Octopath Traveler 0

Game Title: Octopath Traveler 0
Released: December 4, 2025
Game Length: 97 Hours
Grade: A- 

Champions of the Continent 

Prequel: Before Octopath Traveler II released, there was another game in the series developed called Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. It was initially released in Japan in October 2020 and everywhere else July 2022. Unlike the traditional variant on the PC we grew to love, this version was stripped down for the Android and iOS phone systems. It was a free-to-play game with a built-in gacha system. It maintained the turn-based combat and expanded the original four party members to eight team members in battle. There were touchscreen controls such as swiping and tapping. A number of "field command" skills such as stealing from characters was also retained. 

Story Modes: Octopath Traveler 0 keeps most of the storylines from Champions of the Continent. There are the three Master story arcs, the Master of All narrative, three Bestower story arcs, and the Bestower of All finale. What isn't included are the various alternative story modes. The Emberflame and Keeper quests let you learn more about the divine beasts using the new "Keepers" mechanic. Think of it like Pokemon - capturing and assigning a creature to a party member that you can summon in battle for their skill. There are also tales of Solistia with the Day & Night cycle that is seen in Octopath Traveler II, a character by the name of Sail who is the son of a couple main story characters in the The Chosen One mode, and the Crossed Paths story mode where you learn what can happen when something goes wrong in an alternate reality.

Characters: Due to the gacha system, Champions of the Continent has a whopping 280 travelers with many cameos from the company's other games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. You can even obtain the story villains, EX (Extra) stronger versions, and other champions you encounter in the game. In comparison, Octopath Traveler 0 has 36 characters. Both games have the classic 8 characters in the original Octopath Traveler game. Each character's power is based on what rank you get between 3 and 5 stars. There is about a 80% chance for a 3 or 3.5-star character (yes, there are half-stars) and a 2% chance for a 5-star character. Every character has a short prologue and three chapters. In order to buy characters, you need to earn rubies by logging in specific days of the month, completing daily or weekly challenges, and completing content. The game does allow you to increase the level cap and increase the rank of characters. As you can see, this version of the game really makes you utilize a truly random band of characters regardless if they perform well or not.

Characters

Protagonist: Although the other Octopath Traveler games incorporated someone as the "main character" that you kept throughout the game, Octopath Traveler 0 does something completely different by having you create one yourself. There is a character creation in the beginning where you choose your name, hair color, sex, poses, favorite meal, and other unique features. After the prologue, you choose your initial job (before unlocking the rest one at a time). Do not worry too much about making a mistake since there will be more options that you can unlock and change later on. What's odd is how less immersive this can be when the voice-overs skip over the text portion of your name or favorite food. I thought having to wait until you upgraded the Salon to have red hair to be another unusual decision as well. Once you find a specific world character to join your village, you can change your name and favorite food. All special gifted items you might overlook in the beginning can also be found in the world.

Villains: What really distinguishes the story from the rest of the series is how the plot focuses on the lives of the villains instead of the party members. Since the game can't really follow who or what your character is in the beginning, the narrative switches over to follow the characterization and development of those you are seeking. This may or may not appeal to those who would much rather watch the shenanigans of fun, loving characters in the world than the appalling crimes of the antagonists. You can cycle between the three main villains at any time, but you must face the ultimate foe afterwards. This happens twice in the game (with a credits interlude between them) with a total of 8 main villains.

Death: One major theme about the game that might seem surprising is the amount of people who die throughout your adventure. The theory is that if the desire of all humans always cause death to others, then all humans must be put to an end. This idea is put to the test to extremes as you see the twisted nature of some of the most powerful beings cause the death of many in every major event. Then in some crazy finale in the Bestowal of All story arc that only Square Enix can create, you will literally enter Hell & Heaven to meet all those who have died once again. You fight heroes and villains alike as they are forced to do the bidding as one of the main characters sporadically reveals themselves as some  ancient being from legend. You learn more about the world's history all those years ago while walking through the upside down world like something from Stranger Things, converse with people to learn how they might have died, and fight a god - the usual JRPG stuff.

