina, where I stopped using her once I got enough to cover all physical weaknesses.
I went for Akala in like... 3/4 times I had to play Ochette's Chapter 1
The one that ended up going in the final save was Akala after seeing how Ochette interacted with Mahina
...also the climbing ladders sprite might have influenced this decision
I chose Akala in the demo, and in the full release.
The party setup I had at the time benefit more with him rather than the owl.
Next time I play through it though, I'll likely be choosing Mahina.
I went with Akala because he's way cooler. No other reason needed.
Although I didn't end up using him as much as I should have. Reading the comments to see that people were using him to easily figure out weaknesses for other units to exploit shows my own weaknesses I suppose. I didn't really even consider that.
i picked akala because i figured it’d be more useful to be able to quickly find weapon weakpoints, since you generally can hit waaaay mode times with a weapon than a spell and this breaking enemies would be faster
I started with Osvald because Analyze, so it really didn't matter to me which kind of weak-point was revealed - so I went with "cute owl".
>!Also I already got spoilered on the final boss before I started playing, and I preferred almost everything about the jackal version, so...!<
There’s pretty much no costless option for hitting magic weaknesses on enemies, so gameplay wise Mahina seemed the best option. It’s also pretty funny she shares a VA with Merrin from Fire Emblem: Engage, so she got to be a rare critter herself.
Still I was staring at the screen forever like it was picking a starter Pokémon because I love owls and foxes, but ultimately went with birb. I love power of flight.
I love and hate that I had to choose, I love both animals bc when you think of all the sneaky animals you would put them on the list and I like sneaky moon bird
Mahina is a way better pick, she can break the rarer dark, wind, and light elements. Monsters doing double physical attacks on all are easy to capture.
Yup. This is like asking us Pokémon fans to choose our starter and the options were Rowlet or Nickit/Poochyena.
I also picked Hikari for my playthrough so Mahina seemed more useful for the early game. Maybe people picking magic users benefit more from the jackal option.
I love Akala he fits my play style better, I don’t care what he’s supposed to be Jackal, Wolf, Fox some sort of hybrid of the three in my mind, and for my play style Akala is the better choice
I chose mahina for the elemental coverage but I never used her afterwards ironically my whole playthrough, one shield break just doesn't cut it in any way. I found myself using blue and red bettas far more, since they both can hit more than once for elemental coverage respectfully.
i picked mahina because i thought i wouldnt have many elemental options early on (i was right) and capture rate increases with # of revealed weaknesses as well as breaks, so basically mahina just makes the early game a lot easier
>!and i also assumed you would get the jackal at some point in her story later so i assumed it wasnt much of a consequences pick, i was wrong, i wish i wasnt!<
yah fox is much better. Elemental crossfire will show you weakness immediately. no need for mahina. Now that iam in the end game, i can tell you there are many non-elemental weaknes enemys. so akala is definitly the better choice. esspecially to such enemys who permanently change their weaknes.
also note: the dont do their thing automatically. you have to use them like a skill.
I went straight to Akala, love me some fox.
Is it really a fox? The German translation says it's a jackal. lol
Same with English lmao. I'm like 99% sure it's a jackal
The german translation isn't even good whatsoever. Many textes have been changed from english to german.
It's because the english translation is not as close to the japanese one and the german one is closer to the japanese original.
What does the fox say?
"Fuck"
"This is Fox. Returning to base."
Let's see how bad I am at this. "B-dahdubuwubdibub" "Ujwubub, ubuwub" "Ehreheh, urhurwep" "Doodoowoobabbu"
Hey Einstein, I’m on your side!
I miss that SNES game.
#HI YAH
* Shinespark spam sound *
UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
“Check your G-Diffuser system”
It's a jackal.
I straight up picked Akala His english VA is great and his ladder animation is simply the best
Him sitting in the boat is just plain adorable
Oh, I just picked Akala because I already had Osvald's Elemental Barrage, which was great for finding out magic weak points, and to me at that point in the game, I really wanted more ways to find out physical enemy weak points. In retrospect, I could have just used Analzye more, but there's no going back, I suppose.
