Octopath Traveler 0 Review (PC) – Biggest Octopath Yet

Octopath Traveler was a game that ignited a desire to see many old games reimagined in its HD-2D design. It has HD-2D sprites walking across 3D textures, dungeons, and maps. It got a sequel titled Octopath Traveler 2 and even a mobile game titled Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent. The premise of the mobile game is what eventually led to Octopath Traveler 0, the prequel to the entire series.

Game Name: Octopath Traveler 0
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Square Enix, DOKIDOKI GROOVE WORKS
Publisher(s): Square Enix
Release Date: December 4th, 2025
Price: $49.99

Octopath Traveler 0 starts off with your own custom character living in their childhood home of Wishvale. Three individuals show up looking for a divine ring. After learning nobody in the village knew anything about this ring, they then destroy the village and burn it to the ground. The game begins as you join up with a childhood friend of yours to bring justice to all three of these individuals after you become the owner of the divine ring they are looking for.

Avenging Wishvale

The first three paths of Octopath Traveler 0 are essentially the stories that make up the main story of Champions of the Continent. You have to go after the three holders of the divine rings. One for the ring of Wealth, one ring of Power, one ring of Fame. As you travel to the towns these ringbearers are housed in, you can also do side stories that can increase your team roster or the utilities you have access to in Wishvale. Even though they burnt the town down, you and Stia, your childhood friend, want to rebuild it from the ground up. You can build houses, ranches, taverns, and farms to get more people working as well as gather more citizens to live there.

Each mission has phases, and each phase has a recommended level when you choose to track it. You will likely need to switch between missions, as some phases have quite the level spikes. It can go from a few levels to almost double the level needed from the previous phase. Thanks to the fast travel menu, you can switch between quests pretty easily. Though if you are immersed in a certain story thread, you will have to put it on hold.

Every NPC that has a dialogue box above their head can also be investigated. Once you see a black box over them when you talk to them, instead of pressing the talk button, you can press a different button to get into the menu to inquire to who they are. If they answer you, it opens up options so you can talk do more things with them. Some will let you buy items from them, others will give you free stuff or join your team as a helper. You can even invite some to live in Wishvale. There will be a percentage next to their inquire option. If you fail, it will lessen your reputation in the town. If you lessen it enough, you can get a bounty on your head.

The chance of success increases with your three main stats of Power, Wealth, and Fame. Completing missions in the game will increase those stats. To get new companions in your party it requires you to do a side mission that will have an orange color. These individuals will generally have a mission you can complete and then ask if they can join your crew. Once they join your crew, they will also join Wishvale.

Building up Wishvale is a mission thread of its own. You will be able to find older citizens of Wishvale who escaped the village’s destruction. They can help you unlock more areas to build, as well as more types of buildings you can build. Each house can house two people when it is built, though you can also build larger houses to have more residents in a building. You can also upgrade the special buildings, and those buildings can house residents, too. Residents can give certain buildings perks, or can give you materials by just living in Wishvale. They will have a little chest symbol over their head if they have something to give you in the village. It is recommended to come back often to get more and more materials.

Combat in Octopath Traveler 0 is a little more difficult in general than the other Octopath Traveler games, but you have more utilities in your belt this time around. The most obvious one you’ll notice is that there are eight characters in your party this time around. Four will be in the front line, and four will be in the back line. The boost system returns as you will accumulate BP or boost points each turn. You can have a max of five boost points per person. By increasing your attack level or skill level, it will use a boost point. You can have a maximum level of four boosts to increase the strength of your attacks or spells. I would recommend using the front line of your party to break an enemy’s guard and the back line to unleash the maximum amount of damage to the enemies, as your front line is now in the back getting more boost points. There is a solid rhythm to combat that, if you get a grasp of, it will feel satisfying to dish out major damage to bosses.

Octopath Sprites

I will start out this Octopath Traveler 0 art section by just giving one gripe… The options we get for the custom characters are so limited. Certain colors are omitted for eyes and hair. Hair styles are rather bare, too. I wasn’t able to create the character exactly the way I wanted, but that said, the actual art and sprite designs of the enemies and bosses, especially, are fantastic. I took screenshots of basically all the character art as well.

I actually played Octopath Traveler 0 on several devices. First off was my actual PC, and that was pretty solid. It was locked at 60 FPS the whole time, and the textures and terrain were gorgeous to look at. Though some of the enlargement of the pixels on my screen made me feel like I needed to try it out on a handheld experience, and I did. On the Steam Deck OLED, it looked amazing. The OLED screen made everything shine. Even though it was only at 720p, it looked great. Also was locked at 60 FPS. And the final device I ran it on was the MSI Claw 8 AI+. A bigger screen and 1080p did look great. It was probably the ideal place to play for me. Not surprisingly, it also held up to 60 FPS. In my opinion, Octopath Traveler 0 is definitely best played on a handheld.

Voicing Octopath Traveler 0

The soundtrack in Octopath Traveler 0 is definitely the prime opus of the series. It has background tracks and boss tracks from throughout the series. It also has a lot of new music for the game. The best part of the sound design this time around is that the story missions are generally all voiced. In most main story missions, your character will join up with a different character who will lead the narrative as your character becomes the brawn and moral compass of the party. You will get options to help navigate the choices or ask questions about your motive that will generally have yes or no answers. The only downside to this is that it creates the whole illusion of a choice problem, where what you say will sometimes not be taken into account, or the character will think you’re joking or lying to them, so they will do the other option anyway.

The voice direction in this game was spectacular. I think a character that excels in its voice acting is Gustave. In the Fame storyline, it was always a treat to hear more and more of Gustave. It is great that you can go back in the journal to return to cutscenes you liked and listen to them all over again. Always love a good gallery mode that has categories that help you find the scenes you want to listen to.

Octopath Traveler To The Max

There is a lot of Octopath Traveler 0 to love in this game. It is large, has a lot of content, characters, and stories for you to experience. It can at times feel like too much to manage with how many you can grab and how many NPCs you can talk to, but it does have a large and thriving world that is worth it to find every nook and cranny. You don’t need to have experience with the first two Octopath Traveler games to get into this, but you will be rewarded with seeing characters and events you might remember if you have.

Octopath Traveler 0 will release on December 4th, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. You can play the demo right now.

 

Review Disclosure Statement: Octopath Traveler 0 was provided to us by Square Enix for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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