As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- Partitio's theme stands out from much of the music in the rest of the game with its distinctly modern sound, which features electric guitars, a drummer, and a saxophone hook that wouldn't sound out of place in a TV sitcom. Partitio's story features him investing in various forms of technology, culminating in the beginning of a major industrial revolution with the steam engine. It only makes sense for him to be associated with music that is ahead of his time.
- The name for Crick was far more cleverly applied for Temenos' assistant than people will find at first glance, Temenos is an inquisitor, a man of the cloth who holds doubt and questions even his own faith and the gods, his whole story was akin to a detective novel. Gregor Mendel is considered the Father of Genetics and was a man of the cloth himself. Two men named Watson and Crick helped discover DNA. Given that the most famous detective and his assistant is often referenced in various forms of media. It is all a nod to the field of Genetics. A second simultaneous meaning is "crick" being a synonym for "pain in the neck", which is absolutely what he is to his corrupt superiors.
- The final chapter reveals the true agents working in the shadows of all eight of the Travelers’ stories. Not only do the names of these eight people also spell OCTOPATH, but when paired with the traveler’s story you encounter them in, they spell OCTOPATH in reverse.
- Osvald - Harvey
- Castti - Trousseau
- Temenos - Arcanette
- Ochette - Petrichor
- Partitio - Ori
- Agnea - Tanzy
- Throné - Claude
- Hikari - Oboro
- At the end of Partitio's story, the game has you use his path action to buy Roque's steam engine for the 80 billion leaves you now have from Alrond. If you have a follower who gives you discounts, they will not trigger it this time no matter what. While this can be seen as a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation so that money is still relevant in the game (as the game actually adds 80,000,000,000 to your funds for this moment and discounting even 1% off would leave you with 800 million leaves for nothing), it makes a lot more sense when you remember that the deal had already been made by Chapter 2's end. This is simply the transaction part of that same deal, since Partitio is not one to try to weasel out of a deal he already agreed to. By contrast, when Partitio buys the Grand Terry from Terry, follow effects still apply, because Terry never intended to give the ship up until Partitio made a convincing speech for why he wants it, giving him more freedom to haggle with Terry.
- In Ori's journals of events, she watches the trial of Osvald for the crime of killing his family. The judge is bribed by Harvey to not sentence Osvald to death but life imprisonment. During the sidequests in Timberlain, the Travelers uncover that Judge Astell, the chief justice, is a criminal himself who takes bribes and pins his crimes on innocent people. While Ori doesn't name the judge Harvey pays off, it is very likely the two are the same person.
- During the Journey for the Dawn, the Grotesque Monster fought in the Tomb of the Wardenbeasts is weak to Ice. This is appropriate because it's heavily implied that it's the Darkling form of Petrichor the Dark Hunter, who failed to hunt Glacis, an ice-bird.
- Claude likely showed Castti and Trousseau the book on the world's evils in Lostseed, based on her memory fragment happening when Throné approaches the entrance of the city. While he targeted them when they were alone, how did he get them to come? Claude likely uses Castti's desire to help people and told her about this city filled with sick and weak people when she and Trousseau were away from the others.
- Harvey's version of the One True Magic looks intimidating at first, but upon closer inspection, players will find that it deals damage to his own side too, unlike Osvald's version which has no drawbacks. Additionally, Harvey's version mainly uses external factors such as D'arqest's corpse and the Lumina bloodline as a source while Osvald's version uses his own love for Elena as a source. This shows that Harvey is ultimately a hack who can only make an unstable imitation of the One True Magic using stolen power and research, but is incapable of truly making the spell on his own.
- Dolcinaea's boss model in phase one has her flying while her phase two model has her standing on the ground. This serves to show how both performers view Dolcinaea; Dolcinaea initially appears like a towering figure literally carried by her fame and sees herself as better than Agnea, who struggles to keep up with her at first. But when Agnea regains her footing thanks to the support of her friends and sings the Song of Hope, Dolcinaea realizes Agnea is not as weak as she thought and takes it more seriously. Thus she goes from floating above Agnea to standing as her equal, as Agnea now has the fortitude to hold her own against her rival.
