Octopath Traveler 0 looks like a sport that shouldn’t exist. Spiritually, it’s the experimental handheld spin-off sport of the favored Sq. Enix IP we noticed so lots of within the late 2000s. That form of sport ultimately died within the 2010s with the rise of cellular gaming and the demise of devoted handhelds. When Octopath Traveler acquired its first spin-off, it was within the type of Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. That sport remains to be lively, however whereas it takes a really totally different form, having the ability to comparatively match the visuals of its mainline console entry brethren, I really feel just like the experimental power of the moveable spin-off is alive and effectively with Octopath Traveler 0.
Octopath Traveler 0 considers itself to be a prequel to the unique sport, particularly with it sharing the setting of the continent of Orsterra. Whereas the map relies on that from the unique sport, and lots of characters from it present up, I believe it could be finest to view this as an alternate timeline in the event you actually care in regards to the lore of the sequence. It doesn’t neatly click on into place of the unique, particularly with the unique forged all becoming a member of up with you for a full journey earlier than their very own. I believe disregarding any expectations of Octopath Traveler 0 being a bit of the grander puzzle works within the sport’s favor. At its finest, this looks like a delicate remake of the unique sport with a wholly new story that I discovered far more attention-grabbing.
This sport adapts the primary few important story arcs of Champions of the Continent whereas including its personal authentic story to function connective tissue. You create a personality who lives their days within the small city of Wishvale, which is destroyed by three grasping individuals in search of a particular ring. That ring chooses you, supplying you with the power and resolve to exit into the world to search out out why the lives of your family members had been brutally ended. Alongside the way in which, you’ll collect like-minded characters and attempt to rebuild your city from the ashes.
As quickly because the prologue concludes and also you set out in your story of revenge, the world kind of opens itself to you to go wherever you need. The one factor stopping you is your personal power, and the principle story quests will merely information you to exit and discover the world. The unique Champions of the Continent appears to be a stripped-back cellular model of the Octopath expertise, whereas Octopath Traveler 0 completely ditches the unique gameplay to make this play extra according to the opposite two console video games. The primary factor it retains is having two rows for battles, a back and front, however exterior of battle, this simply looks like a standard Octopath Traveler sport.
Path actions aren’t as versatile as they had been in Octopath Traveler 2, nevertheless it is sensible that they needed to change with the pivot to a single important character in comparison with eight. The complete sport world is dominated by the three important stats: Energy, Fame, and Wealth. Individuals within the overworld reply to how a lot of every of these you may have, which decides how efficient your path actions shall be on them. Your protagonist can do any path motion, however everybody has about three actions you should utilize on them. Inquire is constant for many, permitting you to study their backgrounds. Along with this, you possibly can rent them to your facet as summons, purchase objects off them, battle them for his or her gear, or invite them to Wishvale.
Out on this planet, yow will discover different vacationers who will be a part of you in Wishvale and in battle. Octopath Traveler 0 has a mixture of new characters, Champions of the Continent characters, and cameos from the unique Octopath Traveler. By progressing by way of the Kindlers of the Flame quest, you possibly can ultimately use the Inquire path motion to study much more about them, and even see enjoyable social gathering chat moments like these from Octopath Traveler 2. I wouldn’t count on a lot growth from characters not from the Wishvale story, however for this type of gameplay-focused RPG, I believe the forged will get sufficient. I discovered the cameo characters to be a few of the least helpful characters to have round in battle, preferring the brand new forged unique to this sport (I embrace the Champions of the Continent forged on this, since most individuals will expertise them by way of this now as a substitute).
Having two rows in battle provides you the possibility to correctly take advantage of the playable forged of round 30+. The entrance row are those you’ll give instructions to, and the again row will take every flip restoring their well being and SP. It didn’t take me lengthy to discover a solution to break the problem with all this added energy at my fingers, particularly when you attain the purpose of unlocking all of your final skills, and an optimized group can begin delivering 9999 harm on shocked bosses (this was very useful throughout the Grasp of All endgame bosses).
What makes up for that is that eight characters becoming a member of you in battle imply it’s important to decide to protecting all of them stocked and geared up. Cash was loads tighter than earlier than, which acquired me to not mainline the story and spend my time on the lookout for non-obligatory dungeons or new cities. New treasures and new NPCs imply extra issues to promote, which suggests higher gear or a brand new form of summon. Talents are discovered within the subject, or hooked up to NPCs themselves, and people skills will be geared up onto social gathering members to present them an edge in battle. The sport does try and ramp up issue to satisfy you at your new stage, nevertheless it provides you much more instruments to take advantage of if you wish to put the time into constructing your group correctly.
