- "If she can be saved, I want to do it... with my own hands." —Trousseau, about to gather Santanejo Blossoms for Sally
Trousseau is a character in Octopath Traveler II. He was a member of Eir's Apothecaries and is the main antagonist and final boss of Castti's story.
Profile[]
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(I don't think this is where I should be going at the moment...) The following section contains potential story spoilers! |
Appearance[]
Trousseau had white hair and dark red eyes. He was usually seen wearing the blue uniform of Eir's Apothecaries. After his heel-turn, he wore a dark robe with a hood as well as a plague mask to protect himself from the shadow poison.
Personality[]
Before his descent into darkness, Trousseau was a kind and empathetic young man who deeply cared about his patients. He was driven by a fervent, idealistic desire to save lives and “extend a helping hand to all those in need”, even if it meant neglecting his own needs for the sake of others.
As a result of this, he was prone to engaging in reckless and self-destructive behavior, such as risking his own life to save that of Sally, whom he had been attending to prior. Furthermore, he tended to be extremely unforgiving towards himself at the prospect of failure, which, combined with a generally low self-esteem and emotional instability, only facilitated his imminent downfall.
The final event that led to him getting pushed over the edge was his encounter with Claude in Lostseed, after which he ended up spiraling into madness entirely. Upon reading the Book of Night, his determination and eagerness to help were twisted into an unhealthy obsession with death, believing it to be the only way to ease people’s suffering and grant them “salvation”. Having become trapped in a perpetual state of despair and nihilistic frenzy, he set out on a killing spree using his Purple Rain infused with poisonous Shadow Energy, and ultimately needed to be taken down before he could do any more harm to innocent townspeople.
History[]
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(I don't think this is where I should be going at the moment...) The following section contains potential story spoilers! |
Prior to Story[]
Prior to when he joined Eir’s Apothecaries, Trousseau lived together with Yorna, his little sister, who had been suffering from an incurable illness for many years. He began studying the healing arts attempting to find a cure for her disease, but never succeeded in doing so before she eventually passed away. On her deathbed, she told him: “Though my life could not be saved, your hands are those of a healer. Help those in need,” after which he promised to continue his work as an apothecary.
He met Castti and Malaya in Winterbloom, when they arrived at Lady Rosa's home to treat her. He joined their association not too long afterwards, moving to Healeaks with them. During that time, they quickly came to realize that they shared the same philosophy about treating their patients, and grew closer.
Known to be compassionate, reliable, and always willing to aid those in need, especially the children in Healeaks, he was well-liked by many, patient and colleague alike. Yet, one day, while he was out gathering medicinal herbs with Castti, a streak of bad luck brought the two of them to the desolate town of Lostseed, where they came across Claude, a member of the Moonshade Order.
Unlike Trousseau, Castti showed no interest in the stranger’s teachings, but the younger and more impressionable apothecary in her company was easily swayed to Claude’s side. The man consequently handed Trousseau the Book of Night, corrupting his mind and setting him on his dark path of destruction.
Having lost all of his hope in the future, Trousseau was convinced that he had finally realized “the truth” about life, as it had become nothing more than suffering in his eyes. In that moment, he resolved to bring "salvation" to the world by putting an end to its existence.
While the rest of Eir's Apothecaries had left on a journey, he lured the children of Healeaks away from their homes, poisoning them and leaving them for dead behind Mount Liphia. The villagers soon began venturing out in search of their kids, barely managing to carry their corpses back to town before Trousseau set his poison rain in motion, making the remaining adults sick.
Though unexpectedly, Castti and the rest of her crew arrived at the scene just in time to witness the start of the Purple Rain and the villagers' subsequent deaths. They then followed Trousseau’s trail of smoke to a cave at the top of the mountain, where they promptly began to question him on his actions. Attempting to reason with him, Castti and the others desperately tried to make him see the error in his ways, but in the end, all of their efforts were in vain.
As the confrontation continued, Castti started to succumb to the deadly poison. Taking advantage of the distraction, Trousseau vanished in a cloud of smoke, arising from the nearby fire which he had been using to spread his toxins into the air.
