Octopath Traveler 0 review: This is your story

Octopath Traveler 0 brings the Champions of the Continent story to a crowd that may or may not have played it, such as myself. While I adore the Octopath franchise, I don’t really play many mobile games, and as such, completely missed out on the launch of Champions of the Continent. Those who have played it are no doubt going to see a lot of stories and characters they’re familiar with, and that’s perfectly fine.

That said, it’s a colossal game with a ton of content, amazing stories, both happy and tragic in equal measures. One of the things I love about this series is how it doesn’t stray away from stories that might be incredibly dark, or sorrowful. I appreciate that, as long as there’s a solid payoff at the end. I definitely get that from spending 80 or so hours playing Octopath Traveler 0.

Octopath Traveler 0 brings the Champions of the Continent story to a new platform

The storyline from Champions of the Continent comes to life in a new way in Octopath Traveler 0. Specifically, there’s no gatcha gameplay, no extra money to spend. You can unlock all of the characters by just playing through the game, and completing their quest or storyline objective. It definitely feels like it fits into the Octopath franchise, that’s for sure.

Familiar locations, new challenges, that's Octopath Traveler 0! (Image via Square Enix) — Familiar locations, new challenges, that’s Octopath Traveler 0! (Image via Square Enix)

Even players who have never played the mobile game will see some familiar faces and cameos, and that was easily one of my favorite things. I won’t spoil everyone that’s available, but take it from me, that there is no shortage of fantastic party members, familiar or otherwise.

The primary focus of the story is around your own created character, a first for the series, who suffers a tragic attack on their home village of Wishvale. A series of cruel characters are involved in this attack, and it’s up to your character to do two important things:

Seek justice, and claim the rings those villains carry.
Rebuild Wishvale, finding old friends, and inviting newcomers to your town.

I will say that this story is much longer than I expected. I figured this was going to be some 20-30 hour RPG, and that I’d be done with Octopath Traveler 0 before I knew it. Was I ever mistaken! This game easily can go into 100 hour territory, depending on how much side content and grinding you do. My file is currently around the 90-hour mark, and I still have a few things left I’d like to complete.

Combat is improved from previous entries thanks to the 8-person party

If a character dies, they get pushed to the back row. You can revive them at least, so all is not lost (Image via Square Enix)

Combat is more or less exactly how you remember it from the other Octopath Traveler games, but the addition of the front row/back row system (8-person party) is a major upgrade.

For those who aren’t familiar, every enemy in Octopath is weak to a variety of weapons and magic types. Almost every character can use two weapons, and many of those also have access to elemental magic types.

You can also unlock Masteries (Passive and Active skills) that you can equip to characters, to augment what they can do, or add on additional skills like Poison Breath, or elemental magic attacks. This means your already huge roster of characters can do just about anything you want.

One of the best things about this game is that you can build the tactical party of your dreams (Image via Square Enix)

In battle, you can freely swap between the front and back row, with each front row character being partnered to the person behind them. There are even synergies for this, with some characters doing more damage if you swap them into the front on that turn.

There are so many great things about the Octopath Traveler 0 combat system, that’s for sure. You can still Boost to do additional attacks/more damage, but being able to create these powerful combos and synergies with the additional 4 characters cannot be understated. It offers you a wide variety of possibilities, and backups, in case you need them.

Wishvale, Wishvale, build me a Wish

It takes some time and effort, but it will be worth it (Image via Square Enix)

One of the main objectives of Octopath Traveler 0 is recovering from the devastating attack on Wishvale. To do that, you’ll need to craft a wide assortment of houses and buildings. The buildings range from “giving someone a home” to the incredibly useful Training Grounds, which lets your non-current party members continue to grow.

You also need to recruit people to live in Wishvale in Octopath Traveler 0. Some of them will be former villagers, and those will invariably involve quests where they come to grips with what they’ve lost.

