Octopath Traveler 0 Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast – Octopath Traveler 0 Review (December 3, 2025)

Episode Overview

On this episode, the Kinda Funny crew—Blessing Adeoye Jr. (host), Greg Miller, and Andy Cortez—dive deep into their review of Octopath Traveler 0, the newest entry in Square Enix's beloved HD-2D RPG series. The crew discusses how the game reinvents classic mechanics, the introduction of a fully customizable protagonist, the impact of the new town-building system, and the balancing act between dark story beats and approachable gameplay. Greg, who completed the game, leads the discussion, sharing why Octopath Traveler 0 is his current Game of the Year contender.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions & Top-Level Thoughts

• Greg’s Praise (06:44–08:35):

  • Played 70 hours, credits at 55. Rates it a "9 out of 10." Finds it "amazing" and his Game of the Year front-runner, even as someone who's struggled recently to finish turn-based JRPGs.
  • Quote:

    "This game is a 9 out of 10. Even 70 hours in, I will continue playing this game, and I think the highest praise I could possibly give it is it's my game of the year runner." – Greg (07:04)

• Andy’s Take (08:38–10:48):

  • Didn’t plan to play, but was pulled in after a trip and looking for Steam Deck content. Appreciated the art and city-building system. Enjoys the gameplay loop, but criticizes the writing as "Pokemon-level."
  • Quote:

    "The story is awesome, the writing and dialogue that gets you there, not so much... I won't put a score on this because I'm just not quite there yet." – Andy (09:49)

2. Character Customization & Story Structure

• Player as Protagonist (06:27):

  • Octopath Traveler 0 lets you fully create your main character: appearance, background, favorite dish, and more.

• Distinctive Storytelling (11:48–15:51):

  • The game takes a more focused story approach compared to previous Octopath games; instead of eight separate stories, you have a single protagonist but still recruit up to seven others.
  • Drew comparisons with "Expedition 33" for narrative focus, preferring Octopath 0’s more direct character motivation.

• Engaging Themes (18:13–21:07):

  • Despite its cutesy, pixel art aesthetic, the writing delves into surprisingly mature themes: slavery, death, trauma, and more.
  • Quote:

    "It goes deep. It's a very cutesy game... but it jumps into slavery, child murder, even talking about selling your body... this is an adult game put through what I'd call a 'chibi filter.'" – Greg (18:15)

• Writing Quality Debate (19:17–22:36):

  • Andy laments the writing:

    "The writing is straight out of a Pokemon game—tonally, it doesn't fit with the mature themes." (21:15)

  • Greg admits it's par for the series, feels expectations should be calibrated.

3. Town Building: Wishville

• Mechanics & Pacing (27:13–28:43):

  • Town-building is a major new feature, intertwined into the story. You slowly rebuild your home, Wishville, gathering townsfolk and unlocking features.
  • Greg finds the system compelling but complains about how slowly the full town opens up and wishes for earlier access to customization.
  • Quote:

    "It takes so long to get it fully opened up. By the time I got to it all being open, I'd already put everywhere... I would rather have had it from the jump." – Greg (28:14)

• Connecting with Residents (29:32–32:11):

  • Bringing back old friends provides genuine emotional payoff, including heartfelt scenes upon completion.
  • Each companion brings buffs: training speed, access to meals, etc.—but the system prioritizes connection with certain core NPCs.

4. Combat & Allies

• Party System & Scale (38:30–41:13):

  • You can field a party of eight from over 30 possible allies. Party consists of two rows: four front, four back, swapping between them for tactical play.
  • Scaling isn’t “overwhelming” thanks to gradual onboarding and familiar mechanics to series fans.

• Boost & Break System (41:13–43:21):

  • Greg explains that enemies feature shield counters and elemental or weapon weaknesses; repeated targeted hits break defenses, creating strategic opportunities to overpower foes.
  • Quote:

    "You start using your weapons, figure out weaknesses, knock off shields, break them, and then you can unload attacks—it's the Boost and Break system." – Greg (41:47)

• Battle Pacing & Depth (43:21–47:20):

  • Battles remain snappy; double-speed helps with grinding. As the game progresses, battles gain layer upon layer: switching party members, elemental matchups, ultimate skills, and more.
  • Collectible “nuts” act as permanent stat upgrades—often hoarded or misallocated (comedic discussion).

5. Structural Criticisms

• Handholding (47:44–49:23):

  • Andy notes the game can be “really handholdy”—clear quest markers limit discovery. Greg counters that more open-ended design emerges in later chapters.

• Dialogue Choices are Superficial (49:46–52:18):

  • Multiple times, the player is given choices in dialogue menus, but both options lead to the same outcome. Andy finds this “a serious problem,” breaking immersion.
  • Quote:

    "Don't give me dialogue choices if you're gonna ignore them and make me do the thing anyway... just don't put it." – Andy (49:57)

• JRPG vs. Western RPG Expectations (52:24–56:29):

  • The crew discusses the roots of JRPGs in stats versus the choice-driven focus of Western RPGs, contextualizing why superficial choices are so common in this genre.

6. Unique Systems: Path Actions

• Recruitment & Helpers (57:27–62:02):

  • Path Actions simplify the prior games' systems. Investigation, haggling for items, impressing through battle, and recruiting allies as helpers or citizens—all managed through a streamlined set of mechanics.
  • Greg emphasizes the depth and evolving value of these systems as the game progresses.

• Grinding (62:06):

  • Greg notes that, outside one difficulty spike, grinding is minimal if the player frequently uses all game systems.

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Notable Quotes & Lighthearted Moments

• The game's naming “blowing Andy’s mind” (14:48–16:39):

  • Both the “Octopath” (eight paths, eight characters) and “Zero” shaped as a ring (central to the game’s plot) are revealed, with the hosts playfully riffing on how clever (and hidden in plain sight) the name is.

• Superficial Choices Rant (49:57):

  • Andy: "Just don't give me the choice. Just say, we're gonna go to this thing next. We need you, man. That's all I need."

• Game of the Year Potential (07:04):

  • Greg: "This game is a 9 out of 10. Even 70 hours in, I will continue playing this game and I think the highest praise I could possibly give it is it's my game of the year runner."

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Time | Segment | |---------------|-------------------------------------------------| | 05:35 | Start of Octopath Traveler 0 Review | | 06:44 | Greg’s Top-Level Thoughts | | 08:38 | Andy’s First Impressions | | 11:48–15:51 | Greg on Motivation, Story Structure, and the "Zero" Mind-Blow | | 18:13–21:07 | Mature Themes and Art Style Discussion | | 27:13 | Town Building Pros & Cons | | 38:30–41:13 | Party System and Scaling Explained | | 41:13–43:21 | Boost & Break Combat System Break Down | | 47:44 | Criticisms: Handholding and Player Agency | | 49:57 | Dialogue Choices Rant | | 52:24–56:29 | JRPG vs. Western RPG: RPG Roots Explored | | 57:27–62:02 | Path Actions and Recruitment System | | 62:42–64:13 | Final Thoughts: Is it Worth Playing? |

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Final Verdicts

Andy Cortez

• Surprised by enjoyment, even after skepticism.
• Enjoys the chaos and narrative turns.
• Writing/dialogue diminish the experience for him, but he “couldn’t put it down.”
• Quote:

  "It just gets like what the—like in my bed alone... this is insane stuff. It's really good." (63:09)

Greg Miller

• Completed the game, rolled credits, and still plays.
• Believes it will be a cult classic.
• "Criminally underplayed," but “I adore it.”
• Quote:

  "Octopath Traveler 0 is a 9 out of 10. It's an amazing game. It's my current Game of the Year." (64:15)

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Conclusion

Octopath Traveler 0 delivers a refined, expanded take on the beloved HD-2D formula, offering satisfying character customization, deep combat, an emotionally resonant (if occasionally awkward) story, and an ambitious town-building meta system. For some, narrative and dialogue writing may undercut the weight of mature themes, and the gradual unveiling of mechanics might test impatient players—but the game’s character, mechanical depth, and sheer JRPG spectacle make it a must-play for genre fans.

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Additional Memorable Moments

• Multiple discoveries about game title meaning (“zero” as a ring, “octopath” as an acronym from the original game’s character names) brought unexpected laughter and camaraderie.
• Running, inside-joke style "enjoy cons" (a mashup of "enjoys" and "cons") segment.
• Chat superchats sharing more Octopath trivia (28:53).

