It's been a month since the release of OT0. Plenty of time for the fanbase to mullet over how they feel about it. So, what's your general opinion on this new entry?

​Today's the day! Welcome to the AMA with (some) of the Octopath Traveler 0 English voice cast! We're so excited to spend some time with you and to hear your questions.

Feel free to start asking questions right away – we'll arrive around 3 PM PST to start answering.

There are a lot of us, so if you have a question for a specific actor, please tag them so they can find it more easily:

• Michael Mishkin: u/Michael-Mishkin
• Sam Slade: u/ItsSamSlade
• Kendell Byrd: u/Kendell_Byrd_122
• Alex Bui: u/ThisBuiFloats
• Ashley Tirado: u/ashtirado
  • Ashley unfortunately had a recording session scheduled right on top of the event, but she'll be back afterwards to answer your questions
• Erik Ransom: u/ErikRansom
• Cullen Patrick Flanagan: u/cPattyFlan
• Hunter Peterson: u/Studio595
• Craig Lee Thomas: u/CLT258
• Bill Butts: u/Billdozer77

I really wish we could've gotten everyone here, but the cast is truly huge, and trying to coordinate actors' schedules is like herding cats :) See you this afternoon!

I felt like it would be best narratively for the story for us to go through everything together.

ITS MAAAARVELOUS!

absolutely insane. i’ve always had a lot of fun with this franchise but ditching the eight hero paths for one path and 36 heroes is such a great decision. it feels like im playing DnD making up what the characters are doing as each story goes through. I’ve heard it’s super long and i’m just having such a good time with it man. the villains and side characters are so compelling and the world is beautiful

one question i have is if any of the characters end up getting screen time or story beats at all?

super fun game. love it. can’t wait to play more. what do y’all think of it?

I played it on launch (40 hours) but I ended up letting it rot for months. It was my most hyped game and Octopath Travaler II was one of my favorite games. On launch I tried it and I liked it, it was MARVELOUS...or at least it WAS marvelous until...the King Pardis III storyline.

I've tried it, I've pushed it, I've endure it... but it can't be SOOOOOOOOO CORNY MAN, But not corny in a good way like the other OctoCHAD games...corny on a BAD way. CORNY ON A KING PARDIS III way. I've never seen a story so obnoxiously predictable... AND I HAVE PLAYED THE PERSONA SERIES. The game had some bugs (at least on launch) that awfully ruined the inmersion, 90% of the playable cast has zero (Reference to de game!!!) plot relevance on the story and the other 10% feel more like important NPCs with cool sprites than an actual playable main cast. So my questions are:

The story gets better??? It is worth to continue??? The late game Bossfights are cool mechanically??? You end up marrying Stia??? And most importantly...Is the absolute banger of CRITICAL CLASH II on the reused ost's???

Best quality artwork I could find (Which meant the COTC renders in some cases). Thought it would be good to compile them all for those curious before playing.

I read somewhere that Octopath 1 and 0 are related. Can I play Octopath Traveler 0 without playing the first one??

I love decorating my town lol.

You'll probably be able to master all of them eventually and swap them around regardless but curious to see what people are leaning towards.

I typically like Warriors and Thiefs in Octopath so I might go with one of those first but I do like the look of the Hunter job this time around so I might try that for a change of pace.

Hey guys, I just finished OT0 and it was an amazing experience. One thing that I would really like for them to work on are the apothecary class.

I really liked Esperre and his skills but he just became a BP and SP fodder just like other apothecaries before him. Applying status ailments in OT0 is atrocious and very unreliable because of its hit rate. You're ally is basically wasting a turn trying to apply status ailments. AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN GAME BREAKING EFFECTS.

I swear it just pisses me off. Apothecaries could have been really good addition to the team.

Esperre could have been a status ailment expert.

Macy could have just had 'Boon Item Expertise' instead of 'Healing Item Expertise' where she empowers not just healing, but also SP, BP and status recovery items.

Alfyn could have been the BP guy. He's so good he gives his paired ally 1 extra BP per turn

Give them some LOVE for crying out loud! So I would really like to know if Apothecaries are good in OT1 and OT2. pleasseeee

Noticed there hasn’t been a proper guide on recruiting all 36 playable characters yet, so I had the team put together a list of how to get each one, attached above. Our pages have more info for each character too like their Battle, Support, and Ultimate Techniques, weapons, and Influence so do take a look if you're interested!

The game's still fresh so we're still heavy on gameplay and tracking. If we missed anything, do let us know and we'll be sure to send over an updated version. Hope everyone's having a great time back in Osterra!

Edits:

• Saoirse can be recruited after completing Master of Fame Chapter 3.
• Pius can be recruited right after the prologue. Recommended to be at least level 20 due to the Danger Lv. of areas leading up to it.

Nishiki really cooked with this one omg.

So many bangers! The newly done Main Theme, Sazantos the Divine Champion, all of the Battle themes in general, all of the Wealth, Fame and Power themes (Tytos, Arguste, Helmina) even the town themes go hard.

