EITHERne Piece is a pop culture juggernaut that has inexplicably never really gained traction outside of Japan. Officially the best-selling manga comic series in history, it is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, and One Piece Odyssey honors that milestone. Previous attempts to expand the story of this fun-loving pirate crew beyond the comics have lacked credibility, but with this game, Bandai Namco does a lot to redress the balance.
It’s quite simply the One Piece game fans have been clamoring for all this time: a 40+ hour classic Japanese RPG that brings together all the most beloved (and some less loved) elements of the genre. It has turn-based battles, embellished with retina-popping special moves that emphasize each character’s style and abilities; strange, often bewildering terminology; layers of side quests and side quests peppered with puzzle sequences; and an obsession with cooking and food. The only thing missing is a fishing minigame.
As for the story, according to the comics, it’s crazy. Forget consistency, but expect extravagance. The main character Luffy and his ragtag band of Straw Hat Pirates are stranded on the mysterious Waford Island, deprived of their powers by local resident Lim. Quickly realizing that Luffy and company aren’t like other pirates (they’re too nice, for one thing), he helps them regain those powers through epic quests set in recognizable locations from the One Piece canon, pieced together from the original ones. crew memorabilia. .
This narrative allows you to build your characters from the ground up, molding them to a great extent, and one of the strengths of One Piece Odyssey is that the characters’ distinctive abilities are fueled by both fighting and puzzle-solving. Luffy has a body made of rubber, so he can fire flurries of blows at distant enemies, extend an arm to reach inaccessible areas, or catapult enemies across the battlefield. The game divides its battlefields into areas, giving characters close and ranged special attacks that can be applied to a single enemy or multiple enemies. It introduces a fresh and welcome strategic element to what might otherwise have been all too familiar.
One Piece Odyssey isn’t perfect: it takes a while to get into its groove, and it’s hard to ignore the anatomically unfeasible and scantily clad presentation of two of its female characters. That feels at odds with the game’s general vibe of naivety and sweetness, which sometimes treads the kind of territory occupied by Zelda and Ni no Kuni games. Its overarching theme is an examination of the nature of friendship, though thankfully, it’s too funny and weird to get corny.
This is a distinctive and engaging example of the JRPG genre that also reflects the essence of the One Piece universe. Fans of both worlds will love it, and I found it to be the perfect appetizer while I look forward to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom later this year.
