Luffy and company embark on a dazzling JRPG adventure
A play can boast of many things at the level of the franchise, since the work of Eichiro Oda has had a great career since 1997. For this reason, it can boast of being one of the most successful manga and anime of all time, one of the few classics that continues to be published and broadcast today. today, as well as a great endless broken records. However, the license didn’t have much luck when it came to video game adaptations, as they didn’t end up being entirely brilliant in all of their attempts or forays into the industry.
It’s because of it Bandai Namco and ILCA have teamed up to break with this misfortune, betting on a new look and style with One Piece Odyssey. This title has been released on all entertainment consoles except the Nintendo Switch, and it is certainly one of the most ambitious productions ever created for the One Piece license. In fact, they benefit 25th anniversary of this to pay homage to him in this work where even Oda himself participated directly.
In this way, the charismatic characters of the original work, as well as all its locations, have been recreated with good skill and a specific narrative has even been adapted that encompasses the major events or arcs of the series. So those who love Oda’s work can rest assured that in One Piece Odyssey they will find attention, affection and benevolence towards the work on which it is based.
The premise, as we said, was exclusively tailored to this specific adventure. Therefore, we moved to the mysterious island Waford
Admittedly, at the plot level there is nothing to brag about, but the title knows how to be interesting and seductive, summing it all up in a curious JRPG Classic Fit. Thus, the new proposal for the series commits to a style of play similar, even visually, to that seen in Dragon Quest XI. In this way, the work cherishes the elements of a work of this genre with all that this entails: non-random turn-based battles, that is, we can almost always decide which battles to face , as well as approaching the enemy from behind. to gain some advantage in combat. It is also possible for us to enjoy the battles in two ways: normal speed or fast speed, since as in some modern games of the genre, we can choose to speed up the outcome of the action in order to save time.
Comment that during the adventure we will control only one character at a time, although obviously we can handle a a team with diverse members who will participate in the battles together. This way we can have up to four members on screen fighting against a good chain of enemies; the amount of these usually varies and is even quite numerous. The evolution of the contest is quite simple and straightforward, although we can always use our kit of skills, techniques, objects and other tools that the combat system offers us.
On the other hand, the gameplay involves, as usual, some sort of pattern of types or attributes. These determine the weaknesses and strengths of different characters and enemies. In total, we have three in total: Power, Speed and Technique. This way fights have an extra factor of strategy or tactics to balance which type is strong or weak against the other and thus inflict, as well as endure, more or less damage.
To all this we must add the performance of the states, which can be frost, electricity, sleep… The presence of this element must be considered according to the places and the situation, since our characters will be affected, or not, according to the types mentioned above. . Thus, the management of our team members is an important part that must be taken into account.
Another aspect that we must take into account are the statistics and abilities of our characters, since we can improve them individually with the experience that we obtain from the fights. In this way, we can increase the attributes of our members so that they are more powerful and useful in battle. This adds a certain work progression aspect to the formula, although the truth is that this is somewhat mitigated by the low difficulty presented by skirmishes or the game itself.
Exploration is another of the elements present in the gameplay of the title, which we can achieve through a good variety of scenarios. However, these sometimes feel a bit linear, limiting the player’s freedom and the sense of depth of the locations. On the other hand, the environments have a good design and structure which is determined somewhat based on each character’s unique techniques, as certain regions or areas can only be accessed by using them. For example, Luffy You can use your elastic arms to reach areas inaccessible to the rest, Zoro can cut some elements and Chopper enter through smaller nooks.
As you can see, on a playable level, it’s not that it’s reinventing the wheel or being demanding, it’s more that it lacks any type of challenge. However, the game has a good narrative base with abundant dialogues and conversations, the quality of which is quite good without falling into boredom or inconsistency. In this way we will participate in a good number of lines of text, which is a characteristic of this type of adventure. Concretely, it can fill us a total of 30 or 40 hours
As far as the graphic part is concerned, we find ourselves in front of a quite remarkable work which presents us with very beautiful dream settings, although a little spared in the details. On the other hand, the characters, as well as the enemies or creatures, benefit from a good design and style thanks to a good finish of their modeling and animations. However, the facial expressions are somewhat out of place throughout this collection and they don’t really weigh us down on certain occasions. Technically, the title allows us to choose between the quality mode (4K/30fps) and performance mode (1080p/60fps)among which the biggest difference is in the sharpness of the image, the lighting and the shadows.
Finally, the sound section is of undeniable quality thanks to the fact that the composer of its soundtrack is Motoi Sakuraba (Tales of, Star Ocean, Golden Sun, Dark Souls…). In this way, the compositions accompany the action of the adventure very well, achieving a very good setting. Regarding the dubbing, the voices are only in the original version (Japanese) while the texts are fully translated into Spanish.
conclusion
One Piece Odyssey it served its purpose, being a good tribute to the work of Eiichiro Oda on his 25th birthday. The experience offers us an entertaining, fun and engaging adventure in equal parts, although its gameplay does not involve any difficulty… being rather a charming walk. Therefore, the product will be a good treat for anyone who likes the license, but perhaps falls short for those looking for more depth, originality or ambition.
One Piece Odyssey
69,99$
Advantages
- Good recreation of characters and environments from the license
- Eiichiro Oda’s involvement in development
- A beautiful tribute for the 25th anniversary of One Piece
The inconvenients
- Lack of depth and difficulty in the playable part
- Lacks some polish to facial expressions
- It lacks more freedom of exploration because it is a JRPG