The Octopath Traveler series has quietly grown into being one of Square Enix’s best franchises over the last seven years. It pioneered the now iconic HD-2D art style and has continued to evolve classic turn-based combat into something truly unique and engaging. The biggest criticism of the series, however, has always been its narrative style of telling eight separate stories, with very little, if any, connection to each other. Octopath Traveler II tried to remedy this by having a robust endgame section where all eight storylines converged, allowing more interaction with the party. However, it still had the issue of having next to no interaction between the party before reaching the endgame.
With Octopath Traveler 0, Square Enix leaps into having a singular narrative and central protagonist, without sacrificing the large cast of characters that the series is known for. This leap in narrative design, as well as a rather addictive city-building mechanic, is what sets Octopath Traveler 0 on its path to not only being one of the best games in the series but one of the best JRPGs of the last decade.
Villains Take Center Stage
Unlike other Octopath games, Octopath Traveler 0 begins by having you create your own protagonist, a huge departure from the series’ norm. Your protagonist lives in the cozy little town, Wishvale, tucked away in its own corner of the continent. After a devastating attack where Wishvale is destroyed, you swear to rebuild Wishvale and seek out those who destroyed it for revenge. Joining you on this endeavor are your childhood friends, Stia and Phenn, who also suffered the loss of their family and home in the attack. Along the way, you’ll pick up new party members with their own stories and motivations to help rebuild your town and unravel the mystery of why Wishvale and the powers behind the attack.
Even though there is one narrative throughline, there is still some of the Octopath DNA embedded in how you approach the story. After the initial prologue, you are given three possible story routes to tackle in whichever order you like. Each of these routes has your protagonist investigating three individuals behind the attack on Wishvale: Tytos, a Commander for the Sacred Flames, Herminia, a wealthy financier and brothel owner, and Auguste, a world-famous playwright. Being able to pick and choose which villain storyline to play through and freely switch between them after each chapter is a neat twist on the original Octopath formula, where you would switch between each character’s storyline at your own pace.
All this adds up and makes Octopath Traveler 0 the most cohesive game in the series, as well as having the best story in the series. The way these storylines twist and overlap with each other, eventually converging into a singular storyline that only continues to grow as the game progresses, allowed me to become attached to the story in a way that previous games made difficult. I was able to latch onto plot threads and not have to worry about having to switch to a completely different story and characters. It really shows that Square Enix is listening to feedback from previous games and trying to evolve this franchise until they perfect this already fantastic formula.
That being said, there are still a couple of plotlines that didn’t land for me, mainly due to some uneven voice performances in some scenarios. It’s a shame because a majority of the voice cast do an absolutely incredible job, so much so that the less-than-stellar voicework stands out even more. There is also a focus on a certain character later on in the game that they try to force a redemption arc onto that I just couldn’t buy, no matter how hard they tried to sell it. Even still, the game does such a wonderful job building up each storyline and character over its seventy-plus hour runtime that it’s worth fighting through these weaker sections of the game.
Travelers Assemble!
As fantastic as the story is, the game really shines when it comes to its combat. Octopath Traveler 0 takes the already stellar combat the series is known for and overhauls it in a way that feels equally familiar and brand new. Since the cast of party members has been expanded way past the usual eight, the combat system needed to grow with it. The solution? Expand the usual combat party limit from four to eight by adding a front and back row to your battle formation, while also allowing you to swap front and back row characters at any point during your turn. This seemingly simple change opens up a plethora of strategies that were not possible in past games. Support characters can have passive effects that give front row members buffs or heal characters in the back row at the beginning of rounds. Tankier characters can buff themselves the longer they stay in the front row, boosting their defense or attack. It is such a smart system that makes you think of your team composition constantly, and has you swapping out party members to find your perfect setup.
Furthermore, your created protagonist can swap between different jobs by unlocking them by learning enough skills from your initial starting job class that you choose shortly into the game. Making your main character a wild card capable of taking on any job allows you to shape them to fit into whatever party composition you need for a given encounter. This not only opens up the combat, but also plays into Octopath Traveler 0’s story, which pushes your character as a prophesied “chosen one”. Unfortunately, I was unable to unlock any advanced jobs, which were some of my favorite discoveries in the first two games. Instead, you will recruit special party members later in the game who have unique jobs exclusive to them. While this makes these characters interesting to play as, I wish I could have unlocked those jobs for my main protagonist to play around with as well.
Thankfully, they make up for this by introducing a system that lets you further customize your party in a way that actually feels meaningful. As your characters level up and spend JP on new skills, you can also put additional JP into mastering those skills, which then lets you equip them on other party members. It’s a fun system to tinker with, and the limit of equipping only two inherited skills per character forces you to think carefully about what strategies you want to commit to. It also gives you a reason to keep using characters who have already mastered their class, since they still have something worthwhile to spend their leftover JP on. While I think there is still some room for improvement, this is by far the most complete and satisfying turn-based combat Square Enix has produced since Bravely Default came out in 2012.
If You Build It, They Will Come
When you aren’t out exploring new areas or fighting monsters, you’ll be spending most of your time contributing to the reconstruction of Wishvale. At first, you’ll be limited to just a small section of land to clean up and renovate. However, as you progress through the story, you’ll unlock new areas and buildings to construct. It can be a bit of a slow process, but once the game takes off the training wheels, there is a lot to unpack. There are so many little details you can add to give your version of Wishvale that make it feel like your own. You can place wooden boxes or overturned barrels next to your pub, add flower arrangements around your church, or even create a little market with food and weapon stalls in your town square. After I finished my latest renovations to my town, I never tired of walking through it afterwards, admiring my work.
All these buildings and renovations wouldn’t mean much if you didn’t have anyone living in Wishvale, however. Not only are you in charge of rebuilding the town, but you also have to track down past residents who escaped the original attack, as well as invite other wayward souls to join your community. This is handled through the series’ signature Path Action mechanic. Path Actions let you draw out information from NPCs, pick up items from them, or even hire them to help out in combat. Every so often, you’ll also run into an NPC you can bring back to your town. Once they’re part of your village, they’ll provide a steady flow of resources or help improve the production quality or speed of your farm and other structures.
A Worthwhile Adventure
I was already a fan of the Octopath series, but Octopath Traveler 0 managed to surprise me time and time again. There were a few moments where the storytelling dipped a bit, and I wish the town building opened up a bit faster, but in the grand scheme of things, it succeeds in addressing the issues that many had from the previous games. The narrative is compelling and cohesive, almost every character plays a role in the story and doesn’t feel out of place, and the combat system is the most refined yet in the series. I know there are a few out there who are growing tired of the HD-2D style, but I don’t know if I’ll ever not find it absolutely beautiful. Throw in another excellent soundtrack, and this makes Octopath Traveler 0 easily the best game in the series yet, and it stands toe-to-toe with some of the best JRPGs of this generation.
Disclaimer: Square Enix provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Octopath Traveler 0 for review purposes.
