I’ve been consuming Japanese cartoons since I was a teenager. It’s more than 20 years of stories, romances, fights and outlandish hairstyles with the most diverse themes and stories, the result of the authors’ infinite ability to imagine completely original characters and plots. Now in my thirties there is only one anime series that I follow with any regularity: One piece. Eichiro Oda’s masterpiece, a shonen about a boy who aspires to become the new Pirate King, has kept me glued to the screen (and, to a lesser extent, manga reading) for two decades. During this time it has gone through different phases of more or less quality in its story and in its animation, and I think that this idea can also be applied to the video games that have come along over time.
The One Piece story didn’t have a good translation from the pages or the weekly episodes on the video games. And less story-focused titles like the series Musu One Piece: Pirate Warriors managed to pull out some of the essence of what it means to be a member of Monkey D. Luffy’s crew, others like One Piece: World Seeker failed miserably to offer an experience worthy of his honors the n ame. And now we come to One Piece Odyssey, a totally original installment with Oda-san’s hand behind it to design two of the new main characters and shape its story that celebrates 25 years of the franchise.
In this Mugiwaras crew odyssey we find the crew shipwrecked on a mysterious island called Waford, where an ancient power lies dormant while the world government seeks to protect it. While attempting to repair the ship and recover their belongings (like Brook’s corpse sunken at sea), they are surprised by two islanders. limit j Taking leave. They are both quite suspicious of Luffy and his friends’ pirate status, with Lim notably using his devil fruit to “forget” their abilities. Although the misunderstanding is quickly resolved, the memories of the most powerful abilities that allow them to face their final phase in the quest for One Piece lead them to enter Memoria, the world of memories, where they meet some versions of some must “remember” his best adventures in order to regain his fighting skills.
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The premise could very well pass as the apocryphal saga of the original anime, and certainly both The design of the island of Waford, as well as the structure into which the adventure is divided, is the best that we will find in Odyssey. The different memories of the band (such as Alabasta, Water 7 or Dressrosa) mean that, albeit fictional, we see some great characters and allies from the history of Luffy, while we return to face and defeat the great villains of the sagas, stronger than ever in the world of memories. Also, Odyssey has the best design and animation for a One Piece game yet, easily surpassing World Seeker. Both the characters in the scenes and the design of each environment, animal or object are taken into account. A sign of respect from ILCA for the work of ODa. But soon the waters get rough, and unfortunately One Piece Odyssey’s approach as a purely manual JRPG mars the experience almost from the start.
Because the “open” world of Odyssey (I’ll come back to that later) is explored based on that Dialogues with characters, complete generic missions such as “defeat a specific enemy” or “collect a specific number of items” and crush enemies in turn-based combat with an option scheme present since the first Dragon Quests: attack, ability, object or group option menu. And end. It does not add any extra or fresh element to the formula. You just have to consider a strengths-weaknesses system (a rock-paper-scissors formula of strength, speed, and technique) that sounds just as silly as the child’s game comparison. Abilities are restored and upgraded by collecting character-specific light cubes. In the same way, in the scattered camps where the party can stop, we can consult the enemies’ encyclopedia, cook dishes and craft ammunition to later use them as power-ups in battle. And apart from some laugh-out-loud dialogue, the approach is the same for many, many hours.
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And it so happens that much of the world (which would have worked perfectly with the graphics jump) remains nothing but very wide ways and corridors natural surroundings, so you will also have to move uncomfortably and slowly, as I mentioned in my first impressions of the game. Spending an hour on the clock, wandering between two map sections, picking up items off the ground and completing a quest, just talking between two distant NPCs and carrying a special item is no fun. It could have been years ago, but it’s something not even the purists of the RPG genre remember with passion. Those endless “meal hour” stretches that lengthen like chewing gum A game that would be perfect if its duration was reduced by 60%
One Piece Odyssey is a game that manganime fans will like, but be warned about it it will be a slow ride, harrowing and sometimes even boring. Of course there are some good and notable things: the story is great, both for the “new” part and for the memories of the past, and it would work perfectly if the rhythm as it is shown was consistent.
In addition to the character designs, animations and the environment, the game has a fantastic soundtrack and has the impeccable work of the original voice actors of the series of television to keep making jokes and making us smile with every situation we share with these characters that have been with us for so many years. But that’s what other One Piece games have told in the past, and the point here was to dispel any doubt that might exist about translating this great story to the video game medium. And Odyssey won’t be the title for it either.