Now on its third entry in seven years, the Octopath Traveler collection and the HD-2D artwork model it pioneered have rapidly develop into RPG stalwarts. They entertain with retro appeal, participating battles, and cute storylines. On that foundation, prequel recreation Octopath Traveler 0 is one other strong 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, quite than a totally new product, Octopath Traveler 0 is a reimagining of a gacha smartphone recreation referred to 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 are able to’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 must pay for further characters, anticipate countdown timers to tick down, or anything you’d affiliate with the style. Following its transformation, Octopath Traveler 0 is your ordinary turn-based RPG.
It’s barely totally different to what’s come earlier than it, although.
You create a customized character, and the story revolves fully round you. Fairly than following the lives of a number of folks, you recruit celebration members to allow them to aid 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 important questlines: three of them concentrate on 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 way in which is there purely that will help you accomplish these objectives.
The story feels rather more streamlined and simple consequently, 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 degree suggestions.
Right here, although, you get a cohesive narrative the place every thread builds to a single, larger entire. That centered imaginative and prescient produces an fulfilling — 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 excellent high quality.
All the things 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 an extra function: city constructing. You possibly can 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 appropriate construction. Some excel at farming, whereas others work finest in a store.
The add-on presents an fulfilling 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 an excessively acquainted really feel: its turn-based fights nonetheless revolve round exploiting enemy weaknesses to interrupt them and deal further injury. You enhance characters carrying weapons the monster is prone to to allow them to assault and take away defend 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’ve gotten 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 growth of the franchise’s fight system, you may accommodate for extra enemies and what they’re weak to. Nonetheless, in observe, fight in Octopath Traveler 0 nonetheless performs out precisely because it does within the earlier two instalments. Now on a 3rd recreation, the method feels strong 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 no 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 — appears 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 superbly strong 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 good expansions, and the transfer in 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.
