Review of One Piece Odyssey – a pleasant fairy tale in the JRPG genre

The Japanese manga series One Piece is one of the largest publications on the market, it has been published for 25 years, the collection of books includes more than one hundred volumes, and more than 500 million copies of this manga have been sold in 60 languages. Of course, this also includes movies and video games. The latter has been remastered into a JRPG format and will especially please fans or connoisseurs of the original, thanks to the inclusion of key moments from the original, but with interesting variations. But since it’s a very simple JRPG (no difficulty setting), it can also be a very good introduction to the JRPG genre for younger players (about 12 years old, English speaking).

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, XSX|S, PC
• Publication date: 01.10.2023
• Manufacturer: ILKA (Japan)
• Genre: japanese role playing game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data to download: 29 GB
• Game time: 40+ hours
• Price: 1399 CZK (couples)

Mysterious island and inaccurate memories

The game immerses you headlong into the story, and only after the initial incident gradually begins to introduce you to individual characters. This incident is a rather wild wreck of a pirate ship with a crew of Straw Men (companions of the protagonist “Straw Man” Luffy, who got his nickname after his favorite straw hat) on the mysterious island of Waford, where they were blown away by a suspicious storm. As if sinking their ship wasn’t enough, shortly after, the island strips all of the Strawmen of their fighting abilities: before that happens, you’ll get a brief glimpse of how they fight at level 40, but after that, you’ll “return” to the level. alone and you will have to find and train all your abilities again.

At the same time, the island is also dangerous for other things besides the ring of storms around it – it is also inhabited by all sorts of monsters, led by several “elemental guardians”. Fortunately, there are also friendly faces here, namely the wandering explorer Adio and the young girl Lim. In addition, both have special abilities. As you gradually explore the island and train your group, you will also have to delve into your own memories in the process of regaining your lost power, which will lead you to key events in the history of the entire One Piece series. Although the game itself is not considered canon, these key events from the past are based on the most interesting events from the original. However, since you experience them in your memories, and your memory is not perfect, interesting deviations and surprises await connoisseurs.

Memories will take you to key events in the history of the One Piece series.

The way key scenes from the original are incorporated into the game without repeating those events verbatim is a great attraction for fans. On the other hand, the story is quite simple and digestible even for those who come into contact with the Straw Hat Feasts for the first time in their lives. The dialogues of the characters and the whole plot are pleasantly fabulous-comedy. Actually, we can say that this is a good fairy tale, but, perhaps, half-dressed heroines with prominent breasts do not quite fit into it. Also, some younger players may find it a little difficult to follow the story as the dub is only available in the Japanese version (with English subtitles).

JRPG for beginners

From the very beginning of the game, it is impossible not to notice that this thing is clearly not intended for hardcore players looking for challenging tasks. The difficulty cannot be set in any way, and more or less all fights are very easy (a few difficulty exceptions can be found towards the end of the game). Similarly, the basic mechanics for exploring or interacting with the environment isn’t difficult, most maps are very linear and you don’t really get lost or know how to solve a situation or battle. The thing is that the creators of the game are deliberately aimed at younger players, while its recommended availability is from the age of 12.

If these facts do not bother you, then you can count on a simple but competent style of turn-based JRPG battles – the traditional system of elements and weaknesses (rock-paper-scissors or strength-speed-technique) differs in the fact that the battle arena is always divided into several areas between which your characters and enemies can move – it plays a role which attack is at a distance, and which is close, or who is standing next to whom. The character upgrade system is also simple but fun, as you gradually prioritize specific abilities and stack upgrades on top of each other in a simple gear puzzle. Perhaps the only significant downside to all of this is that some locations require you to have a rather sensitive “retreat”, but if you like this group of quirky pirates, you can easily forgive them.