Octopath Traveler 0 preview — From mobile beginnings

Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is a mobile game released in 2020 and still running to this day. It’s a gacha-style title, where players spend in-game currency purchased with real money to obtain new characters for their party. It’s not as detailed or expansive as the mainline, console and PC games, but still retains the same turn-based battle system of its namesake. This usually only happens when a mobile game has reached the end of its life, but Champions of the Continent is receiving a console/PC remake in the form of Octopath Traveler 0. I’ve been playing the game for the past few days and, while it certainly retains some mobile game qualities, there’s a surprising amount it does to feel like a full-fledged RPG in its own right. 

Rather than choosing one of eight characters for your protagonist at the start of the game, you’re instead asked to create your own hero. There aren’t a ton of visual options, but you can choose your body type (male or female), face type, hair style, skin tone, victory animation, and voice. After that, you decide some more background details including your special skill, such as a special attack, healing spell, or debuff, your favorite food, and a few items you always carry with you, such as a charm from a childhood friend, a mysterious key, or a fragment of a letter. I haven’t seen what some of those items do yet, but it’s a really interesting part of character creation that helps your avatar be less of a blank slate.

You may have noticed that you don’t choose a job during character creation, and that’s because we have a prologue to get through first. It’s very typical of JRPGs; you’ve just become a member of the Watch in your hometown of Wishvale, and are asked to retrieve an item from a nearby cave to use in a special festival. You enter alongside some friends, who help you battle monsters and defeat the boss, and return home with the item. During the ceremony, however, the town is attacked, your parents and most of the villagers are killed, and after escaping with your life you vow revenge. It’s a serviceable story, if bland, but I hope it’ll become more interesting as I chase after the three villains behind the attack. 

Battles use the familiar and beloved Break and Boost system. Attacking an enemy with an element or weapon they’re weak to will reduce the enemy’s guard, shown as a number in front of a shield icon. When reduced to 0, the enemy will become more vulnerable and be unable to act for the current and next turn. That’s your cue to break out all the stops with the Boost system.

Each turn your characters will accrue Boost Points. You can spend up to three BP in a single turn to attack multiple times or increase the effectiveness of a single action. For example, you could spend BP on a healing spell to top off a critically injured ally, or dump it all on a single, powerful sword swing to kill a boss. It’s a fun system, and while it takes a bit to really see everything you can do with it, it’s still fun in these early stages. 

It gets a lot more interesting after the prologue when you can choose a starting job for your protagonist. I went with Scholar for its access to elemental magic, providing me with various spells to break an enemy’s guard. Armed with this, I set off to find survivors of the attack, recruit them back to the village as we rebuild, and to Theatropolis to confront one of the three main villains. 

Unlike previous games in the series, Octopath Traveler 0 features a town building mechanic. You’ll pick up tons of materials as you travel around the continent, and you can then use them to construct new buildings, amenities, and decorations for Wishvale. You start out with a very small plot to the left of the entrance, and will presumably unlock more of the village as you go. One of your first tasks is to build a home for a returning resident, and it’s as simple as selecting the building, finding a space for it on the grid, placing it down, then selecting who’s moving in. I always love town building elements in RPGs, and while I haven’t seen the full extent of it, the simple act of decorating and making a place your own is a lot of fun.

We’re just scratching the surface of Octopath Traveler 0, and I’m looking forward to diving into all its systems and storylines as I play. Be sure to check out our review of the full game closer to launch.