What is Octopath Traveler 0?

Octopath Traveler 0 is the prequel to the surprise hit from 2018, Octopath Traveler. This game takes quite a massive pivot away from the traditional formula of the series. Unlike in the original or in Octopath Traveler 2, you are not beholden to picking a character, then experiencing their story and finding your other party members to experience their stories in a rinse-and-repeat fashion. Instead, you will be making your own character and setting down a long and strife-filled storyline that’s centered around them.

There are also massive changes made to how you engage in combat, with a party size of 8 instead of 4, alongside changes to the skills and passive systems that feel a little limited compared to the other two entries. All the while, the tale of a peaceful town called Wishvale is at the heart of the overall story from start to finish. In my 80 hours of playing, Octopath Traveler 0 is a massively ambitious title compared to its predecessors that stands on its own two feet to set benchmarks for future entries.

Developer & Publisher // Square Enix, Acquire
Platforms // PC, PlayStation 4|5, Nintendo Switch 1|2, Xbox
MSRP & Release Date // $49.99, October 7th, 2025
Reviewed On // PC/Steam Deck

The Fable of Wishvale

• A detailed character creator before starting the game.
• Story starting off with a revenge and rebuild story plot.

From the get-go, Wishvale in Octopath Traveler 0 serves as the main player hub but also a pivotal location in the game’s story. Before starting the game proper, you are able to make your own custom character, complete with chosen skills, their favorite food, and items they start off with. It is a very decent character creator that also allows for unique victory poses and more to be chosen.

On the eve of a festival meant to ensure the safety of the town for years to come, a group of soldiers named the Scarlet Wings raze it to the ground in search of a mysterious ring. Led by the “Hero”, Tytos, the Scarlet Wings spare no lives while in their search. Whether it be men, women, the elderly, or children, the corpses pile up around the burning houses with their blood splattered about. It is a very gruesome opening to the game that sets the tone for the rest of the story.

After retreating, the main character and their childhood friend, Stia, return to Wishvale after some time passes to see all that they loved gone and unrecognizable. Forcing them to start over and rebuild the town bit by bit while searching for any survivors. This is where the city builder mechanic comes in, and it is very fantastic in its debut.

The City Builder Mechanic of Octopath Traveler 0

• A robust city builder with various decorations, houses, and unique buildings.
• Some unique buildings are essential to the gameplay and exploration.

Wishvale is an essential part of the overall experience in Octopath Traveler 0, believe it or not. Wishvale is a city that you get to build brick by brick and bush by bush. As you progress through the game’s main plot, you will also have story quests to complete for Wishvale itself. Where you find people who escaped, and new people to help run the town. From a tavern to a shop, and of course, a church, new characters make their way to breathe new life into the town.

Buildings such as the tavern, shop, church, and even the “training grounds” all lend a hand to the general gameplay experience. The tavern gives you a free place to sleep and heal your party while letting you cook food that grants various benefits to your party in battle, such as more stats or XP earned. While the shop constantly rotates its inventory, the training grounds can let up to 12 characters not in use earn the same XP while you play the game.

There are also numerous passive benefits to unlock by upgrading the buildings. The training grounds can unlock ultimate abilities for your characters, while the church can unlock the ability to open blue chests found throughout the world that hold strong late-game gear. Wishvale is very robust and useful for the rest of the game, including its various main story beats.

The Gods and the Rings

• A story of revenge against 3 powerful figures.
• A greater plot surrounding mysterious rings and the gods of the land.

The main story of Octopath Traveler 0 revolves around mysterious rings that hold power beyond mortal making. Tytos was tipped off by a woman named Herminia that a ring was in Wishvale, prompting him to raze the village in search of it while a playwright named Auguste snuck around the tragedy to write about it to elevate his fame. The main character is put on a personal revenge path against the three and digs into the mystery of the rings themselves.

The story features themes of human desires at the forefront. Exploring the madness that fame can drive someone like Auguste, and how far someone in power, like Tytos, will go to take oddly severe action over the slightest inconvenience presented to him.

As the story progresses, greater mysteries are explored and even more gruesome scenarios are depicted. To put it lightly, Square Enix really pushed the game’s T for Teen rating with its mature themes.

The only real problem with the story’s structure. You can pick which story paths to go down between Auguste, Tytos, and Herminia, but the story only comes together for the final “bestower” storyline near the end. Which takes the longest to finish but is intense and has many satisfying payoffs.

There are also many amazing characters in Octopath Traveler 0’s narrative. Auguste is very twisted and has a marvelous voice actor for his performance. While a character like Sazantos the Flameguard, voiced by Alex Dismuke, was a shining star among the cast and presents a character that quickly became one of my favorites, due to reasons I cannot talk about due to spoilers.

A Familiar World and Changed Combat System

• A mostly reused world from the original game with new locations and twists.
• The combat system has undergone important changes systematically.

