Forgettable Odyssey
Greatest-selling manga One Piece isn’t wanting recreation variations. Along with crusing the Grand Line, the Straw Hat Pirates have navigated via a number of video games starting from preventing to journey. Now it has anchored in a full-fledged role-playing recreation with One Piece Odyssey. The sport spares no effort in attempting to draw outdated and new followers alike, promising a brand new story written by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece’s legendary creator. Nonetheless, One Piece Odyssey finally ends up taking part in it too secure. The entire thing may be very predictable and uninspiring. Fight ages shortly, and exploration tires of itself, buying and selling freedom for linearity proper off the bat. It’s an expertise that may possible solely fulfill the most important followers of the manga.
The sport begins with a neat cutscene that includes the crew of the Straw Hat’s trademark skills. Every member flashes their abilities towards sharp, flying icicles, however quickly are shipwrecked on an uncharted island. It’s as much as the crew to unravel its thriller, repair their ship, and discover Captain Luffy’s much-loved straw hat. In between, the colourful personalities of the characters are showcased as they discover the area. One Piece Odyssey makes no effort at correctly introducing every pirate; followers of the sequence want no introduction. For these unfamiliar with the Straw Hats, solely indifference is in retailer for them.
Many of the recreation’s eventualities are a sight for sore eyes.
Immediately, One Piece Odyssey introduces the participant to the sport’s distinctive characters, Lim and Adio. Each immediately partake within the narrative, serving as key characters in its unfolding. Lim additionally acts as a conduit for non-fan gamers. After a primary tutorial and overview of Waford Island, One Piece Odyssey introduces the Memoria mechanic, which has the Straw Hats tackling earlier arcs of the manga. That is the place confusion will set in for newcomers, felling caught taking part in a direct sequel with out having skilled its predecessor. The narrative information is Lim, whose job is to flood the crew with questions concerning the corresponding Memoria whereas additionally giving context to these unaware of those occasions. Nonetheless, it feels rushed and cropped, as if the sport already anticipated gamers to be acquainted with it.
Within the first Memoria, the sport introduces a function referred to as Logs. They current a stunningly creative retrospective of the arc. Like Lim, Logs assist contextualize these new to One Piece. Nonetheless, since this function is non-compulsory, Logs could be simply missed, including to the mess. Previous followers would possibly admire the flashback, because it acts as an interactive retrospective. These summaries grow to be tedious to observe with the frequency they arrive up.
Between the Logs and visits to Memoria, the sport is fueled by its turn-based battle system. One Piece Odyssey brings just a few twists to the basic tackle turn-based battles, permitting an additional dose of technique with its rock-paper-scissors construction and zone-based battlefield dubbed the Scramble Battle Space system. Upon coming into a battle, there’s the likelihood that the 4 get together members can be separated into zones, no matter whether or not an enemy is current in it or not. Fundamental assaults and close-range skills are reserved for enemies in the identical zone, whereas long-range skills can hit any opponent.
Events heal the crew and supply buffs for subsequent battles.
Every unit in fight is considered one of three varieties: Energy, Method, or Velocity. Energy is powerful towards Velocity; Velocity beats Method; Method overpowers Energy. If an ally is caught with an enemy whose assault kind is powerful towards their very own, the scenario thickens —or not less than it ought to. Social gathering members could be switched on the fly, both with the reserves or these at the moment in battle. Due to this fact, disadvantageous conditions can simply be rectified, which undermines the technique of the battle system. The participant solely must trade the Straw Hat on the weak level with one other one with an edge towards the enemies in that zone, and that’s it; disadvantageous scenario erased. Moreover, battles are extraordinarily straightforward to begin with and there’s no approach to improve issue. A number of abilities that strike the enemy’s weak level give a one-hit KO, discrediting any tactic.
