Little is said about this, but video games based on manganimes usually leave a lot to be desired. In the best of cases, we find adaptations in the form of a fighting game that comply, but that are very far from the original material. And at worst, we come across repetitive action titles that do not satisfy even the most staunch fan.
one piece, probably one of the most beloved, successful and long-lived manganimes in history, has also been a victim of this problem. Since he began his journey in the pages of Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, the work of Eiichiro Oda It has been adapted to video games on a large number of occasions.
A GREAT One Piece, an RPG only CORRECT. Analysis of One Piece Odyssey
most of one piece games They have been mediocre, although there have also been some decent ones (One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 probably the most prominent). To try to end this curse. bandai namco has recruited ILCA, a study mainly known for the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakesto weigh anchor with a new adventure: One Piece Odyssey.
will he get luffy to finally measure up and become the king of (virtual) pirates in this role-playing game in which even Eiichiro Oda himself has participated? Let’s find out.
The analysis of One Piece Odyssey for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X | S and PC from HobbyConsoles:
One Piece Odyssey Plot
In One Piece Odyssey, Luffy and the rest of the crew of the Straw Hats they will stop at the mysterious waford island, a place that hides many treasures and even more secrets. The game’s story takes place after the famous timeskip, which is why they have a high level of power and a wide assortment of powerful abilities.
But that changes shortly after taking a few steps on the island: the Straw Hats forget the vast majority of their techniques and return to level one (literally), so one of the great objectives in One Piece Odyssey is to recover all the lost power. .
To achieve this, they must delve into their memories and relive past events with the help of two new and enigmatic characters: Adio and Lim. Thus, One Piece Odyssey is a combination between a completely new story and a revision of some of the most remembered moments of One Piece.like the arc of alabasta or the one of Water Seven.
Now, memories are diffuse, so things don’t always happen exactly as Luffy and the others remembered them, adding little twists and turns to already known stories.
Gameplay and gameplay of One Piece Odyssey on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC
One Piece Odyssey is an RPG. (or JRPG, since it has been made in Japan) with a fairly classic style that at first glance is reminiscent of the titles of the Dragon Quest saga (it is no coincidence; ILCA collaborated in the development of Dragon Quest XI).
By “classic”, we mean that it includes the usual elements of this type of game: turn-based combat, exploration, puzzles, leveling up, items, crafting… But seasoned with the charm of One Piece. The truth is that this is already a breath of fresh air, since games based on manganimes are usually anchored in the fighting and musou genres.
The One Piece Odyssey combat system gives special importance to the management of turns, allowing us to know when an enemy is going to attack… so that we can defeat it (or incapacitate it) before it happens.
It contains some interesting ideas such as the way we can play with the positions of our team members or the dramatic scenes, which are random situations that invite us to fulfill an objective (defeat an enemy with a specific character, liberate an area. ..) to gain extra experience.
It also stands out how well recreated the characters are, with special abilities that are a copy of what was seen in the original work and that even maintain the same effects and restrictions. Nico Robin, for example, has an attack that can only be used against male enemies. And of course there is no shortage of spectacular joint definitive techniques.
We can say that One Piece Odyssey’s combat system complies and it does not become too heavy, although the latter is due to the fact that the confrontations are not random and we can avoid them by dodging the enemies.
Outside of combat, we have exploration, where the ability to switch between any of the characters to take advantage of their unique abilities stands out: Luffy, for example, can reach far away places and objects with his rubber arms, Zoro can cut metal doors, Chopper can slip through tight spaces…
In addition, there are characters that give us their special abilities in the camps: Sanji can cook dishes that give us different benefits in combat, Usopp can create balls that harm enemies and Nico Robin can fuse accessories to increase their effects.
One Piece Odyssey is not an open world game, although we do have relative freedom to move around the settings that make up both Waford Island and the different memories we visit. The level design is quite uneven; there are locations that are practically corridors and others that are much more stimulating, such as majestic cities or intricate dungeons.
like combat, exploration meets. We like that the abilities of each character are used and that we are encouraged to carefully examine the scenarios through some cubes, which are usually very well hidden, and which are used to improve techniques.
