Octopath Traveler has at all times been the form of old-school, huge retro recreation that actual RPG sickos can sink our enamel into. The unique pitch–a sprawling recreation that tracks the person tales of eight completely different occasion members, every with their very own individualized abilities in each fight and cities, who then come collectively to face some grave threat–can simply final dozens of hours, and to date has throughout two video games. Octopath Traveler 0, a prequel to the opposite two video games, takes that basis and provides much more: expanded customization, townbuilding with farming, bigger occasion sizes, and quests that feed again into the entire different techniques. It is sufficient to be completely daunting, however in the very best of how.
In a prolonged Gamescom demo, I used to be in a position to see the barest outlines of lots of the new techniques at play. For starters, Octopath 0 has a major protagonist: a customized character you create your self. We did not have an opportunity to tinker with the character creator, however our session did have a “created” character because the lead, who seemed like she slot in properly with the HD-2D aesthetic of the sport. I am curious to see extra of this, particularly how one can combine and match completely different options whereas sustaining the beautiful pixel artwork model that the Octopath video games have helped to ascertain.
I’ve numerous confidence that it will possibly pull off wealthy character customization thanks to a different piece of the sport: the townbuilding. In Octopath Traveler 0, you could have a house base which you could customise to your liking with homes, retailers, and even fields for crops. You possibly can lay buildings and different constructions anyplace on a grid, and it’s extremely cool to see the HD-2D model of constructing structure merged with this personalized dollhouse look. As soon as the buildings are set, the house base is unrecognizable from every other Octopath village, so it blends in seamlessly with the sequence’ look. And the farming and livestock supplies give it a Stardew Lite attraction, since you’ll be able to enhance issues like your crop yields or constructing supplies by exploring the world and battling.
The true meat of the demo was an early quest, mentioned to be roughly 10 hours into the sport. Whereas your protagonist is essentially silent, there are many different characters offering dialogue and colour to the world, becoming into acquainted roles like hunter or priest. I used to be instantly struck by the newly expanded fight. You could have eight occasion members at any given time, with much more obtainable to swap out. So reasonably than specializing in eight characters whole, you convey eight characters with you at a time. It felt overwhelming at first, however I shortly discovered the rhythm and truly got here to essentially get pleasure from this expanded roster.
Primarily, you could have a back and front line of 4 every, and you may swap members between their rows shortly throughout fight. So you’ll have your stronger offensive fighters within the first column, and extra defensive ones within the back–but you could possibly swap one among your fighters and defenders everytime you need. And functionally, this implies you could have tons of choices throughout fight, successfully doubling your weapons and talents. With this expanded roster, it is laborious to think about a situation by which you would not have no less than one weapon that may match your enemies’ weaknesses, supplying you with extra flexibility to stagger them. On the flipside, the enemies appeared harder and extra hearty than the norm, doubtless as a result of the sport is aware of you could have a lot extra versatility at your disposal. Fight can also be the place you get to listen to among the greatest standouts of the soundtrack, which as soon as once more is stellar.
The story sequence of the Gamescom demo was quick and easy, specializing in making an attempt to recruit a younger however savvy shopkeeper to hitch you. It excels on the economic system of language that feels acquainted for classically styled RPGs, by which the script must ship numerous characterization with comparatively quick dialogue segments.
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On the finish of the dungeon and a prolonged boss struggle, the shopkeeper agreed to hitch my city, bringing the entire expertise full circle. The townbuilding side provides extra selection to missions, as you by no means know if the character you are recruiting will be part of your occasion as a playable combatant or your city as a significant settler. Octopath Traveler has made its title on unconventional class sorts, so it was completely doable that this story quest would convey the shopkeeper in as a playable character. I appreciated the sensation that this recreation will hold me guessing in regards to the final fates of the characters I encounter.
Octopath Traveler has at all times been an bold sequence. It might have been simple for Octopath Traveler 0 to supply extra of the identical, however as an alternative it is setting its sights increased. The tons of interlocking mechanics and techniques appear like they might be overwhelming, however from what I’ve seen to date, they harmonize so properly that I am not afraid to take them on.
Octopath Traveler 0 is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Collection X, and Nintendo Swap on December 4.