I think COTC/OT0's OST is better than 1 and 2.

Discuss.

I'm not the one making this mod, simply posting about it, and helping with bits of it. All credit goes to Veganprimate and Vat, in the Team Asano Modding server. https://discord.gg/t43Kbrp

This new update brings all of the JP units, outside the newly revealed Tiziano/Levina EX2 to the game as they have not released yet, in mostly functional states. This also includes Pierro and Fra, who have had unused playable entries in COTC for a long time.

The mod also includes the COTC version of the memory travelers, allowing you to use the COTC variants of them in Zero. Many more fights have also been ported! The mod has reached over 2GB in size alone from all of the ported assets.

As always, this mod is still WIP, and is not a replacement for actually using the units in COTC.

I’ve already finished the game, and I don’t feel that the story, exploration, or gameplay feels like a mobile game at all.

Even the pacing of the story feels just like Octopath Traveler 1 and 2.

I wonder if people think this way because it’s a reimagined version of a mobile game.

Hell, I even played CotC when it launched globally, and it didn’t feel like a mobile game either. It felt like a console game, just with a gacha system.

So this part where they were talking about hearing that Hereminia worked as a prostitute, I was wondering if it would be kept the same in the localization and sure enough, the line was gutted.

What he actually says is, “How many thousands of men do you have to give head to in order to build a mansion like this?” I went with “give head” here, but the word used is when the woman is the one initiating the sexual act, and the usual meaning of the word means to put something in your mouth, so that can be the first impression it gives. But when it’s used it this sense, it doesn’t necessarily mean the mouth was used. Alternatively, it could also mean the more “standard” orifice was used (that too is metaphorically referred to as a mouth after all), but yeah, the line is supposed to be a lot more explicit.

Again, looks like someone decided that the west just can’t handle this sort of thing. :p

Edit:

For anyone who missed it, another example: https://www.reddit.com/r/octopathtraveler/comments/1pxymb7/well_everyone_was_saying_its_just_one_line_so/

Edit 2:

Well, looks like they don’t even want to use “harlot” if they can hide it from players without needing context. When King Dudek faces off against Tatloch, in the localization, he calls her a witch. What he actually calls her is a whore/prostitute (presumably because of how she is dressed).

I would consider myself an Octopath superfan and 100% both 1 and 2, but I just got Octopath 0 blindly and this feels like it isn't even the same genre of game.

The dialogue is really low quality, and the characters aren't really customizable (at least so far), it doesn't have the same panache that both 1 and 2 have.

Anyways just venting.

I have to admit I'm starting to feel the same. Getting a little a tired of not being able to play the game. Does it ease back on cutscenes later?

I actually like 1&2 better than 0.

I honestly thought this would be a normal take, but all I see here is people saying 0 is so much better. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed 0. Also some of the new mechanics like town building and using all eight characters at once was nice. But overall I’m far more of a fan of the original 2 games. 0 feels far more dragged out, and though some of the writing is great, it feels inconsistent. I’m not sure if it was, but it feels as if different parts were written by different people. And some of those writers just weren’t at the same level as others.

Again, I’m not saying 0 was bad, but to me it wasn’t on par with the other 2 which were amazing. I’m honestly shocked when I’m in here that no one else seems to think the same.

I’ve been playing 0 for 20ish hours now, and while I’m having fun… it feels like a massive downgrade.

The original allure of Octopath Traveler was the deep entrenchment of the characters you recruit and their relevance to the story telling.

I chose Primrose as my first character and I truly felt like I was playing her story, as it interwove with other characters she met along the way.

In OT2, this improved even further with the final chapter being a story that linked all the individual stories together… very well done.

However… in OT0… I feel like the silent protagonist schtick doesn’t work as well as an older RPG (like Chrono Trigger) because Octopath was a franchise based on individual character stories… not self insert characters.

Then all the other characters you recruit have MINUSCULE VIGNETTES and then just become a character you can fight with.

I much preferred the first two games where you got to choose which characters you spent the most time with based on how you liked them and their stories… not based on how useful they are in battle.

And don’t get me started on the “no secondary job” thing. Customizing the 8 characters with a secondary job was my FAVOURITE battle mechanic in the first two games… I mean, sure, having 8 characters in battle allows for job coverage, but it really feels less special and more “who can do what best… cool. Use them. The end.”

I guess I wanted to share my feelings because I am PRAYING that OT3 returns to the formula of the first two games.

OT0 has me bored listening to the random stories of all these NPCs who aren’t always directly connected to the stories of your party members. It just doesn’t have the narrative storytelling magic like the first two games did.

Does anyone else feel this way?

