25 years ago Half-Life hit PC, the first PlayStation ruled supreme, and a little pirate adventure manga called One Piece began. Now I'm pushing 40, greying, and still enjoying the ongoing adventu
need to know
What is it? A turn-based JRPG romp through One Piece’s past.
Expect to pay: $59.99/£49.99
Developer: ILCA, Inc.
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Reviewed on: Windows 11, Nvidia 2080 Ti, Intel i9-9900k @ 4.9GHz, 32GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Out: Now
Link: Official site (opens in new tab)
25 years ago Half-Life hit PC, the first PlayStation ruled supreme, and a little pirate adventure manga called One Piece began. Now I’m pushing 40, greying, and still enjoying the ongoing adventures of rubberized ruffian Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates. Celebrating a quarter-century at sea, the crew are off on a grand JRPG voyage with One Piece Odyssey: a sprawling, charming adventure that creaks under its own scope.
If you’ve no idea what One Piece is, or have only seen a few episodes of the anime, Odyssey probably isn’t for you. It’s set around 750 episodes into the anime, and assumes knowledge of its characters, their abilities, and their histories. On top of that, most of the game is dedicated to (loosely) retelling the events of four major story arcs, these reprised adventures bookended by a story written specifically for the game.
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
While manga author Eiichiro Oda had minimal input in Odyssey’s story, he did contribute some concepts and creature designs, including some adorably doofy monsters. Odyssey strands Luffy and crew on Waford, a forgotten island inhabited by a pair of new characters: big-haired explorer Adio and mysterious local girl Lim, who magically strips the crew of their powers before realizing they’re the good kind of pirates. While mercifully no one has amnesia, the Straw Hat crew have forgotten how to fight, so they’re off on an adventure to recover the memory cubes holding their lost battle prowess, and then into the World Of Memory to relive four of their most important adventures and brush up on their beatdowns.
The black spot
Odyssey is effectively a massive filler arc—the kind of questionably canonical side adventure the anime has to insert to keep the TV show running weekly. While Odyssey’s new story and characters are decent enough for One Piece, where the game narratively shines is, paradoxically, in retreading old ground.
While these adventures in Memoria are based on past story arcs (Alabasta, Water Seven, Marineford, and Dressrosa), the Straw Hat Pirates know this is just a rough approximation of their adventures, and their actions won’t change what actually happened. Despite this they all resolve to do things better. Even if it’s just a dream, they’re out to save everyone they couldn’t, win unwinnable fights and create a happier ending. What could have been a glorified clip show takes on an unexpectedly bittersweet and personal edge, with the heroes getting a chance to see lost and fallen friends one more time.
It makes for a rich well of character beats compared to the average One Piece filler anime, with each member of the crew getting time in the spotlight to pick apart their feelings and come to terms with their losses. The manga frequently has characters crying rivers of tears over lost friends or sad farewells, where Odyssey trades more in coming to terms with the past.
