I finished Arlong Park’s arc A piece anime this year and take a break to watch some of the other shows on my list and play through some of the games I plan to finish. That is to say, I took a hands-on preview with One Piece Odyssey with just a little bit A piece knowledge, knowing that there are still more than 1000 episodes left for me to watch to catch up on the series. After about two hours of playing Odyssey, I’m about to go back to the anime and that’s the best compliment I can give the game. It’s no shame that Odyssey is shaping up to be a great JRPG with some unique systems that make it easier to play for those new to the genre and more dynamic for fans of the past. this game.
I was worried about my ignorance going into this preview, but clearly in One Piece Odyssey it was important for the team to design an RPG that appeals to all players, not just A piece fan.
Diary in Odyssey also fills the void for players like me. When I went to Nanohana in Alabasta, these diaries helped me understand the importance of the place. However, they do not provide the full story of Alabasta, which I think is very good. I didn’t even feel spoiled in that arc; The Odyssey gives me just enough information to understand the importance of getting to this location in the game. Popular anime-based games sometimes fall into the trap of retelling stories from said anime, but that’s not nearly the case. That’s not the case with Odyssey, though, and I think it’s a great foundation for this story to build on in the game. That’s because instead of re-reading classic stories that fans already love, Odyssey uses those arcs to tell new stories in familiar locations.
For example, upon arriving in the sandy desert city of Alabasta, the Straw Hats – Captain Monkey D. Luffy, Brook, Franky, Roronoa Zoro, Vinsmoke Sanji, Nami, Nico Robin, Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper – learned of the adventure. theirs here. They talk about past experiences, Luffy comments on his love for Spice Bean Restaurant, etc. What does it reflect? A piece did in the past, and the new adventure builds on that.
Before reaching Alabasta, however, Odyssey posed a rather disastrous situation for the Straw Hats and the Thousand Sunny on which it sailed. Footage reveals a powerful storm has knocked the Thousand Sunny off the coast, crashing it into the shores of a mysterious island. The shipwreck separated the Straw Hats and I took control of Luffy while trying to find everyone. It was here that Odyssey introduced me to a unique, flashy, exciting, and surprisingly deep combat system.
At this point, the entire crew is level 40, to show off their pirate prowess. And each member also has nearly a dozen skills at their disposal, like Luffy’s various Gum moves. At its core, Odyssey is a turn-based RPG, and those familiar with the genre will quickly grasp how the fighting game works. But looking deeper into its system, I see Pokemon-inspired mechanics and dynamic scenes and menus inspired by the Persona series.
You take on each enemy in a Scrambled Area Battle, a field-based system of enemy dispersal. Luffy may be dealing with two enemies right in front of him and Sanji may have no enemies in his area, but his ranged moves allow him to hit those. by Luffy. Nami can ignore the enemies closest to her to help Luffy, or she can focus on the ones in front of her. I pay attention to every enemy on the field not just because they can attack me from any position, but because each one has weaknesses and strengths that are dictated by a system like rock-paper-scissors, rock-paper-scissors. prisoner.
Power type characters and enemies, and subsequent Power attacks, are strong before Speed, and Speed is strong before Technique, where Technique is most effective before Strength. The game shows effectiveness by using red arrows pointing up when targeting enemies with a specific movement pattern, or blue arrows pointing down to let you know that move isn’t working. . Some actions also provide status effects, such as paralysis, bleeding, and fainting, rendering enemies temporarily unconscious. Skills use moves that manga and anime fans will probably recognize, using up Tension Points, but a super-effective move can easily score you enough TP for a skill else if you use up faster than expected.
Battles are taken a step further with Dynamic Scenes, which are objectives the battle can introduce at the start of the encounter. In one story case, the enemy paralyzes Usopp with a surprise attack, and Scenes tasked me with defeating the enemy before they defeated the crippled Usopp, who could do nothing to fight back. or self-defense. The enemy was mostly focused on him, meaning I had to act quickly to defeat his attackers. Completing a Dynamic Scene also gives more experience and rewards, and seems worth the effort to achieve with each instance.
