When I got to try this game out in the Thailand Game Show last October, I had high hopes for it. Even though it’s under a genre I’m fully accustomed with, One Piece Odyssey was a promising JRPG to play for hours on end. From the gameplay to some glimpses of the storyline, all was well with another One Piece title in the pipeline.

Fortunately, I got a copy of the full game to dive deeper into what it has to offer beyond a 15-minute introductory playthrough. With greater worlds to explore and combat to test out, let’s see if this game still holds up to its promising start a few months back.

Guidance through the island of Waford

Our story begins with the Straw Hat Pirates finding themselves stranded somewhere in the middle of the ocean. The opening cutscene also gives you a glimpse as to how they ended up there, so I honestly found it helpful. Eventually, you assemble the crew and come face to face with some interesting habitants, Adio and Lim.

Upon encountering Lim, she literally takes all your powers and you will need to scour the entirety of Waford and all neighboring islands/areas. It’s not that much of a daunting task, especially for a crew as great as the Straw Hat Pirates. Along the way, however, you encounter a slew of entities and factions that hope to seize your power.

Personally, the story was straightforward enough to follow along. There weren’t any twists and turns that would throw me off, and the characters themselves were dynamic in every way. Also, it didn’t get in the way of enjoying the game’s mechanics, which is already a plus in my book.

Simple and well-integrated mechanics to master

One Piece Odyssey’s core mechanics are easy to grasp and master, especially given the amount of opportunities to do that in the beginning. As this is an open-world game, movement within the areas is quite loose except for the instances of not being able to swim in deep waters. Also, you’re in a team-based structure with multiple characters to utilize when traversing through the land.

This, in my opinion, made the gameplay experience so much better than when I first tried the game. The fact that you can easily swap between characters to move through certain areas for more items made completing stages easier. Also, this bodes well with the amount of exploration you’ll be doing within the overworlds.

Turn-based and active combat

As I discovered, like every other JRPG out there, One Piece Odyssey also incorporates a turn-based style combat mechanic. With a party of six members per battle, everyone gets a turn to attack either a single enemy or a horde of them depending on the characters themselves. Also, each character comes with Technical Points which allow you to use those abilities you’re trying to recover everywhere.

Honestly, this is pretty standard stuff and easy to follow along once you know how each character’s abilities work. Also, there’s this mechanic that works like a strength and weakness indicator, providing greater opportunities to set up specific characters against certain enemies. It feels well done and comprehensible enough for all players.

Enemy encounters are also voluntary and skippable if you’re rushing through stages. Although, I warn you not to skip too many enemies because every battle gives you XP that helps level up your team. As you progress through more treacherous worlds, the difficulty curve ith enemy encounters scales up slowly but surely. So, best to just take them all out every chance you get!

Teeming with life and backdrops to awe

As an open-world enthusiast, I can definitely say that One Piece Odyssey offered an expansive experience of Waford and its surrounding areas. Every nook and cranny within each overworld required your attention and exploration itch to come alive with all the items youll obtain. Plus, thesre are even specific points in the map that integrate character dialogue, which is a bonus for me.

What I also love about the game and its environment is how well-integrated the characters are through their innate abilities and characteristics. It was a blast using Luffy to get to more elevated platforms, or with Chopper’s miniature size exploring tiny entrance ways to unexplored territory.

This is the type of balance you like to see in most open-world games, so I’m glad One Piece Odyssey handled this aspect well. Everything feels interesting to explore, especially if youre trying to get back all your lost abilities too.

Where this game misses

Admittedly, I didn’t find that many things that went wrong with this game every time I got to play it. At this point, these will be some pain points that I feel most people will also experience when they play this game for the first time. First off is actually coming from the overall design of the levels in this game, especially the ones in caves or tombs. One of the initial worlds in this game takes you to a rather dark cave with minimal lighting inside as you go around. 

From my end, I really couldn’t see much in the overworld as I was going around it, and turning up the brightness on my PC didn’t help. Either this was completely intended for you to rely on character outlines, or it’s a bit too dark and just needs a bit more lighting in there.

Secondly, I felt that this game had little save points, and the ones that are available require so much backtracking through stages. Honestly, this is more for the later stages and they’re quite useful since you can restore your team’s health with each encounter of one. Also, based from my playthrough, enemies don’t reset so there’s honestly no point in it being a hassle to come back to.

One Piece remastered

Overall, One Piece Odyssey came out as a great JRPG, all things considered. For the majority of my playthrough, there was something new to discover and new challenges to overcome while setting foot on new levels. Of course, with a deep cast of characters to work with, combat felt so fun to commence.

This game felt a blast to play through for a considerable amount of main story progression. Also, the turn-based yet dynamic combat system was easy to master and adapt to every set of enemies you encounter along the way.With open worlds to explore, you’ll be spending hours on this game and not get bored of it.

It’s a treat to both new and casual JRPG players, and to One Piece fans out there who were asking for a new game all this time. This is definitely a title worth considering for your leisure, with a bit of challenging elements here and there. However, it’s a challenge that anyone can easily get over.