Octopath Traveler 0 has many new systems added to the game, for better and for worse. For starters, it has a new 8-player party system. Unlike the previous entries, where you only have 4 to use at any given time, you can now use 8 in combat and swap between them for unique combinations.

When characters are in the back row, they slowly regenerate health and skill points every turn. This allows you to give many characters the rest they need. Such as Alfyn from the first game, sitting in the back row to remain fully healed while Primrose offers a buff to his damage before swapping to the front to use a serious damage-dealing ability once a boss is in its broken state.

Outside of these changes, you still have ultimates from the original game and the signature break and boost system the series is known for. There are some systematic changes that may be controversial to long-term fans, however. That is because you cannot use multiple classes for every character. The main character can still switch classes at will to make up for what your team is missing. Outside of that, you will be relying more on the “mastery” system.

The mastery system is a way to spend excess JP (job points) earned in the game to unlock equippable skills and passives from any character. For example, Olberic has the “surpassing power” passive that lets you go beyond 10k damage for certain attacks. You can use excess JP to buy as many copies of this passive as you need. Alongside attacks like the “rain of arrows” from h’aanit that lets you hit a foe weak to bow attacks 5-8 times. There is a lot of variety to mix and match what you want for any character, but the number of equippable skills and passives is limited to 5. It makes selecting what you need feel even more crucial compared to past entries.

Exploration and Side Quests in Octopath Traveler 0

• Visible world bosses that feel like skill checks.
• Side quests that are scripted and easy to follow.

One of the smaller but welcome changes in Octopath Traveler 0 is the introduction of visible world bosses. In previous entries, you could stumble upon random world bosses. But in this game, they are viewable and have an easy way to check how easy or hard they will be for your current level. These world bosses are challenging, but always guard a chest that gives a unique piece of gear or an equippable skill. However, I wish they offered more XP and JP for the challenges they present.

The final change in the game is the approach to side quests. In previous entries, you pick up side quests and have to figure out what to do based on the dialogue. This is not the case for most of the side quests in Octopath Traveler 0. You can now see a clear indicator of where to go and be told what to do. It removes the guesswork of completing quests. My favorite quests, outside of challenging endgame ones, were quests to collect new party members. Some of which were the original characters from the first entry.

My favorite being, as you can see, is Olberic, the warrior from the original game. His side quest involved an imposter who was using his name to freeload in a town. There are other cool character quests like the one for Reime, which involves joining a tournament to earn a duel with her. Her fight was very challenging and sold me on adding her to my party.

Sure, there are some give-and-takes with the story and combat system changes. But the changes to world bosses and side quests are just outright improvements that elevate the experience. Such as the familiar and easy-to-follow UI and the ever-incredible music the series is known for.

Clean UI and Masterful Music

• Easy to follow and slick UI.
• Flawless performance on PC/Steam Deck.
• A mix of new and old music with so many memorable tracks.

To get this out of the way first, the game is flawless on the technical side. Its pixel art, combined with the 2.5D design of the world, is nostalgic, vibrant, and just beautiful to see in motion. Watching bosses and enemies having their own unique attack animations alongside all of the particle effects from party member attacks still feels smooth and pretty. There were also no stutters, frame drops, or any crashes in my 80 hours of playing between my Steam Deck and custom-built PC as well.

The game’s UI is easy to navigate, and the menus to operate Wishvale are also simple to follow. The only notable change I disliked was the fact that I had to go to the dedicated tab in the main menu to access the world map to fast travel. In previous entries, I could use one button to navigate this menu. This is not the case in Octopath Traveler 0.

Finally, to no surprise for the series, the soundtrack is masterful. The composer Yasunori Nishiki knocked it out of the park with all of the new tracks in the game. There are also many returning tracks from both entries, alongside the soundtrack from the mobile game. The blend of familiar tracks playing when exploring on land and sea made me feel right at home, like the pirate-themed song from Octopath Traveler 2 when exploring by boat.

Not to mention how intense the boss music can be in certain fights near the end of the game. To not give too much away, one of the endgame boss tracks used an electric guitar alongside a choir that was mixed in with the gravitas of the arena, and the spritework of the boss, which made the build-up in the story and payoff of the fight etched into my brain.

Closing Remarks on Octopath Traveler 0

Octopath Traveler 0 is the culmination of so many unique ideas and risks not found in the other entries. Sure, it uses what the series is known for to great effect. But Wishvale, the linear approach to the game’s main plot, and so many of its systematic changes were major risks. As a result, the game stands out alongside its predecessors. Elevating what the series does well while limiting some variation that fans hold near and dear. This series continues to prove that the legacy of JRPGs Square Enix is known for is still alive and well. It is absolutely worth your money and well worth your time.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Pros

• Fantastic and Mature story.
• New 8-party combat system.
• Wishvale City Build mechanic.
• Gorgeous art direction.
• Amazing music.

Cons

• Some pacing issues in the story.
• Limitations in the skill/passive mastery system.
• Some menu clunkiness.

Disclaimer – Square Enix provided a copy of Octopath Traveler 0 for review purposes.