The crew signs off reaffirming Octopath Traveler 0's place as a likely cult classic, and possibly Greg’s GOTY for 2025.

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For new listeners:
This review is comprehensive, featuring honest skepticism and praise, mechanical breakdowns, and heartfelt storytelling reactions. Despite some mechanical and writing flaws, the Kinda Funny team recommends Octopath Traveler 0 to anyone with a taste for sprawling, classic-style JRPGs with modern innovations.

Transcript

[A]

Solo leveling Arise. Overdrive, the fast paced action RPG based on the popular solo leveling franchise has just been released. Head on over to steam to begin Sung Jin Woo's epic journey to become Shadow Monarch today.

[B]

Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Wednesday, December 3, 2025. One your host, Blessing Adelier Jr. Joining me is the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez.

[C]

Hello.

[B]

Bless. Hello, Andy. How's it going?

[C]

I'm. I'm great, man. I'm great. I got some stuff rendering. Got a lot of goie things cooking. Got a lot of smiley cooking. Got a whole lot of stuff getting ready for 2026.

[B]

A whole lot of stuff getting.

[C]

Blessing and I in the meeting room yesterday doing in a. In a conference room. I got my feet up. He's got his cup of coffee and a cigarette.

[B]

And they said no smoking inside. But I dis.

[C]

I was like, disobey. Give me one of those, you know, like we're both smoking cigarettes in there.

[D]

I couldn't tell you guys wish we smoke.

[C]

No.

[B]

In what way?

[C]

No.

[D]

So cool.

[B]

Like we could do without the consequences.

[D]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The cancer, the death.

[B]

That would be pretty sick.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

That's also Greg Miller.

[D]

Hi.

[B]

Is there a reason why you're sitting there and Andy's sitting here?

[D]

I feel like whenever I.

[C]

He played the most.

[D]

I was gonna say when you have somebody who's gonna talk a lot, I like having him there.

[C]

When it's like person in the middle doing this. Exactly.

[D]

When you're bopping around trying, you think because you're gonna ask a question about the review, I'm gonna talk to you. But then I'm try to include Andy. So I'll turn that way. It's just easier this way.

[B]

That makes sense.

[C]

I like when you try to include me. Like that makes me feel good.

[D]

Love you, buddy.

[C]

Thank you, man. Love you too.

[D]

You didn't get the message. Today is crew neck day.

[B]

I didn't get the message. Crew, Crew. We got to do some other temperature in here.

[D]

It's so cold now. We can't. Well, here's the thing. It's because of all the technology, it's got to be cold.

[B]

And it can't go because the outside weather isn't it?

[D]

Well, that too, but I mean, that's why it's cold. Cold in here. But you remember the old studio where it was just melting. So it's like we got. We can't complain too much about it being too cold because I get it. We're Lucky to have it cold.

[B]

I think it doesn't have to be this cold.

[D]

Right.

[B]

I think it's just like the thing

[D]

of as the person who has to, like, make sure we pay the heating bill. Yeah, I think it does. Yeah, I think it does have to

[B]

be more so like the thing of,

[D]

like, it's 5,000 square feet is really expensive to heat bless.

[B]

Yeah. But like, we just didn't adjust the temperature as the year got colder. You know what I mean? Like, outside gets colder, but we stay the same. And so I feel like we just got to find a standard. We'll talk about my biggest issue.

[C]

You turn that heater on and it's like. Like there's no happy medium. When the heater's on, the heat is on. Like, it just gets really, really warm in here when the heater is on.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it's like, it'll be on for five seconds and it's like, oh, already. Like, I'm feeling it. Like, it's so. It's so bizarre. That's weather, man. It's crazy.

[B]

I feel like we're almost there because we figured out earlier in the. Earlier in the year.

[D]

Why don't you just. Here's what I'm saying. Just join the crew neck boys for a week and see how that goes.

[C]

Mitten.

[B]

Well, I'm like, you got a T shirt.

[D]

You got a T shirt on. So you're getting too much heat. Andy, use your hands to exhibit what cold does to a jacket like that. Go inside his jacket.

[C]

Very confused by what I thought you

[A]

wanted me to do like this.

[B]

That's crazy.

[C]

We got a review to talk about.

[B]

Let's Talk about Octopast Traveler 0 cuz remember, this is kind of funny. Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and all podcast services around the globe. We don't do that on the show.

[D]

Why are you giving into Tim? Why do you give into the games daily thing?

[B]

The game's daily thing?

[C]

I think I didn't do that a couple times. And it was like, it's a game. It was mainly because I forgot if

[B]

you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. It's funny, I took out the watch us record them live thing, but I can't remove it from my brain.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Because that isn't a thing anymore. You can watch us record things live all the time on Twitch.

[D]

Yeah, Perk.

[B]

If you're just anybody.

[D]

I mean YouTube.

[B]

YouTube, yeah, all that stuff. And Spotify.

[C]

Did you?

[D]

Well no, not they live stream to Spotify yet.

[B]

One day. Yeah, one day for a chance to be a part of the show. Some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Before this was KFD about Eidos Montreal horses and Bionicles. After that was a screencast about 20, 26 movies. And after this episode of Gamescast is going to be the stream which is going to be that Elden Ring Night Reign.

[D]

Can I interrupt for one second?

[C]

Go for it.

[D]

Over here. I've never seen this on Twitch before. I know you guys stream more than me. Ken JR. 61 gifted a sub to Creed which is great. But then it says they've given 476 gift subs to this channel. That's awesome.

[C]

Ken JR. Is unbelievably supportive.

[B]

Thank you so much.

[C]

Ken JR. Also because of the amount of subs that they've given out has won like a lot of different giveaway stuff during the different marathon streams. Yeah, I didn't like. So Ken Jr won one of the Silksong drawings and asked for for the Green Prince and the dancing. I forget the hell whatever its name is from Silksong drew that for him and then he posted an image of like hey, I got it framed. It looks awesome. And then I realized oh, you also asked. You won a drawing of Rayquaza during the the Pokemon marathon stream was like damn. Putting in the work. Thank you Ken Jr. For I want

[D]

to make sure because people are shouting out Ken JR. As they should. I know Ken Jr. I've never seen Twitch say over their lifetime they've given out 461 subs.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty impressive stuff if you're a

[B]

kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way is about the relief of finally being able to talk about an embargoed video game.

[D]

It's this one.

[B]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Karl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining. For now, let's start with topic of the show. It's a review, a video game review for Octopath Traveler 0. Coming to you from the creators of Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2. They finally made the Zero Square Enix

[C]

used to be Project Octopath. Remember that?

[B]

Remember? Yeah, Project Octopath.

[D]

And then it's a working title. And then you know what we're gonna do.

[C]

Wait, what was the working title for? What was Triangle Strategy?

[B]

I think that was also just. I think that was working title Triangle Strategy. And they're like, ah, we like this one too actually.

[C]

Wait, so that's a different game?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Damn.

[B]

I mean, it's HD2D, but it's more tactical.

[C]

Okay, gotcha. Shoot. You're right.

[B]

It's a whole triangle thing.

[C]

I like that.

[B]

Octopath Traveler 0, you're the protagonist of the story this time. That's different.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

You choose your appearance, your voice, motions and your favorite dish. With a new character creation feature. Greg Miller.

[D]

Hello.

[B]

You've played Octopath Traveler 0?

[D]

I have.

[B]

Are your top level thoughts of Octopath Traveler 0?

[D]

I have played 70 hours of Octopath Traveler 0, rolled credits at like 55 hours. And I'm using a little fast and loose here because I'm going off the steam number on the outside rather than the game save number because you know, things change and this game is amazing. This game is a 9 out of 10.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

Even 70 hours into this game, I will continue playing this game and I think the highest praise I could possibly give it is that this is now my game of the year runner. We'll see if that ends up when we get to January and we submit our top tens and go to the whole thing. But I adored my time with octopap traveler0i. It was definitely a game I started up and was like I was concerned number one, because of course we did an episode of this very show this year in the past six months.

[B]

Right.

