One Piece is a best-selling manga series that has been adapted to basically every form of entertainment media we have available today. One Piece Odyssey is the 22nd video game based on the popular franchise. While it is a re-telling of the story of Monkey D. Luffy and his motley crew of pirates, it also takes some liberties with the source material in order to expand it into a fully-fledged RPG. Time to see if this latest game is the best to represent the manga, or if it’s a simple cash-in.
This Story Wants All of Your Attention
Developed by ILCA, the same studio behind the recent Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes on the Nintendo Switch, One Piece Odyssey lets players experience much of the story available in the manga/anime while they visit Memoria, a virtual world which recreates memories with some slight alterations. The adventure begins with a shipwreck on a strange island, with the five elders seemingly in control of the events that transpire.
While the story is entertaining, it does have some pacing issues. There are often times where a cutscene plays, then the player assumes control for just a few steps before triggering another cutscene. This is usually followed by a battle, then another cutscene, all within just a few minutes. None of this results in the game auto-saving, either – you can only save at designated checkpoints, and failing to do so can set you back quite a while. Furthermore, the game’s timer runs even if you put your console in standby mode – so while an average completion of the campaign can be done in around 20-30 hours, your timer may end up in the hundreds of hours if you’re not quitting the game in between sessions. A mild annoyance, to be sure, but something that will no doubt irk some players.
Outside of this, many of the game’s battles quickly become repetitive. This is of course an inevitable issue that crops up in most turn-based RPGs, but at least here the repetition is with established characters that players will enjoy bashing countless enemies over the head with. There is a helpful option to speed up animations which can be easily enabled by pressing R2 during fights. This results in the voice lines that accompany attacks being sped up, which is unintentionally funny.
Simple, Turn-Based Combat
Combat in One Piece Odyssey is turn-based. An attack bar fills up on enemies to let you know who or what is going to attack next, so there is some strategy in determining where to send your next hit. Each character can place a regular attack, use an item on themselves or allies, or use an ability which costs tension points, or TP. Naturally, the more powerful an ability, the more TP it costs to perform. TP can be reset by healing at a save point, but can also be recovered slightly by performing a basic attack.
One interesting mechanic in One Piece Odyssey is the Scramble Area Battles system. Basically, fights are divided up into multiple (usually two) areas, and any character not currently facing an enemy can move areas to help concentrate attacks. This can be crucial in later fights to help take enemies out before they even attack. Most moves have an effective range that they are designed for, such as Nami’s Cyclone Tempo in which she throws a pipe at an enemy. This has a long range and can hit an enemy that isn’t in Nami’s immediate area, meaning that unless that enemy also has a ranged attack they will not be able to reciprocate with an attack of their own when it is their turn.
There are the usual trappings of turn-based RPGs as well, such as crafting items to use during battle. Here, they are called trick balls, and can cause the enemy to fall asleep, become paralyzed, or some other nerfed status. Sanji, the crew’s chef, can also cook up meals that the player has unlocked the receipe for, which is done through progression of the campaign or by fulfilling various optional objectives that crop up from time to time. There’s also a bounty hunting sub-quest that always has new targets, though since Luffy and his crew have absurdly high bounties on their heads, there is a middleman who takes a cut of each successful bounty turned in.
An Offline, Solo Affair
One Piece Odyssey is a strictly offline experience. There are not a ton of microtransactions to be found beyond a couple of optional cosmetics, no premium currency to be purchased, just you, Luffy’s crew, and a nicely-sized adventure to enjoy, with some extra story content to be released at a later date. It’s a nice change of pace from all the other always-connected games that are out there, hoping you’ll shell out just a few more of your hard-earned dollars for some virtual assets that you don’t truly own. The currency that does come with some of the purchases can be earned entirely in-game, and not at a slow rate either, rendering these purchases even less necessary.
The Unreal Engine 4 was used for running the show, and as usual does an admirable job in keeping the action smooth and looking nice. On the PS5, there are two graphics modes as seems to be usual for this generation of games. You can opt to prioritize resolution for a slightly-better looking game, or to prioritize frame rate while sacrificing a little bit of graphical fidelity. It’s honestly hard to distinguish between the two modes at a quick glance, so those who like smoother-running games should opt to use the frame rate mode with the knowledge that they are not missing out on much.
The DualSense controller is used minimally in One Piece Odyssey, not that there’s much ILCA could really do in a turn-based game. Using L2 to look in first-person when outside of combat does engage the left adaptive trigger in a rapid-fire feedback loop, while the R2 trigger is used to fire off the currently-selected character’s ability, if applicable. For instance, Luffy can use his gumi-powered arms to grapple to certain points, or grab items that are otherwise out of reach. Usopp, meanwhile, can use a slingshot to knock items out of nests. These abilities break up the monotony of traveling between areas, and give the player things to be on the lookout for as they travel.
Verdict
Once Piece Odyssey has everything fans of the franchise could want. A great art style mixed with standard turn-based RPG mechanics combine with an entertaining re-telling of Luffy and crew’s adventures for a fun time. While there are some storytelling pacing issues, most fans of One Piece won’t mind being interrupted for yet another cutscene.
Score: 7/10
Pros:
- A nice-looking recreation of One Piece
- Entertaining story that lets you re-create some moments from the series
- Simple combat that’s easy to get into
Cons:
- Story pacing slows things to a crawl
- Battles quickly become repetitive
- Overall just a pretty standard turn-based RPG
One Piece Odyssey review code provided by publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.