Revenge is a road that never loops back to where you began. Every step pulls you further from the person you once were and closer to the one you may become. In Octopath Traveler 0, that idea shapes the entire journey. Your hometown lies in ruins, your family is gone, and the only thing pushing you forward is the hope that those responsible will face what they have done. Yet as you close in on the powers that rule Orsterra, the pursuit turns inward. Are you here to rebuild what was lost, or are you simply chasing a victory that will never feel like enough?
When you peel back the layers of Octopath Traveler 0, you find a tale that begins with a single act of devastation but expands far beyond a straightforward pursuit of justice. Three powerful forces shatter your life, and the path ahead seems simple at first. It is anything but. The deeper you push into Orsterra, the more the Divine Rings twist this tragedy into something larger. As mentioned in my preview, since this is a reimagining of the premise from Champions of the Continent, the familiar pieces are here. The three tyrants still embody Wealth, Power, and Fame, but Square Enix has reshaped these ideals to feel heavier and more personal.
The journey never reduces itself to mere vengeance. As you travel through the world, you rebuild the things that loss tried to erase. You restore your town, strengthen what remains of your identity, reconnect with survivors, and slowly piece together a future that seemed impossible in the opening hours. Recovery becomes as important as retaliation, giving the story a steady heartbeat underneath the conflict. Each path, tied to one of the three routes, digs into the flaws that shaped the villains you now face. Ambition, insecurity, and the hunger for recognition twist them into people who might have been heroes under different circumstances. Their humanity gives the story nuance and adds weight to every step you take toward them.
This is one of my favorite stories Square Enix has released to date, easily rivaling their best SNES titles. My main criticism is that the party interactions can feel a bit muted at times. With a total of 34 recruitable party members (not including the main character), the game occasionally suffers from the Chrono Cross effect, where characters are treated more like stats than personalities. Additionally, the second half of the game has pacing issues. Certain chapters drag on far longer than necessary, though the payoff makes the wait more than worth it.
Octopath Traveler 0‘s gameplay, however, leaves much to be desired. While the gacha system from the mobile release, Champions of the Continent, is gone in this version, poor character balance remains. Many skills feel completely useless, and there is little incentive to engage with most core mechanics. Nearly every boss can be defeated using the same few attacks. Even the break system, which is supposed to exploit enemy weaknesses to temporarily stun them and deal extra damage, is almost pointless, since you can easily win most fights without using it at all. As far as I can recall, only a few optional bosses actually required me to trigger a break.
I found myself defaulting to the exact same handful of moves against every single boss, hardly noticing their attacks or supposed weaknesses. Each boss might as well be a differently colored version of the same fight, like a figurative palette swap. The random encounters, by contrast, are literal palette swaps, with enemies recycled across areas and routes. In fact, by the end of the game, I was still primarily using the same attacks I had in the first chapter. Battles feel like a slideshow of déjà vu, with the systems designed to keep them fresh barely registering. The gameplay is a Swiss Army knife in theory, but in practice, you only ever use the can opener.
The job system exemplifies Octopath Traveler 0’s core problem: only a handful of jobs are actually worth using. After completing the game and earning the platinum trophy, I did a second playthrough to test this, and it became clear that trying different party setups accomplishes nothing. Experimenting just drags battles out and turns fights into a slog. You’re much better off just doubling up on strong jobs instead of having a diverse party.
Regarding the dungeons themselves, the early areas are fairly basic, featuring a handful of treasure chests and a direct path to the boss. Later dungeons grow more intricate, as the final dungeon in each path introduces simple puzzles and some backtracking. It is nothing revolutionary, but it gets the job done. The original Octopath Traveler characters also return as playable additions. While a nod to longtime fans, they do not influence the story and feel shoehorned in, existing solely as optional party members. I found their inclusion a bit forced, as the developers had to convert them from their original gacha roles into permanent companions.
On a more positive note, the town restoration won me over in the end. I was skeptical about it in my preview, but it integrates with Octopath Traveler 0‘s story in a surprisingly brilliant way. By the time I had access to all the tools, I genuinely enjoyed shaping my own town. The gameplay features here feel especially meaningful, from gaining the ability to communicate with animals to unlocking the monster arena. While the arena could have offered a wider selection of monsters, I still appreciated just how far Square Enix pushed the town-building system.
I already praised the soundtrack in my preview, so at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the OST in this game is truly remarkable. Yasunori Nishiki and his team craft melodies that linger like the last rays of sunset over a quiet town. From the contemplative tunes accompanying exploration to the soaring orchestration in key moments, the music carries the story as much as any dialogue or cutscene. That said, some tracks can grow repetitive over the course of such a long game. In particular, the standard dungeon and random battle themes persist for far too long, though they do change as you reach later areas.
At this point, Square Enix has perfected the HD-2D style, and Octopath Traveler 0 is no exception. I am grateful to experience this world away from a mobile device, with every town as colorful and vibrant as I could have hoped. The later dungeons are much more visually intricate than the earlier ones, possibly because of their more oppressive or fantastical nature. This comes through in richer lighting and denser environmental detail.
Octopath Traveler 0 reminds us that what we chase often changes who we become. The game asks you to consider what it truly means to rebuild: whether it is a town, a life, or even yourself. I very much enjoyed this journey, particularly for its incredible story. However, I recognize it’s not a game for everyone, with its repetitive battles and remnants of its mobile origins. But for those who have the patience, this is an adventure well worth taking; just make sure you bring a comfortable chair and a strong cup of tea.