Your protagonist additionally has entry to the complete job system from the opposite video games, being a jack of all trades, with the largest power being the entry to early sport final assaults gained from clearing the Grasp quests. I might typically use my important character as a solution to make up for lacking spots in my social gathering line-up, permitting me to place all my consideration into group composition. All his jobs get the job completed in each attainable space, however he labored nice to help characters specializing in particular elements of these jobs. I loved having him play the position of a cleric to supply generic full-line therapeutic so different characters didn’t should waste a spot taking part in that position. Ultimately, although, I may simply take that therapeutic ability, grasp it, and provides it to Laurana, who’s extra specialised in regen skills. This ranges out certainly one of her weaknesses, and is the form of factor you possibly can experiment much more with within the second half, with nearly anybody within the forged.
Dungeons play out as they do within the different mainline video games, however I believe space design is a bit too easy in Octopath Traveler 0. Whereas these video games should have maps that encompass hallways with small paths branching off by the character of the HD-2D type, areas really feel simplified farther from how they had been within the two prior Octopath video games. It’s not egregious, nevertheless it does make dungeon crawling a bit much less pleasurable in comparison with the opposite key pillars of exploration within the Octopath components.
Rebuilding Wishvale is pleasurable sufficient, however in the event you’re moving into anticipating a fancy city builder, then you’ll seemingly be disillusioned. Wishvale is nice for reinforcing the themes of the overarching narrative, however mechanically, it’s merely serviceable. The constructing mechanics are expanded very slowly, actually solely correctly opening up as soon as Kindlers of the Flame concludes. Every little thing has a spot on this planet. You possibly can construct homes and fill them with NPCs you recruit on this planet to present you passive buffs. Farms will be constructed, which offers you supplies to cook dinner meals. This meals will be given to particular NPCs to affix you again on the town. Rinse and repeat. It is a satisfying loop, however I believe it feels solely simply adequate to not come off as tacked on. There are some good concepts right here, and I like the thought of customizing my very own area, however I wish to see an Octopath Traveler 3 take this idea and run with it.
The Nintendo Change 2 was my console of alternative with Octopath Traveler 0, and whereas it didn’t really feel as secure as final month’s Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake, I believe it holds up effectively sufficient to advocate. It goals for 60 frames per second and has just some occasional dips and stuttering. I’d advocate turning off the aggressive vignette filter to permit the visuals to correctly breathe. HD-2D has come a very great distance, and it’s good to revisit the setting of Orsterra with higher lighting and presentation.
Octopath Traveler 0’s writing ended up being a selected spotlight to me, nevertheless it takes its candy time getting there. In case you’ve spent any time round gacha sport followers, or have even dabbled in it your self, you’ll typically hear one thing alongside the traces of “it will get actually good X quantity of hours in, after Y variety of arcs”. Since Octopath Traveler 0 was claiming to make use of the cellular sport as the inspiration of a brand new expertise, I wasn’t anticipating this sport to recreate that baggage. Nevertheless, a 20-hour slog of a narrative whereas the sport builds as much as the “great things” is kind of what you get.
The initially out there important quest traces are Kindles of the Flame (new to Octopath Traveler 0), Grasp of Fame, Grasp of Wealth, and Grasp of Energy. These Grasp quests contain you monitoring down the trio that ruined your life, having you study extra about their backstories and rise to energy. The villains felt flat regardless of their cartoonishly evil actions, not being charismatic or threatening sufficient to make the story compelling. Energy most likely does essentially the most with the story due to the facet characters, however the extra the routes concentrate on the villains, the more severe they’re.
The brand new Kindlers of the Flame questline is sort of actually the largest motivator for the early third of the sport. Not solely does it require you to interact with exploring the world, however it’ll typically go away sure quest resolutions so that you can work out your self. It subtly teaches you methods to finest have interaction with these video games, whereas supplying you with an endearing story to maintain you coming again and checking in in town. Every of the survivors you discover have a very good quantity of trauma to work by way of, and there are a few moments that genuinely acquired me to tear up. They arrive collectively to consolation one another, bonding nearer than they ever did earlier than and making a discovered household. Stia, Phenn, Laurana, and the remainder of the villagers ended up as most likely a few of my favourite characters within the sequence.