Elite enemies lurk everywhere in Orsterra (Image via Square Enix)

Others are easier to convince. Sometimes you just have to ask, other times, you need specific foods, or other items to give them. Thankfully, it’s not a huge chore to build your facilities, since crafting reagents respawn quickly and are on most overworld maps. However, if you want to upgrade them, you need to defeat Elite Enemies around Orsterra. They drop items you need to actually upgrade facilities.

This does lead me to one of the few problems I really had with Octopath Traveler 0, and I don’t think it’s going to be an issue with most other players. The level requirements for the Kindlers of the Flame quests (quests involving Wishvale) very quickly ramp up. Since I was focused on building the village first, I wound up anywhere from 10-20 levels higher than most of the Master of quests.

It also led me to exploring more of the world before I technically needed to, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It was dangerous, but it was also kind of nice, in a way. I was picking up treasures far before I would normally run into them.

With this in mind, I recommend perhaps a better balance of rebuilding Wishvale, compared to the other main story quests. Thankfully, I like overleveling, but it trivialized some of the bosses, while others, such as ones for the Wishvale quests, were much harder the first time I attempted them.

Grinding felt a bit better than previous Octopath games

There are plenty of ways to make grinding less annoying, that's for sure (Image via Square Enix) — There are plenty of ways to make grinding less annoying, that’s for sure (Image via Square Enix)

One thing I definitely was worried about while starting Octopath Traveler 0 was the grind. It’s my least favorite part of the other two games. While normally, I enjoy a lengthy level grind, the way Octopath 1 and 2 approached it was miserable to me. Fishing for dancer procs was the most unfortunate thing.

Leveling felt smoother in this one, and the regular enemies didn’t feel super powerful. You also have options for increasing Exp/JP from cooking, and from some of the statues in the town of Wishvale. In addition, there are passives and equippable items that increase your gains, so it’s really not so bad.

For example, you can equip a passive that increases the chance that rare monsters (Caits) show up, and then one that increases your overall encounter rate. Then you just fight on a map that you feel comfortable killing quickly on, and hopefully, a few Caits show up.

Octopath Traveler 0 looks and sounds fantastic, with only one flaw

Just look at these boss designs! What a great aesthetic (Image via Square Enix)

I adore the graphics in Octopath Traveler 0. The pixel art is brilliant, and the designs of the in-battle monsters/bosses are superb. I know that sort of change isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely for me. The soundtrack is remarkable, as well. Octopath always had one of the best boss themes around, and I think this version of the Octopath soundtrack is easily the best in the series.

However, I did have one really weird problem with the game’s performance. I played on the PS5 Pro, and almost every time I transitioned to another screen, if I still had my thumb on the stick, the game would briefly stutter before allowing me to move on.

It was weird, but not gamebreaking. It was just kind of annoying after a while. That’s the only performance issue I dealt with, and it didn’t really start happening in a noticeable way until about halfway through the game.

Final Thoughts

Joy, sorrow, hope, and tragedy. It's all here (Image via Square Enix) — Joy, sorrow, hope, and tragedy. It’s all here (Image via Square Enix)

Octopath Traveler 0 is an incredibly fun game that handles stories of tragedy and sorrow in a way that feels good, and makes sense. It’s the first time you get to make your own character in this series, and that was just another nice little touch to make you feel connected to the town of Wishvale.

While I did have moments where I was definitely under/overleveled, it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment. I approached the game the way I did, and I don’t plan on changing that when I play through this again later. The only other real issue is one that’s a rich tradition in Octopath Traveler: Boss Difficulty.

The deeper you get into the game, the more ridiculous enemy health becomes. Until you can break damage limit, this is going to feel miserable. Even when you do, until you get to the really big numbers, some boss/Elite fights are just going to be downright awful.

I think if I were playing casually I’d grind harder, and this would be far less of an issue, though. Other than a couple of minor mechanical problems in terms of difficulty and performance, I absolutely adored Octopath Traveler 0, and highly recommend it to newcomers and fans of the series alike.