Party: All Octopath Traveler games slowly introduce new party members overtime. In Champions of the Continent, you are given one 5-star character based on an initial decision - Lynette, Viola, Sofia, Fiore, Gilderoy, Theo, Scarecrow, or Millard - with Conny, Jose, and Nanna as your 3-star characters. More characters are bought through the gacha system. In Octopath Traveler 0, the game has you create your initial character and then find 7 more after the prologue. These include Stia, Phenn, Macy, Alexia, Viator, Celsus, and Pius. Overtime, you will be able to unlock a number of different characters new to the series, 8 from the original Octopath Traveler game, and 10 incorporated from the Champions of the Continent story (most of those won't be available until the final story arc). Two of the characters you won't have much control over as they temporarily make themselves available and leave during parts of the story. This brings your total count to about 36 party members. 

Power Creep: In the beginning, you are rather forced to take what the game provides with a full band of 8 characters. As the game introduces new characters, choosing which ones to have in your team depends more on how valuable their equipment and skills are in battle instead of their statistics. Would you take someone who can attack a random foe twice or another that can strike three times? One character can revive an ally, but maybe you just have a ton of Olive of Life items that can practically do the same thing. The best party members for me (excluding certain ones unlocked during the finale) were Olberic, Alexia, H'aanit, and Cyrus. Decent characters included Pius, Heidne, Ludo, and Phenn. Unfortunately, the other characters were not that great to keep around.  

Battle: A party member from each of your four rows and every opponent gets to use an ability once per "turn" of battle. Who performs first is dictated by the speed of each character in the front row. Once you switch, then the speed of that character is calculated every turn. Some skills stating you attack "from the back row" are determined if you are initially switching with that character. Other skills can cause a character to automatically switch, perform an action at the end of each turn, or passively aid their "paired ally" in the same row. Characters in the back row will slowly regenerate HP & SP. If one character loses all his health and falls, the other character in the row will drag their body to the back row and automatically jump in front. If both character's fall, no action will be taken for that row. They must be revived in or out of battle before you can heal them. They do not gain any experience when they are down. Breaking an opponent's shield to zero will cause them to stop all actions for the current and next turn. They will then be given priority to perform first on the third turn. If they are about to perform a special move, they will perform last on the next turn. Be aware that ailments like paralysis or enchantment can cause enemies to fail using their special move and revert back to normal skills. You are able to flee battle, but failing to do so will cause every party member to "slip" without performing any action.

 Wishvale

Village: There are many things that distinguishes Octopath Traveler 0 to Champions of the Continent, but the entire concept around your village is perhaps the best part of the entire game. The prologue starts you off in this village with a bunch of different characters living out their happy lives. It doesn't take too long before the three main villains arrive and completely destroy everything. After you spend some time training and explore the world, you slowly find people who survived the raid. They in turn help increase the level of your town by adding more key features. In addition to any party members you accumulate, you can invite up to around 150 people to live in your village. 

Buildings: Many of the villagers you invite to Wishvale are going to supply you with materials to build more things or use in battle. These will automatically be stored in any space you have in your storage box. Materials collected from your Fields and Ranch are deposited into your harvest box. Initially when you don't have a storage box or if you run out of room, you will have to manually visit each character in your village to receive their gift. Some villagers may even have passive perks that will contribute to a certain building. Any villagers placed outside will not give any perks at all. You can continue conversing with villagers and interact with them like how they were before they moved to your village. Any character you place inside a building will have an associated object on a place-mat. These can include a table with chairs, bookshelves, herbs, tea set, clothes, or crates. Story (named) characters will generate unique features such as Xerc with his giant soulstone from his story, Margo with a crate of vegetables, Therion with a bowl of apples, Saoirse with a cosmetic mirror, and Alaune with a portrait of her sister hanging on the wall. Animals too will have a resting place like a dog with a cushion or a stray seagull with an empty basket. 

Bonuses: If you have played other games from Square Enix, you might want to visit a tavern to unlock additional bonuses. Having played other Octopath Traveler games will give you statues for additional experience and job points. If you haven't, you can still craft your own versions. By obtaining silver and gold ingots, you can also increase bonuses to your Ranch and Field structures. Place down a Town of Records to help save your game. Take a rest to restore your party to full in the bed where you assign yourself, at the workshop, or visiting the hub. One last thing - you may choose to stop gaining experience all together with the Eerie Statue. 

