One of many issues which have all the time irked me about anime videogame diversifications is that few of them actually take as a lot benefit of the supply materials as they might, particularly within the Shonen style. With such an enormous library of characters and places, I’ve all the time felt it was prison to merely adapt them to preventing video games or Dynasty Warriors-style brawlers solely. One collection that did do for me what I needed with an anime sport, i.e. operating world wide from iconic location to location, participating with the inhabitants, was Ubisoft’s now sadly unavailable Naruto: Rise of a Ninja collection. That gave me every thing I’d ever needed, particularly depth when getting into the world and I assumed I wouldn’t get it once more.
Till now.
Enter One Piece Odyssey from developer ILCA. Odyssey is the newest One Piece videogame based mostly on Eiichiro Oda’s mega-popular, long-running Shonen collection. This time the Straw Hat crew are gracing your native online game machine with a brand new story set Within the One Piece universe. The query is, is it value crusing the seven seas so blue for?
Set between manga chapters, One Piece Odyssey is a standard JRPG throwing you into the happy-go-lucky sneakers of the well-known Straw Hat pirates as they embark on one other epic journey. As a result of some unexpected crusing phenomena, the Straw Hat gang discover themselves on the legendary island of Waford. After beginning your journey with a powered-up crew, Luffy and his associates discover themselves stripped of their skills and power with the one technique to get them again being to journey throughout the island, fixing its mysteries, amassing magical cubes and journeying again into their collective pasts by way of recreated reminiscences.
Odyssey performs like every conventional JRPG you could have performed within the final couple of years, although with some welcome modifications to the system that I really feel ought to turn into a normal. There’s a really distinct Dragon Quest vibe to the sport, each in it the best way it performs and its visuals, although stamped with Oda’s distinctive character designs and artwork.
There are many giant places so that you can discover, individuals to talk to, facet quests to choose up, gadgets to scrounge and managers to battle. Instantly, a part of what units Odyssey aside from many video games at the present time is the overwhelming sense of happy-go-lucky optimism that permeates the Straw Hat crew. As such, Odyssey’s tone, even when the world is in peril, is delightfully infectious from the get-go and left me with a smile on my face as a result of solid’s shenanigans.
Having such a big solid, and little doubt bearing in mind that followers could have their favourites, Odyssey allows you to swap between any member of your celebration at any time when within the subject. Although crew members might be part of and go away your celebration because the story dictates, you’re not sure to organising a celebration of 4 earlier than venturing out into the sphere or having to vary solely at sure factors if you happen to really feel like you need to have taken Robin with you rather than Sanji.
Every character’s particular abilities additionally come into play throughout exploration in small methods. Luffy’s stretchy skills allow you to seize gadgets from afar or pull your self to distant places. Nami can discover hidden cash whereas Zorro can reduce by way of particular steel doorways and crates.
Dungeons abound as nicely. Fortunately, to interrupt up the gameplay, they’re normally mild puzzle-orientated eventualities, together with preventing and are a whole lot of enjoyable to play by way of.
In a bid to please followers, and presumably educate new gamers to the world, you’ll be spending a whole lot of time in Memoria. Memoria is a reminiscence recreation of a few of One Items most notable, fan-favourite arcs, considered by way of a “What if. . .” lens the place issues haven’t occurred fairly as our heroes keep in mind. This lets veterans relive a few of their favorite franchise moments whereas nonetheless being shocked by a number of the occasions. Newcomers will get a crash course right here in what makes the Straw Hats crew so lovable to many.
Memorias are very important to progressing the principle marketing campaign and instructing the brand new character Lim in regards to the bonds of friendship. They’re additionally there to unlock new. . . nicely the crew’s unique abilities that you simply’ve misplaced at any fee. Inside Memorias are fractured bits of reminiscence known as Hysteria, which throws a set group right into a reminiscence offshoot that must be accomplished. These are value doing as a result of they unlock the sport’s finest assaults; group supers that do large harm in delightfully absurd methods.