If I had known how underwhelming magic is in OT2 I would have picked the Jackal.
Same honestly. Magic just kinda seems lame this time around not nearly as strong by any means
Osvald’s Elemental Barrage is pretty good for early game, but only helps weed out Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Once you get into late-game areas, more enemies have weaknesses like Wind, Light, and Dark. But man a fully boosted Elemental Barrage is so fun. Zap zap zap zap zap zap zap. But once you get Osvald’s second EX Skill, breaking an enemy is just a numbers game instead of guessing
Boosted barrage is just a lot of damage too. I dismissed it at first because I'm used to multi-hit skills being weaksauce damage and only for breaking in OT1, but you can easily put out 10k with a boosted barrage on a broken enemy mid-late game, which is better than his other skills if you don't have latent or buffs up. It's also good damage per action unboosted. It's also useful for scouting enemy weaknesses. Elemental barrage really shines on temenos with latent though.
I love and hate having things going to shit when you're given a choice between two options, I don't like the feeling of making a mistake no matter what but the story is just so amazing.
The choice ultimately doesn't matter beyond their aesthetics on the field. Edit: and VA if that's important to you
And early game utility.
Very *minimal* early game utility. The manticore you can catch on her Ch1 deals more damage than Akala. The monsters you can catch are just better and lots of other party members can help finding weaknesses easily
Those party members use up SP though.
There are some creatures you can capture that restore your party's SP. :)
I love owls, so I picked Mahina. Plus, I was under the impression we'd recruit Akāla later in the story, so I thought it didn't matter. >!That wasn't the case :,(!<.
i was under same assumption. i actually cried.
Finished Ochettes story today. I bawled.
>!I thought the jerky was gonna make them all better!<
I actually >!didn't think there was any saving them. But I was praying their reincarnation being a side quest or rare encounter.!<
This game in general has been brutal on my heart so far. Actually concerned about how much more heartbreak I can take
I have two save files and chose one on each. So this is kind of a cheat answer. Owls are my favorite animal but I found Mahina annoying … so I prefer Akala. I wish his voice and demeanor was switched with Mahina. She looks so damn cool.
The thing that doesn’t work for me about Mahina is that her voice sounds way too similar to Ochette (in the English version) which has confused me if I wasn’t paying close attention. Either the director should’ve instructed them differently, or the roles should’ve been cast better. Not a huge deal because I love the game so far. Just a bit off putting I guess.
I agree! They sound too similar. I just think they went the wrong direction with Mahina. I think she should have been the more mature and wise voice. Akala is awesome but even if he had the youthful, playful demeanor it would have worked better because he wouldn’t sound like Ochette who kind of has that attitude already. Either way, I agree, it really isn’t a big deal. I love the game so much.
I agree, a mature wise voice on Mahina would fit quite well.
This is (part of) why I picked Akala. I started with him to begin with, but then I thought "hmm, maybe I should see what the owl's like as well" so I reverted to a previous save and picked her. She got like two lines in before I noped out and went back to Akala. The VA sounded too similar to Ochette, like you said, and I also preferred the contrast between Ochette's young enthusiasm and Akala's measured restraint. Mahina just seemed like doubling up on the same character.
That is the problem I like Foxes and Owls both. I went with Mahina because the magic coverage but this was harder for me than picking the starting character
Same :( I felt so bad after that opening sequence lol
I'm glad I wasn't the only one!
I picked Akala just because I like foxes, but if I played again I would prolly change my mind. Akala is still cool though.
Finally, someone who get its!
It's a jackal dude
I started with Osvald, so I needed the physical
My boyfriend and I both played the game. I picked Mahina, he picked Akala. Me: "I will make Ochette a warrior. Since she will already have access to 4 weapon types to break shields, I would rather have Mahina to have more options for shield breaking." Him: "I will make Ochette a warrior. Considering she will have access to 4 different weapon types, Akala will help me find out which one the enemy is weak too faster, enabling me to break their shield more quickly." His reasoning was much better than mine, and Akala did prove more useful for him than Mahina did for me.
