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One Piece Odyssey has been on my radar for some time now, as I have always enjoyed the original anime/manga. I have put a good few hours into the previous title, One Piece: World Seeker, and thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, so Odyssey was always a must have for me. There is just something I find endearing in the pirate crew with Monkey D Luffy and their ship, Thousand Sunny. One Piece Odyssey celebrates 25 years of One Piece and to date, 1043 episodes with no end in sight!
A lot of the manga/anime games are just 1-on-1 fighters, not looking at the larger created worlds in the shows. Thankfully with One Piece, the developers truly understand the source material. There are a few games that play like the Dynasty Warriors series , but with World Seeker and Odyssey, we have large open worlds with side quests , interesting wacky characters and creatures, and a story which takes you back to a few key points in the shows, past after you have washed up on Waford (not a typo and I don’t think it would be very interesting if they landed in Watford!).
In this game, the Sunny ends up wrecked as they approach Waford, with Monkey is wanting to check the island out as it has an upward shaft of light and looks like a cool place. Moments later, storm clouds move in and the ship ends up crashed at the shore, with Monkey having lost his hat…..
The first 50 minutes or so takes you through the basics of play.
The combat is a turn-based system which, in all honesty, I am not a huge fan of. I always get to thinking of a martial arts tournament, or being attacked in the street and telling your assailant they have to wait while you decide what to do! It’s the reason I have always preferred the Tales of series over Final Fantasy (barring FFXV as the combat on that is excellent and live). However, the combat in One Piece Odyssey isn’t way over the top with rules etc, and you aren’t pushed or rushed into making decisions. It feels more of a simplified form of turn-based combat that is accessible to everyone.
It plays out like a game of rock, paper, scissors. You have 3 attack types which are power, speed and technique, which are laid out in a triangle. So, Power beats speed, speed beats technique and technique beats power……simples so far! Each member of your crew has a specific attack type: for example, Luffy is power-based with his Gum Gum and fists first approach, and Zoro is technique with his 3 swords, and so on. Each enemy encounter will see numerous enemies (even if they are the same type) spread across the battlefield with one of those attributes. The battlefield, itself, can be split into zones, so occasionally you will have two characters fighting one set of monsters, and another group fighting something else.
As an example, you may have Zoro and Luffy together with a few monsters, but they are power-based so Luffy will do minimal damage, while Zoro will do plenty. Here, you can swap Luffy out for any other crew member that hasn’t already used their turn (not greyed out), without using your turn. So you have plenty time to think on what you are doing. Once one of the sets of enemies have been taken out of the picture, the Straw Hats will then move over to join the other team fighting elsewhere. The system works really well and is fair in the execution, unlike some turn-based games where you are forced into movements you may not usually make.
Now the only flip side to not being pushed, is when you will get a special instruction on the battlefield, such as stopping a crew member from being knocked out like Usopp with the penguins! You will get yellow caution tape bordering the screen with a red warning stripe, so you know you have to act. In these situations, you will have to take out certain enemies within so many turns or take out a specific enemy with a set character.
There are also special attacks that you will use your TP (Tension Points). These attacks can be area of effect like healing with Tony Tony Chopper, or in the case of Nico Robin with large hands sprouting out the ground hitting all enemies. Or, if you want, you can use a specific attack on a single enemy, while your other crew mates will take out the smaller enemies and keep the healing going. These attacks are always impressive in their own ways, with awesome animations that you never get tired of seeing. Thankfully, you will recover TP by attacking enemies and winning battles.
The combat system works really well and is easy enough to get to grips with, and the battles themselves aren’t overly hard. It just works, and I will say I have enjoyed the combat contradicting what I have said previously!
So, after running through the tutorial you will meet Adio and Lim after fighting a Fire Colossus. All is going well until the 2 NPCs turn up, and Lim strips you of all the abilities each character has, because she doesn’t like pirates! When this happens, there are green cubes which get spat out and scattered around the world…….so, yeah, you can get your powers back, but you have to go searching for the cubes!
Once you get a few cubes from a nearby cave, you set off to start adventuring and fixing up your ship: head out to find the cubes, avoiding the marines and trying to work out just what is going on at Waford, whilst being watched closely by Adio. The exploration will see you needing to swap between characters at times, either in the overworld or dungeons you will visit. Chopper is used to get through small spaces, Luffy can catapult himself to high places or smash down walls, while Zoro can use his swords to get through certain barriers.
The sound side of things sees Japanese audio without any sort of dubbing available, so you will have to pay attention to the subtitles, or you will loose the thread of what is going on. There is also excellent use of music during battles and exploration.
Visually, One Piece Odyssey is absolutely stunning, capturing the anime perfectly. All the characters, regardless of whether they are the straw hat pirates, NPCs or even the enemies, have had plenty love put into the creations. The environments are beautiful and varied, from town to beach, and out in the lush plains-type areas.
Overall, I have loved my time with One Piece Odyssey so far, and will keep playing until I get through it: Interesting characters, great animations and a beautiful world to explore on top of fun combat, that all ties in with the source material. Fans of the anime need look no further, newcomers may wonder what is happening when you revisit older storylines, but everything falls into place nicely, and is a good introduction to the world of One Piece.
Thanks to our friends at Bandai Namco for the review code.
One Piece Odyssey is out now on Xbox Series X, PS5, PS4 and PC.
You can also buy the One Piece Odyssey Colllector’s Edition on Xbox Series X, PS5, PS4 and PC.
Important info:
- Developer: ILCA
- Publisher: Bandai Namco
- Players: Single-player only
GRAPHICS
SOUND
GAMEPLAY
ENJOYMENT8.5
8
7
7OVERALL 7.5 
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!