With over 50 online game diversifications, there’s been all kinds of One Piece video games over the previous 20 years. However, Bandai Namco’s newest sport based mostly on the collection, One Piece Odyssey, is perhaps its grandest voyage but, due to its contemporary tackle role-playing video games and the involvement of collection creator Eiichiro Oda.
After testing the opening three hours of the turn-based RPG, which runs between 40 to 60 hours relying on how distracted by facet quests you get, its battle system caught out and was essentially the most spectacular half. The precise placement of the 4 get together members comes into play since they’ll both get surrounded by foes or be compelled to solely assault the enemies of their fast neighborhood. This means gamers should improvise their methods and never simply follow the identical formulation for each battle. Story-based battles generally even go a step additional by including in standing results or particular circumstances that tie into the narrative and alter issues up even additional.
The battles will largely be acquainted to anybody that has performed an RPG earlier than, as you’ll be able to carry out fundamental assaults, use your expertise that value vitality, or deploy objects throughout every flip. Skills fall into three classes — energy, pace, and method — which creates a rock-paper-scissors dynamic to battles as sure expertise are extra highly effective in opposition to particular enemy sorts. You rapidly get a fairly big range of expertise, and that helps hold battles fascinating as you’ll end up switching between them very often (thus decreasing seeing the identical transfer animation a million occasions as nicely).
There are 4 characters energetic in battles, however One Piece followers will know isn’t the total crew. Thankfully, the others (except Brook, who has misplaced his bodily kind in the intervening time) are instantly out there in your reserve crew and could be summoned mid-battle to exchange a present member. It’s not not like Pokémon the place bringing in a brand new member can change the tide of battle by having vitality reserves or a sort benefit.
A operate known as dramatic scenes additionally livens up battles by giving gamers a particular bonus goal, be it utilizing a sure character to defeat an enemy or ending them off in a specified variety of turns. Completing these doesn’t solely hold the low-stakes battles extra fascinating however in addition they include additional expertise factors. It’s filled with lots of small tweaks and enhancements which have made a well-known fight system really feel distinct and contemporary, which is tough to do inside a style that has largely stayed the identical for 40 years.
Every side of One Piece Odyssey is as well-thought-out as exploring new and acquainted locales is simply as thrilling because the fight. Each member of the Straw Hat Pirates has their very own overworld skills, resembling Luffy’s stretchy arms that assist her swing to far-off cliffs or Chopper’s diminutive measurement that will get him by small gaps. Enemies are additionally seen straight within the atmosphere, so there are fortunately no shock random battles, and could be sneaked up upon to realize a fight benefit, properly mixing exploration with battles.
Odyssey begins off fairly linear, nevertheless it begins to open up fairly a bit within the second chapter. This provides gamers extra of a motive to discover, as there are bounties to tackle and loads of facet quests to find. One early facet quest had the Kung-Fu Dugongs, a bunch of martial arts-loving marine mammals that view Luffy as their sensei, so long-time followers can anticipate loads of nice callbacks. A lot of care has seemingly gone into them, thus giving gamers causes to have interaction with the facet content material as they don’t seem like simply throwaway battles.
“Small improvements and tweaks have made a strong formulation even higher“
Odyssey‘s story, which was written by Oda, is also quite clever in its implementation. It starts with Luffy’s crew crashing right into a mysterious island and Nami discovering herself at risk after a big ape takes a liking to her. After a intelligent “abili-tease” part that blends a boss encounter with a tutorial, the Straw Hats get stripped of their energy. It’s then on the gamers to get their expertise again by reliving some previous reminiscences (the place previous foes turn into even stronger) and expertise new occasions in some iconic places, such because the cities of Water 7 and Alabasta. It is basically a method for the sport to have its cake and eat it too, as a result of it will get to make use of beloved locales and foes whereas nonetheless providing up a contemporary story that doesn’t comply with the manga beat for beat.
Every side of One Piece Odyssey appears to be like to be intelligently designed in a method that’s concurrently welcoming and rewarding. The RPG fight is easy to grasp however seems to have sufficient new layers to remain fascinating even for veterans of the style. Small improvements and tweaks have made a strong formulation even higher and this has all of the potential to be top-of-the-line and most bold anime sport choices in latest reminiscence if the completed product retains the identical stage of high quality all through.
Disclaimer: The critic was flown out and offered lodging by Bandai Namco to participate on this preview occasion.
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