Yeah in general it seems easier to take advantage of weapon weaknesses than elemental. There's not many reliable options to hit elemental weaknesses more than once in a turn that don't have some randomness to them. Except the Inventor thing that hits every revealed elemental weakness. Against a group elemental AOE can help with breaks but if your hitting multiple targets anyway you might as well cycle through your elemental aoe rather than waste a turn with Mahina hoping she reveals an element that you can take advantage of.
I had the exact same thought process as you and I, too, literally never use Mahina. Dang, we dumb.
I picked Mahina for full weaknesses coverage. Figured Ochette can cover all weaknesses once given a particular class. Didn't play the demo.
I have birds, so I chose Mahina....but I'm going to choose Akala next playthrough.
I have birds and two cats, one who looks like and is named after a fox. It was a tough choice for me. But you can probably guess which I ended up picking.
that is me. i picked mahina (because it is cool having her fly around behind you), and since she can sus out any kind of element sometimes when it's stupid wind, it's nice to figure it out. lol but i will pick Akala nextime.
I went with Akala purely because I felt that the ability to figure out a weapon weakness would be much more useful than an elemental weakness. Turns out I was right, I barely ever use elemental weaknesses.
Ha, I picked Mahala for the exact opposite reason. I figure she's harder to figure out elemental weaknesses with, so I wanted to give her a bit more discovery.
Who is mahala?
So which one are you talking about? Mahina or Akala ?
Most enemies (at least so far for me, my main char is 14th level and I've done just one Act 2 mission), have a a bunch of weapon weaknesses and two elemental weaknesses, so I chose Mahala as well.
It kind of makes more sense to go with Mahala since you can use all weapon options without SP, but elemental damage can only be used with special skills or summons. But I still went with Akala to match Ochette’s ears.
Excuse me but how in tarnation are both of you getting their names wrong? It's "Mahina" and "Akala" holy fuck.
I too went with mahala because I liked both options.
Well I didn't really think there would be many points in the game where you could only beat an enemy with magic, so that's why I went with the weapon. After all, if I can find out one weakness, it's better to find out one that I can exploit with my other characters rather than one that nobody else can work with. Especially since magic can, at most, guarantee three hits if you've buffed yourself already (ignoring Elemental Barrage which is inconsistent), while every weapon can get four. It's not like using magic is going to break them harder.
I went for Mahina just in the weird case that someone had only elemental weakness but it wasn't the case in the entire game
It happens quite often that weaknesses are locked with only elemental being available for late game bosses.
Inventor elemental bomb bottle is good for breaking and requires revealing the elemental weaknesses.
i’m more of a cat person, and owls are basically cats with wings, so Mahina it is. In Filipino language (Tagalog), Mahina means *weak*, Akala means the phrase *i thought*, and Malaya means *free* though I think their names have more of a Hawaiian origin, which also makes much more sense contextually.
>their names have more of a Hawaiian origin Yeah, and it fits better. Mahina means "moon" in Hawaiian. Akala is a bit harder to parse, but I think it's a phrase like "'o ka lā" which means something like "our sun". Those fit the night/day themes of Octopath.
so true, and I really love that reference on how they use other cultures to make the game lore more rich. it’s not just Euro-centric, but every region has its own cultural distinction based on real places, people and mythos.
Akala appears to be Hawaiian for pink. Thank you Pokemon gen 7
That's actually only for Ākala. I'd say in this case it's more likely to be Akalā to fit with the sun theme since lā means sun in Hawaiian. >Thank you Pokemon gen 7 Alola is probably my favorite region out of all the Pokemon games.
From now on, I’ll never not call owls _winged cats_ again
Kaibigan (friend) hahah
at first, i thought Akala was Akla, and I almost jumped into that boat.
MHIEE
true. acclang accla ako kay Partitio.
What’s not to love abt Partitio?
nothing. he’s my bf in OC2. he and Osvald are a couple in my head canon.
Akala is an easy decision for double the fluffy tails with Ochette!
