Octopath Traveler 0 leads with a lot of messages directly to the player over a shimmering background. In this game, the player is assured, you can be anyone. You can go anywhere.
It sounds great: a promise that many games make, but exceedingly few deliver on. Unfortunately, Octopath Traveler 0 is closer to the empty promise of the many than the delivery on the few.
Freedom Facade
Where this freedom fails is the story that Octopath Traveler 0 attempts to tell. Instead of using the eight protagonists that defined the original Octopath, 0 centers your journey around antagonists. Specifically, these antagonists embody the temptations of Fame, Power, and Wealth.
Gone are the days of small vignettes. Instead, this tale is a continent-spanning epic about warring kingdoms. The bigger war going on is between the story and the game that’s containing it. Octopath’s structure of chapters that last around an hour or two is perfect for smaller-scale stories, as a few bite-sized, self-contained stories lead to a climactic conclusion.
On the other hand, this longer-form story struggles. It cycles through a seemingly endless supply of new characters, nearly all of whom are one of two absolutes: “I am a good guy” or “I am a bad guy.” None of them goes through meaningful growth or change.
During dialogue exchanges your custom character protagonist has with this large cast, you’ll occasionally be prompted to make choices. These choices, a totally new addition to the franchise, are also a superfluous one. Every time you make a choice, there is a clear “right” and “wrong” answer. If you choose the wrong one, you’re usually just taken back to the dialogue choice. Less Baldur’s Gate, more Pokémon.
This created protagonist also comes at the cost of the usual octet of heroes on your journey. Where previous games had the heroes’ personalities at the forefront, 0 has only your created protagonist with no dialogue. In attempting to create a canvas, Octopath Traveler 0 is left with more of a husk.
Familiar Feelings
Where Octopath Traveler 0 shines is in the places it borrows from its predecessors. The turn-based battle system is as sharp as ever. Strategizing Boost Points and attack types to Break your opponents is immensely satisfying.
With how balanced the game is around the new, more singular story, the level curve is more direct. Your party members will all begin to have all of their skills unlocked and reach their full potential right at the final showdown. It feels free of level scaling issues that have plagued other entries.
The biggest change is with the freedom granted by the additional party members. Your battle party consists of eight characters instead of 4. This means that certain party members can take a supporting role in the back row, while a vanguard fights up front. This switch-up refreshed the already top-of-the-class battle system in a very engaging way.
To support this greater battle, you can get quite a few new heroes in your total ranks. Instead of the usual eight, there are loads of characters to find– my final crew had 15– and it’s fun to try out all of the different combinations. You’ll find a few favorites: shoutout to Viator, the best tank a guy could ask for. However, changing out your party is a quick menu away.
This sizable band of heroes comes at the cost of the old skill upgrade style and a new, more rigid system. Like all Octopath games, you gain more agency as time goes on, but it’s a long walk. It’s a neat change, but I’m hoping not the new normal.
It also still has the same HD-2D style that the series has become known for. It still has its same perks– gorgeous pop-up book environments, cool enemy battle sprites– and its same drawbacks– lack of character expression, limitations of how varied characters look. It also has the same great soundtrack as the first two games, but it is mostly reused from other games.
Also returning from the original games is the lengthy endgame. Octopath Traveler is at its best when you can break the battle system, and getting the last tools to do so is always a satisfying feeling.
Octopath Traveler 0 | Final Thoughts
Octopath Traveler 0 is a game at odds with itself. The game presents a fantasy: you can go anywhere. You can be anyone.
In reality, every added freedom comes at too high of a cost. There are more party members than ever, but in exchange, you can customize them far less. You create your own protagonist, but in exchange, they have no personality.
Where the best freedoms of the Octopath Traveler series have always come from have been the way that the eight paths and eight protagonists intersect. You mix and match their jobs. You sequence break their chapters to wander into higher-level locations than you should be and challenge yourself.
In breaking these sorts of norms, Octopath Traveler 0 ends up being the most restrictive and weakest entry in the entire franchise. At least now I’m free to play Octopath Traveler 2 again instead.
Octopath Traveler 0 was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 with a copy provided by the developer over the course of 35 hours of gameplay. All screenshots were taken during the process of review.
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