One Piece Odyssey Review: The Best Anime Game Ever?

The long-awaited One Piece Odyssey which has been the main talk of the gaming community has finally been released on January 10th, 2023. It is a roleplaying game that is being developed by ILCA and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

If you are either a die-hard fan of the One Piece anime and manga or just coming by with entirely no experience at all about the Straw Hat crew, you are set to enjoy this game since it is very player friendly and has open room for all types of visitors. In this review, we are going to go over all of the things it has to offer in Pros and Cons sections to better understand it. Let’s get started.

The Best Anime Game Ever?! – One Piece Odyssey Review

Odyssey’s story is kind of like a spin-off, which means it has no connection with what’s going on in the main storyline but it is still a part of the lore of One Piece and can be played on these platforms:

• Windows
• Playstation 4 / 5
• Xbox Series X / S

Luffy and his crew are cruising across the New World when their ship sinks. They end up on Waford, an iconic island surrounded by storms and inhabited by strange creatures called golems. Here, two new and fascinating protagonists, Adio and Lim, who hate pirates for some reason, take away all of the powers of the Straw Hat pirates.

Lim has the special power of making individuals forget about their powers, which she uses on the Straw Hat crew to make them think they are just like all the other evil pirates. Luffy and his friends can’t leave the island because they’ve lost their powers and their ship is badly damaged. They recognize Lim and Adio’s help to get their powers back by going to “Memoria,” a dreamlike place where they can rediscover their past journey and memorize how they got those skills.

Pros

We shall start off on the right foot and explain the good side of things.

Story

The biggest thing that you should know is that even if you haven’t got a clue of anything happening in One Piece, this game will still be a very fun experience and gives a recap of the most memorable moments of the anime and manga. You will be playing with the Straw Hat crew and re-living some of the most exciting things that have happened to them.

It is not the plain boring anime game type where you’re basically seeing the same things happening all over again. There are new sets of characters as well as different sides of things that will give it a fresh new look even if you know what’s about to take place. To all of the One Piece fans out there, there are also a lot of hidden references that only you should know when playing this game.

It is a game that was basically made by the real creator of the One Piece series itself! That should say volumes.

Gameplay

One Piece Odyssey resembles Dragon Quest XI and that is a very good thing. It is a very fun turn-based combat JRPG that will have you traveling across a vast and wide not fully open map that has very different ambients as well as story backgrounds to them.

The traveling is made also in an interesting way with locked sections only to be opened by unlocking certain skills as well as changing characters in-game while playing. For example, if you end up finding rare ingredients you’ll play as Sanji, grab hard-to-reach items with Luffy, Chopper after the smaller tunnels, and so on.

The narrations filled with countless dialogues combined with the very funny-looking monsters are a blast. You will be going through a set of story arcs that will have you re-live the best moments that happened in One Piece. Fast Travel is also available which makes things a whole lot easier while also having the option to speed up the Combat Speed as well as an auto–battle feature for lower-level enemies.

You will level up as you go and unlock sets of skills, hidden outfits, an in-game market system as well as a crafting one, and so on. You can sit down and just watch the Straw Hat crew eat food and rest with them too!

Combat

The four-person party will take turns fighting off enemy groups of varying sizes in turn-based battles. Every hero begins the combat in a distinct sector, and to advance, they must clear out all of the foes in that sector.

You’re able to change the characters as you go and you’re actually required to do so since there is a rock-paper-scissors system with different strengths and weaknesses. These elements feel as though each battle is different and unique. There are very fun animations and cutscenes that you’ll experience in every battle.

There is a system of dramatic special events that occurs at the random. These are just to make it feel as though each fight is dangerous and risky. There are elements of surprise like quick time events and saving a crew mate and so on.

Visuals & Environment

The style of art is perfect for a One Piece game. It is both friendly and very energetic and alive and when combined with the amazing voice acting of your favorite characters it is a real blast.

The visuals help out the environment too. There are so many different sets of biomes and maps that you’ll go through each differently than the previous. There’s also a crafting system as well as camping to sit down and enjoy these environments even more.

Side Content & Replayability

There are so many things that you can do in the game in terms of side content as well as exploring the maps. Side quests that are both familiar to the manga and anime and very fresh and new fit in perfectly in the One Piece world.

You’ll be reliving memories, going back in time, and seeing some things that might have not been explained or worked upon so much in the anime for example. This makes replayability to a whole new level since you can do things differently as you have a set of characters to do the missions with.

Cons

Let’s take a look at the bad sides of things.

Visit The Manga / Anime Type Of Deal

One Piece Odyssey is made with a clear purpose to get the newcomers to visit the anime and manga, as some players would believe after playing the game. There is so much content, but almost the majority is based on things that have already happened and can come of familiar to One Piece fans.

The new Wafford island could have had a background and a story for itself that could give a breath of fresh air to the fans. It is a missed opportunity in our opinion that could have built something different but might be something that a DLC will make it happen in the future.

Simple Combat

Even though battles are satisfying, they tend to be overly easy, possibly so as not to put off One Piece fans who are new to RPGs. It makes perfect logic, but seasoned gamers may be let down by the lack of difficulty and personalization options.

No English Voice Acting

Although this is not something that is a problem for the majority of the players, some people tend not to like the Japanese Voice acting all that much. There is no English dubbing at the moment but it is definitely something that will be implemented in the future, or we would like to believe it.

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