Now on its third entry in seven years, the Octopath Traveler sequence and the HD-2D artwork fashion it pioneered have rapidly grow to be RPG stalwarts. They entertain with retro appeal, participating battles, and cute storylines. On that foundation, prequel recreation Octopath Traveler 0 is one other stable dose of turn-based motion destined to please — simply don’t anticipate it to match the highs of the second instalment.
That’s as a result of, reasonably than a very new product, Octopath Traveler 0 is a reimagining of a gacha smartphone recreation known as Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. Sq. Enix has taken the content material from that and overhauled it into a typical launch to various levels of success.
In some methods, it’s a extra expansive model of what the franchise has been up till now. In different methods, it’s not.
We’ve by no means performed Champions of the Continent, so we will’t communicate to how a lot of it has been carried over into the PS5 model. Nonetheless, what has been reworked feels similar to some other recreation.
There’s completely no proof of the content material’s microtransaction-fuelled origins; you don’t have to pay for additional characters, look ahead to countdown timers to tick down, or the rest you’d affiliate with the style. Following its transformation, Octopath Traveler 0 is your common turn-based RPG.
It’s barely completely different to what’s come earlier than it, although.
You create a customized character, and the story revolves fully round you. Relatively than following the lives of a number of folks, you recruit celebration members to allow them to assist you rebuild your hometown of Wishvale and actual revenge in opposition to those that burnt it to the bottom.
These motivations divide the plot into 4 foremost questlines: three of them give attention to pursuing the culprits, whereas the fourth sees you restore Wishvale to its former glory in a brand new town-building mechanic. Besides for brief introductory sequences, anybody you recruit alongside the best way is there purely that will help you accomplish these targets.
The story feels rather more streamlined and simple because of this, letting you focus all of your consideration in your customized character. Octopath Traveler 0 follows an analogous construction to its predecessors, the place every questline is damaged down into chapters with stage suggestions.
Right here, although, you get a cohesive narrative the place every thread builds to a single, better complete. That centered imaginative and prescient produces an pleasurable — if unremarkable — plot to observe.
It’s this rudimentary nature mixed with an amazing sense of familiarity that makes the sport really feel inessential, even when what’s there may be of fine high quality.
The whole lot feels textbook Octopath Traveler, proper from exploration to the fight system. Story chapters are tied to particular cities and areas, so that you enterprise throughout the map whereas opening chests and overcoming random battles, with dialogue and bartering in between.
Octopath Traveler 0 is structured precisely the identical as its predecessors, solely with a further function: city constructing. You’ll be able to accumulate sources throughout your travels and take them again to the scorched remnants of Wishvale to start restoring it.
Having cleared out the particles, you may start putting homes, taverns, retailers, farming websites, decorations, and rather more. The questline tied to the village alerts you to former residents you may welcome again to Wishvale, all of whom include perks and talents in the event that they’re assigned to the suitable construction. Some excel at farming, whereas others work greatest in a store.
The add-on presents an pleasurable distraction from the principle revenge quest and has sufficient depth to make you take care of the city and its residents. There are limits to the system, with a grid dictating the place you may and can’t place buildings. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless an all-round boon for the expertise.
Fight additionally comes with a very acquainted really feel: its turn-based fights nonetheless revolve round exploiting enemy weaknesses to interrupt them and deal additional injury. You enhance characters carrying weapons the monster is prone to to allow them to assault and take away protect factors. As soon as they’re all gone, the enemy is damaged and everybody can assault for extra injury.
It’s similar to the previous two entries, although now the celebration measurement has been doubled to eight. You might have a entrance row and a again row of 4 combatants, and you’ll swap characters between the 2 rows as they take their flip. You solely have management of the entrance row, so the technique comes from buying and selling out and in characters based mostly on their strengths and HP.
A neat sufficient enlargement of the franchise’s fight system, you may accommodate for extra enemies and what they’re weak to. Nonetheless, in apply, fight in Octopath Traveler 0 nonetheless performs out precisely because it does within the earlier two instalments. Now on a 3rd recreation, the strategy feels stable but unexciting — you simply have an additional financial institution of characters to play with.
It’s a notion discovered all through a lot of the recreation: whereas there are developments right here and there, they’re not sufficient to distract from what’s a really, very acquainted expertise.
The sport can be a barely dated one, as not less than a few of its visuals are based mostly on the cell phone recreation launched in 2020. This launched two and a half years previous to Octopath Traveler II, which — throughout the board — seems significantly higher than it. The HD-2D artwork nonetheless shines, however not fairly as brightly because it has prior to now.
Conclusion
Octopath Traveler 0 is a wonderfully stable instalment within the Sq. Enix franchise, although its overwhelming familiarity will make giant components of it really feel like a retread. Its town-building mechanic and expanded celebration system are sensible expansions, and the transfer in the direction of a single, centralised story is a profit. Nonetheless, Octopath Traveler 0 will nonetheless really feel largely the identical in an expertise under that of its predecessors.