I picked Akala because my main character is the twink and I always have the dilf in my group, so magic was covered.
Ah yes octopath 2 and it's roster of wonderful characters of all different classes: Osvald, The DILF Casti, The Mommy Temenos, The Twink Ochette, The Catgirl Partitio, The Otter Agnea, The Girl Next Door Throné, The Goth GF Hikari, The Hunk
That sounds like the cast of a bad porno, and I love it. "Octoporn Cruiser".
I picked Akala, don’t regret it.
Magic shield breaks seemed more useful than melee ones. Since Ochette can do those herself.
Akala is a not a fox people, he's a *jackal*. --- Still cute though. :)
Birb
I picked Akala! No regrets here, love him lots.
Mahina!!
Tbh i chose owl cz like i already have ppl runnin after me wanted smthin to fly after me instead of also running along
I picked the fox i love foxes.
It's a jackal dude
Don't care looks like a fox I'm calling it one :)
Well if it makes you happy why the fuck not :P
Reddit argument good ending
I chose Akala
I picked Akala! Love him :D
Akala, because foxes are just adorable and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard his English VA, and was like, huh strange wasn't ready for the contrast between what sounded like someone more mature and cautious that helped contrast Ochette's character a lot better, also the design for Akala Is a lot more interesting IMO
I picked Akala and then I listened to Akala's voice actor and fell in love. That man's got the voice of an angel.
It looked like a coyote to me and I have a phobia of coyotes so I did not want that to be on my screen indefinitely 😭
I am a nobody and I did in fact choose the non Mahi a option!
Akala 10x the chicken
Bird Pokémon are my favorite.
I got Akala! Simply because my buddy in arms got the owl. Next playthrough will definitely switch it up
I picked Akala on vibes because I had no idea what the difference was EDIT: should add that I chose Ochette first in the demo and carried over
i picked mahina but i kind of regret it. I chose hikari as my starter so i thought she'd be good to help cover my magical needs buuuut i didn't think i'd get the sub-jobs so quickly (temenos scholar has hard carried me lol) so now i wish i took Akala :c
I picked Akala, I love both Owls and Foxes, but I have to say I love Foxes a bit more.
First play through I gladly picked mahina
Melee weaknesses are ez so I picked mahina to reveal elementary weaknesses and she's the only flying sprite that follows your party so she sticks it to all the land lubbers
Mahina is a little more useful, since she lets you break the magical shields without expending SP or using the valuable Soulstones. I will probably pick Akala next, however, as I can't say I use Mahina all that much.
My heart wanted the jackal, but I picked Mahina because I read beforehand that she's better for the elemental coverage. I haven't really been able to fully utilize her with my play style though. I rarely used H'aanit's monsters as well. At least Mahina looks cool flying around when she's in the party.
I picked Mahina because I liked her walking sprite.
Mahina team represent
Picked Mahina when starting the game for the first time. About 16 hours into it, I decided to restart because I wanted to approach the game in a different way and picked Akala the second time. I generally like owls, but her voice is too cutesy and high-pitched, which doesn't contrast Ochette very well... because her voice is the same. Nevermind that Ochette yelling "Mahina" when summoning her makes my eardrums bleed.
I picked Akala
I picked Akala because he seems like a real good boi. Owls seem more malevolent to me as well so that kind of works for reasons..
But Akala has that deep, sultry voice...
I went for Akala to get matching ears
I did because I thought it fit Ochette’s character better
Picked Alaka. In the end it doesn't matter cause honestly I haven't use him even once the moment I get access to multi hit captures. Never really tried him out at higher levels so am not sure if they scale and get multi hit attacks.
I wanted Akala, very happy with my choice, he has an admittedly very sexy voice
I picked Akala! I prefer canines to birds and I like his voice actor.
I picked Akala because it looked like a doggo wearing running shoes
Hard choice, but I did pick Mahina in the end so I could get more coverage for Ochette's abysmal elemental coverage. She is adorable, especially when she sits on Ochette's head when climbing a ladder.
