Shortly after the discharge of Octopath Traveler on the Nintendo Change, Sq. Enix sought to capitalise on its success with a cellular prequel known as Champions of the Continent. As with many video games on cellular, it was crammed with microtransactions and gacha nonsense, however by all accounts it was a fairly strong sport nonetheless. Now, it’s been reworked and remodeled into a correct, premium console launch, and the outcomes are fairly beautiful. Extra than simply the reheated leftovers of a gacha sport from half a decade in the past, Octopath Traveler 0 looks like a completely fledged entry in among the best RPG sequence in the marketplace — although it’s not with out its points.
Octopath Traveler 0 takes place some period of time earlier than the primary Octopath Traveler sport, and is about largely in the identical world as that sport, albeit with some minor and main adjustments to some cities and places. It’s the primary sport within the sequence that allows you to insert your self into the story, with a player-created character that acts as the first protagonist all through the sport.
When you’ve created a personality, you’re thrown into the city of Wishvale, the place you grew up and the place you’ve lived all of your life. You’re simply barely an grownup, and your dad – the captain of the guard – thinks it’s time so that you can be a part of the guard and assist preserve Wishvale secure.
Sadly, this can be a JRPG, so Wishvale remaining secure isn’t what occurs. As an alternative, it will get swarmed by power-hungry fiends, a few of whom have the backing of the church. Their overwhelming energy and ruthless ways see the city razed to the bottom, your mother and father slain, and a lot of the townspeople killed in chilly blood. Wishvale and its individuals are no extra.
Fortunately, you, a few your childhood mates, and some different fortunate souls have been capable of escape. You might have an opportunity encounter with an odd scholar who hides you in his house within the countryside, helps you practice, and provides you an almighty magic ring. There are numerous different rings prefer it, he tells you, and the individuals liable for destroying Wishvale are amongst them.
What follows is a really lengthy, very disjointed story of renewal and revenge. Our participant character needs to rebuild Wishvale, return it to its former glory and perhaps even past, and that requires assets, helpers, affect, and loads of time. However additionally they need to get revenge on the monsters who killed their household, their mates, and their fellow townsfolk. There may be some crossover – taking down these horrible and highly effective individuals helps enhance the protagonist’s standing on the earth and put Wishvale on the map – however for probably the most half, you’re left balancing the will to rebuild with the will to get revenge.
This generally is a bit odd at occasions, as a result of you’ll be able to simply ignore rebuilding totally if you’d like. I assume that is, at the least partly, a surprisingly dissonant leftover from the sport’s origins as cellular sport Champions of the Continent — Wishvale doesn’t exist in that sport, so there’s no city to rebuild. Different components of the story have been expanded on and adjusted considerably, I perceive, however a lot of it follows within the cellular sport’s footsteps. That’s not a nasty factor, the storytelling is generally glorious, and with the protagonist’s motivation behind it, all of it feels largely coherent and pleasing.
Mercifully, this isn’t a drained story about breaking the cycle of revenge. Even if you happen to weren’t personally concerned within the villains’ evil plots, they’re characters that would wish coping with, as they’re purely and monstrously evil, with far fewer shades of gray than villains seen prior within the sequence. The brutality of those characters is a step above — one early-game villain, for instance, is a playwright who commits heinous atrocities, even in opposition to his personal son, to make use of as materials for his on-stage tragedies. One other is a former struggle hero who tries to drug troopers in his command into senseless killing machines, kidnapping and enslaving the family members of scientists engaged on these medication to make sure manufacturing continues.
That’s to not say there’s no nuance. Even at their most heinous, there may be humanity mirrored in lots of of those villains, it’s simply outweighed by their monstrous tendencies. That is punctuated moderately bluntly as you face off in opposition to them, as every transforms right into a horrible, disgusting beast halfway by way of battle — they’re human, in fact, however there’s an evil deep inside that can not be ignored.
The fight and techniques surrounding it in Octopath Traveler 0 are as strong as ever, and perhaps even somewhat bit higher than previous video games. The principle additions to the fight are the brand new rows system, and the protagonist’s job system, each of which add an incredible quantity of depth to an already improbable turn-based fight system.
The addition of rows in fight is by far the perfect facet of Octopath 0, although I perceive that is largely inherited from Champions of the Continent. Nonetheless, Octopath 0 helps you to place 4 characters within the entrance row – the same old “principal get together”, so to talk – and a further 4 characters within the again row, every of which stands behind a entrance row character. Throughout the entrance row character’s flip, you’ll be able to press ZR to modify them out with the again row character, which lets the previously entrance row character get well HP and SP whereas the previously again row character takes all of the harm and dishes out strikes.
