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The Octopath Traveler series always offered us quite a bit of freedom, as we’d be able to pursue past games’ stories in any order we’d want, recruit in different orders, and often get pretty much total access to the map right away. After spending a few hours to preview Octopath Traveler 0, I feel like it goes even further to give the player freedom to experience the game how they’d like and pursue their own priorities.
This starts from the moment someone picks up Octopath Traveler 0, as during the preview session I felt like I spent way more time than I expected in the character creator. We determine things like our character’s body type, hair style, skin tone, eye color, hair color, initial skill preference, starting items, and favorite food with buff. While I didn’t pick an initial job until after the events of the prologue, it felt like I could start considering a specific build already, especially if I considered grabbing the early healing skill or a favorite food that would heal and boost critical rate.
Octopath Traveler 0 starts with one of the more detailed “villains burned down our town” type of stories. Our avatar’s father is head of the Wishvale watch and trained us in order to ensure we’d be able to assist in keeping everyone safe. As we prepare for the yearly Enkindling festival, an Order of the Sacred Flame church-led affair which will sound familiar to those who played past games, there are hints that the villains Commander Tytos, Lady Herminia, and Auguste will converge on the town to claim a mysterious ring. This leads to it being burned, with our hero and their childhood friend Stia as the only survivors staying with a nearby scholar and hermit who lived outside of town.
But while the prologue is a more regimented and short introductory “chapter,” it feels like the rest of the time I spent playing Octopath Traveler 0 for the preview featured a game that might encourage us to do what we want, when we want, as we walk our own course throughout the country. After taking shelter with the scholar, we can then make additional choices confirming our first job. (I went with a Thief.) After confirming that we want to assist Stia in rebuilding Wishvale, we also get a chance to pursue our “goal.” This determines which of the three storylines we start. Fame corresponds to Auguste, Power to Tytos, and Wealth to Herminia. Now, this doesn’t completely lock us out of other stories, as the game assures. It just sets our initial path. When we look at the world map, we can even see where the first chapters of the other two routes are. It’s also possible to see where some sidequests are and fast travel. Following that, Stia also suggests that hey, prioritizing the town can also be an option.
This means that things open up in a way that makes me believe Square Enix and the Octopath Traveler 0 team is quite aware of how people played the previous two mainline games. The world map isn’t extremely detailed, but seems to offer a solid overview of where everything is. For folks focused on town growth and those sidequests, the minimap shows where materials can be collected and recruiting some of the earliest newcomers seemed fairly simple to do, mechanically. Some Path Actions, like the option to investigate, not being locked to a single class for our avatar is helpful for early information gathering. If I did decide to prioritize a main campaign quest, then sometimes I’d happen upon town-building quests and ingredients for them along the way.
Now, I didn’t get too deep into Octopath Traveler 0 during my preview session and don’t want to spoil any of the story elements I did see. But I will say that it seemed like my own survivability was the only thing holding me back in some of these early hours. Some of the early enemies even in the prologue required quite a bit of thought, and as we first start to journey around Orsterra, I found the suggestions letting me know about enemy strength before heading into certain areas were most valuable in determining if I’d risk that journey. Since it still relies on set save points, discretion and caution felt like some of the main limitations early on. Especially as, for at least our first steps into each storyline’s first chapter, we’ll be limited to only our avatar and Stia.
My first hours playing Octopath Traveler 0 for this preview felt encouraging. The earliest moments feel like it’s designed to feel like a more meaningful take on the “villain burns down hometown” trope. And once that’s done, it feels like it the game follows the Octopath Traveler staple of sending us out into the world to make a difference at our own pace. In some ways, only the difficulty of enemies kept me from venturing too far off the beaten path during these early hours.
Octopath Traveler 0 will come to the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on December 4, 2025.