Kindlers of the Flame picks up the slack loads because the narrative slowly builds as much as the Grasp of All questline that outcomes from finishing the preliminary three Grasp arcs. From my understanding, this was the final important quest out there within the 1.0 model of the sport, and suitably feels prefer it has the load of a correct finale. It isn’t the finale of the whole sport, since there’s one other story arc after, however in the event you’ve performed any MMOs or cellular video games, you’ll perceive. Grasp of All may simply be its personal small RPG, and is the primary instance of Octopath Traveler 0’s disparate storytelling placing its finest foot ahead. The facet characters get extra attention-grabbing and have an lively presence within the battle, and the principle villain is a good illustration of an nearly unreal menace of political energy that motivates you to get stronger to beat. I don’t actually wish to spoil any of it, nevertheless it’s a high-stakes drama that interrogates the abuse of the exact same wealth, fame, and energy that drives man to sabotage our personal progress.
Grasp of All exhibits that, at its finest, Octopath Traveler 0 is able to pushing the storytelling of the sequence ahead to new heights. From this second, the writing began to choose up much more, nearly feeling like a wholly totally different writing group took the reins. Given how stay service video games are dealt with, that is actually attainable. Writing groups both get probabilities to enhance their craft based mostly on instant suggestions from the viewers or just get swapped out with new writers. With the disjointed manner cellular video games inform their tales in related however separate arcs, although, it’s exhausting to not really feel like the sport additionally has a few of the weakest. Such a satisfying pay-off is just attainable with correct build-up, and I simply want that the unique Fame, Wealth, and Energy tales had been in a position to accomplish this. That’s form of what you get by making an attempt to recapture the practically serialized writing type frequent from cellular gacha, although.
Every little thing works right here in a vacuum, however the entire expertise doesn’t really feel as cohesive because the good Octopath Traveler 2. There’s a scarcity of common polish that comes from all of those new mechanical experiments I’ve talked about. This isn’t even demise by a thousand cuts, however these cuts definitely add up over time. It by no means ruins the sport, however for all the things I cherished, there have been a whole lot of little issues that stood out to me. Wishvale gives nice incentives, however the mechanics of city constructing really feel half-baked. Dungeons really feel too linear and simplistic, even when the fixed battles you discover on the way in which are actually enjoyable. The story will be so compelling when it needs to be, however a few of the carryovers from the cellular sport may also be duds.
I’m conflicted, although. I can’t deny that this fragmented expertise is precisely what endeared me to Octopath Traveler 0. These quite a few cuts add texture, and that texture meant I simply couldn’t put the sport down. The experimental power discovered so typically in moveable spin-offs is precisely what I miss in fashionable gaming. This feels just like the formidable PSP Octopath spin-off I by no means knew I wanted. It may not be essentially the most polished sport within the sequence, nevertheless it packs in so many clashing components that I can’t assist however adore it. The disjointed sense of development was releasing to me, particularly as I discover myself more and more burnt out from fashionable, story-heavy RPGs. Ignoring the principle plot for hours on finish to discover elements of the map the place stage suggestions exceed the social gathering common to search out treasure, or extra cities with additional quests or social gathering members as a reward is persistently a thrill. The sport is so typically content material with you simply doing no matter you need on this planet it provides you, and doesn’t really feel the necessity to condescend you by over-explaining itself.
The writing high quality may flip-flop inconsistently, however I’m additionally glad that even the awkward starting was preserved from the unique cellular sport. The time I spent was ultimately rewarded with story beats that stunned me in the perfect methods. Each new city is a chance to study swaths of NPCs, get new gear, problem individuals to battles, or discover new allies. The core loop of Octopath Traveler remains to be right here, and as robust as ever. But now, as a substitute of infinite roaming, you may have a spot to return again to and test on now and again. Wishvale, regardless of it not being essentially the most mechanically complicated, provides a coronary heart to the expertise that basically solely shines for these keen to decide to the complete 100-hour expertise. It’s exhausting to not care in regards to the dwelling you construct for your self, even when it isn’t superb.
Regardless of its quirks and oddities, I believe Octopath Traveler 0 is a worthy entry within the sequence. It’s genuinely spectacular to take the bones of a cellular sport and switch them into such a beefy, console expertise. In case you performed this with out ever understanding something in regards to the sport it was based mostly on, you seemingly wouldn’t even be capable of inform. The entire strengths and weaknesses of the sequence come collectively to make for a captivating experiment, and one which works greater than it doesn’t. I genuinely advocate it in the event you’re on the lookout for an attention-grabbing and lengthy RPG to dedicate your winter to. Extra Octopath Traveler is at all times a very good factor, and this specific sport makes a powerful case for Sq. Enix to present their cellular sport groups the possibility to make full-on console video games once more. I’m glad that the core story of that sport was in a position to be preserved, and I hope Sq. Enix considers one other certainly one of these conversions of its catalog of cellular video games.
Model Examined: Nintendo Change 2Review Copy Offered by Sq. Enix
