Welcome to our review of One Piece Odyssey, my most anticipated game for the first half of this year!
One Piece Odyssey is an RPG project to commemorate One Piece brand’s 25th Anniversary, which combines classic staples of the JRPG genre with the unique elements of One Piece. This game has been lovingly crafted over many years to ensure that fans can truly touch the world of One Piece… and now, One Piece Odyssey is ready to set sail!
Produced with a direct involvement from Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece contributed to this project both with new characters and monster designs and with the main plot. The game is also complemented by a soaring soundtrack scored by composer Motoi Sakuraba, well known for his musical contributions to video games such as the Dark Souls and Tales of series.
The Thousand Sunny in tatters… crew members scattered… and Luffy has lost his straw hat! During their voyage along the Grand Line, Captain Monkey.D.Luffy and the Straw Hat Crew are caught in a sudden storm at sea. When the storm subsides, they find themselves stranded on a lush, but mysterious island called Waford, becoming separated from each other in the process. The crew sets out on a new, daring adventure filled with marvels of nature, powerful enemies, and strange encounters with island locals. Join Luffy and work together with the Straw Hat Crew to set sail once again!
Having played the game previously, I knew what to expect and despite the time with the game being initially limited, I was looking up to going through the same part of the game again. Not because it was going to be boring, but more due to a personal preference of considering Alabasta, the second chapter in the game, one of the lesser storylines in One Piece. Now, I can hear you think already, how did the gang end up in Alabasta if this is supposed to be a new story? Right?
Well, it is all about one of the inhabitants of the island, Lim. Her powers allow for memories to be relived, allowing her to peek into the hearts of the Mugiwara. It makes very little sense right now, but trust me when I say it is a really decent storyline, even if I had to wrestle my way through Alabasta (again). The biggest advantage, I was able to make some very alternate decisions for my gameplay. Think battle system here, the storyline is pretty linear with very little straying.
Being able to change my crew, I was able to get a proper insight into some of the true strengths of the Mugiwara. The game mechanics allow for some very subtle changes as an RPG would normally let you. But there are some differences, the usual powerups, and all aside, you can not count on your “usual” One Piece power scaling, which is not really a thing, but many seem to think it is. Just go on Reddit and the hatred is very real when you step on someone’s toes by saying you think Sanji is the real GOAT. But all jokes aside, my favorite fighter in One Piece Odyssey is none other than Nami. Supposedly one of the weakling trio.
Her weather attacks reach a wider range of enemies and it makes her really awesome. I have to admit the entire game has me wanting more games like this. Take for example Chopper his Monster Point or Nico Robin her entire attack range. The game is really fun and while I do love a great Warriors/Musou game, One Piece Odyssey does fill a void that was existing for One Piece, we never had a great RPG until today.
Now I am going to also talk about some of the things that I did not like about One Piece Odyssey because quite frankly they missed the ball on a few occasions. A lot of casual fights are incredibly easy and when you really come down to the boss battles part, like Crocodile at the end of chapter 2, he is more than a tough nut to crack or when Usopp has to fight a Kung fu Dugong, it is literally like a culture shock.
Another thing, you often have no idea how far along a chapter you are, this is mostly due to the amount of backtracking and randomized distractions. While some may enjoy the unpredictable nature, it sometimes felt farfetched to me and a good ol’ regular ploy of classic RPGs to stretch game time. Nothing wrong with that, but with the slow nature of the story deploying, it just often felt too slow.
Now after venting a bit about the bad sides, there are a ton of fun things to mention. Great fighting animations, the interactions between the Mugiwara, and character development between the crew and Lim/Adio. The backstory develops in the background and so on. So many things are done just right, the atmosphere in Water Seven for example, is just perfect. How Vivi and Robin were enemies and Robin avoiding the storyline because of it, is pure genius.
In conclusion, One Piece Odyssey is the One Piece game we never knew we were missing, though it should be said that some more natural approach to the difficulty levels would have been greatly appreciated.
8/10
Tested on Xbox Series X
