Gameplay analysis for One Piece Odyssey, Bandai Namco’s new JRPG

One Piece Odyssey is just the last in a long, very long list of video games based on the manga by Eiichiro Oda, which has become a true costume phenomenon in Japan over the years, with over a hundred skins and a hugely successful anime. It is gaining immense popularity even in the West.

After the failed experiment of One Piece: World Seeker, Bandai Namco He thought of shuffling the cards a bit and entrusting his new transmission to the talented development team ILCA, who was already the author of Dragon Quest XI, and asked him to create a JRPG that in this case could faithfully bring it to the screen and validate the dynamics of Oda’s work. .

Well, we witnessed several in-game scenes on the occasion of Anime Expo 2022 and here is ours just in time One Piece Odyssey gameplay analysis.

What is One Piece Odyssey?

If you haven’t read our previous One Piece Odyssey special, which coincided with the game’s announcement, a quick review is urgently needed. As mentioned, the new link produced by Bandai Namco is a JRPG free exploration stages, a variable number of characters and party management through a turn-based system.

There HistoryWritten by Eiichiro Oda himself, it sees Monkey D. Luffy and his teammates lost on a mysterious island after a severe tsunami, and are therefore determined to reunite and face a new adventure about which we still know little. The authors made sure that the typical interactions between Cappello di Paglia and his friends found wide scope, as well as doing their best to provide the dramatic atmospheres that are often inhaled during the most complex conflicts.

It is not yet clear whether One Piece Odyssey has a structure or not. open the worldbut it is possible to notice a certain vertical development of environments and the use of an interface that shows the surrounding enemies so you can choose to face them (and get the corresponding rewards) or bypass them, limiting random fights.

The similarities with Dragon Quest XI are obvious and above all graphic style: an interesting middle ground between a classic approach and cel shading, enriched with pleasant pastel tones and an aesthetic reminiscent of manga in general, thus giving us a very original and interesting mix.

gameplay

The extended gameplay video of One Piece Odyssey, presented at Anime Expo 2022, shows the game in action for the first time, although it’s not yet at an early stage of the campaign, despite on-screen hints and tutorials. scheme checks is typical and allows you to move the character, run, jump, interact with the environment, move the camera, open the map, and perform Observation Haki, which increases the perception of pinpointing any point of interest during the exploration stages. .

In the movie, we only see Luffy, but in reality the character represents the entire party and we learn as soon as we stumble upon one of the exclamation points that hint at the beginning of a cutscene. In this case, it’s a summary of the area we find ourselves in, called King Kong Garden: A huge gorilla seems to have taken over Nami, and our goal will be to save her.

Open the pause menu, we discover that the team can be managed to place up to four fighters in as many main slots and assign a support function to the others. So let’s see Luffy, Usopp, Sanji and Franky alongside Chopper and Robin, but also their relative strength levels and various Statistics that moment between experience, health, tension points, attack, defense and courage.

Another sign (in this case with a magnifying glass icon) makes it clear that we can’t cross the river to get to Nami any faster, given the presence of huge and dangerous walruses. So our Luffy gets into an alley that involves the use of one of Luffy’s. SkillsGom Gom Rocket hook remote hatches to move towards them in a jiffy.

battle system

The character we control in One Piece Odyssey interacts with a wall to climb, which is an automatic process after he collects some objects and breaks some vases, which allows him to climb to a raised point of the map. Then the group suddenly finds itself surrounded by enemies and with a very short payload the first clash of the expected demo begins and change of opinion.

As stated above, battle system it works sequentially and allows you to hit certain opponents using all the characters at your disposal, determining the effect of each maneuver based on the “loop” indicated at the bottom left: technique (sword, green) beats power (fist, pink) beats this speed (gun, orange), which in turn beats technique beats.

Luffy is the first to attack with a simple punch, but that’s enough to take out one of the enemies. Then it’s up to Sanji who makes the same move, with a sign warning us that using special maneuvers implies energy consumption. tension pointsresets at the beginning and during each fight. It’s time for one of the opponents to hit Franky without much success, only to be eliminated by Usopp and Franky’s blows.

As expected, victory means gaining money and experience, while the latter does level up All characters of the party will improve their attributes. A quick test of the Observation Haki, shown on the screen as a kind of “negative” bubble, serves, as mentioned, to identify any points of interest and continues with the exploration of the map.

At this point in the video, we see a summary of the repertoire available for each character of the team, with the consumption of tension points for each individual specified. special move. Later, from the second fight, this feature finally finds its place: Luffy performs a devastating Gom Gom Gatling and sweeps away all opponents at once.

Too bad the next fight is more complicated, battle system when our units suffer some kind of poisoning or blockage. But the formula looks pretty clear and solid, and it’s a shame that the footage ends before the definitive confrontation with Del Kong, the giant gorilla who captured Nami.