Try as I might, I could never quite get into Octopath Traveler 2. It makes no sense to me either. As someone who adored Octopath Traveler and lost countless hours of sleep to poring over the whole game to be the first to discover that secret dungeon, its sequel seemed like it should’ve been right up my alley. Yet, the characters never did it for me, and I found myself quickly getting bored jumping between stories I didn’t care about.
In contrast, Octopath Traveler 0 strays away from the eight-story formula the series has become known for, and returns to more recognizable, conventional roots. While I’ve always been a staunch defender of the series’ dedication to delivering eight fully fleshed out characters who could all be the protagonists of their own stories, the fatigue I felt from Octopath Traveler 2 meant that Octopath Traveler 0‘s traditional JRPG setup came at just the right time for me.
From the start, things are as “traditional JRPG” as you can get. After creating a character, you start in your little home village of Wishvale. Things are all happy clappy at first, as you go around town talking to your parents, childhood friends, and other villagers about the upcoming festival. It doesn’t take long at all for the baddies to show up and literally set the entire village on fire. Your character survives and the story is split into two distinct branches: revenge and renewal. Revenge on the three people who destroyed your village and killed everyone you love. Renewal and restoration of the village you once called home.
This is where Octopath Traveler 0 really begins. After that prologue, you can tackle the story in any order you wish. There are four main quest lines to pursue: Wishvale restoration, Wealth, Power, and Fame. Those last three are tied to the three main antagonists of the game: Herminia, Tytos, and Auguste. Just like in previous entries, all the quest lines are broken up into chapters with different level recommendations. So while you can tackle them in any order you wish, it’s still recommended that you start with the quests closest to your current level.
I’m nearly 10 hours into the game at this point and I’ve finished the chapter 1s for all the main quest lines, along with a handful of optional quests. I’ve also recruited six other characters to my cause, and I’m eager to get my seventh, as that’s when I’ll be able to enter battles with a full party of eight — a huge change for the four-character parties we got in the prior entries.
So far, character recruitment has felt very basic. In each major town, you’ll usually encounter a fellow traveler in the inn or tavern. You’ll talk to them to trigger a cutscene and most of them will join your party right after that. You’ll get a few lines of dialogue that help give you a sense of their personality, but other than that, there’s not much else to go on. Don’t go in expecting full storylines for each character; it’s clear that Octopath Traveler 0 wants your player avatar to be the main focus of the story, and everyone else is just there to support you on the journey.
The Party Chat feature does make a return, though, which I was glad to see. As the story develops or as you recruit more characters, you’ll unlock short vignettes featuring your player character and other members of the cast. For instance, after recruiting Celsus and Alexia, I was treated to a scene of Alexia droning on and on about her favorite history books as Celsus and my character gradually dozed off. I do occasionally find myself missing the individual character stories we used to get, though, especially since this batch of new characters are far more interesting to me than the cast of Octopath Traveler 2. Celsus, in particular, is a fun one. He’s a priest who’s also, well, a thief. And honestly, there’s nothing more badass than a dagger-wielding priest preaching the gospel of the Sacred Flame while also tossing knives at anyone who crosses him.
Still, I remember thinking the same of Osvald in Octopath Traveler 2 and eventually growing bored of him because his story got too dragged out and predictable. There are also some duds in the cast here, including Macy the apothecary, whose only defining trait is that she’s a nice person who wants to heal people, but is also willing to break some bones if it comes down to it. So maybe Octopath Traveler 0‘s restraint when it comes to the side characters is actually a good thing.
With your traveling companions relegated to secondary support roles, you’re able to focus more on the player character’s story and their goal of restoring Wishvale. I’m not a huge fan of having the main character be a silent protagonist, but I will say it’s extremely refreshing to follow a single plot line, while still being able to tackle it from different angles. The three main antagonists feel one-dimensional so far, but are so comically evil and heinous to the point where I’m sure I’ll feel immense satisfaction by the time I get around to beating their asses.
Speaking of beatings, I don’t think I’ve seen quite enough of the combat to have a fully formed opinion on it just yet, but my early impressions are that eight-character parties make battles very fun, but also way too easy. Battles are set up such that you can have four characters in the frontline, and four in the backline. At any time, you can hit ZR to swap a character out with the one you have in the backline. While in the backline, characters will restore a small amount of HP and SP each turn. Those characters also gain BP each turn.
As you can probably imagine, this has made early battles very easy, especially as I got closer to forming a full party of eight. Being able to swap characters out quickly means that you can easily break an enemy’s shields, then swap back to their backline character on their next turn to deal damage. It also means that you’ll have easy access to all weapon types, and it becomes much harder for enemies to decimate your party, which was definitely the case in the first two games whenever you were up against tougher bosses.
That being said, combat certainly feels very fun right now, especially since characters now come with moves that allow you to swap between the front and backlines easily. Level grinding has also been a breeze so far, since you can level up eight characters at once. I just hope that Octopath Traveler 0 is able to scale up its enemies once I get into the chapter 2s to help balance things out.
I’ve also dabbled a little in the town-building aspect of the game, which I’m thoroughly enjoying so far. There’s plenty of story content tied to Wishvale’s restoration project, with most of it involving heading out into Orsterra and bringing back Wishvale survivors or recruiting new townspeople with abilities that can come in handy.
As you travel through the world, you’ll interact with resource nodes to yield materials like lumber, stone, and cloth. These nodes will refresh as you clear battles, so it’s always worth trekking through areas you’ve explored before. Certain townspeople can also be invited back to Wishvale, though your chances of persuading them are dependenton your Wealth, Power, and Fame influence (increased by completing quests). Some NPCs will fetch resources for you, while others may shower you with gifts and useful items.
Just inviting them isn’t enough, though, as you’ll need to build houses for them to stay in. As you progress through the Wishvale quests, you’ll unlock a larger area for building, and you can construct and place your structures anywhere you like. There are decorations to unlock, along with other key buildings to help you on your journey. As someone who’s a total sucker for base-building in games, I can’t express just how much I love that this is a thing in Octopath Traveler 0. Every NPC interaction feels a little more meaningful now because you’re actively looking for people who can help you rebuild Wishvale.
For a series that prides itself on its nostalgic pixel aesthetic and creating a sense of warmth and camaraderie as you get to know your party members, the town-building element is a great addition to Octopath Traveler 0. Coming back to Wishvale between missions to chat with your party members and residents, and feeling like you have a nice home to come back to during your journey is very comforting.
Octopath Traveler 0 has me hooked right now. There are still things I’m unsure about, such as enemy balancing and the lack of a compelling main protagonist, but like always, the game somehow manages to pull through solely on the strength of its world-building and combat, and I’m excited to see even more. Stay tuned for my official review in the next few weeks.
An early review code for the game was provided by the publisher.