[D]

That was like I'm. I got to stop trying to play turn based RPGs. I just can't do it anymore. And I was of course talking about Expedition 33 there, but I brought up Persona 5 fatigue. And in that episode I called out the fact that I love Octopath and Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler 2. But even those games I had never seen all the way through to credit, so I'd never actually beaten. I'd put in a bunch of hours, loved my time on them, but constantly got sidetracked. So getting this one, it was the all right, let's try this again. And is it going to be another thing that I do, 20 hours of, 30 hours of, and then, you know, get distracted by another review and instead it has been a month non stop of playing this annoying. Jen, if you have not if you missed our review of The Rog Ally X a device I truly love. It is so loud my wife calls me Mr. Clickety Clackety throws me out of the bedroom now when I'm playing it because I'm there boost boosting up my points and unleashing my attacks and doing the thing in Octopath Traveler 0. But absolutely adore this game and am so happy with it.

[B]

Andy, what are your top level thoughts?

[C]

Well, okay, so this is a weird one because this is one that I hadn't even planned on playing. I like many turn based games, look at it and go, okay, probably not for me or maybe I'll hop in much like I did last year with Metaphor refantazio and go, I see the. I see why this is going to be a lot of people's goatees. But I'm 15 hours in and I am about an eighth of the way through or whatever. Yeah, I'm good. Right. And this one did kind of catch me off guard because Moonlighter 2 doesn't play super great on Steam Deck. And I was going on a trip to New York and was like, hey, I'm going to want to play something on the way over there. Greg, can you just give me a code for Octopath because it's got city building. I'm kind of fascinated by that concept and I like the art style. Right. And so he got me a code and it kind of. It grabbed me in a way I wasn't expecting it to. And I think that the game is still like my top level thoughts are you shouldn't expect, you know, Shakespearean writing in this video game. I and that kind of throws me off and that's why I dock it points. Even though I don't necessarily plan on finishing this game. I've only played it for about 23, 24 hours only and but it did kept me going in a way that I wasn't expecting, in a way that I feel like I could have dropped off and played a lot of other stuff in bed on the Steam Deck. This game kind of kept me going in ways that surprised me. I do enjoy a decent amount of the combat. I think that the, the story is awesome. The writing and dialogue that gets you there, not so much. I won't put a score on this because I'm just not quite there yet.

[D]

Yeah, I'm 20 some hours. Yeah, those things.

[C]

Yeah. Which I thought like as I'm making my way through it thinking man, I'm making really good progress and it's just, it's not what you think. But it surprised me in a lot of ways that, like, for. Especially for somebody like me who normally drops off of games like this, I was like, surprisingly into it.

[B]

I'm. I barely touched it. I'm here to host, I'm here to ask questions.

[D]

Everything, man.

[B]

I played the first hour here to

[D]

complain about how cold it is.

[B]

Yeah. Talk about the temperature and zing throughout the year because we're getting into the winter months. I played about the first hour, which, funny enough, I think I've done for every Octopath Traveler game I see it, I'm like, oh, that looks cool. I hop into it and I get so intimidated by the length and magnitude of these games. But. But I wanted to try this one out because of the city building stuff. I remember that from the trailer and that looking like a cool system they had going on here. And then it was Greg that I think I talked to where you. You're kind of. You were into the game, so I was like, oh, how's the city building stuff? And you're kind of like, that's fine.

[C]

I.

[B]

It didn't seem like that was one of the standout things. So that for me, that was enough to go, ah, I don't know if I have it in me then to want to play 80 to 100 hours of a JRPG like this right now. But, Greg, I want to come back to you.

[D]

Sure.

[B]

Because you saying this game is your game of the year is huge, especially coming off of what you just mentioned earlier in the year. You're talking about turn based, all this stuff, not maybe hitting for you in that same way.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Go off like, tell me about. What is it about Octopath Traveler 0 that uplifts it to this level for you?

[C]

And I do want to interrupt because I did walk by his desk as he was playing Octopath and this is like the third time I'd seen him playing Octopath. And I'm assuming I was there for the podcast. I was there for the story time with Greg.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I. I'm shocked that we're on day two or three of this. Yeah. And I said, damn, a lot of time for Octopath. And you kind of just you know, didn't really give you bounce off expedition. And he laughed and said, I'm a piece of shit. I'm sorry.

[D]

I get that thing where it's like, I know that for so many people, you know how it is. Like, as we went back and I mean, if you want to bring up the comparison right away, like, Octopath Expedition Clearly I know Expedition is going to be everyone's game of the year in the world in the. The year 20. Understandably so. It's a great game, as I've talked about. I totally see it. It's a work of art. I get all of that. For me, it was just. And I think this is where Octopath comes to your point of. Why does this one work for me so much? Octopath marches to the beat of its own drum, which is a trite thing to say, but the way it does its storytelling, its world building, its setup of what's going on here. I never felt disconnected to compare it to Expedition from the main storyline, the main quest, the main objective for me in a video game. I like being a character and I like knowing. This is my motivation. This is what I'm doing it. Right. When we go back to Expedition 33 and me and my criticisms of that game, I think that game opens so strong, right? The painters. Oh my gosh, the gomage, all this stuff. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome. And then we get to this section of the game where it goes RPG of like, cool. Now there's this man made of straw that we're helping and we're running and we're making jokes and I'm like, why are we. What the fuck is going on?

[C]

Everyone crisis.

[D]

My love, the love of my people I love killed in front of me. I'm here on this beach, all hell, I almost murdered myself 10 seconds ago. You know what I mean? Like, I want that. And so. And this is. I know there's so much to it. And don't get me wrong, I'm not. This isn't about talking shit about Expedition, so please don't get hung up on that. Everybody in the chat. Octopath's deal is first off for me, comparing it even just to the last two Octopath games, right? Because this is the third one. Clearly you create your own character here and that is your character. And Octopath and Octopath 2. Two games that I do love. You, of course, get eight playable characters in there, hence the name Octo, as you go through and have their interwoven stories connect and do these things.

[C]

Put that together well.

[D]

And of course, here. Spoilers. You didn't write for Octopath. Traveler zero of you now have eight playable characters at all times. So you have the character you created who never leaves your party. Then you have seven slots to fill in battle. You have so many other characters because you're bringing them into their Town Andy

[B]

didn't you never put together the octopath was.

[D]

Because there's octopath, there's eight paths. There's eight. Yeah.

[C]

That's crazy. And you're so deep.

[D]

And so with those games. And I think one of the reasons that first off, I fell off of those back in the day. And I say fell off when, you know, I put in 30, 40 hours to each one or whatever, it was like I would fall off of those because I'd be so into Primrose's story. This is so fucking good. And then be like, all right, cool, you've finished that chapter. The next chapter is five levels above your character level, so it's time to go off and do the other. And then the other quests weren't as good. And I didn't connect with it. I didn't love this. I wanted to stay with that thing. Octopath Traveler0 giving me my character that I get to create. Andy made a joke about it or you did. Bless. I think of making the. You choose you immediately from the customization screen. You do the stuff of what you look like, blah, blah, blah. Then a little bit of your background in terms of what your. Your job. And then what is your favorite dish, which you then name, which is the nerdy ass shit I'd be into. Of like, what does your mom make? The why does this food matter? Like that kind of writing your own backstory to it.

[C]

And I love that boil. For me.

[D]

Yeah, you put yeah, yeah. For me, based on the image, it looked like beef Wellington. I was like, beef Wellington. But then you go into this town of Wishville right where your dad's there. You've got a bunch of friends. You've lived your entire life. This is great. And then the three villains of this game, like they have been introduced before. The Internet is here. They're here for these rings of Power and a similar like. Oh, that's fucking. I never put that together. I didn't pay much attention to the story of Octopath Traveler 0 because you put Octopath Traveler in the title. I know I'm going to play it. So when they were. When we saw the debut trailers and stuff and you saw the zero, I never put it together that the zero is a is a ring. Like the zero is a ring. Because this is all about these rings of power. And it's like, I don't think you should have connected it at this point, but when you play the game, maybe you should have.

[B]

The title of this game is Blowing Andy's mind.

[D]

So like when you were going through and doing this damn thing, right.

[C]

I'm sticking with this.

[D]

You go, so the.

[C]

That is a ring.

[D]

The bad guys show up, they burn down your town and they like if you've never played an octopath game.

[B]

Wait, it's not a prequel.

[D]

It is a prequel.

[B]

Oh, it is a prequel.

[C]

Okay, okay.

[D]

Did I screw it up?

[B]

No, no, no. I. Because when we point out it's a ring, I was like, wait, is it called zero because the ring.

