If you have not heard of Octopath Traveler, you’ve been missing out. It’s easily one of Square Enix’s most interesting new IPs and two games have been released so far in the series, Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2 (review here). It’s also where the new 2.5D system that Square Enix is using for all its retro RPGs came from. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters use it. Triangle Strategy (review here) uses it. Dragon Quest III HD (review here) uses it. Even the new Dragon Quest I & II HD uses it!
But with the series pioneering a return to modern 16 bit visuals and some fantastic storylines, the new Octopath Traveler 0 has a lot to live up to. The first two games changed the way storytelling works in traditional JRPGs. Instead of moving through a linear story, you chose a character, pursued their story, then at a certain point, their story merged with another of your choice, eventually tying together eight separate threads into a larger narrative that was both compelling individually and moving as a whole. It’s an excellent approach that refreshed and revitalized RPG narratives.
Octopath Traveler 0 is a prequel to the first two games and very notably does not do that at all. Yes, that’s right. There are no individual character narratives here. Your mute main character protagonist has a story but the entire game is his story more than any other. In fact, you won’t be switching from plot thread to plot thread here at all and it’s honestly a bit shocking after two games. Instead, this converted 2020 mobile gacha game tells a singular story about the village of the protagonist, the finding of the Rings of Power…wait…that’s not right. Divine Rings…that’s it. Anyway, these rings have been hidden away because they are (gasp) too powerful. Turns out their power is corrupting (who could have seen that coming) and only the Ringbearer can return them to their rightful place. Hmm.
Regardless of any possible parallels, you are the Chosen One and it’s time for you to get those rings back. That means facing the people who destroyed your life and taking them out. While it sounds like a neat plot, there are some major story issues with Octopath Traveler 0, possibly stemming from its origins as a mobile game. The three villains you face in the game are absolute caricatures of real villains. Their motivations are one-dimensional, their evil is childlike, and they are honestly dark comic relief rather than truly villainous, even though some of the acts they perform are surprisingly heinous.
In short, you’re in for about 25 hours of uninspired plot where you gather allies that join your party with limited or no backstory. This is an Octopath game so you get eight companions at a time max (though you have more and can swap them out). That’s a big change from 4 at a time and right in total in previous games. You’ll need them to grind through the game and you can swap from front to back row with no cost, a handy new function that opens up all sorts of strategic options in combat. Skipping the fast travel system and completing all the side quests does end up working out really well to balance your characters out though and much like previous entries in the series, you can go almost anywhere, though areas with too high of an enemy power level will squash you like a bug. By the time you get to the second arc of the story however, you’ll be powerful enough to simply waltz through even the toughest bosses and by the third, the entire game is a joke to breeze through.
You can also challenge most citizens, literally smacking them around in order to get reactions out of them. Once you’ve done so, many can be challenged in combat for items, assistance in battle, or in order to get them to move to your town. A few will even join your party! These battles provide a ton of powerful items and valuable combat experience and you shouldn’t skip them. The extra boosts they give to your grind are incredibly powerful and you’ll end up with expensive items much faster this way. Plus it’s funny to slap them and then chat with them, not that veterans of the series will be surprised by this mechanic.
There’s no job system here except for the main character, so you’ll be using job points to unlock slots in characters and bolster them with additional abilities based on the weapons they carry and their existing powers. It’s pretty easy to level up your characters and there are tons of permanent stat boosting items that greatly improve your powers in combat. The boost system is still in full effect too and by juggling characters, you can maximize boosts as you discover the key weaknesses of each enemy. It’s an elegant combat system that allows for a range of character builds and fast, fun gameplay.
While all this is going on, you’ll also need to build a town. Yep, there’s a building element to Octopath Traveler 0. You’ve got to clear the area, build buildings, put people in those buildings, and then go out into the world and complete a myriad of side quests to get the town rebuilt. You’re definitely going to want to do that too as later parts of the game depend on having an effective town built. The layout doesn’t matter all that much but fulfilling all the expectations of the quests definitely does. As mechanics go, it’s not too bad but hanging out in town isn’t very fun and honestly, neither is placing buildings. It’s more of a necessity than a joy and it feels remarkably restrictive as progress is heavily gated by your ability to complete specific quests before any further town building can commence.
After you get the hang of exploration, build up town, work your way through defeating the main bad guys, and finish the wrap-up, the credits roll and it’s honestly a bit disappointing. But wait, there’s more! Playing on the PS5, your home screen tells you there’s lots more to the game! What’s going on? Well, the credits are definitely not the end here and you’ve only scratched the surface of Octopath Traveler 0. Instead, the entire game up until the credits is just the opening for a much larger and more interesting epic adventure that will now unfold. There are 8 divine rings after all and you’ve only got four of them! Plus, there’s a lot of content to unlock left, there’s no way you were actually done! This is a 100 hour game after all.
On the upside, that 100 hours is going to look gorgeous. The 2.5D system looks excellent here (though oddly very slightly less impressive as the previous entry in the series) and the game is very well fleshed out in terms of fine details in towns and dungeons. Towns look alive even though there are only a handful of people to interact with in each one and should feel much more empty than then do. That’s a tribute to the care that was clearly taken with design work in Octopath Traveler 0 and honestly, it’s a pretty game in every way. The GUI is very accessible, the combat effects are neat, and the character designs are simply excellent. It’s a beautiful game by any standard.
The music is equally good with solid tracks that are both interesting and well-written. Songs are traditional JRPG style with bits of voicework and lots of piano. Nothing ever feels repetitive or out of place and honestly, this is a soundtrack that you’d probably want to own or at the bare minimum, stream! Voice work is also excellent in the game. For this review we went with English voices and while they are absolutely well-done, the poor script in parts of the first portion of the game makes the voice work seem comically over the top. The actors themselves do a great job but it’s tough to overcome some of the cheesier bits.
With all that in mind, there are clearly some flaws in Octopath Traveler 0. Some of this is of course attributable to the conversion from mobile, but the hit-and-miss first portion of the game sucking up so much time is incredibly frustrating when there’s a good game hiding just out of reach so many hours in. On top of that, the town-building is incredibly frustrating as well, both because you’re limited by what you can even build and further limited by having to work through the story to progress in the town. This ends up being an artificial wall and makes you not really want to build the town, even though it’s integral for the later parts of the game. There’s no way you’re training up 36 playable characters by grinding and you’ll need the training grounds you can unlock later in the game just to make everyone usable while you’re out with not even a quarter of them. Patient players will eventually be rewarded by the game but those that just jump in and are guided by impressions will struggle to make it through the first 4 chapters of the main game before getting bored.
Octopath Traveler 0 is a solid game and massive to boot, but it isn’t without some key design flaws. You’re getting a massive 100+ hour journey but long journeys require patience and that isn’t going to be for everyone here as parts of the game feel quite slow intermittently. At $50, that’s a heck of a lot of content for a low price point and as you slowly give new job abilities to your main character and mold the stats and slots of your additional characters, the game allows for some very creative character builds which might appeal to some players. The story does get quite good later on too, even if it’s not the same approach as previous entries in the series. If you’re a fan of old school JRPGs, Octopath Traveler 0 is definitely worth your time, and while it might not be for everyone, it’s an undeniably entertaining ride!
This review is based on a digital copy of Octopath Traveler 0 provided by the publisher. It was played on a Playstation 5 with a 1080p 55” TV and on the Playstation Portal where it played equally well. Octopath Traveler 0 is also available for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.