In life, many things have no end: the stories of Michael Ende, biostatistics courses and the One Piece manga. The adventures of Luffy began in 1997, of which there are 1,025 episodes today. We were treated to many video game adaptations, especially in the style musoolike the Dynasty Warriors. Except that now, that is about to change! In effect, bandai namco will offer us a real JRPG as we like them: One Piece Odyssey !
One Piece Odyssey: what gameplay?
Over the past few years, we’ve been treated to quite a few adaptations of our favorite manga, but never from the angle taken by One Piece Odyssey. This is a revamped turn-based JRPG. Indeed, in a recent video from the developers, we discover a turn-based JRPG, but where the placement of the characters plays a big role in the clashes. This placement looks a little different from the usual hex boards. However, it is difficult to know more for the moment.
In order to enhance the fights, random events have been implemented in the game, a bit like Tales of Arise, where certain enemies are highlighted and provide more experience while being more difficult to beat. Here “staging” arises, in which Sanji can for example suddenly be surrounded by women and can no longer act properly. These stagings will bring more experience points to the players.
The clashes are however only part of the game. Who says One Piece, says adventure and exploration. The different characters will all have specific abilities, such as Luffy, who can access remote places by extending his arms, or Zoro, who can cut through certain obstacles. It will be up to the players to make good use of their skills, both in combat and in the exploration part.
While a One Piece JRPG is cause for celebration, I still have to voice some concern on my end. Shounen of this type tend not to be particularly compatible with JRPG codes. Indeed, in an article about Dragon Ball, I was telling you why Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot turned out a little ridiculous in certain confrontations, considering that we ended up with Goku Super Saiyan 3 fighting Red Ribbon robots and taking damage. I admit to wondering about the role of the grind in the next Bandai Namco game… We know, the video game has its own narrative and playful codes…
An exclusive story against a background of exhaustion
The point that seems to put everyone in agreement is the story of One Piece Odyssey. Indeed, Oda wrote a scenario specifically for this title, which will undoubtedly delight fans of shônen. Incidentally, the interest of the community was piqued when the game’s producer, Katsuaki Tsuzuki, confided that the game was intended to make us “travel to the depths of memories”. He then fed the hype adding that he couldn’t say more about it.
The information is falling in a trickle, but has something to excite fans. Two characters were created for One Piece Odyssey: Adio and Lim. These two new characters were created by Eiichiro Oda himself. Even the clouds were inspired by the original work, that is to say… We hope, however, that his work on Bandai Namco’s next opus will not have been too time-consuming and energy-intensive. Eiichiro Oda, as all fans know, has been working at a breakneck pace for years to keep up with the releases of One Piece, which he hopes to complete as soon as possible.
The working conditions of mangakas in Japan have already spill a lot of ink, conditions well reflected in the anime Bakuman, whose subject is precisely the work of mangakas. Impossible hours, unimaginable demands from magazines and untenable competition, making manga is torture for many authors. Like the video game industry, the world of mangaka makes more than one dream of it. So the contrast between idealized work and reality can hurt… very badly. Let’s hope One Piece Odyssey didn’t exhaust Oda too much.
What release date and platform for One Piece Odyssey?
Currently, One Piece Odyssey does not have an official release date. However, the title should be available later this year. Regarding the platforms, the game should be released on PS4, PS5, PC and Xbox Series. A few months ago, we sometimes found articles that mentioned a possible Switch version, but a simple tour of the official site can invalidate this hypothesis: there will a priori be no Switch version for One Piece Odyssey.