[D]

No, it's also. And it is. They've talked about this interviews. It's a zero because they're doing the Yakuza zero thing of. Or. Yeah, who's a zero? Like, they want new people to be able to jump in here and not be hung up on do. I didn't play the other one.

[C]

But the image of the 0 like is a straight up ring.

[D]

Holy crap. Yeah.

[C]

This goes deeper than we could have ever imagined.

[D]

They come in, they burn down your town. Is that you see there? You flee and then you come back with your childhood best friend and decide that you're going to rebuild the town. And for me, that was such a great jumping off point to what we're doing here. What is the purpose of my character? My purpose is that I'm trying to get the band back together. We have scattered to the winds because these people burned down our town. Let's go find out. Let's figure out who's alive and where. I was driving a second ago that I got lost. Sorry. If you've never played an Octopath game and you look at it. And of course, if you're an audio listener, I assume you know what this game looks like if you don't. This is the HD2DR. This is the 16 bit stuff that Octopath Traveler dropped. Originally we all went slack jawed. What the. And now Square's done it a bunch of times. You've seen this everywhere. D DA but like they're the originators of it. So it is a.

[C]

But sometimes the squirrels are different, like pixels.

[D]

Sometimes the squirrels are different.

[C]

Really throws you off.

[D]

Have you talked to him yet?

[C]

I talked to the other one. The one on the bottom.

[D]

What do you say?

[C]

I just like squirrel. Or

[D]

have you talked to.

[C]

Shut the fuck.

[B]

Oh God.

[D]

It goes deep. You go into this though, and it's like a very cutesy game. It's cutesy 16 bit art, blah, blah. This game jumps into slavery, child. And there's murders left and right. Like talking about selling your body. Like they're like, this isn't an adult game put through this. I would say Chibi filter. Even though I guess it's not Chibi technically.

[C]

Right. Which is where my problems are.

[D]

Okay. You want to jump in? I'd love to because it sets up the stage that way. And then for me, again, serious themes are being tackled and the stuff's happening and I'm having to break the news to people that their kids are dead or their parents are gone or what.

[B]

That's pretty thick.

[D]

So it is this idea of like, again, wishvale at the core of it. And I want to come back eventually and I will because it's one of my cons. The town building stuff I'll come back to because you are making Wishville it Wishville. It ends where it should be in terms of like making me care. Don't worry. What's your.

[C]

Oh, it's on your. Enjoy cons.

[D]

It's both.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

Have we made the graphic yet?

[C]

Enjoy.

[D]

Enjoy Cons.

[C]

We gotta do that. I missed the things that you enjoy and the cons, the pros and cons. Okay.

[B]

Enjoy cons. I like it.

[C]

So you. You bringing up Greg that how adult the story is. I. I agree. I like it. In my list of things that I enjoy, it is the story. I think the story so far is awesome. The things that happen in the story are awesome. But it's got the writing of a Pokemon game and it's so hard for me to. Even though I am still enjoying a lot of what happens, it's so hard for me to differentiate those two things. When I go into a Pokemon game, I know what I'm in for. I'm not expecting my face to be blown off with crazy soliloquies and like amazing bars of just like, whoa, holy. What a great. Like, I. I know what I've been for. I know that characters do stuff because of the convenience of the story and things rarely ever make sense. And you ran into. You run into a random guy in a bar and he goes, oh, hey you're. You must be so and so want to take on this quest to fight this one guy. And like, it doesn't make sense, but it's a. You know what you're in for. So it's kind of just a video game, right? And the game is so dark and so serious and there are crazy fucked up things that happen, but it's just the writing that it's so hard for me to separate those two things of like how awesome the things are that are happening and the words that are being delivered to me are just straight out of a Pokemon game. So that's one thing I warn people that I also did turn off the voice acting because I wasn't super impressed by it. But also the, the lack of quality writing for me just exacerbated like it was exacerbated by the voice acting of like. I feel like this is even worse than it is because a human is talking and saying these words and it sounds so dumb and like these situations just don't make sense.

[B]

Is it the tone of it being this pixel art, like 16 bit style JRPG, or do you think it's even beyond that? Because I know what was the PS1 game that you really like that you talked about?

[C]

Vagrant Story.

[B]

I know Vagrant Story is like one that really hits for you.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I mean like stories like that really hit for me and like the way the writing works hits for me. But the way that characters, you know, if you've ever played a Pokemon game and you walk into a building and they go, oh, you must be the new trainer in town. Go fight so and so forth. And it's like, none of this makes sense in the real world. And like these things wouldn't happen in a realistic situation. People just don't walk up to you and just say like, oh, you know, take whatever you want out of my, you know, refrigerator or whatever. But the. But you know, what you're in for with a Pokemon game. And I just feel like tonally that's what I'm getting here. Even though the other octopaths. No, because I want. And I heard that they are like that as well.

[D]

That's my thing. I've seen, I've read Higham's review today. The Gamespot author's name's escaping me. I read their reviews and going through it and it's interesting to see. See people's different takes and stuff. And Yeah, I think that's an interesting one of. I don't have that complaint here, but as somebody who's played the other ones, I feel like my. I had calibrated. Yeah. I wasn't coming in expecting like a, like amazing writing.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And.

[C]

And that's kind of where, you know, I would just say if you've never played an octopath, manage your expectations. Because I, you know, if I were getting this level of writing in Expedition 33, I'd be really let down by it.

[B]

Interesting.

[C]

Now the stuff that happened to the story. Awesome. I see somebody saying like, Andy likes Dragon Ball Z. So I don't understand this. It's all about expectations. I think when I watch an anime, when I watch my hero academia and dumb is happening, I don't care because it's an anime and I know what I'm in for. But I think because of how dark and messed up and serious the story is, to be met with writing that just feels like really, really lacking. That's what kind of bums me out.

[D]

One of the things, if I can that I. I think calibration and why this game works again so well for me. Right. Is I want to use two examples. A movie and a TV show. All right. This is a humongous game. As you know, it's hilarious to see him's review is. I put more than 70 hours in, but it's a review in progress. I'm still not. I still have to do this and blah blah like Octopath, Traveler 0. And one of the reasons I love it in the way it's structured and the way it's set up is a trilogy of movies in one game where legitimately, you finish this for this thing and like, all right, cool, that's gonna be it. And then it's like Back to the Future too. The it is. We gotta worry about X, Y and Z. And like, holy. You get done with that, that's when the credits roll. That next big part. The credits roll. You come out of that. And now it's like, cool, here's the third movie that's following up on all the stuff that's happened so far of like, what happened after X, Y and Z and blah, blah, blah. And you go off and do that. I love that and how it's jam packed. But the actual way it's jam packed. I was, I was. You know, every night I go to bed, I drift off thinking about this moment, reviewing this game and talking about it. Yeah, the best comparison I could have, and I think this applies to the writing expectations and dialing yourself in, is that when I was recapping one night, everything that happened in that one night of play. Right. Versus where we were hours and hours and hours ago, it dawned on me. I'm like, oh, the reason I love Octopath and the way this game is going is because it's Nashville. The fucking TV show. Nashville. If you remember when I was obsessed with Nashville, the joke was that Colin watched an episode with me, went away, came back two episodes later and was like, what happened with that thing? I was like, oh, that was settled in that episode. And he was like. He's like, the Way this show, one episode of this show is like a half season of another show. And it's the idea here where yeah. I think the writing or whatever and the plot beats get boiled down. And again, they do chapters.

[E]

Right.

[D]

That's what you're. You go off on this quest and it's prologue, chapter one, whatever. There's parts to them and all this stuff, but they move at a quick pace. But the payoff is I think personally

[C]

natural is a jrpg.

[D]

Yeah. I think hours later it's coming back and meeting that character again and seeing how it's changed and oh my God, that like, like I just had it at my desk with a moment where I went on, you know, one of these quests or whatever, bump into this character that I know extremely well from that first movie and I'm like, oh, hey, like, wait, what's going on? Oh my God. That happened because of X Y. Oh, that's cool. You know what I mean? That's a change. And evolved and nobody is safe and they can all be killed. Nobody really matters with the exception of you.

