Following its newest trailer at the Japanese Developers-centered State of Play, Octopath Traveler 0 dropped a Prologue demo on all consoles. This demo runs for about 3 hours only and allows players to experience the opening of the upcoming title before its launch on December 4th. This demo lets players sample the combat, exploration, the story, and the new town-building mechanic. But is it all too samey? Or is it just the right amount of everything?
The Mobile Games Story, Reforged
For starters, it should be known that Octopath Traveler 0 is a faith reimagining/remake of the mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. This remake tells its own unique story on top of already existing stories in the lore of the game’s universe. In the 3 hours I spent with the demo, they excellently introduced the previous 3 main villains from the mobile game—Tytos the Master of Power, Herminia the Master of Wealth, and Auguste the Master of Fame.
How all 3 are connected is still similar to the mobile games story. However, each one plays a different role in how they affect the new story, involving Wishvale and its survivors.
Fabled Beginnings in Octopath Traveler 0
Octopath Traveler 0 opens with you getting to customize your very own character. From victory poses to hair, eyes, and voices, the game offers a lot of customization. You even get to choose your character’s favorite food dish, items they start with, and what class of character they are (like a warrior, healer, etc). It’s similar to creating a character in Dark Souls (just without the food part).
From here, you are dropped into the day before a festival in your hometown of Wishvale. Wishvale is a peaceful little town with a lot of different characters that all have something going on. The main character is joining the city guard, their friend, Stia, is going through troubles with their parent pushing them to be the town carpenter, and two characters are getting married. It sets the stage for the heartbreaking events afterward.
On the day of the festival, Tytos razes Wishvale in search of a mysterious ring from a tip given by Herminia while Auguste watches the tragedy in front of him. Neither the main character nor any citizen of Wishvale knows anything about it. But alas, Tytos is ruthless in his desire for the ring and sends his troops to kill men, women, and children alike.
After the player character escapes with Stia, they go into hiding with a mysterious sage named Nomos. Nomos allows them to rest and take their time before journeying out with the mysterious ring to take vengeance on Tytos and rebuild Wishvale.
A Shift to Personal Storytelling
As someone who has played both Octopath Traveler 1 and Octopath Traveler 2, and considers them as some of my favorite JRPGs, Octopath Traveler 0 makes things personal for the storytelling. It gives just enough time to speak with every character before Tytos arrives. Seeing their corpses fill the town one by one creates a very grim opening. It sets the tone for how each of the 3 main villains’ stories will unfold.
This is going to be a game that is unlike its predecessors in that regard. Mostly due to the fact that in both of the original games, you can pick and choose which character you want to start with, then find your other party members and do their stories over time.
Octopath Traveler 0 Still Has the Good Old Combat
Octopath Traveler 0 still has the combat system that the beloved series is known for. Use a combination of certain weapons or spells and slowly break enemy defenses, then boost your next move to deal massive damage. It is still as satisfying as ever.
You can now speed up the combat if you feel so inclined, while also being treated to new and epic music that the composer Yasunori Nishiki never fails to deliver on. In the mobile game, there is a shift from 4 party members to 8. In the demo, due to the time constraints, I was not able to see how different it feels in Octopath Traveler 0, but if it is like the mobile game, you will be able to swap parties as you see fit during battle to let them recover HP and SP in the back row while the front row fights.
Rebuilding Wishvale
New to the series is a town-building mechanic. Obviously, due to time constraints, I was not able to test the system fully. However, it is very simple and easy to understand. It was only forced onto me twice in the demo, but did not take too much time to move past it.
When exploring areas, you can find resources to collect and build new houses for people you recruit. When arriving in towns, you can find new party members to bring along, then build a house for later, such as a bookworm mage in Theopolis. Despite the presentation for the town-building mechanic, there is still a bit of an emotional reaction that is felt with Stia and the player character. After all, rebuilding what was lost is important, but the people made the town what it was, not the other way around. I can only imagine how far this system goes in the full game.
As Beautiful as it’s Ever Been
I played Octopath Traveler 0 on the PlayStation 5 and found no real issues while playing. Sometimes the shadows cast by clouds can stutter, and the end-of-battle rewards screen feels very quick compared to other menus in the game. But there were no performance issues, nor bugs to be found.
The game is beautiful, though. Even more so than Octopath Traveler 2. The new cutscenes use different cinematic angles with pristine image clarity. Spotting the fireflies on screen, with the foliage sway, immersed me in the vibrant color palette before my eyes. The game is a visual feast with serene music while exploring the world.
Final Thoughts on the Octopath Traveler 0
Overall, Octopath Traveler 0 is living up to my expectations. The game is only going to be $49.99 USD, and with my knowledge of the content from the mobile game, it is going to be a steal. I thoroughly enjoyed the shift to a more personal story for this installment, and am eager to see how far the town-building mechanic goes.
If you would like to play the demo (and I strongly encourage you to do so), it is available on all current platforms (even Xbox). Just go in knowing you will have only 3 hours when you start your game.
