Announced at the end of July, Square Enix’s upcoming Octopath Traveler 0 releases in just a few weeks’ time on December 4th. We’ve been given a chance to preview the opening hours of the game and I have to say that I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.
Any day I can revisit the world of Octopath Traveler is a good day, and Octopath Traveler 0 has been scratching that itch wonderfully. Set in the land of Orsterra, the world of the first game, a few years prior to the events of that game, OT 0 is based on story elements from the mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, remade from the ground up. The story starts in the small, yet bustling town of Wishvale, on the eve of their annual Day of Remembrance. For the first time ever in the series, your main character will not be one of eight protagonists, but a player-created character, customizable in the character creator in the beginning of the game. Following a tragedy that razes the town and leaves few survivors, your character and a childhood friend set out to rebuild Wishvale, and get revenge on those who took nearly everything from you.
It’s an interesting setup for an Octopath game, to be focused solely on one blank slate character taking part in several stories rather than the separate stories of eight fleshed-out characters. It’s an approach that doesn’t feel very “Octopath” to me, though I’m only in the early hours of the story so my feelings may change. In a game like this where the protagonist is so customizable, it’s tough to actually make them feel like an important part of the story, and I’m certainly feeling that as I begin my journey. Your player character is a silent protagonist, though as events unfold in the story they clearly do have reactions to what’s happening and have conversations with other characters; we just never actually get to see what those reactions and conversations are beyond facial expressions and a dialogue box filled with three blinking dots. This leaves any exposition to be done by all the characters around you, which removes some of the impact of certain story beats.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the cast of characters I’ve met so far, even if a few of them are a little over the top. The voice performances have been top notch so far and I’m excited to hear more as I spend more time with the cast. One benefit that Octopath Traveler 0 brings to the table thanks to not having to stick to eight core characters is a huge cast of playable party members being available, with the advertised total being over 30 characters. Being able to experiment with different classes so quickly is a lot of fun thanks to a revamped battle system that allows eight party members on the field at one time, meaning you can mix and match to overcome any foe with a little bit of strategizing. Puzzling out enemy weaknesses and the best way to take advantage of the break and boost system has long been one of my favorite aspects of Octopath Traveler, and that’s greatly deepened here with the additions to the battle system.
Town Building makes its debut in Octopath Traveler 0, with your player character working to rebuild Wishvale. There’s a fully fleshed out town builder/management system here, and it’s been fun to play around with building different facilities and decorations as I make my way through the early quests available to me. You can build facilities and invite characters to come live in Wishvale, leading to several different kinds of perks and benefits to both your town as a whole and to your party members as you venture across Orsterra. My own Wishvale is still relatively tiny, but I’m excited to build it back to its former glory and beyond as I make my way through the full game.
I’m sure there’s a ton of content just waiting for me to discover within Octopath Traveler 0, and I’m more than happy to keep on journeying through Orsterra to keep getting my Octopath fix. If my playtime with Octopath Traveler II is any indication, I’m sure to stick with this one for many dozens of hours to come, and hopefully I’ll enjoy every second of it.
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Written by Jaxson Tapp
As a lover of gaming and the written word, Jaxson currently fills his time not only with playing games, but also writing about them. Ready for anything, Jaxson’s passion for puzzle games, JRPGs, tough platformers, and whimsical indies helps him bring a well-rounded opinion to Nintendo Wire’s reporting.
