need to know
what is that? A turn-based JRPG that takes you through the past of One Piece.
expect to pay: $59.99/£49.99
developer: Iruka Co., Ltd.
the publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
review date: Windows 11, Nvidia 2080 Ti, Intel i9-9900k @ 4.9GHz, 32GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Outside: now
Link: Official site (opens in new tab)
Twenty-five years ago, Half-Life hit PC, the first PlayStation took over, and a small pirate adventure comic called One Piece began. Now that I’m pushing 40 and gray, I’m still enjoying the ongoing adventures of rubberized rogue Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates.In celebration of a quarter-century at sea, the crew is one Set off on his epic JRPG voyage in Piece Odyssey.
If you don’t know what One Piece is, or if you’ve only seen a few episodes of the anime, Odyssey probably isn’t for you. In addition, most of the game is devoted to (loosely) retelling the events of the four main story arcs, and these reenacted adventures are Reserved by a story written specifically for the game.
Manga artist Eiichiro Oda had minimal input into the story of Odyssey, but contributed some concepts and creature designs. The Odyssey strands Luffy and her crew on Wafford. Two new characters live on this island. They are the long-haired explorer Adio and the mysterious local girl Lim. good kind of pirate. Luckily for the Amnesiac, Straw’s Hut crew has forgotten how to fight, so a memory that retains his lost fighting prowess goes on an adventure to reclaim his Cube. I’m going out. Brush up on adventure and beatdown.
black spot
Odyssey is effectively a large filler arc. This is the questionable standard side-adventure an anime must insert to keep a TV show running week after week. Odyssey’s new story and characters are decent enough for One Piece, but where the game’s narrative stands out, paradoxically, is in rereading the old lands.
These adventures in Memoria are based on past story arcs (Alabasta, Water Seven, Marineford, Dressrosa), but the Straw Hat Pirates believe that this is a rough approximation of their adventures and their actions I know nothing will change what actually happened. Nevertheless, they are all determined to make things better. Even if it’s just a dream, they go out to save everyone they couldn’t save, win the battle they can’t win, and create a happier ending. takes on an unexpectedly bittersweet personal edge, and the heroes get the chance to meet once again their lost or fallen friends.
Compared to your average One Piece filler anime, it’s rich in character beats, with each member of the crew in the spotlight to sort out their feelings and accept the loss. While we frequently see characters weeping rivers of tears over , Odyssey makes more of a deal by embracing their past. The rest of the crew will be given some breathing room. At least when they aren’t getting sidetracked.
Odyssey is stuffed to burst with padding, filler in the filler. It’s not just a side quest, it’s more than just scouring maps and looking for treasure. In one particularly egregious case, a chase across the desert to save a friend was interrupted by bandits stealing the crew’s food, monkeys stealing Nami’s purse, a quicksand river, an expedition to bypass the quicksand ( failure). A big cartoon crab will appear anyway and take everyone to their destination anyway.
It was tough to stay frustrated with the Odyssey, or giant crab. Distractions often lean towards the silly side of One Piece, and even these bizarre story digressions lead to some epic boss battles and fun new monsters. I have. For example, chasing the bounty of rival pirates who have their own comical gimmicks, like crew members who like to jump off cliffs dramatically but don’t understand “safe landings.” some yet. But nearly every part of Odyssey can use some trimming. Quests can be shortened, grinds reduced, and backtracking removed, leaving you with a leaner, faster game.
The main thing you do in One Piece Odyssey is engage in turn-based JRPG combat. Fortunately, filler or not, the combat is trickier than I expected. It would have been nice enough if this game mimicked Dragon Quest, but the developers gave some serious thought to how to recreate the chaotic and messy cartoon brawls of the source material in an accessible turn-based combat engine. I’ve got super-powered naval officers, screen-filling monsters, and lots of thieves’ caves. bottom.
everyone was kung fu blood
The battles in One Piece Odyssey are familiar at first. Four characters take turns exchanging punches with their enemies, but on a novel scale. Each party member can engage a separate enemy group of up to four enemies in their respective locations on the battlefield. Some attacks are limited to targeting nearby enemies, while others are used to hit distant enemies or slam a single mook into a nearby ally to aim for meatheads. You can use it. The other person (Usopp) doesn’t really like it.
A surprise bonus objective called The Dramatic Scene adds an extra twist. In the game, you may be asked to take out enemies with certain characters or rescue the crew before they get hit with a big charge-up attack. Accomplishing these goals can result in significant XP increases, and sometimes use the system to throw a few more characters into battle. If Sanji and Zoro were to stand together, their rivalry would become a joke and their Technique Points (equivalent to MP in this game) could be fully charged.
Despite all these details, One Piece Odyssey has no difficulty settings or scaling, so the first 5-10 hours are pretty easy. Even paying attention to stats and barely ignoring synergies between characters, it wasn’t until 15 hours into Odyssey that I saw my first character knocked out, and quick healing items revived them seconds later. After that, the difficulty levels out a bit, but that’s a long wait for any kind of challenge.
smooth sailing
Still, even when it’s easy, the fights are fun to watch. One Piece is beautifully recreated and captures the visual tone of the anime, but also takes a bit of the manga style by mimicking Oda’s art and rendering the shadows as increasingly dense shading lines. It’s a deep charm that feels so natural that I didn’t notice it at first. This allows the exaggerated googly-eyed cartoon monster designs to work in his 3D and fit naturally into a more restricted geography.
Although mostly linear, the dungeons and towns of One Piece Odyssey are fun to roam and poke around. In the Overworld, each character has unique interaction abilities. Luffy can traverse gaps with his stretchy rubber arms, Zoro can cut through metal bars, Franky can build bridges across certain gaps, and Sanji can pierce her mile away. You can smell the ingredients. It’s often worth spending some time chatting with NPCs as well. Practically unrewarding, but there are plenty of little gags to add: a guard who forgot his weapon in the house, a bandit who questioned his career choices, a shopkeeper who was haggled to the ground by Nami, and a cheeky character translated by Chopper. animal story.
The NPCs are charming, but the dialogue outside of the main plot scenes looks a bit stiff and awkward, so it doesn’t get in the way of the animation. Most characters (not Brook, the undead have no respect) have unreasonably long attack lists representing almost every notable named technique or attack panel in the manga. These animations are fast, crisp, and full of nostalgia. Thankfully, there’s an option to double the speed of all his combat animations, so it doesn’t wear off like the too long, unskippable Final Fantasy summons.
Technically, there’s little to complain about here, other than the lack of support for ultrawide monitors. It works. Some cutscenes only run at 30 fps, but it also supports higher refresh rates that look great in combat. If you have a Steam Deck, we recommend limiting your game to 30 fps for consistency and battery savings, but otherwise you should be fine. (Not a technical note, but Odyssey contains only Japanese audio. Subtitles or busts, and some incidental chatter are not translated at all.)
“ONE PIECE ODYSSEY” is a new adventure with an unexpectedly bittersweet flavor that expands the worldview of historical manga and anime. It captures the faintly sad atmosphere surrounding the release of the final story while celebrating his 25 years of pirate adventure. (opens in new tab)A little slack like the TV anime and with a few trimmings it would have been a consistently thrilling 30 hour game instead of a winding 50 hour game. If you’ve been following the , chances are you’re here for a leisurely cruise rather than racing to the finish.