It sounds sophisticated, and it definitely might be at occasions, as you’re successfully working with eight get together members at any given time. What makes this method so pleasing is the little synergies that such a system permits — most characters have a capability that may have an effect on the entrance or the again row, or a capability that interacts with their place within the battle. One character, for instance, will get a harm enhance in the event that they began their flip within the again row, whereas one other might be swapped in, solid a heal, after which routinely transfer again into the again row after performing. These synergies are easy on their face, however while you’ve received eight characters in your get together, they rapidly grow to be complicated and fascinating, as there may be successfully no finish to how your get together is about up and the way it can work collectively.
The protagonist’s new job system is rather more easy as compared — there are eight jobs for the protagonist to select from, they usually can swap between them after studying a couple of skills inside that job. Different get together members are largely caught inside their set archetypes, however the protagonist with the ability to swap between jobs successfully makes them eight characters in a single. For those who’re going right into a struggle that you already know magic is nice for, you’ll be able to swap to a magic-focused job to dish out fireballs. Or, if you happen to’re struggling to maintain your get together alive, you’ll be able to change your protagonist to a cleric and preserve everybody healed up. These are all issues that different get together members can do too, however if you happen to’ve received a celebration that works in your playstyle, the flexibility of the protagonist makes for a way more adaptive expertise.
All of that is constructed upon what I think about to be among the best fight techniques in turn-based RPGs so far. In my overview of the primary Octopath Traveler, I praised the fight system greater than the rest. It’s probably the most refined, most well-developed model of the Courageous system first launched in Bravely Default, and it feels unbelievable to choose away at weaknesses to interrupt an enemy, then blast them with a completely powered up assault. Every little thing I mentioned in that overview applies right here, and with the extra tips up its sleeve, it’s onerous to think about many different turn-based fight techniques holding a candle to this one.
When it comes to presentation, I even have little to complain about. Octopath Traveler 0 seems to be improbable on the Change 2, and I a lot desire its full implementation of the HD-2D artwork model in comparison with Dragon Quest’s midway effort. The world is gorgeous, the fight is filled with unnecessary however attractive particle results, and save for a couple of odd shimmers right here and there, it nearly all the time seems to be phenomenal. The soundtrack, in fact, can be nice, with composer Yasunori Nishiki having achieved a improbable job, as all the time.
For as a lot reward as I’ve for Octopath 0, I’ve some frustrations with it, too. Like the primary Octopath sport, Octopath 0’s storytelling is disjointed and indifferent from itself. All through a lot of the primary story, your touring companions – of which there are dozens – are nearly totally absent, as a result of the sport can not, at any given time, account for who’s touring with you, or if you happen to’ve collected sure characters out on the earth. With so many get together members, rewriting the eventualities dozens of occasions to account for some characters being current and others not can be a monumental activity, and that activity, understandably, has not been undertaken. Octopath Traveler 2 helped in some methods with this, however it simply doesn’t appear potential right here, which is disappointing.
There are a couple of minor exceptions, and the rebuilding storyline contains a acquainted and protracted solid of get together members and NPCs, however different storylines most frequently simply introduce new characters to work with. A few of these characters are fairly fascinating and funky, too, which makes it all of the extra irritating that they’re not among the many small military of oldsters I’ve collected for my get together. In consequence, it’s simple to miss the truth that your get together members are characters in any respect — for a lot of the sport’s runtime, every get together member is little greater than a instrument in your fight toolbox, able to be taken out and smashed in opposition to an issue when it arises.
There’s additionally simply approach an excessive amount of occurring. It’s a really lengthy sport, with dozens of little storylines that largely don’t work together, nearly as many areas to go to, and a whole lot of characters to wrap your head round. It’s as dense as it’s lengthy, too, and whereas there may be an possibility to hurry up cutscenes – which I used liberally – it nonetheless feels prefer it’s overstaying its welcome at occasions. I nonetheless principally loved my prolonged time with it, however I believe many gamers will bounce lengthy earlier than the credit roll, as a result of it’s completely large, even whether it is good.
There are a couple of minor gripes, too. Some storylines really feel rushed and underdeveloped, whereas others really feel like they may very well be complete video games in their very own proper. Some swaying results in sure fight environments are completely nauseating, and there’s little in the best way of accessibility choices to assist scale back that. And there are some story moments that basically don’t land in any respect. After Triangle Technique’s dicey try at telling tales about slavery, I’d hoped that future video games from Sq. Enix would avoid the subject, however this one has not, and whereas it’s not as dangerous as Triangle Technique in that regard, it’s nonetheless not nice.
Regardless of some frustrations, it’s onerous to disclaim that Octopath Traveler 0 is yet one more profitable and pleasing entry within the sequence. It’s improbable that the wonderful story content material beforehand locked behind a cellular sport is extra accessible and even improved, and new additions to an already great fight system make it a pleasure to play.
Score: 4/5