[C]

Now I will say after. Once I got past the calibrated period, that's where I like started enjoying myself more and understanding what I'm in, what this journey is. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I also in my enjoy cons joy cons, things I enjoyed. Again, I love the story. The story just does some batshit stuff. Yeah. If I can surprise is a lot

[D]

I want to toss in. Kevin was running the villains trailer. Like, again. I think that is such a strength of starting this game and setting off on this, this quest. You're on this journey. You're on that these three who have a hand in burning down your town are so delightfully evil. Are so they chew the scenery. You know, August pops up marvelous. And it's like I can like I, I, I see him and hear his line.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And again, I, I never turned the VO off and I never found the writing bad. I expected it to be what it was. And so I, I, I fully in like I knew what I was getting into, so I was so I love all three of these folks and how they are and what they are. For me, in terms of enjoy cons. The con, right. Is that I think that second movie thrusts you into this civil war all of a sudden. Which for me was we weren't fully removed from. I'm here to get Wish veil off the ground. Clearly this is affecting the the continent. Right. We got to get oer on.

[B]

It's.

[D]

We got to make sure they're safe here. Whatever. But it still was. I don't know if I'm fully bought in. But then I was shocked by the fucking end of it that I was like, damn, we did something here. Like, we fucking did something. And yeah, this does matter to me in the way they view me. And you know, you're the chosen one. They call you in this game or whatever, you name your own character. They can't say your name. Yeah, like, there's a whole bunch of great shit here that really is. The more invested you are. And I'm just going, I'm sorry.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[D]

The other back to town building, which is another big part, which we've seen multiple times up here. My. I wishvil rebuilding it. Doing your damn thing here. That's cool. And I love the thing and I love bringing people back together. I love watching them meet each other again. What about so and so and like, they didn't make it. And everybody gets sad. There's a whole bunch of pull at your heartstring gravestone moments up in this place. My problem with is, you see it right now, the Tom town building. It takes so long to get it fully opened up. It was like Monday, I think, where I was celebrating right before I went on a podcast that I finally maxed the town out, which finally gave me unlimited rule to do whatever I wanted to. Where up until then, like, it's very much pulling back.

[C]

It's a progress blocker.

[D]

It's pulling back the reins all the time of like, you do this thing, so now you can. Oh, this new section, you can go through and change up. And it's like, okay. But by the time I got to it all being open, like, I've already put everywhere, like, I do. I really, I do.

[C]

I need.

[D]

Is there a reward? Is there a reason for me to go in and really get into the minutia, which is what I had wanted throughout it. I wish I had had access to the entire town early on to lay it out, to put down my gravel roads and put, you know, choose this style and do this thing. At this point, I'm so far gone. I'm kind of like, well, this is what Wishvale is. I would have rather have had it from the jump. And this is all just me complaining, like, you can now go through and do it. But I feel like it has an identity. Not to mention I have like just a gajillion fucking houses down because I've recruited so many people.

[B]

I got more questions about that. First thing I want to shout out A super chat from Big Curves md who says, andy, let me blow your mind. The first letter of the character names in the first game spell octopath.

[C]

Wow. Yeah, that's really.

[B]

I didn't know that part. That's.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Getting back miles per hour.

[C]

Whoa. That's a big one.

[B]

That's huge. Getting back to the town building conversation. One of the bullet points from the game page on Steam mentions talking about the town building. Restore your hometown through town building. Invite companions and allies to live in a town of your creation. I know you just talked a lot about, like, the building aspect and opening it up and how that doesn't happen. You don't get. You didn't have it fully opened up until getting way later into the game. How do the allies and companions factor into it? Is there conversations you can have? Does it feel like a nice little hub area to come back to? Do you look forward to hanging out in the town?

[D]

I don't feel like I hang out in the town nearly as much as I would like to. What I will say is when I finally finished the. Not even the thing where I opened it up to everything, but when I finished the getting, restoring Wishvil, whatever that quest line was, even though it kept going and there was more to do when I you. At the end of every one of these chapters in these stories, you get a nice little piece of art that's like basically a charcoal sketch or, you know, whatever drawn, and it's on a page and it says Finn at the bottom corner. And when I got that one, one of my favorite characters, Stia, was in the photo and she was looking back and she had a tear in her eye to tear it up. Like, it's like. So it is like, I have that connection to Wishville. I have that connection to the people in my town. Like, I think you have the core group that you're introduced to early on of, like, these are Wishville residents. They're fucking, you know, fen, what up, bro? You know, me and Steel, we're fucking rocking this goddamn thing. But then the more you add and the more you bring in, like, you get. You go out and you meet people in other towns, you can go over them and it'll be like, oh, well, you know, if you brought me in and put me into this is all I'm. They're not saying this. It's on their, you know, little page. You invite them in. They would, you know, if you put them in the training house, people would train faster, they get more XP quicker, stuff like that. So there's buffs and benefits to go do that reason for it.

[C]

Random guy in town gets you wood, you know, while you're out doing stuff, random other guy gets you stone. Random other person's really good at cooking. So it has more meals available that then pop up. But you have to house them first, I think, to get those.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like.

[C]

It's pretty fucked up. You invite a lot of people, and then you're like, I don't have anywhere for y' all to stay. Yeah.

[D]

So you have to place them out. Yeah.

[C]

Around town or wherever.

[D]

They won't get the benefit. To your point, though, or to your question, the core group, a thousand percent, the people who are running off and meeting who are old Wishville residents that I'm bringing back. Yes. I feel like this is great. I love what I'm doing here. I'm feeling a connection to the town to the point that I would tear up at the end of it. The other companions you meet that you can meet and bring back to town and then also have on your team, which you can cycle whenever you want to. Right way. That's hit or miss, where it's like, I meet some guy, and he's got the orange bubble, so he's a side quest. And I go off and I do the thing, and we had to go shake down somebody who was bouncing him. They can be intense. Not intense, but, like, involved quests. They can be pretty simple. You can just get them and then they're there to hang out in your town and give you the buff or do the thing or be on your team. But my team was very hard to break into. Like, I wanted Sia, I wanted Fen. Like, there was other people. I'm not gonna get into that. Start joining up or whatever. There's characters from the original octopath in here that I was like, well, come on, bro. Get out. Bring that. So, yeah. I mean, yeah, Yeah. I mean, they're not like, it's not like Muppet babies. They're mentioning. Like, there's one specific of, like, I

[C]

can't even hold the sword.

[D]

I guess I could come off here and do this with you or whatever. So it's like, they're there and around, but, like, it's not so much about them. It is you trying to get your town back to being a bustling metropolis or whatever. So it's not so much about the other people as much as it is about the praise I'm getting from both the Wishville residents and then the core Companions I'm using because you have them there and you'll, you know, whenever you're back there, you can hit for me it's a little option button, right? And get your little party chat like cut scene of what they're all saying to each other and them interacting. And that's cute for when I'm using these characters from the, you know, my quest, whatever. And then the one nerdy librarian lady, I'm like, why are you talking? You sucked in battle. No one. No one's weak. No one's weak is the fucking tome. Get out of here.

[E]

You're worth.

[C]

I got.

[B]

I got many questions now, mainly about allies. I want to ask about your party battle.

[D]

We haven't even talked about battle says

[B]

choose from over 30 allies. When asked about that, I want to ask what a path action is. But oh yeah, before we get there, of course you can super chat in with questions that you want to ask the panel. And you can of course go to kind of funny.com patreon or YouTube.com I don't know why I kept going because I've nailed it. There you go to Spotify as well get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

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[B]

Greg, tell me about combat.

[C]

I thought Greg had something.

[B]

And allies. And party. Tell me about everything.

[D]

What do you want to know?

[B]

Play. Let's start with party. Actually, I want to know when they say, engage in exhilarating and strategic command battles, choose from over 30 allies to form a party comprised of up to eight characters. Is that as overwhelming as it sounds?

[D]

No. And that's, I think, honestly, something that we rarely get to see slash talk about. In the preview review cycle. When I previewed it, my argument. Not argument. One of the things I was saying was, like, it does feel really easy. And I'm wondering what's going to happen with that. Where it's like octopath travel. And this is always so hard, especially for me, somebody who, quote, unquote, loves the series. But I'm not like, Crazy Die Hard. I haven't even completed the other two. Right. But it's that idea of, like, I. I do remember hitting bosses where I was like, fuck, I'm. This is not working out for me right now, and I need to figure it out. So in my notes, because I kept a little notepad with me as I went Right. I have it over here. Yeah. My first game over came 23 hours and 20 minutes into the game. I was level 26, taking on a level 28 quest, and I got killed by for the first time. And I was like, okay, now 23 hours in sounds like a lot. But then you realize I'm 70 hours in now. And what's fascinating for me about my little notes is that they quickly go from, all right, cool. Here's this thing. And what a great twist. Oh, man, here's.