Special Buildings: It doesn't take long exploring before you realize that there are a lot of hidden features of the game. Can I do something with this animal? How do I open these blue chests? Is there a way to cook these ingredients? Much of this is tied to rebuilding Wishvale. There are 8 levels each with their own set of unlocked content through the Kindlers of the Flame questline. You can collect materials to build such as wood and stone in the world and upgrade special buildings with Radiant Cornerstones from the marked elite monsters guarding certain treasure chests. Let's take these one at a time:

1. Workshop enables you to build in the first place. Stia will always be stationed here. Upgrade the building to Tier II so you don't have to visit the crafting box to enter building mode. Tier III adds a side-scrolling bar that lists the last 30 items you manipulated.
2. Hub enables you to cook. Phenn will always be stationed here. Upgrade the building to Tier II so you can switch your party members without visiting a tavern. You can add a cook to sometimes increase the number of meals you make or a Fixer that decreases the cost to restore reputation. The one hidden feature of unlocking Tier III is learning the Roast Iridove recipe, required to unlock certain character chapters.
3. Fields lets you grow crop ingredients for meals (and decorations). Basil will always be stationed here. You can add a Green Thumb to increase production speed and a Fertilizer Procurer to purchase fertilizer to increase the yield. 
4. Ranch lets you purchase animals for ingredients in meals (and decorations). You can add Breeder to increase the production speed and Fodder Procurer to purchase fodder to increase the yield. 
5. Salon allows you to make a number of changes to your appearance and additional options. Tier I allows you to change your hair (with more styles and colors available). Tier II changes your motions and voice. Tier III lets you change your body, face, eye color (two more types), and skin color. You can recruit a Diarist with Nomenclator to change your character's name and the name of your favorite dish. 
6. Shop pulls from lists of goods you obtain from various other towns. Ludo will always be stationed here. He can offer rare items (that sparkle), general items, and occasionally blueprints that let you craft your own decorations. This would be where you get a Worn Bow for Ha’anit and legendary treasures for the Museum. You can buy regular items or sell goods at any time. Upgrade to Tier II to restock that changes out the list of goods for 2,000 each time. You can reserve items by forcing them to always be available instead of changing if you want to buy them later. You can add Backdoor Trade for special items, Appraiser for rare items, Shopper to lower purchase cost, Salesman to increase selling price, or Tradesman to shorten the time it takes to switch to a new list of goods. 
7. Training Grounds is the game's method of making sure all your characters, not just the 8 you travel with, gain experience (EXP) and job points (JP). Having the building let's you keep another 8 going, Tier II does 16, and Tier III does 32. You can learn Master skills by just having the building, but Tier II allows you to learn ultimate techniques. Tier III allows you to train people without visiting the building. Make sure you assign characters to training anytime you recruit new members or swap them with the party. They do not automatically start training.
8. Church is perhaps the most important building since it allows you to increase the number of times you can use helpers from 3 to 4 at Tier II and the number of helpers to choose from in battle (and in duels) to 9 at Tier III. Laurana will always be stationed here and provide the Merciful Heart perk of sometimes summoning a helper for free (their personal count before they leave you, not the total number you can summon) in battle. Ones with Faithful Heart can increase the helper personal usage count. You can also start opening blue chests at Tier III. 
9. Sacred Flame Dais is something that should not be overlooked. When you first place this object, you will have a chance to obtain 1 of 3 perks. These include adding a tally of opened chests and defeated elite monsters in each area, being able to fast travel to any location instead of only to villages, and conversing with animals. Which one you choose first depends on what you feel is important. The location of the Azure Flamestones can take some time since the second must be purchased from an obscure merchant in a far away location and the third is obtained from a place only available near the end of the game. 
10. Museum is one of the more elusive buildings to establish since it requires a musical instrument from a character that requires some high standing to increase the rate from the initial 3% amount. Having it allows you to play music that continues until some sort of transition like sleeping or leaving town. Tier II collects all the material you read in your journey. Tier III lets you display any antiques you obtained (there are 11). Only when you finish the questline can you change the music to the village permanently (Tier doesn't matter). 
11. Arena is the last special building and cannot be upgraded. Adrian will always be stationed here. You can invite a Veteran Announcer with the Teeming Passion trait to increase the experience obtained. Upon construction, a new set of monsters - that are pulled from Octopath Traveler boss list - will now appear in a number of locations across the world. You do not have to "get a quest" beforehand or use some special item to "capture" the monsters. Defeating them will allow you to claim the reward (manually from the Arena) and fight the monster again inside the Arena with some fun announcer commentary for another type of reward. 

