One time, I went to Supanova, the Australian version of Comicon, and had a group of people ask me if I like anime. I told them that I was a huge fan of Pokemon, and everyone laughed at me telling me “It’s not real anime”. That’s about as far as my knowledge of Anime goes, so it goes without saying that there’s an entire group of games on the Switch that I haven’t played as I don’t really know the source material. One Piece is one such franchise, spanning over 1000 episodes, several movies, and many games. So What’s it Like playing One Piece Odyssey with no prior knowledge of the series? Put on your straw hat, weigh anchor, and prepare to fight as I review One Piece Odyssey for Nintendo Switch.
Before we begin, a word on spoilers: As I’m unsure of the series, I won’t really talk about anything in the latter half of the game, and footage in the video will only consist of what I captured in the first 15 or so hours of the game.
One Piece Odyssey follows Luffy, a happy-go-lucky leader of the straw hats, a mismatched band of pirates who fight for good. One Piece Odyssey is set about 600 episodes into the anime, and despite this, it is a stand-alone story that does a great job explaining events and references to newcomers, saving me hundreds of hours of catching up. This particular story has the Straw Hat crew shipwrecked on a mysterious island surrounded by storms. The team’s powers are taken away by a new character called “Lim” after being mistaken for bad guys, and must travel through time & memories to bring them back. As an outsider, I found the premise to be interesting, and the characters were whacky and well-written. The crew already had established relationships which left me feeling a bit lost for a while, such as Sanji and Zoro constantly butting heads, and that banter plays out in both story and gameplay, with characters interacting in subtle ways like when Luffy would heal Nami, she would be complimentary, yet if Sanji heals Zoro, he exclaims “I don’t need your help!” which is a nice touch to flesh out the bonds with the crew.
These small details go well above what I was expecting in a TV Series spin-off game, and it’s clear that the game is a labour of love to the series. There are moments that genuinely made me laugh out loud too, and it knows when to take itself seriously, and when to poke fun at itself. Sure, there are some tropes like an overeager leader, but I found the characters to be endearing and interesting.
Gameplay follows that of a traditional JRPG, and I was constantly reminded of the sublime Dragon Quest Series. There are primary and secondary quests to complete, as well as treasure to find in the form of gold or jewellery which can be equipped to alter the stats of your characters. Your main objective is to initially escape the island you are trapped on by salvaging the wreckage of your ship. The game also takes you back to pivotal moments of the anime series by traveling in memories to recover your abilities. These moments have been changed slightly to suit gameplay and are explained away by saying memories can be foggy or unreliable, which allows a bit more creative freedom. There’s a lot of fan service here with characters past and present making an appearance, and thankfully for this outsider, there’s a shot of exposition explaining who they are and what they do, allowing it to be more accessible for newcomers. Each member of your party has an overworld special ability, like Luffy being able to lasso items, and high points like Indian Jone’s whip, and Sanji’s ability to sniff out food for cooking. These come in handy with puzzle solving, and give each member of the Straw Hats some time in the spotlight, switching between members easily with the D-pad. Some quests (including story quests) can feel superfluous, padding out the game time with constant backtracking, and one quest in particular in Alabaster, really pushed player patience by returning to the same areas 3 to 4 times which I found frustrating. The good news is that the game doesn’t really require grinding, and I never had to go out of my way to level up. It’s approach to combat is relatively easy, but allows you to experience the story with minimal grinding and frustration which I found to be refreshing.
What sets this aside from most traditional JRPG’s however, is the fantastic battle system. It follows an almost Rock-Paper-Scissors format that makes combat interesting. You can switch out party members on the fly without losing a turn making it far more forgiving than most combat systems. There is also the inclusion of “Dramatic Moments” which give you mini objectives to achieve, rewarding additional XP. These Dramatic moments might be along the lines of healing for 500 hp, or landing the killing blow with a specific character and it keeps combat interesting and exciting. You can also land a “punch” which is like a critical hit that launches an enemy into another, dealing extra damage to both. It’s all presented in a stylish way with dynamic camera angles and battle banter which helps immerse you into the world more.
One Piece Odyssey is presented in an almost cel-shaded 3D graphics style, which is both bright and sharp. The world it builds is interesting and varied, and while there is sometimes a slight performance dip in heavily populated areas, it is an almost negligible payoff for how nice it all looks. Characters are charming and full of life, expressions are well-animated, and there’s a decent variety of bad guys and hostile creatures to fight. It suits the Anime’s style and looks, and despite knowing little about One Piece, it feels like an authentic representation of the series. For my vision-impaired Straw Hats, there are no accessibility options, and despite being bright and colourful, there’s a lot of reading involved since the dialogue is spoken purely in Japanese. Therefore, I suggest further research to find out if One Piece Odyssey is right for you.
At $85 AUD, One Piece Odyssey is another premium-priced port from Bandai Namco, and much like Ace Combat 7, it’s a high-quality port with a lot of polish that shines through. As an outsider looking in, One Piece Odyssey is a fantastic JRPG to enjoy. Fans of the series will definitely get a lot more out of it, but as it stands, this was a pleasant surprise and a game I would usually dismiss due to my lack of knowledge of the source material. It’s heartwarming, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable with its well-written narrative, lovable characters, and thought-out battle system. It may not be an overly difficulty game, focusing more on telling a story rather than testing out the player’s skills, but for those looking for a 40+ hour adventure in a similar vein to Dragon Quest, One Piece Odyssey is a fantastic adventure worth going on for fans and newcomers alike.
So, What’s It Like? One Piece Odyssey is like Dragon Quest, crossed with Tales of Symphonia.
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by Bandai Namco, but this does not influence my score.
