Review – Octopath Traveler 0

It’s an experience that deserved to have reached consoles and PC before taking the disastrous path as a mobile game. Developed by DokiDoki Groove and published by , this tactical RPG game is the reimagining of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, transforming what was a gacha into a pure and complete AAA quality experience.

Octopath Traveler 0 represents not only a new adventure in the region of Orsterra, but also a declaration that this excellent story deserved a permanent home outside the predatory scheme of microtransactions. The game puts you in the position of creating your own protagonist, breaking with the tradition of narrating eight parallel stories that the franchise has established, and in its place offers a much more cohesive and in-depth narrative that spans dozens of hours of gameplay.

A new ring to rule them all

The narrative of Octopath Traveler 0 has a devastating beginning that serves to immediately establish the emotional consequences of this journey. Wishvale, the small and prosperous village where your character resides, is reduced to ashes in an attack orchestrated by three antagonists: Tytos, Auguste and the refined Herminia. In this chaos and destruction, during an important festival, you are presented with a mystical artifact that is based on the cliché of the famous magic rings. The motivation behind the destruction of his home village also builds the plot through a narrative of revenge and restoration that runs the entire length of the game.

Unlike its predecessors, which featured fragmented stories between eight distinct characters, Octopath Traveler 0 orbits around a much more unified narrative structure that explores the mysteries surrounding these artifacts and the rebuilding of the community you left behind. The story is surprisingly dark and intricate for a traditional RPG title, touching on themes of loss, revenge, and communal hope that resonate far beyond the moments in play.

The narrative construction also demonstrates impressive maturity in the way it structures its story arcs. After the devastating prologue, the narrative unfolds into a series of chapters and thematic arcs that convey the villains’ desires (Wealth, Fame and Power). This approach creates a sense of narrative balance that avoids the fragmentation felt in the first Octopath Traveler, in which jumping between eight different stories sometimes left the player a little lost while building the whole.

Unlike the story format, Square Enix maintained the franchise’s turn-based combat tradition that defines the series, but following the mobile base game ended up causing an evolution into something more interesting. Unlike the first game which limited you to a party of four characters, Octopath Traveler 0 allows you to recruit up to thirty different companions, of which you can have eight simultaneously in your active combat group. This fundamental change transforms the game from an exploration puzzle into a true strategic composition puzzle for your group.

News that requires strategy and balance

You can’t just put your eight strongest characters on the field, as you’ll need to make sure you have a wide variety of different skills, jobs, and weapon types. Additionally, the new skirmish formation system allows you to organize your eight combatants into an offensive front line and a defensive rear, each with four characters, and switching between them during combat. This real-time trading system adds a tactical layer that was missing in previous games, making decisions during combat much more dynamic and rewarding.

Octopath Traveler 0’s mechanics and gameplay remain true to the pillars that made the series so beloved by JRPG fans. The Boost and Break system remains the heart of combat. Simultaneously, each enemy has a number of shield points based on their specific weapon and elemental weaknesses. The game keeps these fundamental mechanics intact, but added a layer with the new system called Action Skills, with skills that can be learned through items found during exploration and that can be shared and assigned between characters.

This innovation allows for unprecedented customization of your combat party, allowing you to build seemingly impossible combinations, like a healing mage who also deals critical hits or a thief who boosts allies. Additionally, each character now has Ultimate Techniques tied to the story and which are charged by spending Boost Points. With these additions, combat has become more agile and has a well-balanced difficulty progression.

Inheritances of the gacha format

It’s impossible not to compare Octopath Traveler 0 to Champions of the Continent, as the main features of the new title in the franchise carry a lot of the structure of gacha games. However, Square Enix managed to completely overturn the harmful luck-based system, making it so that you can recruit as many as thirty possible companions through the narrative and the world, building real relationships with them instead of treating them like numbers in a mobile game.

Octopath Traveler manages to expand this concept of shorter and faster battles, with more dynamic combats due to the new features, bringing synergy when choosing our party and deeper customization of skills. Unfortunately, the legacy of the gacha format has not been completely expunged, as the story has inconsistent rhythms and imbalance depending on the group construction, as now you are sure that you will get the best characters and equipment.

This ends up being enhanced by the city-building system associated with Wishvale, which exists as you travel to seek revenge and actively work to rebuild your community. You build simple houses, workshops that unlock construction features, taverns that function as hubs where you can cook, rest and reorganize your group, shops, and decorations focusing on the look of the city. Nothing is free and everything is linked to the progression of the story and the protagonist, but it still carries functionality from the mobile game that could be replaced by secondary missions.

Octopath Traveler 0’s art direction maintains and enhances the distinctive HD-2D style that made its predecessors visually memorable. The characters’ pixel art sprites are very detailed, using multiple subtle tonal variations to create life and volume. Environments range from idyllic villages to dark dungeons to intricate urban cities, each rendered with a genuine attention to detail that makes exploration visually satisfying. Wishvale, in particular, is a visual treat as you rebuild, transforming a bleak field of ruins into a living, breathing community.

Octopath Traveler 0’s soundtrack, composed by veteran Yasunori Nishiki, continues the tradition of musical excellence that defines the series. Compositions range from melancholic, intrusive tracks that define moments of personal loss and reflection to epic orchestral pieces that accompany monumental final boss clashes. The game’s dynamic and adaptive music system, where combat tracks change and evolve based on which character is in your party, adds an unexpected layer of personalization to the musical experience.

Octopath Traveler 0 is a clear statement that an extraordinary story deserved to live in a permanent place, not trapped behind microtransactions and gacha summons. It is perhaps the most cohesive game in the series, combining a combat system that has undergone refinement and continues to evolve with good ideas, through a deep narrative that spans dozens of hours of content, all with an art direction that harmonizes nostalgia and modernity, and a soundtrack that captures the epic feelings of memorable JRPGs.

For fans of tactical RPGs, perhaps the small flaws inherited from the gacha format may be a little annoying, but Octopath Traveler 0 is proof of how a studio can take an excellent idea that was hampered by an exploratory business model and transform it into something genuinely interesting and artistic.