Revenge is the best dish in HD-2D in Octopus Traveler 0
Blog Andrew Joseph 09 Sep , 2025 0
What home do you have? For most of my childhood, no matter the Navy was stationed between my elderly men, the back seat of a van. Then there is Florida. After I escaped, it was a small apartment in New York, then a larger apartment, and finally a house. We tend to live in any given time, our memories of our identities make these moments memorable people tied to specific places with steel to make our time, good and evil. People fight for their homes. They were rebuilt after war, famine, natural disasters. They keep the places because these places are part of us. What are you not doing for your home, community?
I haven't played a lot of Octopus Traveler 0, but from the jump I know the idea of family and community is at the heart of Square's latest work in the respected HD-2D series. That might be because the first thing I have to do is build a house. Octopus Traveler 0 is a story of revenge. Look, your hometown Wishvale is destroyed, and you (understandably) get angry at it, so you start to let them grievance you and restore Wishvale to its former glory. This means rebuilding the town, so this is my first thing.
Octopus Traveler 0's town construction is very neat. (Editor's Note: Since then, we've learned about the size of your town The different restrictions depend on the platform you are playing) I was the kind of person who spent a lot of time in the Imperial era and built beautiful cities, so it immediately connected to me. You can build houses and other buildings of different designs, allocate places to live, make cobblestone paths, plant flowers and place benches, tend to tend to use gardens, and find the right place to let the storage box hold the wood and other materials, you need to make things. There are trees, wells, boxes and all kinds of other things, and there is a lot of freedom to make the town you want.
But rebuilding the desire atmosphere is only part of it. You can also do things in town like cooking food, which you can use later and chat with town residents, and even upgrade the building for other features. It was neat and even though it took me only about ten minutes or so, I appreciated the joy (and tranquility) of building a neat town.
After that, it's time to get a more traditional octopus experience. The protagonist I assigned was the only character that could change the course in Octopus Traveler 0, his seven closest partners were all in the Sunny town of Sandy, looking for a businessman named Ludo. Long and short, we need a businessman to help us build trade. After my partner Phenn put his feet in his mouth and mistakenly thought of a random kid in Ludo, that's what you expected and he turned us down. Not because he was still angry, but because Wishvale had been destroyed before. Why not protect your town business?
Instead, Ludo led us to a deal: If we came up with a lizardman who intimidated the new trade route, he would consider helping us. There was no other choice before us, and the love for our town as a driving force, my happy band started to do so.
There is only one problem. As we get out of the sun, I see a woman hanging out on her own. When I preview the game, I try to play the game as normal. Years of JRPG gameplay tell me that if you see someone, you should chat with them. So we hang out. The woman in question asked to see my protagonist's ring. A little strange, but it's okay. After appreciating it, she asked if she could keep it. oh oh. I know where this is, but there is no way. I said no, and then she said she still wants to take it from us. Prompt war.
This is my first glimpse of Octopus Traveler 0's combat system. If you've played with the first two octopuses, you know how 0 works. Essentially, your job is to find out that your opponent's attacks are weakly opposed, using these attacks to wear down defenses until they are broken, and then use limited enhancements to charge your attacks and exert damage when they are vulnerable. It's a nice system, but 0 adds a few unique twists. First, like I said before, the protagonist is the only one who can change the class. Everyone else has their class and it won't change. As Henry Ford talks about the T-T, “As long as it is black, you can have any color.”
Another big change is the ability to convert characters from front to back at will. Characters in the backline cannot attack, but health and skill points will be restored every turn. So if someone beats it, it might be a good idea to switch them to the backline and hold their breath. It needs to require more micromanagement for me, but when I master it, it reminds me of being stuck in bowling and everything you throw is a strike. You're just flow.
Another benefit of this system is that since each character comes with its own boost fee, you have more huge chances of damage when you end up breaking someone’s defense. That doesn't mean it's easy. It took me so long to go to the woman who really wanted my ring that I started to worry that I didn’t have enough time to play the actual demo I was sent here to play. But eventually, she fell down and I sprinted to deal with the Lizardman, who was trapped in some nearby ruins.
These battles went smoothly. After my possible ring thief, a group of lizards walking on both legs was not that big. Through all this, the octopus feels quick and I am impressed without sacrificing the feeling of its tactical game. Even in more small battles, I've been making interesting decisions. That battle theme cheered me up in the chair when I played.
Then I went to the leader of the Lizardman, who looked like he wandered through the joints of Ray Harryhausen and I was like, “Oh.” Man, that battle was tough. He has two slaves and a ton of health, and he has worked hard. But I insist on something that makes me dance. I discovered his weaknesses, exploited them, and when his defense was broken I hit him with enhanced attacks or glitz-like ultimate skill. I wanted to pour it as much as I could before he could defend again. It wasn't easy; several of my party members fell down and I had to bring them back with my items, but he hit the floor while his demo package. Oh, we earned Ludo's respect, who followed up and stepped in, when things looked bleak. Put it on the board of directors for good people.
I was impressed by Octopus Traveler 0 when I put the controller down. It's fighting feels like it's already awesome before it's already awesome, it still has a gorgeous HD-2D look, and based on the soundtrack I've heard so far, the soundtrack is great. All of these things are great, and I hope the whole game is as good as the small slices I'm going to sample, but to be honest, sticking to my thing is a wish. Usually, RPGs have huge bets. The fate of the world is on your shoulders. Here I just want to rebuild my village and punish the person in charge for what happened. I like the smaller focus, more intimate. Maybe not that. But, as far as motivation is concerned, fighting for your home is a great thing, and I would lie if I say I'm not interested in the timing of rebuilding.