![]() ![]() Featuring dozens of hours, excellent turn-based RPG gameplay, and plenty of anime shenanigans to get into, it’s one of the best adaptations yet. ![]() Having just celebrated the manga’s 25th anniversary some six months ago, a companion game has been released to commemorate the milestone. Played on version 1. Piece: Odyssey is something of an occasion. Hardcore fans will still find plenty of elements to like, but the overly familiar story beats won’t give them too much reason to see it through to the end.ĭisclosure: The publisher provided a PS5 code for our One Piece Odyssey feature. It gets in its own way and becomes a test of patience rather than a thoroughly enjoyable licensed RPG. One Piece Odyssey doesn’t quite achieve its goal of being the most wide-reaching and enjoyable game in the series because of bloat and some archaic systems. A future title can hopefully lean further in that direction and push the franchise forward. That’s the right attitude a One Piece game should have since it is the group dynamic that makes the show special. Luffy’s stretchy arms are obviously great for traversal, but Zoro being able to destroy metal with his swords and Chopper fitting into small places also means players get to control the whole cast. The game also does a good job of using its full cast of characters during exploration as their own unique skills come in handy in a number of different ways. However, it needs to tell a worthwhile original story, even if it’s on a much smaller scope, like One Piece Film: Red did. This is a sturdy base to build off of and future One Piece RPGs should use this as a template. The game makes a great first impression because the battle system is engaging and unlocking additional skills and abilities is an intriguing loop. While there are a lot of irritating elements that could’ve been avoided, there are still many positives to take out of Odyssey. It wants players to care because of past stories, not due to what Odyssey actually has to say, which is a cheap storytelling shortcut. Even though it subverts some expectations, it never develops into an interesting story on its own, instead tying itself to nostalgia as a crutch. While it is intriguing to go through these One Piece story beats in an alternate world, the characters have their memories and already mostly know what will happen. It all results in an experience that loses its sense of purpose, and by the time you’re ready to go through the next in-game dungeon, Odyssey has already gotten stale and largely lost its appeal. ![]() Things get a bit better once the fast travel system is unlocked, although given the need to constantly gain experience, it often makes more sense to walk everywhere and battle monsters during the trip. The snappy pace of the initial chapter also slows far down as the trip to Alabasta is filled with stop-gaps and several fetch quests that make players backtrack. It even goes against the developer’s philosophy of using turn-based gameplay to make it the most accessible One Piece game yet. Spread-out save points and trial-and-error gameplay can annoyingly make players lose progress and are dated remnants of the genre’s past. You’ll never know when a story fight might require certain characters, so a sudden difficulty spike can happen at any moment if an under-leveled character is pulled in by his lonesome. While not an exceptionally difficult RPG, its use of save points and lack of automatic checkpoints means players are punished for trying to push forward without grinding at every opportunity. Many of Odyssey‘s most glaring issues are how it clings to the role-playing game genre’s past mechanics without modernizing them. Unfortunately, the game then vastly slows down and the cracks begin to show, which significantly diminishes a potentially great experience into a slog. ![]() The opening chapter quickly introduced new mechanics and quickly got players to the first major boss fight while still giving the core turn-based combat time to shine. The opening hours of One Piece Odyssey were extremely promising. ![]()
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