However, seconds before he fled, he announced that the next target of his foul Purple Rain would be located on the western continent — namely, a city called Timberain. He subsequently revealed that he was planning to strike during the upcoming coronation, wanting to ensure that many people would be gathered there to die by his hands.
Story[]
At some point before coming to Timberain, Trousseau found a way to make his poison more potent. When he arrived there, he immediately snuck to the topmost open tower of the castle, where he began to send out his poison rain. Suddenly, to his surprise, he was confronted by Castti, whom he believed to be dead. While mockingly praising her on evacuating the townsfolk to shelter, he reminded her that his poison will eventually seep into the buildings and claim them.
He then engaged her in battle in an attempt to "save her", but was defeated, mortally wounded, and exposed to the poison, as his mask had been destroyed during the battle. He asked Castti what it feels like to take a life, and questioned how much longer she can keep up her ideals and remain the same, before he ultimately passed away.Trousseau begins the battle with two actions per turn.
Throughout the battle, a poisonous rain will fall onto the battlefield, reducing the maximum hit points of the entire party at the beginning of each turn. The rain is treated as an additional "combatant" that cannot be targeted in addition to having 0 Speed but priority on every action. Priority-granting effects like Windy Refrain will cause affected travelers to act before the rain hits, and Trousseau recovering from a break will also act before the rain.
Rain Abilities[]
- Rain begins to fall...: Automatically activates at the beginning of the battle.
- The rain falls violently...: Reduces all party members max HP by 75 every turn cycle.
- The rain grows stronger...: Activates when Trousseau is at roughly 50% health.
- The rainfall turns torrential...: Reduces all party members and Trousseau's max HP by 150 every turn cycle.
Additionally, if the rain would reduce a traveler's Max HP below 500, it will reduce their Max HP by 1/3 of its original value (25 in phase 1, 50 in phase 2), but the visual display when the rain hits will still read 75/150. The rain cannot reduce a traveler's Max HP below 1; it will stop at 1, though surviving Trousseau's attacks until this happens is tremendously difficult.
Trousseau Abilities[]
- Attack: Physical attack, single target.
- Prickly Tonic: Fixed 1000 damage on entire party.
- Bursting Liquid: Elemental damage,
. hits random targets 5 times. - Spoiled Substance: Physical attack, single target. Inflict Poison for 4 turns.
- Silencing Serum: Physical attack, single target. Inflict Silence for 5 turns.
- Dark Liquid: Elemental damage, , single target. Inflict Blindness for 4 turns.
- Stupefying Solution: Physical attack, single target. Inflict Confusion for 4 turns.
- Strong Sedative: Physical attack, single target. Inflict Sleep for 3 turns.
- Enfeebling Extract: Inflicts Decreased Physical Attack and Decreased Elemental Attack on entire party for 3 turns. Also drain 25% of each target's max SP.
- Hinder Healing: Inflicts Bind Healing to a single target for 4 turns, preventing the use of any healing skills or Concoct.
- Neutralizing Smoke: Remove all augmenting effects to entire party.
- Overdose: Powerful elemental attack on single target.
At roughly 50% of his maximum health, Trousseau's mask will become damaged and his stance will change, increasing his shields to 12, revealing additional weaknesses, and changing his moveset. Because of this, he will also lose Max HP from the rain each turn along with the party until the battle ends (though this is unlikely to be influential on the fight as he needs to be below 47500/95000 HP for this to happen in the first place and he only loses 150 Max HP/turn).
- Trousseau begins concocting (a deadly mix)...:Trousseau enters boost mode for 1 turn. Uses either of these plagues if not broken before Trousseau's next action. If Trousseau's HP is low, he will always concoct "a deadly mix"; if he succeeds, Ravenous Hunger will always be cast.
- Frenzied Sickness: Inflicts Blindness and Confusion to entire party for 3 turns each.
- Nightmarish Malady: Inflicts Sleep and Poison to entire party for 3 turns each.
- Despairing Illness: Physical attack, targets entire party. Inflicts Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Silence and Blindness to entire party for 2 turns each.
- Spread Infection:
- Ravenous Hunger: Drains 50% of max SP and all BP from entire party.