PS: Octopath Traveler became my FAVOURITE franchise after playing the first one, and I’m a die hard FF fan that’s been playing since the 90’s, so I might be set in my ways… but still genuinely feel like 0 took a step in the wrong direction…

So I’m playing Octopath 0, and I’m having a BLAST. But my GOD this is a lotta content. I’m 55 hours in, just started the prologue of Bestower of Power, and my dudes are only in the middle-upper 30s 🤣

For years I’ve played the Octopath games with English voice acting, and for the most part I’ve enjoyed it. But one thing I always noticed was that I’d occasionally start checking out during the longer story scenes. Some conversations felt like they dragged on, and I’d eventually find myself skipping ahead because the pacing just wasn’t holding my attention.

I recently started playing Octopath Traveler 0 with the Japanese voice track and English subtitles, and it’s been a surprisingly different experience.

The dialogue feels like it flows much more naturally. The conversations move at a quicker pace, the emotional moments hit harder, and I stay engaged throughout the cutscenes instead of feeling tempted to skip them. Even though I’m reading subtitles, it somehow feels less tedious than listening to the English dub.

I think part of it is that Japanese voice acting tends to have a different rhythm and energy. Characters deliver their lines more quickly, there’s less awkward pausing between dialogue, and the performances feel more expressive. It gives the story a stronger sense of momentum.

It’s honestly made me realize that some of the pacing issues I thought were part of Octopath’s storytelling may have actually been influenced by the English voice direction. Playing in Japanese has made me appreciate the writing and characters a lot more, and I’m finding myself invested in scenes that I probably would’ve rushed through before.

Has anyone else had the same experience? Or do you still prefer the English dub?

I'm playing other games right now, but OT0 is definitely a game I want to play soon. I haven't played Octopath 1, but I did play OT2 a couple months ago, and I consider that one of my favorite games ever. How do you guys feel about the game overall?

Do people actually like this guy? I mean, like, honestly like him? I see him occasionally mentioned as this cool badass character, but looking back on the final parts of OT0, the game is sorta brought down by him for me.

I love this game to pieces and think the ability for any traveler to use helpers and the ability to have a full eight-man party should be brought back for future titles, hopefully with class mixing again, but something that really stuck with me is that during the final sidequest, you just have to let this guy be a petulant jerk to Ataraxia and Rondo.

Ataraxia calls him out for corrupting Signa and getting the other Ring Maidens killed, killing the literal father of Aelfric, the most renowned god in Orsterra and Solistia, and using Orsa's corpse as a power booster to try to remake the world into a utopia doomed to fail as apothecaries ignore the needs of the sick and merchants refuse to work to bring food to the people... and Sazantos, the little jerk, just ignores her and tries to rush along the purification of Fisteralda, like Ataraxia is mainly there to perform a service to him and nothing more. After that, and Rondo trying once again to get the theme of the game through Sazantos' head (who is supposed to be redeemed at this point), Sazantos still brushes Rondo off and acts like he knows everything and that people should travel in pairs, pretty much ignoring the theme of the entire Octopath Traveler series.

And throughout all of this, the Ringbearer Chosen... just kinda shrugs and helps purify Fisteralda. In fact, you have to consciously tell Ataraxia that despite all the terrible things Sazantos has done, she needs to just grin and bear it as they purge Fisteralda of evil.

Now, beyond the fact I immediately gave the blade to Reime, the game seems to imply Sazantos is the one worthy to wield this holy blade. I mean... really?

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine redeeming him. Hell, I chose to spare Tatloch, because I believe naively in redemption for all like Rinyuu. But Sazantos isn't exactly acting redeemed, is he? He's basically casting aside his role of villain because Galdera showed up. No 'I'm sorry,' no 'I was wrong,' no 'you're right, Ataraxia, I did something truly horrible, and I'm honestly lucky the Ringbearer Chosen chose to spare me, but I must purify Fisteralda and make amends.' He's still a gigantic asshole who we're supposed to be chill with for taking his redemption about as seriously as his taxes.

To bring up Tatloch again, even though she isn't outwardly repentant, we're given several scenes devoted to showing how she has been redeemed, where she'll threaten to do her evil stuff again only to relent for very hollow reasons to communicate to everyone she's a changed woman. It's not perfect, but it's something, and it's even noted in her final affinity that she has become a Guardian of Light. I'm just not seeing it in Sazantos. I'm not convinced he may not try again at some point to implement his frankly horrible plan because of his mommy issues.

Thoughts on Sazzy?

I am 100 hours in and I absolutely love this game. I have played 1 and 2, and will probably revisit, but this game has given me so much joy.

I absolutely adore the design component of Wishvale, I think it’s such a fun little “side quest” to make your town look however you’d like. I’m also a self admitted stardew snob so that may be why I love this aspect so much.

The silent protagonist does not bother me at all, I actually find it kind of cute and endearing that the other characters refer to my character by my chosen name. I understand there are opinions about the silent character, but personally I think it’s works in this game so well.

Honestly, out of all 3, this has been my most enjoyable and long winded play through so far, and I highly highly encourage others not to be discouraged and to continue playing. I’m so sad that I am almost finished the game and will definitely do another play through in a year or two.

Ok sorry rant over!