Progression

 

Nuts: Perhaps the most unusual item a new player will experience are what permanently increases your character's statistics. What you can find in treasure chests, on characters, or stealing from enemies in battle will provide any character of your choice an increase in a particular trait. Just be careful since you will be switching out to new characters between stories. If you want to play it safe, you can always give them to the protagonist. In the final parts of the game, you will receive a seed that you can grow in your fields that will grow random nuts indefinitely. 

 

Gear: There is no requirement in using equipment. Because of this, a player can choose to skip ahead to future regions, undertake equipment from characters far ahead of their level range, and buy rare equipment from the general stores. This may trivialize content, especially if you are able to undergo endgame challenges sooner than later. There are the forbidden weapons that deal more damage but have some negative consequence (sometimes offset with the Blessing in Disguise accessory), battle-tested weapons that can be obtained after doing battle with level 60 characters, and legendary treasure weapons that require defeating a guardian and finding their associated key in the world. Otherwise, there are a variety of different ways to obtain equipment through your shop or fighting arena monsters. 

 

Job Points: Do not confuse experience with job points. While experience adds a few points in your party's associated classes per level, job points allows you to unlock new skills. There are four categories to spend points in. The initial area you would spend points on would be unlocking your initial 7 battle skill mastery each character has available. You can choose the skills in any order and obtain your character's innate support skill mastery abilities, but the amount increases after each one unlocked. Once you have obtained all of them, you can continue spending points to duplicate the mastery that other party members can equip. You can do this for each of the protagonist's jobs as well. Perhaps the most note-worthy "mandatory" mastery is Olberic's "Surpassing Power" that lets you go from a 9,999 damage cap to a 99,999 one in a single strike. The equip skill window is where you can pay to unlock for a total of 5 equip slots (3 for battle and 2 for support). Once you have built the museum and obtained all their skills, you can pay 2,000 job points for the character's ultimate technique. This only becomes available during battle after you fill up the ultimate technique gauge through battle. You can keep tier 1 of your ultimate technique for the next battle but will lose any tier 2 or 3 progression. The amount of job points you accumulate, some character-related skills, and the ultimate technique cannot be shared with other characters.

 

Modifiers

 

Dishes: Building a hub in Wishvale can be more important than you realize. By growing ingredients out of 20 different seeds in your field, you can cook dishes that will benefit your whole party. Food isn't determined by how long you spend in the game or the number of encounters. Instead, food is determined by the total number of turns. One turn is expended at the start of battle and when all rows have performed an action. There are about 50 meals you can cook that can last 10 to 20 turns, give 5 to 30% for a different number of stats, sometimes give 10 to 20% HP or SP after a battle, and sometimes increase the final tally of things like experience or dropped items up to 50%. Their bonuses can end in the middle of battle and you can eat another dish outside of battle before the current one expires. Eating a meal that can increase your total health can even revive fallen members. Dishes are also very important for quests or Amity objectives for party members in Wishvale. 

Interaction Modifiers: The theme of the game revolves around three major "desires" that you slowly increase overtime - wealth, power, and fame. These change the percentage chance of obtaining items from characters in the world. Wealth changes the chance of being able to haggle 50% off a certain purchase item, power gives the chance to contend characters in battle, and Fame modifies the chance to entreat (or beg) characters without a confrontation. Each town, including Wishvale, gives you 5 free chances of failure until you have to pay a fine for another 5 chances. There is always the possibility you can fail even at 95%, but you can succeed after immediately trying a second time since the dice randomly roll with each interaction. 

 

Helpers: Unlike the other Octopath Traveler games, helpers here function as universal summons. They can be done in addition to a character's action, can be called by any party member (which can be undone and changed using "dismiss" right away if you made a mistake), performs right after the character acts, and can be done once every turn. The catch is that each helper only has a set amount of "uses" before you have to find them in the world again and you can only do this 4 times every battle. The strength of their ability is based upon their level. Some of the best helpers can be found in lower level areas. Though, you may want to diversify their skills to help aid you in different circumstances. With the help of the church, you can increase the total number of available helpers to 9. However, the living can not be used in the Land of the Dead and vice versa. Once you reach the final area, you can have a total of 18 (9 living and 9 dead). 

