With One Piece into a well-crafted new story set within a turn-based JRPG, introducing dynamic new characters written by Eiichiro Oda himself. Although there are some stumbles along the way with needless padding and repetition, One Piece Odyssey is a success, immediately cementing itself as the most ambitious title - and best adaptation thus far.
One Piece Odyssey offers the opportunity to play as all the Straw Hats and utilize their abilities in a combat system reminiscent of Final Fantasy 10. Odyssey starts off strongly with a compelling opening narrative and a new island that fits perfectly into Eiichiro Oda’s existing lore.
Across familiar arcs, the story and gameplay are immediately engaging and strategic in a much more dynamic way than the more simplistic combat style seen in One Piece: World Seeker. With the overarching plot set on the strange new island of Waford, the Straw Hats' relationships and their personalities are quickly established before revisiting Memories of Alabasta, Water 7, Marineford, and Dressrosa.
One Piece Odyssey’s emotional story sees the crew reconnect with old friends from their past. Beautifully rendered cut scenes and environments, quirky enemy designs, and an overarching story tie everything together within One Piece lore, one of One Piece Odyssey’s defining features. The story they follow may be familiar, but the new twists and turns keep things fresh and engaging for lovers of the original One Piece manga story.
These important moments can be somewhat negated, however, by unnecessary padding and repetition. This is particularly noticeable in the first half of Alabasta, where the player will find themselves constantly revisiting old ground, for paper-thin reasons and without the help of a fast travel system. That being said, once Alabasta gets to its pivotal point, the momentum of the game’s story picks up, and the other Memories don’t suffer from the same level of monotony.
With some more fleshed-out side quests or new areas for exploration, this problem could have been easily fixed in One Piece Odyssey. Other Memories like Marineford are over too quickly and are less challenging than expected, particularly for overpowered players. That said, the ability to swap between the Straw Hats is a nice added touch, as it changes what can be done within the game's environments depending on the crew member chosen.
The JRPG combat system is One Piece Odyssey’s strength. Using conventional turn-based play that allows players to speed up drawn-out combat helps maintain appreciation for its beautiful animation while respecting player time. Being able to swap out all the Straw Hats, with their wide variety of special skills, means combat requires the use of tactics, particularly during boss battles, allowing these fights to become more strategic and engaging.
Where One Piece Odyssey stumbles however, is in challenges against low-level enemies. Regardless of the weapons triangle and Dramatic Scene System, which adds fun little objectives to the more repetitive battles, fighting quickly becomes cyclic and formulaic. This is further hindered by a clunky equipment system that makes taking full advantage of the extra items picked up along the way to buff up the Straw Hats difficult to navigate and needlessly confusing.
Although the hardest boss battles are challenging, it’s also very easy to become overpowered in One Piece Odyssey, even for those who only choose to take on a few of the optional lower-level enemies throughout the game. With no difficulty or level-scaling available, it can mean that the intimidating antagonists that are seen as nigh-unbeatable in One Piece can flounder in the face of a powerful party composition.
Despite these pitfalls, One Piece Odyssey is a success in storytelling, animation, and combat style. With a satisfying conclusion, One Piece Odyssey opens up a new world of potential storytelling in the One Piece universe. It's also proof that, if done correctly, games adapting iconic or expansive manga can be strong - if not groundbreaking - entries in the JRPG genre.
One Piece Odyssey releases on January 13 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows. A copy of One Piece Odyssey on PS5 was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.
Source: Bandai Namco Europe/YouTube
