{"id":53444,"date":"2025-10-30T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53444"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:08:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T08:08:59","slug":"octopath-traveler-0-producer-shocked-his-dev-team-with-a-town-building-system-idea-elaborate-enough-for-its-own-game-taking-it-this-far-was-absolutely-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/octopath-traveler-0-producer-shocked-his-dev-team-with-a-town-building-system-idea-elaborate-enough-for-its-own-game-taking-it-this-far-was-absolutely-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Octopath Traveler 0 producer shocked his dev team with a Town Building system idea elaborate enough for its own game. \u201cTaking it this far was absolutely necessary\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Octopath Traveler 0 <\/strong>(Zero), Square Enix\u2019s brand-new mainline entry in the \u201cHD-2D\u201d JRPG series, is set to launch on December 5this year. While the title is positioned as a<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-kind-of-game-is-octopath-traveler-0-we-ask-the-developers-behind-the-100-hour-prequel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> 100-long prequel<\/a> to the series based on the Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent mobile game, it also introduces some new features to the franchise, such as town building and character creation. These features will give players <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/octopath-travelers-core-value-is-a-high-degree-of-freedom-the-upcoming-prequel-takes-it-to-the-next-level-with-extensive-town-building\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a high level of creative freedom when<\/a> building their hometown and character, and the developers say they decided to make these systems so detailed they could easily be considered a separate game. But fine tuning them wasn\u2019t easy, and even the game director was initially shocked to hear how far they\u2019d take the new features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AUTOMATON recently had a chance to ask Octopath Traveler 0 director Yasuhiro Kidera and producer Hiroto Suzuki about why they decided to add such expansive simulator-style gameplay to the JRPG series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"OCTOPATH TRAVELER 0 | Announce Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PSRFT5OVqKs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Kidera, nobody in the development team \u2013 including the director himself \u2013 expected that Zero\u2019s Town Building feature would end up having such a high level of freedom. \u201cThe development team asked Suzuki numerous times if \u2018<em>we\u2019ll really be taking it this far?\u2019<\/em> \u2013 But his stance was: \u2018<em>absolutely,\u2019<\/em> so we carried on with development as is,\u201d he said. The reason for this, as Suzuki explains, was the fact that the new prequel is an adaptation of a mobile game. He wanted to have a feature which would help justify it being a full-priced, standalone entry in the series, despite its origins. And in order to match fans\u2019 expectations, there was no room for mistakes or compromises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"984\" height=\"554\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-534440001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-534440001.jpg 984w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-534440001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251029-534440001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI thought it would be only logical to make it like that (laughs). We took the rather unconventional step to make Zero into a full-priced mainline installment while basing it on Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, a mobile game. But even if we wanted to go on a new frontier with the series, if we tried cutting corners during development, players would inevitably call us out for it. Town Building is especially meant to be a representative feature of the game, so I believed it should be refined down to the last detail. Because we decided to implement the Town Building feature, we had to make it so that the player can actually create a town they can call <em>their own<\/em>,\u201d Suzuki explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBoth in the context of the game\u2019s concept and as a product \u2013 I thought having the Town Building feature in Zero was absolutely necessary. It is precisely because we took it this far that the game can be called a proper mainline entry in the series. That\u2019s the kind of fortitude we faced development with. That being said, I myself had no hesitation in creating and refining the feature through and through. But now that I look at Octopath Traveler 0 once again, I feel like it kind of ended up being a blend of two different games in one \u2013 an RPG and a slow life simulator,\u201d Suzuki say through laughter. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful for all the effort the development staff put into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.square-enix-games.com\/en_EU\/games\/octopath-traveler-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Octopath Traveler 0<\/a>&nbsp;releases on December 5 for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3014320\/OCTOPATH_TRAVELER_0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>\/Windows), PS5\/PS4, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and Xbox Series X\u2758S.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an interview with AUTOMATON, Octopath Traveler 0 producer talks about why they decided to add such an expansive town building system to the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":53448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Octopath Traveler 0 producer shocked his dev team with a Town Building system idea elaborate enough for its own game. \u201cTaking it this far was absolutely necessary\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In an interview with AUTOMATON, Octopath Traveler 0 producer talks about why they decided to add such an expansive town building system to the game.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/octopath-traveler-0-producer-shocked-his-dev-team-with-a-town-building-system-idea-elaborate-enough-for-its-own-game-taking-it-this-far-was-absolutely-necessary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Octopath Traveler 0 producer shocked his dev team with a Town Building system idea elaborate enough for its own game. \u201cTaking it this far was absolutely necessary\u201d - 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