After a bit of a hiatus, Suki and Joe are back to talk all things One Piece. The excitement is rising with Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular manga series with an official statement by Eiichiro Oda. Not just that but the two also catch up on the manga, and discuss the new One Piece Odyssey DLC.
Tag: One Piece Odyssey
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FIRST IMPRESSION: ‘One Piece Odyssey’ Demo Teases Promising JRPG
One Piece is returning in style, as a brand new game is about to release as part of the 25th anniversary of the franchise. One Piece Odyssey was a long-rumored project and might be the franchise’s most ambitious entry into its gaming expansion. It’s the franchise’s first foray into bringing the chaotic Straw Hat crew into the world of JPRGs and trying to bring their unique energy to the normally slower-paced gaming genre. We get a demo release that offers a first look into what we can expect from the full game. As such, here are our first impressions of the game.
The story of One Piece Odyssey is rather straightforward. The Straw Hats were sailing along the seas before a Knock-Up stream shoots them randomly into the sky. With a last attempt to escape, they end up on the mysterious island of Waford. We start the game at the moment when Luffy wakes up and his crew is scattered, which leads to us having to help them find the rest of their crew and meet some locals along the way.
After you wake up on the shore of Waford, you’re pretty much thrown into the game. Most of your characters start off at level 40 with quite a few abilities. It lets you try out every character while getting a tutorial on how the basic combat works. The moment you enter your first encounter you’ll instantly see the basic structure of an RPG at play. Yet, there are some interesting additions that do make it stand out.
The Straw Hats are usually very powerful on their own. So, to ensure no one is nerfed, they created a system that has multiple areas where enemies face a member of the pirate crew. You can move between these zones, but you’ll have to defeat the enemy in front of you to join another. The combat system also allows you to swap out party members per turn to make use of their abilities; though it feels a bit too powerful as theirs no penalty for switching characters on the field or that aren’t on the field.
A lot of work went into the animations of these attacks, which are very authentic and add a lot of charm to this game. Though, sadly these aren’t always translated to the exploration as the game will fade to black with an effect when showing someone attacking a creature in the overworld. Given the work that was put into the models, it does seem like a shame they rely a bit too often on a fade to black to transition from one moment to the next.
One drawback is that the game has not really been challenging as of now. The Straw Hats lose their abilities and reset to Level 1 through the story but you still can one-shot specific enemies. There’s not a lot of challenge and even the puzzles are quite barebones. There’s a chance that may change over the course of the story, but there was rarely a time I had to worry about anyone taking too much damage. Though, that is mostly due to abusing the party change function to just swap out a member that would do more damage.
Still, the mechanics at play are interesting and are fun to play around with. If they start expanding on this system, it would make for a very promising JRPG, especially with the event mechanic where you’ll get a bonus if you fulfill certain requirements. There’s also a chance to use a knockback that takes care of enemies within an area fast; though not as satisfying as the knockback element in Midnight Suns. There are a lot of great elements that make these battles dynamic and interesting, which has me excited to see how they are later in the game.
The only drawback is that the exploration is very slow, especially in the opening area. It’s not uncommon for JRPGs to take some time before they get going, but there are small elements that seem to take up more time than they should. Luffy can swing to an area by stretching his arm, but you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can move again. Once you go the wrong way during a specific sequence, the loading times take longer than they really should. You’ll even have a cutscene before you can explore only to be halted just moving forward to enter another. Pacing issues could be a problem as some aspects might drag out more than they really should.
Still, overall, the game is very promising and the story also offers just enough intrigue to keep new and long-time One Piece fans hooked. They make some deep-cut references that feel like elements to help make Waford feel more like a part of this world. The mystery with the weird floating orb and the cubes is just the perfect amount of bizarre that’ll likely keep players guessing. Also, they nailed the dynamics of the Straw Hats with their little interactions during cutscenes, on the map, or even during cutscenes.
The demo also gets bonus points for letting me save at the end of it, which can be used for once you purchase the full game later on. As such, you’re not forced to replay the entire opening once again and can just leisurely jump in where you left off. Still, the first impression of this game is positive even if some exploration aspects could’ve been tweaked to run longer. With many mini-worlds to visit through memories, it’ll be exciting to see what Bandai Namco has planned for this ambitious JRPG once it releases. From what the demo offers, it definitely is a recommendation for fans of One Piece and worth trying out for those new to it.
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Marineford and Dressrosa Confirmed for ‘One Piece Odyssey’
January will finally see the release of One Piece‘s most ambitious project yet, One Piece Odyssey. The game will explore our favorite Straw Hat pirates revisiting their own history through memories with slight changes adding never before seen challenges. While we still don’t have all the details on the game, Jump has been busy promoting the various storylines that’ll be featured and it seems Jump Festa was used to confirm two more new additions.
It’s unclear if this includes all storylines, but it looks like One Piece Odyssey will include two new additions to its stories, Marineford and Alabasta. Most of the showcases seem to closely follow the stories we know with some rather curious additions such as Sabo joining the confrontation against Donquixote Doflamingo, or Corazon taking Luffy’s place in stopping him from stomping on Trafalgar D. Law.
They shied away from teasing any new events during Marineford, but it’ll be interesting to see how closely they stick to the original tales or how they try to twist them in new and interesting ways. Marineford saw Monkey D. Luffy face the marines on his own with some unlikely help form his time in Impel Down.
Now, he has his crew with him that could make all the difference even if they are powered down due to JRPG logic. One Piece Odyssey is shaping up to be quite an interesting entry in the franchise and might offer something unique even to long-time fans of the franchise. Here’s just hoping they haven’t revealed everything and we also have some East Blue stories in there as well.