- Frenzied Sickness: Inflicts
Strategy[]
Trousseau can be a difficult fight if the party is not prepared. With your max HP decreasing every turn, plus with his first phase having only 4 weaknesses that can be tough to hit, this fight can seem impossible. When he hits half HP, the fight turns into a DPS race. If you can't kill him in time, you'll be functionally crippled by the rain, while his health is barely affected. No matter what, a Dancer is mandatory. Trousseau can inflict a debilitating amount of status conditions on the party, and if you combine the Dancer's Divine with Castti's Rehabilitate, you can stay free of quite a few of his attacks. Temenos should also be on the team; the divine can also be used on him to make Prayer for Plenty target the whole party, helping offset the rain. With all of these buffs going around, putting Arcanist on either of them for Seal of Eternity can also be quite useful. Sadly, due to his access to Neutralizing Smoke to remove buffs, Arcanist Partitio doesn't work well, and can make the aforementioned Sealticge's strategy can be unreliable, but compared to having your whole party asleep or blinded can make you reconsider. Considering his elemental weakness, a Scholar is highly recommended. Cleric Osvald and Scholar Partitio can also hit other weaknesses, as well as giving good support. Dancer can also be put on either of them for not much risk, letting you use someone like Hikari or Ochette for massive damage in the last slot.
Once you hit second phase, it becomes much easier to break him. This is quite useful, as his boost skills are terrifying. If you don't have immunity to status aliments, Despairing Illness and the rest of them will ruin you for a while. Ironically, Ravenous Hunger is the best option, as Castii can simply concoct with plum and pomegranate leaves to get it back. With Osvald or Partitio spamming magic, and Hikari or Ochette (or Castii herself, as he can be poisoned for even more Drastic Measures damage), you should be able to burst him down easily.Quotes[]
- "Rain! Storm! Keep on pouring!" —During his first massacre
- "Heh. Heh heh heh... These are tears, friends. The tears of those suffering in this world." —During the Healeaks poison rain incident
- "No need to fret. I'll save you from your suffering. I'll save all of you." —To Eir's Apothecaries, during the Healeaks poison rain calamity
- "Oh, Chief... If only you had listened to his words that day. Then you would have gladly joined hands with me to bring salvation to this decaying world." —While being confronted by Castti
- "Don't worry, Chief. I'll save you too." —Before battle
- "I will concoct a foul brew!" —Boosting an attack
- "But in this vast graveyard of decay... how long can you remain the same?" —Final words
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
"Trousseau" is derived from the French verb "trousser," meaning "to truss" or "to tuck up." As a noun, a trousseau is a collection of clothes and other possessions that a bride brings with her when she gets married. However, it appears more likely that Octopath's Trousseau was named after the medical "Trousseau sign of malignancy" (also known as "Trousseau's syndrome"), which is a medical sign associated with cancer that involves episodes of vein inflammation due to blood clot.
Trivia[]
- The boss fight against Trousseau is similar to that of the Ogre Eagle from Alfyn's story, as both bosses use an ability that drains max HP from all of the characters during the battle, though Ogre Eagle only activates the ability when half its health is gone, Trousseau's stays on for the entire battle and increases in intensity when he takes a certain amount of damage.
- The suit Trousseau wears after his heel-turn is designed from what plague doctors wear to protect themselves from airborne diseases while treating their patients. The hood, however, is a more modern design element inspired by characters such as SCP-049 and Plague Knight, as actual plague doctors wore brimmed hats and not hoods.
- Trousseau also seems partly inspired by SCP-049 directly, with both being plague doctor inspired villains whose method of "helping" people involves death in some capacity, with Trousseau wanting to bring "salvation" while SCP-049 wants to find and spread the "cure."
- One of Trousseau's attacks, Prickly Tonic, is a nod to 1000 Needles, a signature move used by Cactuar, a recurring enemy from the Final Fantasy series as both moves deal a fixed 1000 damage to their target(s).
- During the flashback sequence in Castti's Chapter 3, Trousseau exhibits the ability to disappear in a cloud of black form. Afterward he appears along the Path to Mount Liphia, suggesting that this power allows him to teleport over short distances, though this ability may be a one-off plot contrivance as it never appears later in the game.