 

Interludes

 

Cutscenes: The Octopath Traveler games are known to have a ton of dialogue. You are able to adjust the speed of the text and double the speed of combat animations. During cutscenes, you can pause by having each dialogue wait for some input from the user, play without any input (but still allows you to press to immediately cut off the current dialogue and move forward to the next one), fast forward that doubles the speed and completely leaves out any voice-acting, or skip over the whole thing directly to when you can move your character again. Occasionally, the game will offer the player a choice. It is very important to note that you cannot mess up your game by choosing a "wrong" choice. Almost every choice will have a few lines of alternative dialogue and immediately continue as if your decision didn't contribute in any way. Despite there being no downside in refusing a new member to the team, declining their invitation merely has them wait until you do accept. Informing the game you aren't ready for an event will only postpone the prompt until you interact with them again. 

 

Party Chat: The prompt for this optional event appears at the corner of the screen when certain conditions are met. They are short cutscenes, usually with a choice from the user, between the protagonist and up to three other party members. These usually occur when you first invite someone and after completing their last Amity objective. A conversation can take place the moment you have four of the same class (including the protagonist). There are quite a few that happen intermittently in the final area if you choose to continue your adventure. If you wish to see the dialogue of the option you didn't take, they can be replayed from your journal. 

 

Turning Point: Because of the drastic changes that happen overtime in the game, areas will change quite frequently. Some areas will remain "locked" for a long time until you reach a certain point in the story. Others will have new characters or rarely some that might move from one area to another. Character dialogue might change to current events. However, do not think that you will be permanently locked out of content beyond what happens in the initial 5 hours of the game. If a town is under attack, they will return to their posts after you complete the chapter. Occasionally, you will be unable to visit other parts of the world until you finish the narrative wherever you might be. Dialogue from characters can also change depending on your actions. As an example, a girl who mentions the precious memory of her father's stone will stop saying as much the moment she gives it to you. 

 

Endgame

 

Endings: You could say there are four different ways to complete the game. There is the "bad" ending that abruptly ends your journey if you do not wish to continue at a certain point near the final area. There is the "standard" ending where you leave your compatriot behind and defeat the final boss. There is the "true" ending where you follow through a number of steps to rescue your companion. With the quest prompts, I somehow naturally stumbled through the true ending without looking at a guide. Then there is the "final" ending where you do the standard & true endings to unlock a secret boss that leaves you the last legendary treasure floating stone. There will be a new pedestal to rewind time right before the final boss and the added perk of being able to move around any building in Wishvale.

 

Final Boss: Unlike anything you have ever encountered beforehand, you will be facing off the final boss with every character. That's right. All 35 party members will be lined up with your discretion in the front or back rows. The game will allow you to rotate between the two rows like before, but speed determines which four rows will go first before the boss attacks. Making sure each character is equipped with something is important. Any skills, helpers, or actions that state an entire row or all party members will perform as such. As long as you keep using your ultimate skills from each character, the battle should commence without a hitch. 

 

Resolution: Considering the extent of how much they put into the ending, there really was no going back for me. You will first watch the credits roll as they playback every villain in the game. Their artwork, their entrance, and your fight with them are all on display. It even makes sure to show what party members you had during each encounter, whatever class you might have been, and any changes you might have had done at the Salon. Afterwards, you will have a chance to speak with each individual character (with their voice-actors), inquire what they plan to do, and do a cinematic walk around the world while a woman sings a song. 

 

 Summary

 

Review: Octopath Traveler 0 smooths out the problems of the other games by streamlining all 8 characters on the field from the very beginning. Although there is still the problem of characters you encounter later in the story being more powerful than the ones you initially use from the gacha system on the mobile version, there is less difficulty and more than enough room to get through the content with ease. The story focusing on the tragic backstories of average people becoming powerful through the power of corrupted rings might be difficult to watch at times, but the customization of your character, building your village, and obtaining a myriad of characters can offset the dark undertones. The one thing that could have used some improvement was the pacing of when you collect items, complete stories, and build onto your village. There's a little bit of annoyance when you have to backtrack through the game to find those blue chests or animals when you are halfway through the game. The story in this game is much harder than the others in the series when you are forced to watch people, sometimes entire towns, be destroyed by villains all because the lack of security around guarding some rings.