‘Octopath Traveler 0’ Review: A long, worthy adventure

Octopath Traveler 0 he had every excuse to think. It might be smaller, leaner, and less compelling than before, because of where it came from. It’s a small wonder that it’s not one of those things.

The Thrack-Style Train-based RPG from Serg Enix, if you don’t know, is a $50 console adaptation of the free-to-play game from 2020. Given that these mobile games are transitory in nature, as they rely on StoreFronts, servers and payment processes that will cease to exist one day, I think this kind of thing is not true.

It also helps that the end result is just a really, really good RPG. Octopath Traveler 0 It takes a premise that can produce something weird and ricyty and turns it into a game that keeps getting bigger and more compelling the more time you invest in it. It may not feel as premium as other console games in the series, but that doesn’t stop it Octopath Traveler 0 From one of the best RPGs of 2025, and a worthy addition to what is quickly becoming a great series.

Humble beginnings

Octopath Traveler 0 is different from the first two console entries in the series in many ways, mainly due to the fact that it was also converted from parts of the Octopath Traveller: Conquerors of the continenta free-to-play spin-off. That said, the building blocks that made the first two games stand out here.

Specifically, you no longer choose from one of eight pre-designed characters and spend your entire journey recruiting seven others. That format produced games that felt more like a collection of short stories than good adventures, as each character had their own very unique arcs that didn’t involve other characters. between Octopath 0instead create your character, choose a starting class, and set it to the same announcement every other player will see.

Before long, your humble village is burned down by wealthy, healthy hunters, and it’s up to you and the other survivors to rebuild and seek revenge. There are many bespoke bespoke events that are rarely contacted here, as in the past The Octopath Games, but they focus on superheroes and not villains. You can do them in any order you want, but you’ll have to do them last.

Your team starts small and gets much, much bigger later.
Credit: Square Enix / Steam

Perhaps the biggest change, coming directly to the mobile game, is that there are more team members playing inside Octopath 0as opposed to only eight in the previous meeting. You don’t have to pay money to participate in the slot machine pulls to open again, as it is now kept at a reasonable pace during the story, and many of them are optional.

Formally, Octopath 0 you are more dear to me than Conquerors of the continent you can hope to be. I don’t like free play gacha gamesbut I like RPG narrative. I think it’s a very close and professional move to adapt a mobile game to a console game the way the developers have here. There Octopath 0 He feels different from his brothers, he rarely feels inferior to other sports. There are a few battle scenes for each character, to be sure, and it’s visible to fans of other games that use a lot of music. But Octopath 0 it doesn’t cut corners. This is, for all intents and purposes, a massive, new, fully featured RPG that uses the bones of a mobile game. In a world where new games take forever to make and budgets balloon, I can’t help kissing this novel to fill the gap between 2023 Octopath Traveler II And whatever comes next.

Octopath Traveler 0 it takes a while to get going

You will do a lot of this, at least for a while.
Credit: Square Enix / Steam

As a low-cost game with an unusual origin story, it would be reasonable to expect a slower game than all the high-budget franchises in the same series. That expectation is not far from Mark, however.

I’ll just say it: This game took me about 80 hours to finish. It’s a big investment, and it’s an investment that requires patience. Most of the first 20 hours or so are used to set the table for what comes later. You will spend most of that time recruiting a full team and starting the process of rebuilding your home town, which is done in an architecturally beautiful place in the city. There are important, dynamic battleships hidden behind some buildings that don’t unlock until you hit that 20-hour mark, roughly.

Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t say Octopath Traveler 0 It takes 20 hours to prepare. I say, however, that it saves the best for the future. Like I said, it’s an investment, and I think it’s worth making.

But when it starts rolling, it counts

Fighting with a full team is fun.
Credit: Square Enix / Steam

That reward takes many different forms. One of them is turn-based power-based combat, which is some of the most fun of any game released this year.

Unlike in the past The Octopath games, where you had four team members on screen at the same time, Octopath 0 it allows you to work with eight homes in the field at any time. They are scheduled to get the front line and the wack line. Those in the front can attack and deal damage, while those in the back are guarded against collisions and recover a bit of resources with each pass. You can quickly switch between one character and another character that is in the same horizontal slot as them on the crafting screen, and find out who plays the second draw which has been a big part of crafting in this game.

This works especially well with a large battle of all births The Octopath A game, which is a reinforcement system. At the start of each turn, every character gains one reinforcement point, and can hold up to five at a time. You can use as many as three of each to power up anything you can do, whether it’s a super attack or a spell. In previous games, you had to be a little stingy with boost points, but not here. Having all of the Backups gradually build up points means that the incentive is to use more of them more often, and the fights are balanced accordingly. It’s an interesting and different challenge to something like Octopath II.

Building your city is connected to your progress, too. As I mentioned before, you have to build certain structures and then surrender to certain NPCs that are suitable to unlock many important aspects of the battle system. Construction requires resources, but gathering them is usually painless as long as you see and make sure to pick things up along the way. Perhaps annoyingly, there are also important quality-of-life features such as fast travel locked behind the building and building upgrades.

I have one complaint about city building, namely that you apparently “finish” your city (ie, build all the important days of gameplay) in the middle of the main story, where it’s no longer needed. I would have liked more endgame hooks, but I think there’s also something I should have liked just to focus on exploring and fighting ghosts at the end of the game.

The story gets better with time

This dude is the best character in the game.
Credit: Square Enix / Steam

Speaking of which, it’s another great van for satisfaction if you choose to invest your time in it Octopath Traveler 0 the narrative. This game is about how greed is evil, and each villain represents a different type of greed. Some want fame, some want wealth, some want power, but all we are in needAnd this is where he ends up hurting those around him.

At first, it feels very heavy and predictable. Stick with the story long enough, and you’ll find that foreshadowing gives way to later twists. Octopath Traveler 0 It’s a special honest game, never rush or remove the player. It just wants you to care about this world and these people, and I think it does a good job of bringing those emotions out of the player at the time.

Part of it is the long Finale chapter, which is about a quarter of the game itself. This is where every other storybook is connected to before, and all the characters you met at that point start interacting with each person for the first time. The Game’s biggest narrative changes happen throughout the Finale, including the villain’s reveal of the age. This is the best argument of any The Octopath It’s a game, but to say otherwise would spoil the fun.

Just live with it for a while

Before we’re done here, I’ll be recreating Enix’s “HD-2D” square art style that debuted The Octopath The game is still good here. I’m really digging the low-key look of the sprites and 3D assets, combined with the modern lighting and depth effects. It doesn’t look like an old game, but it looks amazing, nonetheless. Yasunori Nishiki’s music is also a stand-up material for Octopath 0as he has become one of the best RPG creators working right now. One of the tenants fought with the bodies Is smoking hot smoking hot I’ve been listening to all week in my free time.

Unfortunately, the performance on the Nintendo switch 2 version (which is what I played) is not good. It also aims to hit 60 frames per second most of the time, but there is a noticeable stutter that seems to be more common during the first few seconds after entering a new location. It can’t be seen in any way, but it’s certainly a little disappointing.

However, Octopath Traveler 0 It’s a very long and often trying experience, especially for anyone who has played other games in the series. This is the kind of game you craved as a teenager on Summer Break with nothing else to do. You can immerse yourself in it for hours, and it just keeps getting better the further you play, thanks to the excellent combat and the story that finds itself in its later stages.

I don’t understand everyone who has time for that kind of thing in their old lives, but if you can create a window in your life Octopath Traveler 0your patience will be greatly rewarded.

OctobPath Traveler 0 Available for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5 for $49.99.