09/11/2026
Been playing Octopath 0 and definitely having some strong opinions. Love the mechanics and the battle system, path action changes are great too, mastery system is a W.
Those are the difficult things to get right, and it seems like Square nailed them. It's the easy things that they got wrong that are mindblowing.
The writing is god awful. Easily the worst it has been in all 3 games in the series. The timeline seems so sketchy, I'm not sure if I am playing a sequel or a prequel. At any two hour span I've been subjected to looney toons level of villainy, bosses that once they start talking I cannot take them seriously. In that same window of time, the game then has a decidedly MA rated moment. Pick a lane.
THE VOICE ACTING IS ABISMAL.
I don't know what kind of effort was put into this or how there wasn't a meeting at some point where someone didn't have the backbone to stand up and say some honest/hurtful things, and demand change.
Part of the problem is the script is bad. When there are games out there like Hades 1 & 2 and Clair Obscur, indy games that minus the absurdity of everyone in ancient Greece and a French themed game are unapologetically British - got it right.
75% of the dialog is overacted, over emotional, over the top that I end up rolling my eyes whenever narration begins. I'm going through the game and I come across H'annit. In the first game, they have Cindy Robinson voicing the character. Square gave us Astrid from Skyrim. Octopath Traveler 0? So far as I can tell, it is an uncredited roll but it most certainly is not the original voice actor. Same goes for Primrose, and I think the rest of the original characters.
I have deep concerns for Final Fantasy Resonance if this is the quality I can expect. Maybe the FF7 remake is soaking up all the talent and planning and budget. After I finished Octopath Traveler 2 I remember thinking the story of the game was really spotty. In some places it was bad. When Octopath 0 was nearing release I passed on it. When it went on sale I picked it up. Thankfully the gameplay is fun, because the elements that make a game an RPG are sorely missing the mark.