The sport’s fight is as conventional as conventional will get. It’s turn-based by way of and thru however utilises a rock-papers-scissor dynamic for character varieties. Right here you’re velocity, energy and method, every of which is powerful towards one kind whereas being weak towards one other. It provides depth and technique to the fight system as a result of you possibly can’t fully depend on powering by way of fights with out paying consideration. You can battle three of the identical creature varieties, however this doesn’t imply that their attribute varieties are the identical.
As with world exploration, you possibly can swap characters out and in of the battle at any time with out utilizing up a flip. If Chopper isn’t doing nice towards a Sandora Dragon, you possibly can swap him out to Usopp whose kind might beat it, and so forth. Complicating issues is that the battlefield is damaged up into areas randomly in every battle. You can have Zorro going through off towards three enemies whereas Luffy is all by his lonesome and you may transfer between areas to assist out teammates, however solely when you’ve crushed the enemy in your present space.
One other wrinkle to think about, although this one is basically useful, is that random targets pop up in every battle, reminiscent of beating a particular enemy with a particular character or defeating a bunch inside a specified variety of turns. Past preserving you in your ft as a result of a few of these may be very harmful, it additionally hits you up with an enormous XP bonus on the finish of every battle. It’s not unusual for a few battles with efficiently accomplished targets to stage you up with ease.
Fantastically, your whole celebration, whether or not you rotate them in or not, will obtain the XP from each battle, decreasing the everyday RPG have to immediately stage grind particular characters late within the sport. This alone needs to be a gold-standard design selection.
Visually One Piece Odyssey is a pretty-looking sport. Whereas it’s not cel-shaded, the builders have managed to seize Oda’s designs and types within the textures, which have a hand-shaded look to them. Character fashions are implausible as nicely, with nice animation, particularly with regard to every character’s particular skills. The sport has efficiency and graphics modes, each of which run nicely although there are some body stutters in graphics mode right here and there. And, as we’ve come to count on from next-gen machines, super-fast load occasions on Sequence X.
The manufacturing values are top-notch, with the present’s solid returning to voice their respective characters right here. It have to be famous, there isn’t an English language monitor for the sport although.
There are two areas that Odyssey does falter for me, specifically the fight problem and pacing, significantly within the first Memoria sequence in Alabaster.
Initially, the fight is tremendous straightforward, even after you’ve misplaced all of your skills. Throughout the first two hours, I’d levelled as much as 20 with ease after which there’s a pretty big soar throughout the first Memoria that may be a bit jarring. Even bearing in mind the attribute system, fights hit more durable and lasted longer than I anticipated. Then there’s a drop whenever you head again to the island earlier than one other steep rise in the direction of the sport’s closing sections. It’s significantly jarring when a mini-boss encounter is more durable than a main-boss one.
After which the Alabaster arc. Whereas I did get pleasure from it, I did discover it ran on far too lengthy with far an excessive amount of backwards and forwards for quests, predominant and sub that ended up feeling extra like busywork and, satirically, filler. And simply whenever you suppose you’ve completed it, again in you have to go. Subsequent Memorias and the principle island sections after really feel like they fly by compared. As I mentioned, whereas I did get pleasure from it, it may have been better-paced and streamlined.
The ultimate query then is whether or not or not you have to be a One Piece fan to get pleasure from this. Whereas it’s true that long-time followers will get essentially the most out of the sport and its best hits second, there’s greater than sufficient context for anybody new to the collection or simply on the lookout for an amazing RPG to have the ability to soar into and get the gist of what’s happening. The writers have finished an admirable job of presenting you with sufficient info to know what’s happening within the Memoria sections, whereas load display suggestions, info, and the solid’s banter does the remaining. And if all else fails, there are all the time wiki’s to hit up.
With nice manufacturing values, enjoyable gameplay and a cheerful environment, One Piece Odyssey is definitely the most effective anime and manga videogame diversifications I’ve performed in years. Not solely that, it’s additionally a brand new customary bearer for what the style must purpose for. Whether or not you’re a One Piece veteran, new to the collection or just on the lookout for an amazing JRPG, One Piece Odyssey is a journey you have to be taking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMbCdCTE4bc
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S, Microsoft Home windows
Publishers: BNE Leisure, Namco Bandai Video games America Inc.
Seize your copy right here https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/video games/retailer/one-piece-odyssey-pre-order/9MVWQVD667PL
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