- Arcanette's decision to reveal herself to the party during the finale, while still a poor one, makes more sense with some further thought. The members of the Moonshade Order are well aware that they aren't exempt from the world-ending event that they're bringing about. By the time Arcanette reveals herself, eternal night has already fallen on Solistia, and Oboro is on his way to Vidania to summon Vide and snuff out all life. At this point, Arcanette's fate has already been sealed (or so she believes), because she'll die along with everyone else once Vide is brought back. Revealing herself to the party to mess with Temenos is essentially her having a sick laugh in her last moments, because whether it's by Vide's hand or that of the travelers, she's going to die soon anyway. Really, the only reason that this proves to be a bad idea is because the travelers succeed in stopping Vide and the knowledge on how to bring him back again died with Arcanette, something that she (understandably) thought was impossible.
- There are two more reasons for her actions. First, she loves to cause people pain and suffering, and break them down with despair. She hoped that revealing she, one of Temenos's companions, is responsible for the deaths of Temenos's two closest friends, would break his resolve to keep fighting. Also, the Order needed to collect Throné to be the proper vessel of Vide. The travelers have proven their strength and intelligence already besting other members of the Order, like Claude, Trousseau, and Harvey, and their other associates (like Kaldena), so subterfuge to collect Throné wouldn't work. Vide snatching her wouldn't have worked because Ochette already saved Castti from him. Direct confrontation is her only option left. Adding to that, Arcanette specifically mocks Throné's desire for freedom after her boss fight by claiming she will never be free, which implies the Moonshade Order hasn't given up on making her a vessel.
Fridge Horror
- In Chapter 2, Throné visits Partitio’s hometown and finds quite a few shady characters in some of the buildings. This makes sense as it was initially dying out from lack of finances and resources. This means that Partitio’s hometown is the perfect hideout for shady dealings as no one would dare find criminals in a ghost town; all under Partitio’s nose.
- In Chapter 4 of Throné's route, we encounter the mother of his most recent child, who is simply referred to as "Emaciated Woman." Nothing's said outright, but the woman has obviously been maltreated and she begs the heroes to kill her baby. It's not entirely clear if all of Claude's encounters with those "countless" women were consensual. In addition, the fate of the baby in Claude's arms after his death is completely unknown, with Throné only commenting that the baby is crying over its father's death. Was the baby given a Mercy Kill, as requested by the Emaciated Woman? Or will the baby grow up to be another broken vessel like the lingering populace of Lostseed? The Emaciated Woman is also a seer, which means she knows something grim about the baby's future that will happen regardless of Throné's success in killing Claude.
- Furthermore, when one considers the fact that none of the Blacksnakes (with the exception of Mother and Father) seem to be aware of their status as a clan of half-siblings, as well as the fact that Scaracci hits on Throné during their job in Chapter 1, the possibility of some of the Blacksnakes committing Surprise Incest with each other seems disturbingly likely.
- Since Throné's mother Marietta was one of the Blacksnakes and Claude is able to summon a phantom of her along with phantoms of other characters who are confirmed to be his children (Pirro, Mother, Father, and Throné) during his boss fight, she was likely one of Claude's offspring as well. This would make Throné the product of incest, which adds a new layer of Squick to Claude calling Throné his "greatest masterpiece." It also brings up a disturbing possibility of what might happen to Throné if she loses her fight with Claude...
- Also, if Marietta is Claude's daughter, and Father is his son, then they either committed Surprise Incest or were completely fine with having a relationship with their own half-sibling.
- Finally, given how skilled and attractive Throné is, who's to say Claude might not force her to bear another of his children rather than kill her if she loses her fight with him?
- Going back to the Emaciated Woman, she disappears after the fight with Claude, too, so her fate is also completely unknown. Did she die? Did she escape? Did she find her baby, and, if so, did she kill it herself or bring it with her?