All of this translates into an energetic combat system that hooked me halfway through the first encounter. It’s fast paced, easy to understand, and has small tweaks like being able to swap party members quickly at no cost that make the battle frenetic and exciting in a way that I think makes the Newbies to the genre are intrigued. The user interface and menus, especially in the presentation, also seem to be Persona-inspired, making Odyssey’s fight a feast to the eyes. Every move brings awe-inspiring animations that look great and dynamic, and menus pop with color and style. Even the post-battle summary screen is reminiscent of Persona 5, with characters appearing on screen in a stylish manner while a catchy tune rings out signaling success.
In terms of musical notes, it’s amazing; perhaps even the standout feature of this whole preview to me. It’s adventure, pirates and exactly what you’d expect from A piece. Still, it’s no surprise considering Dark Souls composer Motoi Sakuraba, who is also credited with the Tales and Super Smash Bros. series, is composing the music for Odyssey. Sakuraba’s score I’ve heard so far in Odyssey is a significant departure from what I know best of him – the Dark Souls series – but it wraps up everything that goes in the game according to same sense of adventure in anime scores. I’m happy to hear other tracks in the game.
The game’s opening moments are about teaching you its combat system, but soon you’re free to explore the starting areas of this mysterious island, which Robin identifies as Waford, a new place in this universe. Naturally, it was shrouded in mystery because the crew had never been there and only Robin had heard of it, but this is where strange relics and artefacts are kept covered with symbols. The statue looks ancient.
I soon learned that these are appended to a new character created by A piece Eiichiro Oda’s creator named Lim. This character was introduced just before the introduction of Adio, another new Oda work. Lim identifies the Straw Hats as pirates, and before her introduction, she uses her uncanny powers to take the crew’s skills and powers and transform them into cubes that she scatters around the world. mysteriously. At this point, the soft level 40 characters I used to crush enemies with are now level 2 and their powerful skills are gone too. All I can do now is use my standard attacks, and I chuckle, watching enemies that previously took hundreds of damage can now take a few dozen.
It’s an interesting piece based on the typical “how do we make this strong group less powerful” formula commonly found in role-playing games, and I love that it’s incorporated directly into the story. It also makes collecting these cubes, which are the core of the story, interesting as with each successful quest can lead the prospect of a new cube and then some my previous skills and strength. I had to explore the Memory World to find more of these cubes. Although I can’t see how this world works, it seems to be some kind of portal that takes me to famous places from A piece history, like the aforementioned Alabasta.
Lim draws on the Straw Hats’ powers because she fears they are criminal pirates, the kind she has problems with, but she soon discovers that they are “good” pirates and regrets it what she did, informing them of what they needed to do to solve the problem. back to their old self. Enter the world of memories.
In Alabasta, I do some standard quests – defeat an enemy holding a quest item, return it to this person, gather some ingredients so that crew chef Sanji can cook delicious soup for him. locals, etc. Individual goals aren’t the most exciting, but looking at the beautifully rendered Odyssey world should make it easy. The ability to control different crew members at different times also makes things interesting. Some players might disagree with the 3D aspect of the game, but it worked for me, as was the quirky yet fancy visual style. It runs fine, too.
The secondary content in Odyssey is nothing short of groundbreaking, although I have to admit that I only learned about it during practice. But I don’t necessarily need it to be a breakout, and so is the golden road. Odyssey is the first A piece This massive turn-based RPG breaks the mold of typical anime games going the way of 2D or 3D combat or action, and that alone is refreshing.
Even with my relatively little A piece knowledge, it’s easy to see how much care has been taken by developer ILCA to bring this franchise into RPG territory. Whether it becomes a hit in the fandom remains to be seen, and the same goes for how authentic it is. A piece as an Odyssey franchise is. But if my two hours of practice proves anything, it’s that Odyssey is shaping up to be a unique and fun JRPG, and a player should keep an eye on, A piece fans or not.