[C]

I love seeing a Superman logo.

[D]

Yeah. You know I do notes.

[C]

Yeah. Well, it's like, oh, yeah.

[D]

So I did. Oh, I have a digital notebook now

[C]

that I love how to get a super.

[D]

But then they quickly turn to. Okay, wait, it's this guy's battle, this, that, the other, where I'm like. I start taking notes about what I'm doing. All right, this guy wave one. He's weak to dagger staff, ice. Okay? And then, like, to do, like, you can make meals at home and then eat them to get buffs, right? But again, I always forget for however many hours you're playing, you don't need to ever worry about that. But then you get to this shit where it's like, fuck, now they're actually giving me the challenge and they do it so. Kevin something. Have the lights. Okay. They did it so gradually, right? And I think I was.

[C]

I was like, oh, shit, Greg's coming in.

[D]

Did you imagine if Tim debuted a song? Finally came out to talk shit, Greg's

[C]

coming into a wrestling bit.

[D]

No, they did it so gradually that it never was overwhelming. And it's the same thing then with the crew, where originally the crew was you, I start picking up different people. Well, first off, it was like, even in the early part where I was like, damn, I made it by that fight with this. By the skin of my teeth or whatever. I was using, like, a three. I only had three people in the party. It was like. I was like, oh, shit. Right, This. I forgot that this one. I can have eight people in here. I should really go. Because you have four people fighting in the front, four people in the back row. You can switch them on their turns, what you want. So, like, it's not like you're doing eight moves at once. You basically, you know, you're doing your four moves, then they're hitting you back, and then you can switch out.

[C]

And the way it works is a boss might have, like, a number. A big boss might have a number eight with a shield, meaning they have eight hits until they are dazed. And the way that you daze them is you look at their weaknesses and their weaknesses and you kind of start to learn how the game is played. Because there may be five squares next to the boss's name and the five and one of them, the second one might be dagger and you know. Okay, the first one is always sword.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So that means that they're also weak to sword. So I can hit him with sword and dagger and then the. The sword will reveal itself to say

[D]

if you want to throw up a. If you can throw up just a gameplay battle. Kevin. Where there's shields and little boxes on the screen when they're like right about to fight. Yeah. This is how it works in terms of you start every battle. When you meet somebody, you don't. This is perfect. You don't know what their weaknesses are. So right here, let's just assume this batt battle was starting. You'd see the Forest Ratkin 3 up there with four question marks and then you'd assume based on where we're at now, four shields. But as your team starts using their weapons, you find. Okay, cool. Pole damage. They're weak. The weak too. You hit them with the ax. Okay. They're weak to axes. Those knock off the actual numbers of the shield. The shield eventually breaks. This is called the boost and break system. And then you can unload attacks on them.

[C]

And if you look on the characters on your right, those are all your party members on the top right with the. The health bars and everything. Yeah. But if you look and see on the top right, like I guess all of the. Almost all these characters. All the characters actually, they have like five lit up dots above the health. Right. And those are multiple hit things.

[D]

Those are boost points.

[C]

Yeah. So like if your care if the enemy is weak to ax and they have three shields, you can boost your attack by three times. Meaning it's going to hit four times because your attack is one. And then you could boost it by three times and use those little tick marks at the top and you gain them every time you do a move that isn't one of those boost moves.

[B]

How's it looking? Animation.

[C]

So it's a gun. Dun dun dun. Yeah. And you see the damage hit and then the. The shields get taken out and then bam. The enemy is like the enemy days. And then it's like go off go. Everybody use your superpower.

[D]

So then back to your point. Plus it becomes this thing of early on. Yeah. Let's just overwhelm. Break the shields. Destroy. Right. You have if you're. If you're watching us right now, you see the HP and the SP on everybody. Obviously your special points for your elemental attacks, your super moves using the weapons, yada, yada yada. So it might as you get going and you get into these boss battles, bless. It does become this dance of like, okay, cool. Well, I could, yeah, use all my BP right now to get Stia to use her ax to smash this shield, but why not just use one of hers? Use. And then I see that I have three people on my little, you know, active time battle, meaning that they can then break because I know he's weak to sword. He's weak to this as well. Then we can come back in and boost our spells to make those, like dropping, you know, 999 damage or 9999 damage. You start getting into that system, let alone again where I'm at now, where I've been using one of the characters in there, I don't know who's announced, so I won't. But his. He's got goad right. Where he can like go. The enemies that attack him for, you know, I think when I boosted. It's nine turns now and they'll come at him with all the physical attacks, but his evasion goes up as well. So I'm not having him attack anymore. I'm just having him do that so everybody else can get in their moves without having to get as ass kicked by this giant boss and stuff like that. But again, that stuff happens so gradually that it isn't overwhelming. And to my point that I was driving at earlier is like, when you're meeting these characters early on and adding them to the team and then you finally get to, oh, now I have nine people, so I can actually choose who I want on there. There it's set dressing, right? Really where I think, what do you want to do? This character seems cool, right? They come in with their dagger and their ax and they're from this tribe and they don't. It's cold. But they refuse to. It's like, oh, this is cool. And you bring them in. But it's like, it's not until hours later that I'm in a battle where I'm like, man, you're awesome, but useless in this fight. I need somebody who has fans. So let's get a fan person in there that can use the fan attacker.

[C]

Imagine like the. Like the.

[D]

Yeah, not like our fans. We're not sending kebabs out there.

[C]

Like. Like the Japanese fans.

[B]

Yeah, that's why? Yeah, that's why I envisioned. Yeah.

[C]

Or which one has that? Oh, you're talking about Mortal Kombat combat.

[B]

Yeah, that's Katana. Okay.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

One thing I'd like to, Kevin, if you can go back to one of those battle screens that you were doing so great on. If I get a hold on one of those. The other thing to call out is these ultimate skills. Your character has it based on the ring or whatever that you can use and use these attack and you can unlock more as you go. Right here, as we're looking at. This is great. Kevin.

[C]

When is it up, by the way?

[D]

When do you get. I think it's just based on the amount of damage you're doing or whatever it might be, the number of turns, I'm honestly not sure. But you see that square on its side up there, right? That diamond on the very first character that's lit up there with blue up there. Eventually these ultimates you can unlock for every character. So again, back to like, what it's like here at the end game, suddenly everybody has a mastery skill and they're all different. They all do different things. So it becomes a who do I need in this battle? Or what's the best party management makeup here? Right. For what I need in these fights,

[B]

they have to level up these characters individually.

[D]

So yes, but it's like you're at the end of everything. It's the classic JRPG battle screen. Again, I think it's faster than most, which I really appreciate about this sometimes. This is a dated reference, but for me it's got that half minute hero vibe of like, especially I double the speed of the battles. I go in there, I clown the people out in the open world, get there, the whole thing's filling. And then I'm right back to running around to whatever. My real job is very quick, very

[C]

active in that way.

[D]

You are getting XP for them. You're also getting jp, which are job points. You then can go into their things and change their skills, equip their skills, unlock new things and then once you've unlocked all their abilities, then now you get into cool. Now it's mastery time, where Sia is always using double Ax. So I'm going to go in there and on that move, I'm going to keep increase. I'm going to keep putting points into to give her that movie, make it even more powerful.

[C]

You also find, like invigorating nuts. Sour.

[D]

I got one for you.

[C]

Strong. You find like strong nuts. You know, there's these things you Find

[D]

in the world that you can then apply to the character to make their critical stronger, to be given more sp, to give them more hp.

[B]

And they're called nuts.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are the permanent ones left and right in this game.

[C]

I was collecting those for the longest time, not realizing what they were. And then I. I thought they were just consumables for battle, but they are the permanent things. Like, so it's. I feel like you're building characters. I accidentally put way too much, way too many on one character. And she's just like in any other. In any other. I got so many nuts on me.

[B]

So many nuts on me.

[C]

She. In any other game, she'd be a glass cannon. Just a tank or a glass cannon character is going to have low health, but like high damage, dude. She's got like 4 or 500 more health points than everybody else. I fucked up. Yeah. A couple things I do want to talk about in the con section of the. Of my Enjoy cons. I think the game is really handholdy. There's not. There's not a whole lot of room for player discovery. You're not really just finding things. You. You mark and track the quest and it tells you where to go and that's. That's it. And I. I wish there was a bit more like freedom there.

