Octopath Traveler 0 feels like a great console RPG but the large party size has me a little concerned

Job systems in RPGs are one of my kryptonites. When a new game lets me play around and change out a character's role, it basically becomes an instant buy for me. With such a focus on jobs, I have been on board the Octopath train since the original title's release, and at PAX West this year, I got to spend some time with the upcoming Octopath Traveler 0. I may not be able to turn my Knight into a Thief anymore, but it has still managed to sink its daggers into me.

Octopath Traveler 0 is a reinterpretation of the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent that (at least in the hour-long demo I played) has removed any noticeable feeling of being a mobile game. Running through battles, speaking with townsfolk, and questing through dungeons all feel the same as any of the other two main Octopath titles. In addition to the new village building system, the most significant departure from the previous games regards its combat structure, although many of the core battle components are still in place.

In the first two games, you would pick four out of the eight Travelers to form your active party, each with a set job, and off you went. OT0 ups this count by now having your active party consist of eight characters spread between two rows, a front and back, with four characters in each, with additional party members waiting in reserve to be swapped out in the main menu when not in combat. Only the front row can act, but the characters in the back row will continue to gain their usual single BP each turn, and any passively activated skills they have learned will trigger, too.

When it is a character’s turn, with a mere single button press, they will swap places with whomever is behind them, allowing them to take full advantage of the turn. It doesn’t cost a turn action to perform, nor does it spend a BP; nothing. It is easy and quick, with no downtime, and I really appreciate this. Having these multiple characters take the place of the jobs from the previous games, though your custom player avatar will still have access to jobs to swap around, and as painless as this new direction is, I’m still on the fence about the whole change.

The rest of the combat behaves nearly identically, though. Enemies have specific weakness types that are hidden until they are hit with them. Hitting an enemy with enough of their weaknesses will break them, causing them to take more damage and miss a turn, and the player can boost using their available BP to deal additional damage or hit multiple times. 

My main concern is that due to basically getting two BP a turn instead of a single one (one on each character), we could see the shields of enemies getting strangely large and bloated. Even in the demo I played, bosses and strong foes had double-digit shields, with one enemy even having as much as 20. Maybe it’s just because it's been a minute since I played the other games, but that seems high. For reference, the final boss of Octopath Traveler 2 had three shields that, when combined, added up to 18. Octopath games tend to have quite a bit of combat, and I'm hoping the larger party size and higher shield numbers don't lead to battles that drag on for too long.

Going into my PAX Demos, out of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and Octopath Traveler 0, this game was by far the one I was more excited to see and check out, as it was more of an unknown quantity. It was also the game in which my interest changed the most.  If you want to get an idea of what to expect from a narrative standpoint, you can play Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent right now, which is still available and receiving updates, though Square Enix has stated that parts of the story will be expanded on in OT0. Also, there is still no mention of whether any of the guest character events from the mobile game, like 2B from Nier: Automata, will make the jump. 

I’m personally not big into playing mobile games, so knowing that Zero was based on the Octopath mobile game, I was leery but open-minded. After getting hands-on with the game, had I not previously known what it was based on, I would be convinced it was a completely brand-new title. Based on my time with the demo, it feels like a full console experience, and I am now just as excited for it as any other awesome-looking turn-based console RPG. 

Octopath Traveler 0 releases on December 4, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.