Preview
One Piece Odyssey Hands-on: A Great Pirate Adventure
We played for a couple of hours the brand new Luffy adventure that will set sail in early 2023.
Thanks to an invitation from Bandai Namco, literally embark on the new adventure of One Piece Odyssey, a JRPG coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S Series and PC on January 13, 2023.
Amidst colleagues from other media, influencers and even cosplayers like Elizabeth Rage, who was dressed as Nico Robin, as well as Leon Chiro who played Sanji Vinsmoke, we boarded the ship that serves as a maritime museum, Star of India, to play the new title for a couple of hours.
For those who are not familiar with One Piece, this is an anime produced by Toei Animation, created by Eiichiro Oda. This series which debuted on television in 1999, tells the story of Luffy, a boy whose body turns into "rubber" after eating the Gomu Gomu no Mi; he dreams of becoming the king of pirates by going to sea. In the company of the Straw Hat Pirates, this young man embarks on an epic adventure that has lasted for more than 25 years.
The franchise has had countless seasons and 15 movies, the most recent being One Piece Film Red, however, it has also had several video games, toys, adaptations, merchandising and more.
A new story
The fascinating thing about One Piece Odyssey is that it is a new storyline, based on the original lore and under Oda's supervision. Care has been taken to preserve the anime's charm, humor, and chemistry. In addition, the art, adapted to the tridimensional graphics, respects the essence of the anime at all times, without leaving aside the original dubbing of the Japanese actors, in short, it is the best way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise.
First impressions
The story we played takes place in the first hours of the game, where Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates arrive at Waford Island, where they meet Lim and Adio, two original characters created for this digital adventure by Eiichiro Oda himself. After a series of events, the pirates lose all their powers and that is where the adventure takes off to try to discover the mysteries of the island.
Classic JRPG battles
One Piece Odyssey is composed of turn-based fights with three core elements that make up the essence of it:
- Strength
- Speed
- Technique
These components, as in most games of the genre, are also affected by elementals such as fire, ice, paralysis and so on.
The normal attacks give you "tension points" which are used to execute the special moves. The latter have different ways, since some of them are used to attack a single character or several characters. Likewise, these moves, which by the way are incredibly animated, also come sub-classified in short or distance attacks, depending on the character we are using.
The items, like in most RPGs, are useful for healing, gaining tension points, or simply eliminating some state that is affecting us. Another interesting addition is that it has a system where you can redefine the attack area at any time of the battle with the push of a button.
Special moments
Something that we found during our session is that there are certain battles that may contain elements that can play in and against us, such as an enemy arriving and completely paralyzing one of our teammates. If we manage to successfully overcome these battles, we will get more experience points.
Limited exploration?
During this preview, we noticed that the game is a bit "on rails", as we try to explore some areas, but you are forced to follow a certain path. When asked about this, Rei Hirata, producer of the title, did not comment that at least in some parts of the game it will be like this because they want you to focus on the story to better involve you, since later you can return to explore these areas with other characters. It is important to point out that some characters have special moves, for example, Luffy extends his arms to swing and explore other places, Sanji can find secret ingredients to cook, Chopper on the other hand takes advantage of his small size to enter through small holes, Zoro can destroy walls or obstacles, Nami can detect money hidden in the ground, among others.
Traditional weapon system
As in other JRPGs we will have a menu where we can customize the equipment of each of the members. In this menu we can also check the stats, health, stress points, regular attacks, skills and so on.
Evolution of skills
Each character will be able to evolve their skills by means of cube fragments, with this we will be able to adjust specific attacks to balance our entire team. These cubes can be found by exploring or winning certain battles.
And as expected in this type of game, there will also be camps to rest and recover our HP or increase our experience, as well as a very complex system for creating items, which you can also find in the taverns.
Undoubtedly the two hours we had to play it did not give us enough time to explore more as we wanted, but undoubtedly One Piece Odyssey is shaping up to be one of the most complete JRPGs of 2023 for everything it offers. Especially for the story that is carried wonderfully through its characters and that will definitely reach both fans of the series and new players. Now we just have to wait until January to embark on this new adventure.