Is One Piece Odyssey difficult?
Difficulty is one of the big problems with One Piece Odyssey. ILCA and Bandai Namco’s game rarely offers a challenge. If we use the right characters, defeat enemies before they can attack, and take advantage of item crafting, there is no enemy to break a sweat.
Instead, what we find are powerful bosses and enemies with an exorbitant amount of health that causes the fights to go on ad nauseam. And not, there is no difficulty selector.
How many hours does the One Piece Odyssey story last?
Since this is a JRPG, One Piece Odyssey is a game with a considerable duration that can take you between 30 and 40 hours. To this we must add the side stories, bounty hunting or memory links that unlock powerful special attacks, all optional content that can double the duration.
Now, we want to mention something that we have not liked a bit, and that is that throughout history they occur continuously situations that force us to retrace our steps or to take more turns than necessaryalways with some bland goal as an excuse.
It gives the impression that they are situations that are only there to lengthen the duration, since they do not contribute anything and only serve to break the rhythm and generate tedium.
Audiovisual section of One Piece Odyssey
Visually we have no complaints: One Piece Odyssey recreates wonderfully and with great fidelity the unique and excessive style of Eiichiro Oda making use of cel shading graphics. The author himself has participated designing the new characters and some of the monsters we fight against.
As a note, in the PlayStation 5 version (the one we have used to prepare this analysis) we can toggle between performance mode (more fps) and graphic mode (more resolution), and as usual when we are given a choice between these two options, we selected the first one and never looked back.
The soundtrack is provided by the legendary Motoi Sakuraba, and given his career (Valkyrie Profile, Golden Sun, Dark Souls, Tales of…) we can’t think of anyone better to orchestrate an RPG based on a manganime. The resulting work is fantastic, of course, and highlights the bombastic tone that most melodies give off.
One Piece Odyssey features Japanese and Japanese-only voices, but given the kind of product it is, we do not miss that it includes more spoken languages. Especially if we take into account that all the seiyus of the anime have participated in the game. Everything else (subtitles, menus, etc.) is in perfect Spanish.
Price and platforms available
One Piece Odyssey will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X | S and PC on January 13, 2023 in three different editions.
On one side is the One Piece Odyssey Standard Edition, which includes the game in physical edition and is priced at €69.99. On PC it is only available via download, but its price is reduced to €59.99.
Below is the One Piece Odyssey Deluxe Edition, available only via download. Includes the game, a Deluxe Pack (two accessories and an outfit for Usopp) and the Adventure Expansion Pack (new downloadable content and 100,000 berris). Its price is €94.99 on PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X | S, and €84.99 on PC.
Finally we have the One Piece Odyssey Collector’s Edition, available for PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. Includes the game, the Deluxe Edition content, a Luffy and Lim figurine, a steelbok, postcards, and the collector’s edition box. Its price is €159.99 on all platforms.
In addition, if we reserve One Piece Odyssey in any of its versions we get a selection of objects: 10 energy apples, 10 stimulus apples, 3 golden jellies and a set of travel clothes.
Not a good JRPG, but a good One Piece game
In short: One Piece Odyssey is a very simple RPG, which does nothing exceptional. It complies in all sections, but fails to stand out in anything.
If you are fans of One Piece, it is likely that you will enjoy it a lot, and we can safely say that it is one of the best, if not the best game based on the work of Eiichiro Oda. The problem is that if you are not fans of pirate manganime, it’s hard to recommend it as a JRPG.
Having said that, One Piece Odyssey is much better than the vast majority of similar games. Unlike other adaptations, here you can see that there is a real effort to try to make a good game with the available material.
Being able to visit locations of the Grand Line with such a level of detail, talk to all kinds of characters, fight using the most powerful techniques of the Straw Hats… It is the dream of any fan of the work. And the truth is that we would love to see other franchises, such as Naruto, Saint Seiya or Dragon Ball, adapted with this same level of care and detail.