In Last Odyssey, each player has control of a single character. In Last Odyssey, characters will travel the world, taking on quests, defeating monsters, and being a force for positive change. As they continue on in the campaign, they will gain new abilities and increase their attributes and statistics. The basic measure of a character’s strength is a number called their tier, which is a number of 1 to 10 that indicates how high the character’s statistics and attributes will be, as well as how many abilities they have. The following section outlines the process for making a new tier 1 character. For characters beyond tier 1, see the Character Advancement section.
The first thing you should do before you write down any numbers is think a little bit about what kind of person your character is–their beliefs, their background, any quirks of appearance, and so on. Write down a few sentences describing any details that immediately come to mind. Once you’ve done this, there are two more parts to your character concept that you should decide on before moving forward. The first of these is their Aspiration, which is what drives them–what they want to accomplish, what kind of person they want to be, or what code of honor or ethics they follow. The second of these is their Relationships, which are the people or groups to which they feel the strongest connection. This could be anything from ethnic or religious affiliation to a character’s family, their best friends, or their lovers. Writing down Relationships with other player characters is also strongly encouraged. A character starts with one to three Relationships and one Aspiration, although they can have as many Relationships as they like during the game. Players will also change their characters’ Relationships and Aspirations as the story progresses. After you have written a sentence or two describing each, you have enough to count as a concept. You should also begin to think about their name and what they might look like.
After you have made your character concept, the next step is to determine your character’s attributes. These will also determine their starting statistics. In Last Odyssey, each player character has three of these:
At character creation, you may either set the value of all of your attributes to 2, or set one to 3, one to 2, and one to 1.
Next, choose your character’s archetype, which gives them extra abilities and talents that they can acquire as they level up, as well as bonuses to their statistics. In Last Odyssey, there are nine archetypes in total:
At character creation, your archetype determines the following traits:
A character’s archetype also provides them with a set of abilities they can use regardless of what job they occupy as well as a set of special passive abilities called talents that they can acquire as they advance in tier. At character creation, they begin with the ability to use their archetype’s rank 1 ability.
Finally, before you move on you should give your character either a Lucky accessory or a Mystical accessory that has no attached upgrade that they can equip in their accessory slot. A Lucky accessory gives them a +1 bonus to their Evasion, while a Mystical accessory gives them a +1 bonus to their Resistance.
A character’s elemental type determines the elemental type of some of the abilities they gain from their jobs. More specifically, they determine the elemental type of the damage they deal with certain Striker and Caster abilities, the element of the Shells they apply and the damage they can immunize their party members from as a Support, and the status they can apply as a Saboteur. The nine elements are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Ice, Wood, Light, and Shadow.
By default, characters count as colorless for the purposes of calculating damage received regardless of their elemental type. However, you may instead choose for your character to count as having that elemental type when receiving damage instead. If you do so, mark down that your character’s elemental type is innate on your character sheet.
A character’s job grants them abilities they can use in combat, and extra actions they can take during exploration. It also grants them bonuses to three different statistics that depend on which job they currently occupy. As they advance in Tier, characters will gain multiple jobs that they can switch between during the Paradigm Phase of combat. Eventually, every character in the party will be able to use any job. However, at character creation all characters start with only one job available. See the Jobs section for more details. In Last Odyssey, there are six jobs:
When you choose your character’s starting job, they automatically gain access to that job’s Rank 1 ability, which you should mark down on your character sheet.
Each job grants extra bonuses to three different character statistics equal to their Body, Mind, and Spirit that are listed in their description in the Jobs section. Whenever you take a new job, including now, you should note down the statistics that they give bonuses to. When you calculate your statistics, you will take these into account. Eventually, you will have separate sets of statistics listed for all six of your character’s jobs.
At this point, you should now have enough information to determine your character’s statistics. Below, the formulae for determining each of them are given in shorthand. To see them in more detail and learn more about what each statistic does, see the Attributes and Statistics section as well as the Combat Rules.
At this stage in the process, you should now be ready to create your character’s eidolon. An eidolon is a being whose appearance in the world is the most powerful manifestation of a character’s magic. Think of them as a combination between a patron saint and a guardian angel. Each player character has a single eidolon that grows more powerful as they grow more powerful. In combat, player characters can spend Anima to summon their eidolons. See the Eidolons section for information on the rules for using them.
During character creation, you should record your character’s eidolon’s name, appearance, and statistics. Its statistics are determined by the formulae listed in the Eidolons section. The exception to this is that eidolons do not have Mana because their attacks are either free or have an Anima cost. In addition, a character’s eidolon has the same elemental type as their listed elemental type for the purposes of determining the outcomes of attacks and status-inflicting abilities that target them during battle.
Each eidolon has one of six possible archetypes: Striker, Caster, Healer, Defender, Support, or Saboteur. All eidolons can use the Attack and Full Restore abilities, and also gains two more abilities depending on archetype. See the Eidolons section for more details.
At this point in character creation, you have all of the necessary information required to play your character. Make sure all of it is recorded properly on your character sheet. In addition, be sure to write down any other relevant character information, such as their height, weight, gender, eye color, backstory, real and apparent age, and other story elements. In addition, give your character 5 starting Anima. They will earn more through Scenes over the course of the game.
Finally, all characters receive 10 cr at character creation. Players may use some or all of this to purchase battle items. Whatever amount is left over after they are done purchasing items is carried with them into the beginning of the game. Talk with your GM and see the Battle Items section to learn the kinds of items you might purchase in this manner.
Before you are finished with your character, you should check–have you:
If you have done all of this, then congratulations, you are now ready to play Last Odyssey!