Octopath Traveler 0 is where the series finally clicked for me

I always appreciated, but never quite lovedSquare Enix Octopath Traveler games. On paper, they were tailor-made for me – a great retro turn-based RPG from a developer company. my favorite series final fantasywhich feature a stunning retro “HD-2D” pixelated visual style.

But they often feel overstuffed, with overly long campaigns that drag out even further due to a bizarre structure that segments characters and storylines. 2023s Octopath Traveler 2 has taken some steps to address these issues compared to its 2018 predecessor, but I still found myself unable to fully immerse myself in the game due to a lingering sense of disconnect and a ridiculously long playtime of 60-plus hours.

WITH Octopath Traveler 0However, I finally liked the series. While some of my previous gripes remained and a few new ones emerged, the core experience feels much more focused this time around, giving this prequel a beating heart that I felt its predecessors lacked.

I'm surprised to say this, not only because of my conflicted feelings about other games, but also because 0unique origin. This is because the game falls into the interesting space of being a port of a mobile game at the same time. And pseudo-remake. This is based on the name of the smartphone Continental Championsis cleaning up its gacha systems and adding a ton of new story and gameplay content to tie it all together. And while it may sound like a Frankenstein's Monster game, it actually works surprisingly well.

IN 0you play as a guard warrior in the small town of Vishvale. When a trio of sadistic villains lay siege to your city in search of divine rings, it's up to you to go out and stop the villains while rebuilding your home. This immediately gives 0the narrative is an emotional hook that I really lacked in previous Octopath games. While they certainly had their share of impressive plot points, there was still a frustrating lack of connection between the individual characters. Even after playing several dozen hours of the second game, I still can’t even really say what it was about. (Compare this to another Square Enix HD-2D RPG, fabulous Live Alivewhich makes the whole “story” much more coherent, memorable and narratively enjoyable.)

But in 0I didn't feel the same sense of disconnect because everything comes back to Wishvale. This is largely due to the fact that this is the first Octopath a game where you create your own hero and play as him from start to finish. This ensures you never lose sight of your Wishvale center yarn. Even when you recruit new characters – and there are an impressive 30 of them – it's all based on your journey to help them rebuild your home.

And here it seems significant, because everyone has a role to play in this endeavor. Thanks to the amazingly robust city building mechanics, you'll be able to build all sorts of houses, shops, farms, and other buildings that the people you hire can contribute to. An early example of this is Tyme, a man who escaped from the burning Wishing Valley to drink away his sorrows. Having convinced him to overcome his pain, he is now in my city, periodically giving me stone, a material that I can use for other buildings. What's more, the world of Orsterra is full of resources to collect throughout its regions, constantly making you feel like you're progressing toward Wishvale even when you're miles away from it.

The city building mechanic works surprisingly well

All this connective tissue has helped me stay invested along the way. 0even when it brought up some of the above issues I had with the other Octopath games. In particular, there is still an innate detachment between most of the characters. When you start a new quest chain, your party suddenly disappears into cutscenes, with only your silent protagonist appearing along with those new faces relevant to that particular storyline. In my opinion, role-playing games are at their best when your party feels interconnected and strongly tied to the main story, so I still don't like that angle.

But again, it's much nicer because everything comes back to Wishvale. And bringing everyone together for this common good truly creates a unique sense of community. Honestly, I was surprised to see that I cared about this small town. Games like Animal Crossing And Stardew Valley It's not usually my thing, but implementing these kind of city building mechanics in an RPG works really well.

0 also handles the anthology storytelling format better than previous ones Octopath games. Essentially, there are several major storylines associated with each of the villains, which already feels much more focused than the disjointed storylines of other games. This gives each arc a distinct and memorable flavor based on the antagonist in question, as an exploration of class warfare against the cruel aristocrat Herminia. Overall, the villains are incredibly strong, with each storyline having its own compelling hook.

This is especially important because this is another mind-bogglingly large game that can take at least 100 hours to complete. This makes it even longer than the other two. Octopath games, and I have to admit, it tested my patience at times. (For full transparency, I still haven't completed the entire game due to the significant time commitment.) 0 definitely shouldn't have lasted this long, especially since it only doubles down on the bloat that its predecessors suffered from.

This is especially unfortunate because 0 in fact, this is one of those games that becomes good and truly “good” after a couple of dozen hours of play. It's certainly decent early on, but both the city-building in Vishvale and the turn-based combat don't really come to life until you've made significant progress in them. In the first case, the size of the land you'll have to work with (which already varies depending on the system you're playing on) increases as you recruit more people and level up the city, thus deepening this mini-game.

The fight takes time to warm up

It's not that bad per se, but the combat definitely suffers a little more from such sluggish pacing early on. This is because the game is designed for groups of eight people, but it may take a while to complete. This means that the early battles are your typical small group. Octopath using standard weapon attacks to exploit an opponent's weaknesses, which in turn can “break” them, causing short periods of vulnerability. The clever Brave Point system also returns, allowing you to accumulate up to four points to perform multiple attacks at once or power up an ability. But overall, it's essentially just alternating between the two without any deeper issues to delve into.

But eventually you'll have enough characters to create groups of eight, and that opens up combat options in all sorts of ways. The way it works is that your main attack team of four will still be in the front row, with the back row ostensibly a support team that can provide passive effects such as SP (MP) recovery or buffing. But you can change teams at any time, which of course adds a layer of strategy, especially when it comes to hacking and power supply. Using the front row to make the enemy vulnerable before switching to a backup team fully equipped with BP means you can launch an all-out attack. Or, on the other hand, perhaps a particularly tough boss will require you to have a more defensive lineup that can be swapped around.

Naturally, potential party configurations will only become more complex the more characters you unlock. AND 0 features more stellar music from series composer Yasunori Nishiki, providing the necessary uplifting atmosphere to accompany the increasingly grandiose and challenging boss battles. When it all comes together Octopath Traveler really sings.

In the end, it was the high that kept me going. 0. While it maintains – and sometimes even exacerbates – the series' core problems with structure and pacing, it makes significant improvements to the storytelling of the overarching and emotionally rich story and bolsters it with interesting twists not often seen in similar RPGs, such as city building and increased party sizes. Unlike the other two Octopath games, I can definitely see myself lasting until the end 0something I didn't expect at all from a repurposed mobile game. If you are willing to devote a lot of time to this, Octopath Traveler 0 ultimately worth your time.

Octopath Traveler 0 now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.

Image credit: Square Enix