To diversify, some battles function dramatic scenes. These scenes grant bonuses to enemies, akin to a brief assault enhance or the warning that they’ll unleash a strong capacity the subsequent flip. The sport then presents a requirement to resolve these dramatic scenes, akin to killing the enemy with a selected character. If the participant succeeds, they acquire a particularly beneficiant post-battle expertise bonus. Dramatic scenes can contain utilizing somebody whose weak spot is the enemy’s kind, making a risk-and-reward state of affairs. To counteract these conditions, One Piece Odyssey has an gear system referred to as badges. Every character has a board, and every badge has a form, like a Tetris piece. It’s as much as the participant to suit these badges, which give bonuses in attributes or resistances. A simple crafting system creates buffing meals for the get together, debuffing objects for the enemies, and improves the badges. Nonetheless, seasoned RPG gamers will shortly acknowledge the perfect construct and break the sport early on.
Fulfilling dramatic scenes is essential to shortly stage up characters.
On the creative entrance, One Piece Odyssey leaves nothing to be desired. The graphics are vibrant, refined, and downright attractive. The particular results of every ability in battle are a deal with. Whereas the participant can velocity up the fight, they’ll not less than watch every new set of abilities acquired on the finish of each chapter to understand their results. The surroundings can be lush, wealthy intimately and intricacy. Maps function components so far as the attention can see at a constant and excessive framerate. The artwork route, coupled with the soundtrack, makes One Piece Odyssey a delightfully visible feast. Every space, whether or not within the Memoria arcs or on Waford Island, includes a stellar, joyful, and adventurous soundtrack. Even with fixed interjections each time a personality makes use of their tasteless subject ability, immersion is inevitable.
Relating to exploration, the sport stumbles. Straw Hats are essentially the most landlubbin’ pirates ever, and gamers shouldn’t count on a ship voyage. Within the first chapters, the sport misleads, giving the impression that its areas are huge and rewardingly explorable. Nonetheless, One Piece Odyssey quickly turns into a primarily linear expertise. The sport options quite a few non-compulsory content material, akin to bounty hunts; sidequests; Reminiscence Hyperlinks, which educate get together members abilities activated as pairs or trios; and treasure hunts. Sidequests are easy, typically humorous, however solely partaking for these conversant in the solid. Additionally they lack diligence and have a obvious drawback of inconsistency. Lim watches the Straw Hats’ progress intently, commenting on how unusual and alien their actions are in comparison with the pirate stereotype. Finally, she types an opinion about them all through the principle story. Nonetheless, if gamers return to finish sidequests from earlier chapters, Lim’s habits will pertain to that chapter, ignoring all her character improvement. This creates a distracting inconsistency within the woman’s habits.
The characters have totally different subject abilities. Zoro can slice down iron doorways, and Chopper matches in small gaps.
Between the principle story, touring to outdated arcs, and finishing non-compulsory content material, One Piece Odyssey’s pacing is far and wide. The primary half of the chapter record appears to make up 80% of the sport, between meaningless back-and-forth fetching quests and filler cutscenes, whereas the opposite half runs over occasions and unravels mysteries in a single sitting. Essentially the most awe-looking and thrilling Memoria chapter concludes roughly thirty minutes in, losing its large potential, whereas an earlier chapter took its candy time letting the participant wander via a flat desert chasing after their stolen pockets or meals. Odyssey is uninspiring; gamers know precisely what to anticipate at every chapter’s finish, what technique to make use of in each battle, and even the narrative final result.
One Piece Odyssey is a blatantly predictable and run-of-the-mill expertise. Whereas it might appear apparent that an anime recreation is focused to an viewers conversant in it, one might surprise why to waste a possibility to make it extra democratic and entice new followers. The tweaks to the basic turn-based battle construction are welcome however fall brief because of the recreation’s unchallenging issue and easy-to-break gear system. Die-hard One Piece followers will be capable to admire the sport as an interactive memory of its arcs with minor redesigns. But, these searching for a daring and distinctive recreation might have to look elsewhere.
Disclosure: This overview relies on a free copy of the sport supplied by the writer.
BATTLE SYSTEM
INTERACTION
ORIGINALITY
STORY
MUSIC & SOUND
VISUALS
Lovely and fascinating world
Battle animations are beautiful
Dramatic scenes are ingenious
An uninspiring and predictable narrative
Boring exploration and facet content material
Fight is unchallenging and repetitious
Unwelcoming to gamers unfamiliar with One Piece