[D]

If I can not to be that guy. I think that opens up to more. You play okay. Where I'm with you very early on, it is very much like, okay, cool, do this. It also is later on. And I think it's because what are the cons? Some. The overall cons people have for JRPGs in general, where it is just too obtuse, like, what do you want? There are plenty of times where they are like, even now, hey, we need X, Y and Z. And you're like, okay, cool. And then you leave and come back and hover over and it's like it's found in fucking flames. Guard like, okay, cool. Like, I know where to go and find it. Which on the one hand, I'm glad they're not wasting my time. On the other, it can't be too much like that, but I've had, I think again to the like slow boil of there was a moment I wouldn't. I won't say obviously, but it was. That came into an area and there was a person standing there and then didn't even have. They engaged with me and started talking and we started fighting and I was like, holy. Like, this wasn't what I was expecting. And now that, like, the training wheels fall off, I feel like after that, not, not really some of them fall off after that first movie I was talking about. And then it does become like, okay, cool.

[C]

The first 24 hour movie. I know, I know.

[D]

I'm not. And I'm not. That's why I'm not at all trying to be like, yeah, actually. But I, like, this is a noted con. But I, I do think that works to his advantage later on of like, I still now get excited when I see the blue chest, because I can open the blue chest if that makes.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And then even later on, they do more stuff of like, okay, cool. Now I've built this building, but you need to put things in it. So you need to go find these things.

[C]

And then my. Another big con I have, and it's. It's not even a nitpick. This is like a serious problem I have with a fucking game.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Don't give me dialogue choices if you're gonna ignore them and make me do the thing anyway.

[B]

As a jrpg,

[D]

do you want to follow me or not? No, Come on.

[C]

Oh, come on. You know you want to be a part of this. And then you just go, don't give me the choice. Just say, we're gonna go to this thing next. We need you, man. That's all I need.

[B]

The reason they do that, because I've noticed this in so many JRPGs, it's just that they want a reason for your character to talk. Like, they're like, what's the thing? Like, how do we get elicit a response? And so they had to put it in your hands. My character, they give you two options that, that don't matter.

[C]

My character talks enough where, like, they'll be like, oh, and. And how's he. Oh, my gosh, I haven't seen you so long. How's your mother? And you see, again, I have dialogue off, but you see little ellipses pop up.

[D]

Yeah. For the record, do that thing to be clear, for somebody who's not playing the game or whatever, your character does not speak. They're a silent protagonist, but when they're asked questions, dot, dot, dot comes out. So they are speaking in world, but you're not getting VO from them. You don't. You don't know what they're saying because you're filling it in with your own head of like, oh, no, I did whatever.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then the characters go like, oh, shit. Damn, that's too bad. Or like, oh, nice, that's great. Or whatever. But it's. There's no exaggeration. Again, I'm 20 hours in. I've had about eight moments where I always pick no just because I want to be disappointed and I want to be justified in my fact that I'm mad about this thing. That, that just don't give me this.

[D]

See? And I'm so goody two shoes. I've never clicked it where I'm always like, this doesn't matter. Yes, yes, I will probably.

[C]

And you know, and there were, there were times early on, though, that it wasn't always like that though. The. The later decisions became more of like, I'm mad that you have this even in the game. Just tell me to go there. Tell me you're coming with me. We got to do this thing and have my character just do the three dots and all right, let's go on this adventure or whatever. But the first several times, maybe there are several situations where I'm worried about, oh, I don't know if I'm gonna come back here. Do I want to go with them yet? I'm gonna hit. No. Come on. You know, you feel a lot. You feel you're passionate about this. Cause and then you just go with them. It's like, oh, that sucks. And they're. And everyone is like that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And again, my issue is just like, just don't put it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I'd be totally fine with that. You know, you're. You're hurting the. The RPG in this. If you're not letting me role play. Yeah. As somebody. When somebod. Yeah.

[D]

We.

[C]

Do you actually still want to fight them? No. Come on. You know they pissed you off though. Yeah.

[D]

And this is a conversation we've had on game awards conversations. So as a group or whatever. But I think this is back to it of like, are these just turn based games? Right. Where this is the first time when I say I love role playing games. Audience knows. You guys knows. I'm talking about Bethesda. I'm talking about Outer Worlds from Obsidian. I'm talking about that kind of game. Right. Whereas the jrpg, the term based rpg, for the most part. Usually I'm like, this isn't. I want choice. I want my choices to matter. That whereas in this game it might be the first time and I did not grow up with playing final fantasies and having that affinity for those things.

[C]

Right.

[D]

This might be the first time where I'm really. It really clicks of like the role of like, cool, you're my healer. So I'm only doing this and now that I have these mastery moves, I know you use your arrows all the time. That's what I use you for. So I'm investing in those. You're my arrow guy. That's your role. Which isn't me carrying water, making excuses. It's just for the first time. That kind of makes sense to me in a way of like I'm with you, of like I would love it to be like, who do you want to help? What do you want to do?

[C]

Why I had some people in the chat educate me and you know, give me a little schooling on this is that when, when Dungeons and Dragons became very, very popular, Western game developers took the decision, decision making stuff from RPGs.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

And Japanese developers and eastern developers took the stats, the numbers and the numbers stuff. So like you, you create a character. Somebody I saw somebody in Twitch had asked, can I select my skin color? Yes. There are eight skin colors. There are eight eye colors, there's eight haircuts. They all also a little fascinating thing. Very woke this game. They always call you they. Oh, that's cool. Whether you're you know, masculine looking or feminine presenting or whatever, like they always just say they which I think is like a neat thing to do but also just like just lazy though not that hard to just say like replace all the he's with. Yeah, that's a very easy thing to do.

[D]

But something, yeah though that gets changed to like the she.

[C]

Oh, you don't know them. They're the, they're the chosen one. Or like that happens. But yes, it is still, you know, you are picking the class that you want to be and then midway through you have a new job that you can unlock. And now because I started off as whatever character but then I realized I, I like the idea of like the chosen one being this more magical person. So I am role playing in that way where I like doing more magic type stuff because I it is turn based. Normally I will stick with rolls and dodges and parries but you know, we have plenty of good people in my squad that can do that. So what if I lean more towards like magic? And also your drip is, is sick. Like you're not ever replacing your armor. Like each class has its own set armor. So if you are set to be the whatever, mage, cleric, whatever it is, you have like a purple robe and it just looks sick as hell. But the, the hunter might have like a green kind of like you know, leather, whatever. The, you know, they look like a hunter and then the warrior might look a certain way But. But there's no customization visually there. It's just whatever class you are selecting in that moment or whatever class you have moved to, that's how you look.

[B]

Nice. Yeah, I was going to mention, but I think you hit the nail on the head already. As far as like tenant wise, the difference between JRPGs and Western RPGs, design wise. Yeah. The way it goes back to JRPGs, it's about the numbers.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Western RPGs, as far as what the RPG isms are, usually leaned towards the choices and the, you know, I guess partying, like how you treat party and all that stuff.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Like, I saw somebody in chat earlier say, how's this a JRPG? But Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't a JRPG. And it's like I don't think Japan. Yeah. Like Red Dead Redemption 2. Take that up with like Fallout in Western RPGs and what those do. As far as what makes it one or not JRPGs, as far as how they operate. Yeah. Like you're the choices. I'm so used to playing a Persona or I'm so used to playing games that I'm making a dialogue choice. But I know my dialogue choice doesn't mean shit to this game, which is.

[C]

Which is a bummer because I think it just like I. As I'm doing this and kind of annoyed by it, there's still a part of me that's going, but maybe this is a dialog on something and maybe it's a, you know, you're the chosen one, Destiny will make the. Will make decisions for you. Anyway, I'm hoping there's like a deeper meaning, but I think it's just bad game design. If it's not that, you know, that makes sense. I'm hoping that like in another world where I finish this game and I play 80 hours of it and I roll credits on it that like by the end of it I'm like, oh my God. That's the reason why none of my choices were letting me pick. No. Because there was always this guiding hand or whatever. But I doubt that's the case. And it's just kind of annoying to hit those spots.

[B]

We've said a lot.

[D]

We have.

[B]

Have you guys talked about path actions? That's one thing that I saw on the store page for this game where it seems like they make a bigger deal out of it. Right. Use path actions to invite people to your town, engage in battle and obtain items. Where you go and what you do is entirely up to you. Greg, what is a Path action.

