Gaming

A super JRPG casual’s review of One Piece Odyssey

Vast world, a great cast, and insanely easy to follow combat

Published

April 25, 2023

Gab Orlina

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.

Related Topics:Bandai Namco One Piece One Piece Odyssey

Gaming

HoYoverse’s first life sim, Petit Planet, opens Stardrift Test sign-ups

Closed beta begins April 21st, introduces more features

Published

April 10, 2026

GadgetMatch

HoYoverse is expanding to the life sim genre with Petit Planet, and sign-ups for their Stardrift Test are now open.

This new round of closed beta testing is available on PC, iOS, and Android. It will start on April 21, and will introduce new Neighbors, enhanced Starsea Voyage experiences, and additional Galactic Bazaar activities.

The title blends the joy of creation, companionship, and community-driven experiences, transforming the universe into a canvas of infinite possibilities. To sign up, simply visit the website here.

HoYoverse has also dropped Petit Planet’s latest trailer:

In the game, players take on the role of Planet Tender, stepping into the vast Starsea with a planet to call their own.

As planets connect to form galaxies, new stories begin to unfold. Here, you can live however you like. There’s farming, fishing, beachcombing, cooking, and more activities.

You can spend relaxed and fulfilling days on your planet alongside fuzzy Neighbors, and let your imagination run wild by decorating your home and shaping your landscapes.

Moreover, you can explore the Starsea to forge connections with people and things at the Galactic Bazaar.

Each bond formed weaves into an ever-growing web of connections that keeps the universe flourishing. Luca, the vitality that flows through all things, also shapes new landscapes and brings wondrous changes to the world as the bonds deepen and the planets thrive.

In the new closed beta, new Neighbors make their debut. Players can hop on their vehicles at the Starsea Map and set off to explore a variety of vibrant Islets.

Beyond the exploration remains a lively social hub where players can gather for coffee, relax by the bonfire, or even try fortune-telling or dancing with friends.

Gaming

Forza Horizon 6 already hits the mark

And it’s only just the preview build in the Tokyo area

Published

April 9, 2026

Gab Orlina

Up next on the Forza Horizon World Tour is a place filled with rich history. And an even richer cultural background. Tradition blends exceptionally well with the modern worldview, whether it’s the environment or the cars available on the terrain. For the first timers, it sounds like a riveting experience. For the returning players, it feels like a trip down a familiar path even if they’ve never been to the place at all.

When Playground Games announced Forza Horizon 6, I just knew that I needed to play it for a variety of reasons. From the trailer alone, there are things to be excited about, especially with how they will carry over the Horizon system of gameplay to a more car-centric cultural location in Tokyo. The driving, the cars, the sights, and even a preview of the Horizon events — all these are gearing up for a grand release on May 19.

And the special preview from Xbox alone has already surpassed initial expectations in my book!

Hot like rising sun

Right off the bat, the game wows you with the breathtaking scenery and the equally cool-looking cars to match. Even as someone who has never been to Japan in this life, I felt that they perfectly captured the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. Including highly visited tourist spots. The developers wanted to reflect a more realistic feel of the city. And I appreciate that a lot.

As you immediately jump into action, the familiar mechanics start kicking in. Simply put, Forza Horizon 6 didn’t change too much in terms of how you play — from the controls in races to the customization. If anything, they mostly applied clarifications to previous descriptions of existing mechanics. Furthermore, real-world feel for the cars still exists especially when you take cars only meant for city driving off-road and into harsh areas.

Of course, the Forza Horizon experience wouldn’t be complete without the free-driving across an entirely vast area, exploring nooks and crannies and engaging in all the quests. Similar to previous releases, the Horizon events were tailored referencing car culture in the country they roll in, which they nailed even in this preview. Also, they added even more breakable elements to collect and work towards potentially earning more cars, spendable credits, or other cosmetics.

Exploring Tokyo with ease

Even with keeping things roughly the same in game feel, Forza Horizon 6 felt substantially different, catering to both new and returning players. For starters, they divided the entire map of Tokyo into their own regions, each with a designated checklist. Instead of aimlessly wandering about the roads, you actually get an idea of what you should be looking for this time.

Second, remember ANNA, your guide to Horizon? Well, she got several significant upgrades that help out content creators immensely. One of which is adding in a Drone Mode. This allows exploration without driving and can help with video recordings on Xbox. The other is having a dedicated Auto Drive Mode. It takes inspiration from Waymo and Tesla in driving routes for you. Though, I still think that they need to work on the automatic driving just a bit. Sometimes the cars would just take the weirdest routes to get to your destination.

Finally, though there wasn’t access to the Buy and Sell market in the preview, you could get other cars in the overworld called Aftermarket Cars. These basically replaced Forza Horizon 5‘s car barn-hunting by basically just showing you the car, and it’s sold at a much lower rate. I love that some of these cars truly represent some of the more famous brands in Japan, both for casual travel and intense races. Hopefully they add a lot more in the final build, especially vintage Japanese car models!

A furious Tokyo drift over the horizon

So far, Forza Horizon 6 promises to be another exhilarating edition of a franchise that prides itself in celebrating car culture to the fullest. Playground Games kept everything mostly intact for overall gameplay yet fully poured in the effort to perfect the environments and activities well. It’s obvious that they did justice to Tokyo as a whole, to the point that even someone who hasn’t been there will enjoy the experience very much.

Hopefully, they continue to work on some of the wonky mechanics like Auto Drive and apply a deeper integration of the four seasons into accessible events. Also, it would help out immensely if players get better rewards for clearing all the hazards – similar to what was present in previous games. Overall, there are a ton of things to be excited about with Forza Horizon 6 when it finally gets released on May 19 for the Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and as a Day One Release for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

So, time to dust off those racing wheels and, maybe, hold off on booking that flight to Tokyo for now!

Gaming

PlayStation can now scan you and put you inside a game

The limited feature will be available for Gran Turismo 7 for now.

Published

April 8, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

A staple of sports simulation games like the NBA 2K series, one of the most interesting developments in gaming today is the ability to scan faces and import them into an avatar. The feature lets players fully live out the fantasy of being inside their favorite sport. It has since made its way to more genres, such as in Where Winds Meet. Now, PlayStation wants to add its own native face- and body-scanning technology — called The Playerbase — into its repertoire.

Announced today, The Playerbase will bring PlayStation’s dedicated fans into cyberspace. It’s more than just uploading a face into a game’s files, too. PlayStation will fully scan a fan and import their entire body into a game.

Being more rigorous than just a facial scan, The Playerbase’s uses are still very limited today. PlayStation will start by importing a selected fan into the world of Gran Turismo 7.

Interested fans from selected markets all over the globe can sign up starting today for a chance to be featured inside the racing game. Once selected, the lucky fan will participate in video interviews before being scanned into the game in Los Angeles.

The player’s avatar will be available in a limited-time basis, but their livery, which they will design, will be a permanent fixture in the game going forward.

Afterwards, PlayStation will look to add more of its studios into the initiative tailored for their specific worlds. As of now, it’s meant as a special thank you for its dedicated fans, rather than an easily available feature for all of their games.