Sailing down memory lane
While I’ve always been curious about the anime One Piece, I’ve never actually started to watch it and that’s purely because it’s 1000 episodes long and that’s just too much for me. However, when I saw that Bandai Namco was working on a new RPG game to honor the game for its 25th anniversary AND that it was going to be an entry point for newcomers like me, I figured I had no more excuses to make and decided to jump in and start my search for legendary ‘One Piece’ with Luffy and the Straw Hats.
One Piece Odyssey’s original tale takes place on the island of Waford where the ‘Straw Hats’ crew ends up being stranded. Here, they meet a young girl named Lim who finds out about their pirate-y nature and due to some heartbreaking run in’s with others who flew the ole skull and bones Lim steals the crews abilities and powers. When players begin One Piece Odyssey it is at level 40 in terms of the RPG game, but it is at the height of the crew’s powers. After some reveals and exposition Lim realizes our heroes are the good type of pirates and along with her caretaker, Aido agrees to help the crew get back what she took. This involves searching the island for cubes which hold their powers and abilities, but they will have level up because this is a game after all but to get back everything the Straw Hats will have to journey into their memories.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
Taking this trip down memory lane is a perfect way to introduce the series to newcomers like me, retelling of some of the groups highlights from the past 25 years’ worth of adventures. Of course, diehard fans may not want to relieve the battle against Crocodile in Arabasta having already experienced that Arc many times. Well in One Piece Odyssey all of these memories have been changed slightly. While the main beats will still happen, Lim explains that the crew will be underpowered than they were when the events originally happened, and some things will be different due to the limitations of the magic involved. So basically there is something new for all audiences in One Piece Odyssey and while this was all my first time I cant speak to what was changed but I did enjoy my time with the Straw Hats Crew.
Graphically this game is gorgeous even in performance mode; fabrics show textures, colors are bright and vibrant and the characters are all weird af. Seriously, as one who went into this pretty much blind I don’t know how some of these characters are able to live their lives. All of the women are just top heavy but have the smallest midsection that they couldn’t have all the organs necessary to maintain human life. Eiichiro Oda certainly has a style all his own, the creatures are wild as well. Monkeys with big eyes and little limbs, I was always just waiting to see what wacky character I was going to run into next.
As good as I thought the story and experience was, the combat was a bright point with its fusion of Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem. Due to the Straw Hats being like 10 people deep the battle system is set up to allow players to swap out crew members during the battle. So when fighting players will use a mix of long range and short range attacks as the game will randomly place enemies and players on the field. This creates mini battles as some members might have enemies near them while others may not, in which case they can use long range attacks. The battle system is quite flexible and fun given all the characters involved. The real problems come to play from the UI which makes figuring out what attacks and special abilities are good vs an enemy type difficult to discern. Things just weren’t explained well and makes it a trial-and-error process which isn’t a fun experience.
I enjoyed my time with One Piece Odyssey enough to join my sons in watching the anime. The Straw Hats crew themselves are a great group, I enjoyed the camaraderie and the jokes (even though I didn’t catch all of them). They care for one another just like any good family does and it was a touching story to see. Aside from the combat feeling overly easy for a good portion of the game, and the UI issues I would recommend One Piece Odyssey to fans of the series and non-fans alike. Especially if you are a fan of JRPG’s, this one has it all for you.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