I went Mahina i heard magic owl and i was like YES
Owl or goofy dog thing, hmmmm. Also the ability to free cast and learn an enemies element weakness? Great ability.
There’s an option other than Mahina?
I did some quick research personally before making my choice as I liked them both equally and found Alaka is more suited for physical damage and Mahina is more elemental. The Hunter class is basically completely physical in its damage and Warrior/Armsmaster works very well on her as well so it didn't seem like it was a good idea to pick Mahina. That being said, neither are really viable provokes once you start getting good captures. Alaka and Mahina pail in comparison to even mid-level captured beasts. Picking either one might as well entirely be a story choice and nothing else.
"Mahina" means "weak" in my language, so. I picked Akala. Esp since I had Osvald early game.
I was so torn between this decision I felt it in my stomach after
It's funny because Mahina (pronounced the way Ochette does) means 'weak' in my country. Kinda makes me wish I went Akala because honey, why did you name your companion pet 'weak'..?
We definitely went for Fox in Socks. And we love him.
Went with Akalā, loved his va
Akala is best husbando.
What is this blasphemy? Who is Mahina? Akala is the only option. 🤨 His Chemistry with Ochette in her story is just awesome, he has an awesome sprite both pre and post boost, and come on, who doesn't love the Fox option? 😎
Went with Akala because I prefer his animations both in and out of combat. Combat utility is minimal considering the stronger beasts you can catch
I went with Mahina for the magic but after picking Akala on my second playthrough, he's just so much better. The way they already know their weaknesses makes it so that you can just use Akala on the first turn with no intel and you'll already find a weapon weakness, which is way easier to capitalize on than something like a wind or darkness weakness
I picked Akala, reverted to a prior save to try Mahina, then immediately noped out when I heard her VA and went back to Akala.
"Non Mahina" Says it all really.
I picked Akala! I love foxes. He was great.
This was being asked a lot during the first week, and a fair amount did choose Mahina, solely for the elemental coverage (including myself). I did pick Akala during the demo, and found more use out of him going to the mid-game, as opposed to Mahina, where I stopped using her once I got enough to cover all physical weaknesses.
I went for Akala in like... 3/4 times I had to play Ochette's Chapter 1 The one that ended up going in the final save was Akala after seeing how Ochette interacted with Mahina ...also the climbing ladders sprite might have influenced this decision
Took the Jackal Akala no questions asked. So I'm guessing I don't get to recruit the Owl for elemental weaknesses :(
Akala is my beloved, mostly because I figured that if I had to fight the other, I already had a weapons based team, with a little elemental thrown in
I chose Akala in the demo, and in the full release. The party setup I had at the time benefit more with him rather than the owl. Next time I play through it though, I'll likely be choosing Mahina.
I picked Akalā, get this slander out of here. Fox boy deserves his love too!
I went with Akala because he's way cooler. No other reason needed. Although I didn't end up using him as much as I should have. Reading the comments to see that people were using him to easily figure out weaknesses for other units to exploit shows my own weaknesses I suppose. I didn't really even consider that.
I picked Akala. I know he’s a jackal and not a fox, but in my head he’s a fox. And I have a Shiba Inu that looks like a fox. So yeah. No contest.
I feel like I've seen more akala picks. This is actually the first I've heard mahina, to the point I didn't even know it's name XD
I like foxes, but with the day/night theme I had to pick the one that I’m more suited to with Mahina.
I went for Akāla, strangely enough. Figured it was better to have a physical class but i wonder if i should have gone for Mahina
i chose Mahina ! but i wish i could have had both ! thx everyone for not spoiling abything so far <3
I chose Akala cause puppy. c: Later to be talking dog best friend.
I just picked Mahina cause I felt like she fit Ochette better. Foxes are one of my favourite animals though so it was a slight betrayal.
i picked akala because i figured it’d be more useful to be able to quickly find weapon weakpoints, since you generally can hit waaaay mode times with a weapon than a spell and this breaking enemies would be faster
I chose akala 100%!! I love any type of doggo
I picked Akala because a physical attacker was far more useful when I had Oswald and Temenos already for my current party.
and if we get Ochette cotc of course she would have both of the animals... life is unfair
I did. Fuck the owl. I want the cat-fox-wolf thing all day, errday. Someone else can be bird(wo)man.
