Now in his third inning in seven years, the Octopath Traveler The sequence and the HD-2D artwork fashion it pioneered have shortly turn out to be RPG stalwarts. They entertain with retro allure, fascinating battles and cute tales. On that foundation, prequel recreation. Octopath Traveler 0 It is one other stable dose of turn-based motion meant to please; however do not anticipate it to achieve the highs of the second installment.
That is as a result of, moderately than being a totally new product, Octopath Traveler 0 is a reinvention of a smartphone gacha recreation known as Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. Sq. Enix took the content material of that and revised it into a normal model with various levels of success.
In some methods, it is a broader model of what the franchise has been to this point. In different methods, it’s not.
We have by no means performed Champions of the Continent, so we won’t communicate to how a lot it has carried over to the PS5 model. Nonetheless, what has been reworked appears like another recreation.
There may be completely no proof of the microtransaction-driven origins of the content material; There is not any have to pay for added characters, anticipate the countdown to finish, or anything you affiliate with the style. After its transformation, Octopath Traveler 0 is your common turn-based RPG.
Nonetheless, it’s barely totally different from the above.
You create a customized character and the story revolves fully round you. As a substitute of following the lives of varied folks, you recruit celebration members to allow them to assist you to rebuild your hometown of Wishvale and precise revenge on those that burned it to the bottom.
These motivations divide the plot into 4 primary quest traces: three of them deal with searching down the culprits, whereas the fourth lets you restore Wishvale to its former glory in a brand new city-building mechanic. Aside from transient introductory sequences, anybody you recruit alongside the best way is there solely that will help you obtain these targets.
Because of this, the story feels rather more streamlined and direct, permitting you to focus all of your consideration in your customized character. Octopath Traveler 0 follows an identical construction to its predecessors, the place every quest line is split into chapters with stage suggestions.
Right here, nonetheless, you get a coherent narrative through which every thread builds a single, bigger complete. That centered imaginative and prescient produces an pleasant, if easy, plot to observe.
It is this rudimentary nature mixed with an amazing sense of familiarity that makes the sport really feel insignificant, even when what there may be is of excellent high quality.
Every part feels textbook Octopath Traveler, from the exploration to the fight system. Story chapters are tied to particular cities and places, so that you journey across the map whereas opening chests and overcoming random battles, with dialogue and bartering in between.
Octopath Traveler 0 is structured precisely the identical as its predecessors, solely with one extra characteristic: metropolis constructing. You’ll be able to accumulate sources throughout your travels and convey them again to the scorched stays of Wishvale to start restoring it.
As soon as you have cleared the particles, you can begin inserting homes, taverns, outlets, farming websites, decorations, and extra. The village-linked questline alerts you to former residents you’ll be able to welcome to Wishvale, all of whom include perks and talents if assigned the proper construction. Some excel at farming, whereas others work higher in a retailer.
The add-on presents a pleasant distraction from the primary quest for revenge and has sufficient depth to make you care in regards to the metropolis and its residents. The system has boundaries, with a grid dictating the place buildings can and can’t be positioned. Nonetheless, it is nonetheless an enormous boon to the expertise.
The fight additionally has a very acquainted really feel: its turn-based fights nonetheless revolve round exploiting enemy weaknesses to interrupt them and deal extra harm. Upgrades characters who carry weapons that the monster is prone to to allow them to assault and take away defend factors. As soon as everyone seems to be gone, the enemy is defeated and everybody can assault to deal extra harm.
It is the identical because the earlier two entries, though now the celebration dimension has doubled to eight. You will have a entrance row and a again row of 4 combatants, and you’ll swap characters between the 2 rows as they take their turns. You solely have management of the entrance row, so the technique is to swap characters primarily based on their strengths and HP.
A reasonably neat growth to the franchise’s fight system, you’ll be able to accommodate extra enemies and what they’re weak to. In apply, nonetheless, fight in Octopath Traveler 0 nonetheless performs out precisely because it did within the earlier two installments. Now, in a 3rd recreation, the method appears stable however boring: you simply have an additional financial institution of characters to play with.
It is a notion that runs all through a lot of the recreation: whereas there are developments right here and there, they don’t seem to be sufficient to distract from what’s a really, very acquainted expertise.
The sport can also be a bit dated, as a minimum of a few of its visuals are primarily based on the cell recreation launched in 2020. This was launched two and a half years earlier than Octopath Traveler IIwhich, general, appears significantly higher than him. The HD-2D artwork nonetheless shines, however not as a lot as prior to now.
Conclusion
Octopath Traveler 0 is a superbly stable entry within the Sq. Enix franchise, though its overwhelming familiarity will make a lot of it really feel like a retread. Its city-building mechanics and expanded celebration system are sensible expansions, and the transfer towards a single, centralized story is a profit. Nonetheless, Octopath Traveler 0 will nonetheless really feel largely the identical in an inferior expertise to its predecessors.