[D]

So path actions have been an octopath from the get go. They change them up a little bit here in terms of what it is like Octopath Traveler 2 is the one I'm most familiar with in terms of recency bias. But you would have your group with you and you'd have a thief with you and you'd have whoever could talk to them and interrogate them or whatever. And you'd walk up to people in these towns and rather than hit a to get whatever general dialog from them you could hit the other button and you would get the option to steal from them if you had your thief with you to interrogate them if you had whoever with you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now giving you your chosen one, they've boiled it all down there and I think personally streamlined it in a way that I enjoy more. Again when I would be hours into the other games, get a new person and have a new option. It was almost like I don't want to steal from this guy. That's not what I would be. You know what I mean? That's not the crew I'm running with kind of thing. So here they've boiled it down to what it's Investigate. Then it's either entreat which is like you basically ask them for for free stuff because you're the chosen one. You're here up to town. It kind of.

[C]

They may own like five items and you can buy them from them or you can haggle them down and it'll

[D]

tell you well not even that yet. That's when you want to purchase. So I'm giving you the options here, right of the first one's investigate which is like you ask them first off, you see what your success for chance for success is on all this stuff, right? So it's 100% for lots of times it'll be 5% for somebody who's tough that you have to come back for. Yet you anyways you find out more information about them and also tell you what items they have. Then it's either going to be in treat where you can say. You don't actually say it but go in there and try to get their stuff for free because I'm the chosen one, why not give me this thing blah blah blah. There's another one, yeah where you can buy things from them but on top of just buying it you can haggle from them. So you can go in there and you'll have a percentage chance of getting something at half off or you know, dirt cheap or whatever. Then there's. You can ask them to come or recruit them to come be a part of the. Not your party, but one of your helpers. Where you can say, hey, come be a. Or that's higher. I guess higher than.

[C]

I don't know the difference.

[D]

If you. So I. I do. I just misspoke. Sorry. You can either for some people, get them to come be a helper, which is in battle you have a little tab there called helpers where you can do your move, you can use your magic spell, you can heal, you can do your physical attack, but you can also then do a helper attack, which would be depending. Anything could be. I'm gonna give great sword damage. I'm gonna heal the entire party, I'm gonna raise criticals. You do that, it doesn't count as party. It doesn't go against your turn. So you get basically a bonus action from somebody. You can pay for those people or you can actually just ask them, depending on what the deal is and get them. Then there's, yeah, the recruit people to come to the town, come live with your town, invite them to do that. Then there's another one where you can fight them to get stuff.

[C]

So there's like. I guess the problem that I had was recruit and hire. I couldn't tell the difference because you're still asking to be recruit is you're

[D]

recruiting them to be a helper and it's free. And then higher is you're paying them to be a helper and you have to pay.

[C]

Gotcha. Gotcha. So yeah, so they, they become the helpers, which is a really cool system having those extra moves.

[D]

And it was that thing forever that I ignored. Like, not ignored but like I, I filled up the helper team and I was like, all right. I never was thinking about using them. And then late game when it is, fuck, I need to use this great bunch to hail the entire team. But I can also at least get one in to break that. Sometimes it comes down to that where it's like, I just need one more hit to break the shield. And this person that you know entire section, right. Those two guys I can swap between on that turn. Neither of them are going to have the weakness.

[C]

I guess there's three versions of it because there's higher you pay them or you can haggle them and there may be like 60 haggle success rate. So you could be like, hey, actually I'm going to try to haggle you down, like whatever you're charging. And if you fail, you'll get like a little negative tick and it'll be like, hey, your town's reputation, your reputation with the town has dropped. And if you fail four more times, then you can't really talk to NPCs. But 60, that's pretty good. I might do it again. I failed again. I might do it again. All right, now I hire them for cheaper. Then there's recruit, which is for free, where you're just like, hey, come be a part of my squad.

[B]

Come through.

[C]

And then there's impress, which is I fight you.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

To show you that you should like just be one of my helper guys. Right? Yeah. And they're not a part of your squad. They're not a part of your, your octopath. They're just a random dude. And the impress is really cool because you could get really strong dudes to come through to like, like town guards. And I fought one last night that was like, I. I'm a level 26 and this dude was like a 32. I was able to beat him. It felt great. And now he's on in my little helper squad and he's super strong. And then the final one is invite.

[D]

Yeah, right?

[C]

Yeah. The invite one is just like, come be a part of Wishvil back.

[D]

Something I think that's interesting that I would call it from my personal experience. In the reviews I was seeing today, there was mention of grinding. Of like, it's a turn based rpg, there's going to be grinding. There was only one battle where I got my teeth kicked in and I'm like, I'm not strong enough. So I. Then it wasn't even so much that I had to grind. Like I just ran around the open area. I went and did the other side stuff to go do that I had opened. And I want to say the reason I think grinding wasn't a bigger deal for me was that everybody I could impress or fight or whatever I did. So I would stop and do that for every person that I talked to and battled. So I think that kept me leveling at a better pace maybe than some reviewers.

[B]

Andy, what are your final thoughts about

[C]

Octopath Traveler 0, a surprising video game? Really have enjoyed it. I've. If. If Night Rain weren't out in two in an hour, if Night Rain DLC wasn't in an hour, and if Metroid Prime 4 out in an hour comes out western.

[B]

No.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

No.

[C]

Comes out of three.

[B]

No.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[C]

So if Night Rain wasn't out that

[D]

Stream is very soon.

[B]

I haven't finished it. Like do I need to finish it to play the deal?

[C]

No. Okay. You only need to be two bosses. But like yeah, if there was. If there weren't so many things, I. I mean I'm surprised that I even put this much time into it because is sticky. It grabs you. It you want to learn the mysteries you. Once I got past the stuff I didn't dig like I was still coming across amazing story moments that kind of just get like what the. Like in my bed alone with the. The extra glasses that Tim lent me. His older ones just like sitting there just be like what the. This is like insane stuff. It's really good.

[D]

I'll tell you after this. Obviously I won't spoil it. But again for that third movie like the start of that third movie, there's a character they introduced voiced by someone I was like, what the fuck? Like, you know what I mean? Like they're burying this post credits like this gotcha. Entire thing that flips everything on its head.

[B]

Awesome.

[C]

Yeah. Really, really enjoyable.

[B]

Patric Harris, the voice.

[D]

I am Neil Patrick Harris.

[C]

Michael.

[D]

I've come through a time portal.

[C]

Stone cold. One beer. Yeah, I think it's a very enjoyable game. I think if you dug any of the other octopaths it seems like this is going to be another one you're going to want to get.

[B]

Greg, what are your final thoughts here?

[D]

Octopath Traveler 0 is a 9 out of 10. It's an amazing game. It's my current game of the year. I you know, need to go back. I want to finish during break here or I guess just post this. I need to finish Donkey Kong Bonanza. That was. I know I was enjoying quite a bit before I got sidelined on that but I'm so happy that I found this. I have felt broken as I've tried to talk about not liking turn based like and that not being really what encapsulated it and it's totally got me man. I'm enjoying this so much. I will continue to play this and I want to go back like I never did a Live alive. You know what I mean?

[B]

Like dude, I love live.

[D]

I know you do. I know you a lot. Yeah, sorry. Live a lot. Like there's. I want to do that. I. But it's the same thing of these games are always so big. There's always so many other things to go play. Sea of Stars I was enjoying and ended up stopping for a different review and never made my way back.

[B]

I'm like a shorter. It's like a 25 hour game.

[D]

There you go.

[C]

See a star that should have gone back to.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Or I should have just played a period then, you know.

[D]

Yeah. This is one of those I adore. It's going to be criminally underplayed, I think. Like they all are. But that's what makes them, you know, classics and cult classics like that so super.

[C]

Also, pretty massive year for big, chunky quality games. When we talk about silksong being 20 bucks, expedition 33 being $50 and this being $50. Really cool.

[B]

Yeah, I didn't realize this is a $50 one. Well, ladies, gentlemen, MBS, thank you so much for hanging out with us talking all about that Octopath Traveler 0 of course this has been the Kind of Funny Games cast where each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. We don't do that. The show if you love what I

[D]

want, I made this show orders with

[B]

the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show and catch Today's KFCD on YouTube or podcast services and know that until next time it's been our pleasure to serve you.