Octopath Traveler 0 review — Lady of the rings

In Orsterra, three ideals control everything: Power, Wealth, and Fame. These can be used for good, yes, but most use each’s darker side for their own ends. Three of the most influential people on the continent, each putting their faith into one of these ideals, are seeking the Ring of Aelfric, hidden somewhere in a small village by the name of Wishvale. In their search, they burn down the town and slaughter its residents. As one of the few survivors, you find that the Ring of Aelfric has chosen you as its bearer, to seek revenge against the three Masters, or focus on the restoration of Wishvale.

The Octopath Traveler series, alongside Bravely Default, brought back classic Final Fantasy’s ethos. Octopath features turn-based battles, random encounters, and a highly customizable job system. It’s not just a throwback though, and introduced eight possible protagonists each with their own storyline as well as the Boost system, where players can spend BP that accrues each turn to increase the effectiveness of a move. The games are all in the gorgeous HD-2D style as well, with detailed pixel art accompanied by tons and tons of modern visual effects. Most have heard of the two mainline games, but there’s a mobile spin-off, Champions of the Continent, which is still ongoing to this day. The latest title, Octopath Traveler 0, is essentially a reimagining of Champions of the Continent into a single-player, no-microtransactions or gacha RPG. Some may brush it off as an asset reusing cash grab, but give it just a bit of time and you’ll see it’s anything but. 

Octopath Traveler 0 doesn’t exactly make the best first impression. Its introduction feels incredibly generic; you live in a peaceful village, get to know the residents for a few minutes, then it’s attacked and destroyed to kick off the plot. Once you finally can go after one of the three Masters of Wealth, Power, or Fame is where things actually start to get interesting. Each of these storylines are fantastic, with phenomenal villains at their core. Your character gets involved in these events for their own reasons, but every storyline has another character who’s essentially the protagonist for their sections. It’s necessary to accommodate a silent player character, but it’s also done really well. Your hero still feels like a driving force in the narrative while, for example, Bargello has just as much reason to want Herminia dead. They’re equal companions in your journey, even if they don’t join your party immediately.

Your party is a bit different from other games in the series. As you explore the world, you’ll encounter recruitable characters with their own job, skills, and abilities. After completing a quick quest for them, they’ll join you for the rest of the adventure, only ever chiming in when viewing specific Party Chat scenes in Wishvale. Your party can contain 8 characters at once, four in the front row and four in the back. The back row will be unable to act, but regenerate HP and SP every round. On their turn, someone in the front row can swap with their partner in the back with the press of a button, allowing you to set up useful combinations. For example, I like to pair up Viator the warrior and Alexia the scholar so they can cover a wide variety of weapon and magic weaknesses. Planning out who’s partnered with who can have a big impact on battles, and it’s always worth swapping people around to adjust for enemy weakpoints. 

Just like other games in the series, your short term goal in every battle is to break an enemy’s defense. Every foe is weak to a set of weapons or spells, and hitting them with that attack type will reduce a number on top of a shield representing their guard. Once reduced to 0, the enemy will Break, losing their turn for the current round and the next, and becoming much more vulnerable to all damage. The losing turns part is key, especially for bosses, as if you break an enemy after they’ve already taken an action you’ll only get one full round where they can’t do anything. This gets pretty important for later bosses, who deal so much damage you’ll need to take the reprieve from damage to heal. 

Of course, a big part of Octopath’s appeal is customizing your party in such a way that you can completely break the game. That’s a lot harder here, as only your protagonist can change jobs, everyone else is stuck with what they came with when recruited. However, they (and your hero) can equip mastered skills. You can acquire some master skills through Path Actions, shops, and treasure chests, but the most reliable way to get them is by spending JP. After a character has learned all of their battle skills, they can start spending JP to create master versions of their skills, which can then be equipped by anyone in the party. It takes quite a while to get to this point, I was well into the second big arc before a single party member was able to master a skill, but it does open up a lot of new possibilities. 

Something that takes even longer to unlock is ultimate techniques. The hero unlocks theirs as they acquire more rings, while everyone else needs to wait for you to build the Training Ground in Wishvale then spend a massive amount of JP to unlock their ultimate technique. These are incredibly powerful moves that can turn the tide of battle, so they’re well worth saving up for. Once a character has an ultimate technique, a meter will start slowly building as they fight. Once filled up to the first level, they can unleash it on their turn, or continue battling to build up to levels 2 or 3 for even more power. Only the first level can carry over between battles, so it’s usually worth using when you get it. 

Outside of combat, you’ll frequently be returning to Wishvale to rebuild the town using resources you’ve gathered. This city building aspect is a lot lighter and more linear than I would like, you can only build a specific amount of each building and you can’t really customize the terrain, but it’s always a nice break from the strategic action. Everything you place will also help you along the journey in some way, like a shop where you can buy anything from any other shop, a farm for cooking ingredients, a barbershop to change your appearance, and residents who will boost EXP or JP or simply give you more materials every once in a while. You can also come back to Wishvale at any time with fast travel for a free full heal, no need to ever spend money at an inn since you can just fast travel back to any town you’ve been to anyway.