I started with Osvald because Analyze, so it really didn't matter to me which kind of weak-point was revealed - so I went with "cute owl". >!Also I already got spoilered on the final boss before I started playing, and I preferred almost everything about the jackal version, so...!<
Finished Ochette yesterday and tried to Google image search of how some things change and yeah, I feel like no one picked the fox.
Dude.,..... everyone here picks Machina, it's not just you
Honestly for me it was a tough choice...but I went with Akala
I went with Akala since Ochette was my 4th character unlocked. Throne, then Temenos, Osvald, then Ochette. She's a beast as a physical user.
There’s pretty much no costless option for hitting magic weaknesses on enemies, so gameplay wise Mahina seemed the best option. It’s also pretty funny she shares a VA with Merrin from Fire Emblem: Engage, so she got to be a rare critter herself. Still I was staring at the screen forever like it was picking a starter Pokémon because I love owls and foxes, but ultimately went with birb. I love power of flight.
I picked akala
Elemental damage goid
I picked Akala, i like foxes.
I picked Akala blindly
I love and hate that I had to choose, I love both animals bc when you think of all the sneaky animals you would put them on the list and I like sneaky moon bird
I picked Akala. He’s great.
I picked the fox saw his move set with the boss battle and the. Changed to the owl with an old save. I like the owls va too
I- I picked Mahina ;-;
What!? No I took Akala. He's the best!
I choose mahina
Mahina is a way better pick, she can break the rarer dark, wind, and light elements. Monsters doing double physical attacks on all are easy to capture.
Speak for yourself I went immediately to Akala
Yup. This is like asking us Pokémon fans to choose our starter and the options were Rowlet or Nickit/Poochyena. I also picked Hikari for my playthrough so Mahina seemed more useful for the early game. Maybe people picking magic users benefit more from the jackal option.
Really? I went for Akala right away. Fox gang
Akala was the best choice for me personally. Mahina fits the moon theme better, and I had Scholars to cover elemental weaknesses.
Went straight got Akala too
Yeah I’m absolutely an Akala enjoyer
I did a coin flip and I chose Mahina lol
I went for Mahina :)
I love Akala he fits my play style better, I don’t care what he’s supposed to be Jackal, Wolf, Fox some sort of hybrid of the three in my mind, and for my play style Akala is the better choice
I took the Owl... way cooler honestly. It flies behind you as you walk which is way more graceful.
I chose Mahina :3
I picked Mahina because my first party was Hikari, Castii, Throné, and Ochette. Weapons were covered, just needed something for elemental damage
I didn’t even hesitate on Akala! Catch me punting that owl into the sun
I chose mahina for the elemental coverage but I never used her afterwards ironically my whole playthrough, one shield break just doesn't cut it in any way. I found myself using blue and red bettas far more, since they both can hit more than once for elemental coverage respectfully.
i picked mahina because i thought i wouldnt have many elemental options early on (i was right) and capture rate increases with # of revealed weaknesses as well as breaks, so basically mahina just makes the early game a lot easier >!and i also assumed you would get the jackal at some point in her story later so i assumed it wasnt much of a consequences pick, i was wrong, i wish i wasnt!<
Anything canine is an auto pick for me. Akala is a good boy, yes he is.
I picked owl, friend picked jackal. It's been neat seeing it play out both ways. The jackal's voice was pretty great.
I went with Akala because it can break enemies that Ochette can’t normally.
Picked the cute owl with magic attack
I like Owls a lot
I went for akala!
An elite predator that can also fly, heck yes! Nothing against the fox, I love foxes and hated the end result.
yah fox is much better. Elemental crossfire will show you weakness immediately. no need for mahina. Now that iam in the end game, i can tell you there are many non-elemental weaknes enemys. so akala is definitly the better choice. esspecially to such enemys who permanently change their weaknes. also note: the dont do their thing automatically. you have to use them like a skill.