Source: Twitter
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Water 7 Arc Will be Featured in ‘One Piece Odyssey’
There were quite a few questions on what we should expect from One Piece‘s latest game that takes a new direction. Unlike the previous game, One Piece is once again exploring the concept of a Straw Hat-focused RPG titled One Piece Odyssey. The story sees our favorite pirates trapped on an island after their ship the Thousand Sunny is surprisingly destroyed.
There were some worries that the game may restrict the team to a rather simple island without much variation. Yet, we were then surprised with the reveal that you’ll be visiting memories of the Straw Hats crews throughout the adventure. That not only confirmed various new locations and storylines to revisit, but it also opened up the question of what storylines may find their way to the story. So far, we only knew about Alabasta but now it seems Water 7 Arc is also going to be playable.
In a tweet shared by @newworldartur, they include an interesting scan that reveals the information on One Piece Odyssey‘s next playable level. It offers the first tease of Kaku’s appearance, who’ll likely be a boss in the storyline, and it also seems that Franky’s original pre-time skip design will be available. It’s unclear though if the character is the one we know from the main storyline, or the straw hats meet a version from their memories.
This new showcase is very likely also going to be followed by a new trailer. The game is set to release in January to kick off the year and is also still part of the 25th anniversary of One Piece. So, we’ll likely find out more once the next trailer drops and gives us a good look at how the adaptation may twist the original story, as it’ll feature Straw Hats that have already lived through these events.
Source: Twitter
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‘One Piece Odyssey’ Started Production in the Middle of the Whole Cake Island Arc
When the first trailer dropped for One Piece Odyssey, a new RPG game set in the world created by Eiichiro Oda, many had started to wonder where the missing Straw Hat member Jimbei was. He joined the crew during the Wano arc but has been built up as a member of the crew ever since they entered Fishman Island. Well, his absence actually connects to when production started on the new One Piece game.
In a new developer diary from Bandai Namco, producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki shared some insight into how they brought the game to life. In it, he reveals that they started work on the project in the middle of the Whole Cake Island Arc. Now, it stands out that Jimbei hasn’t joined the crew officially until the final arc before they were forced to split up. Plus, it implies that they’ve started work on this project all the way back during the arc’s run. So, they approached Oda in 2019 to help out with designs, but they may have been working on the game for around five years now.
So, it’s no wonder that later additions from Wano aren’t also appearing. While they do typically plan things in advance, game production is very time-consuming. They are also working with ILCA to create the JPRG, which offers an island that has its own little world to offer that includes elements from across One Piece‘s long history. There is a chance they might add some newer members to join the Straw Hats through DLC, which would open up the possibility of Jimbei or maybe even characters like Carrot or Yamato to join their cause. So, we’ll see what the game may have to offer.
You can watch the Dev Diary here:
Source: YouTube
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Den Den Murphy Episode 21 – All Things Geeked Week
While Fezzy sadly didn’t make this week’s recording, Joe and Suki are keeping you covered on all things One Piece that has transpired, such as the big showcase during Geeked Week, and new castings for the live-action Netflix series, recapping chapters 1050 and 1051. It’s an episode that shouldn’t be missed out on.
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First Look at the Long-Rumored ‘One Piece: Odyssey’, Confirmed as an JRPG
One Piece fans have been anxiously awaiting any news on the next One Piece-based game and it has finally been unveiled. The title One Piece: Odyssey has finally been unveiled with a full-fledged trailer. Not just that, but we also got the confirmation that it won’t be an action game but rather a JRPG featuring the Straw Hats at the center. The story will be written by the manga’s creator Eiichiro Oda, who also designed the supporting characters and creatures.
That is not all, as we also got a short producer interview teasing what the upcoming project has in store for players that have been long waiting for their change to dive into the next adventure:
The game looks promising and feels like many other modern JRPGs, especially the latest Dragon Quest game. It does seem like you can have three Straw Hats in your party at the same time, but it’s unclear if it’s more moving towards a turn-base style or something more aligned with Final Fantasy 7 or even its Remake. The world certainly looks promising, especially as you’ll have an entire island to explore.
The most interesting aspect is Jinbe’s noticeable absence in the story. We do hear his voice at the end and I wonder if you’ll also be able to recruit other characters from the One Piece world besides the Straw Hats to build your unlikely team of characters. Kid and Law could become additional characters and there were rumors this game would expand beyond it’s initial release. Plus, this is the longest development they’ve ever had on a game of the franchise, which hopefully hints at quite a bit of polish.
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First Tease of the Long-Rumored ‘One Piece Odyssey’
Just recently, we got a tease of what may be a hint that we’ll get our first official look at the upcoming live-action Netflix series for One Piece. It was part of what would end up being six tweets to hype up an announcement on March 28th. Yet, it seems like that was only part of it all, as more tweets arrived teasing even more details such as the upcoming film RED, collectibles, and the manga. Now, it seems that a new duo of photographs has arrived that include a very distinctive visual style similar to One Piece World Seeker. It may be our very first look at the long-rumored One Piece Odyssey game.
As per usual, the photos are only a glimpse into what is coming, but it looks like something happened to the Thousand Sunny that led to our team getting stranded on a new island. The trademark for Odyssey was first revealed back in June of 2021 but wasn’t officially confirmed until July. Around the same time, it was leaked that Spike Chunsoft was supposedly developing the game.
What made it interesting is that you can make an original character, who joins Luffy in a war. It seems that the plan is to turn it into a GaaS like game with future expansions, multiple islands, and RPG elements. Battles would work as a 3D Fighter in the vein of Burning Blood with Devil Fruit and Haki abilities. Originally it was supposedly eyeing an early 2022 release, but it still was never officially announced until our first glimpse today. We’ll see if Monday comes with more news on the project.