- It's initially believed that Harvey is ultimately killed in the conclusion of Osvald's 5th and final chapter... but much later, Ori's journal says that he ultimately ends up surviving. It's very likely he may come back to haunt Osvald and his daughter again someday.
- This might be a mistranslation, however, as in the Japanese version the journal simply says that Harvey was defeated.
- It could also be a simple mistake or assumption from Ori, given that a "bright flash of light" is mentioned. Ori seems to attribute this to Elena due to her Lumina blood, but it matches up with Osvald's One True Magic. And since she comes to inaccurate conclusions about other parts of the fight, it's very possible that she simply assumed Harvey crawled out somewhere due to not seeing his body herself.
- Speaking of Harvey, one of the tubes in his lab contains something that looks very humanoid. The other three experiments are clearly shown as hybrid monsters, but this one is never seen at all. Therefore, the player doesn't get to see if this is actually a human, part human and part monster, or something else altogether. And if it is (at least partly) human... then where did Harvey get this person from?
- Yet another related to Harvey: during Osvald's trial, it's stated that two bodies were found at the scene of the crime, "charred almost beyond recognition." However, Rita and Elena did not die at the time of the fire. So this means Harvey killed two other people instead just to make the house fire look more convincing. Who were these people, where did he get them from, and did their families ever find out what happened to them?
- In a flashback in Temenos' Chapter 3, his friend and fellow cleric Roi warns Temenos that he can no longer trust the church, shows him the Darkblood Bow, which Roi insists cannot be allowed to exist, and sets off to hide it away. Fragments of Roi's exact words to Temenos are spoken by the Dark Entity in Ochette's Chapter 1, specifically, "...no longer...trust...", and "...cannot...be allowed...to...exist..." The Dark Entity's face has some subtle human features, its front paws resemble human hands, and the hair on its head even resembles Roi's hairstyle. Something turned Roi into the Dark Entity, and whatever it was, it was awful.
- This has a much darker implication towards the end of the game. Ori noted in her journal that the Dark Hunter was both responsible for taking the Darkblood Bow from Roi and half-responsible alongside Harvey for torturing and experimenting on Ochette's unchosen animal companion to turn it into the Darkling. Therefore, it's very possible that Roi was used as a guinea pig to perfect the process of creating the Darkling.
- During the final battle of Hikari's story, Mugen declares that he plans to completely exterminate the Lumina bloodline from Solistia to ensure no one can threaten his rule. Considering that Osvald's daughter is revealed to be descended from the Lumina, what would have happened to her, and hell, the entirety of Conning Creek if Mugen had found this out? Worse yet, there are multiple branches in Lumina's family and Mugen can't possibly identify every single descendant, which could lead to him killing most of Solistia's population just to sate his paranoia.
- There's a very real chance that Vide's seal is a Leaking Can of Evil. Even though he's not fully released until Oboro's sacrifice at the very end of the game, his influence over the world becomes more noticeable as the eight storylines are completed, in tandem with the four Sacred Flames slowly being quenched. By the time Petrichor snuffs out Toto'haha's Flame, Vide is able to exert enough power that he actively targets Castti and Ochette in their Crossed Path.
- Even well before any of the Sacred Flames are put out, the player can encounter strange shadow monsters, which lends credence to this idea. As the shadow monsters appear during the endless night, they're related to Vide. If they can show up long before Vide is apparently active, he must be able to influence things more than one might think...
- When entering or leaving the area with the dock on the eastern continent, you can come across a chest full of Slumber Sage on a small bit of land jutting into the ocean. Seems like a typical jrpg item pick-up... until you get to Castti's chapter 3, where it's revealed this is the spot Malaya set Castti adrift in order to save her. Castti was already unconscious at this time, so it's safe to assume that Malaya used some of the herbs to force herself to sleep so she wouldn't suffer as she died, and you're picking up what was left over.
