Octopath Traveler I and II were both great games with very, very good gameplay that suffered from their fragmentation of their story. Playing Octopath Traveller 2, I thanked the fact that most stories were skippable if I found them getting far too boring or paced... Off, which led to me entirely skipping whole stories and sticking to the gameplay of Agnea and Oswald's. However, in the moments where the stories connected, where characters got to shine together... I saw something, shining through. Something with potential held back by its format. I rated the game highly for its amazing marks in gameplay, and willingness to let the story take a backseat through good auto-play functions and letting you skip any cutscene- as, even if it was a sore point at times, it was polite enough to let you move on.

Octopath 0 is that shining light, at all times. It takes the failings of the format of its predecessors, learns from them, and throws them entirely out the window to tell a single massive story with multiple branches that all are eventually tackled, leading to the at-your-pace story progression Octo I and II are known for while also telling a cohesive story full of well-written characters, great drama, incredible writing (even where a few cliches poke their heads through), and a constant series of increasing stakes that left me blindsided at multiple turns as I had never played Champions of the Continent.

Why Octopath 0, over any others? 0, in my opinion, has an appeal that no other game that's attempted the things it has, has ever done successfully. And for that, we need to go as far back as Chrono Cross. You see, in the PS1 sequel to Chrono Trigger, there are a great many characters. Dozens of them. All of them have their own elements, their own unique techs, and use their own equipment. While a great way to customize, being of the time that it was, the game couldn't reasonably capitalize on the idea that all of these people were on a grand adventure with you- a veritable legion of characters, each with their own stories in their little world.

Octopath 0 takes that idea, and it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ delivers. Octopath 0 isn't just a story made better by its wide breadth of characters, complex world, and lofty story telling. This story would not WORK if there weren't as many characters as there are by your side. The true ending would fall flat on its face if it didn't follow through on your entire journey. It took the ridiculous idea of having THIRTY-SIX characters all with their own stories, goals, ideals, and histories, wove them into the world, and made it a better place for its myriad, not a watered-down mess. Ignoring even the replayability of the idea of having so many characters, each of them are full of their own charm, fully voiced, and have kits that each bring their own twist to strategy that makes them compelling to use, except... Well...

You. Which is tricky. You make your own protagonist in this game, and can't swap them out from your primary slot. So... You're stuck with them. You can select a few voices- but character interaction with them is limited to, essentially "..." "Oh, you think Macy's right? Well, okay! :D"

And it's just kinda... Flat. Anything involving the protagonist that isn't Sazantos just fails completely. Which maybe that's by design, who's to say? But I connected a few dots maybe a bit earlier than I was intended to and started shifting my choices in a way the game wouldn't LET me. And that was probably what felt most infuriating, because it feels like a reasonable person- nevermind a self-insert by design- would see the writing on the wall at a certain point, too. It's genuinely frustrating to have to make what feels like a stupid decision because the story will literally not let you progress until you do. A sore point, but if you detach from the idea of having a self-insert and just let them be their own character, it works. Even if your choices pretty much never matter, and train you to know they never matter right up until the end of the game where there's ONE text box that seems like it does... With a rewind button for later. Don't sweat your choices, they're fake.

Besides the strange protagonist choice? Wonderfully written world, story, and characters all around. Seeing them interact in chats around Wishvale is great, and building your own town in this engine is surprisingly fun, even coming from someone who doesn't usually like prefab-style town building in video games, preferring total sandboxes like Minecraft or Terraria. Get this game. It's cheaper than its contemporaries and 1000x better, worth every cent you spend on it even when it isn't on sale. I have about 130 hours of real in-game-time as of the writing of this review, and I've done about every sidequest the game seems to have on offer. Part of me wishes there was more content, but frankly speaking, that's only because I'm a greedy little piggie and this game is so good I still want more.

When I first saw this game, I was very skeptical. I'd seen a lot of things inspired by SNES titles like the SNES Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger, and most of them fell flat on their face. As a result, I basically ignored this game for a very long time- But, one day, I saw it on sale for cheap. So of course, I gave it a shot.

Now, I regret buying it on sale; almost feels like I stole right from the developers. This game is so, so much better than I thought it would be.

This game has impeccable writing, amazing (and accessible!) gameplay, and I cannot overstate, one of the best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stories for the genre I've seen written in a very, very long time. I am the kind of player that actively seeks deep, enriching, and difficult mechanics in a game- think the likes of Noita, The Binding of Isaac, and so forth- while rarely giving consideration to the story, as I've never really enjoyed them much, not since I was a child.
This game. Brought me to tears.

No number scale can rate this game, and no esoteric scale can measure it. The gameplay is fun and fast-paced, the story is one of the best I've seen out of generations of both indie and triple-A development, and the mechanics are so incredibly deep that even the speedrunning glitches are reminiscent of SNES titles.