With a new universe, but well designed by the creator of the manga, One Piece Odyssey cast off this Friday, January 13 on consoles and PC. The opportunity to find Luffy and his friends in an adventure game.
Luffy and the Straw Hat crew have been successfully criss-crossing the manga planet for 25 years. Since the very first volumes in 1997 in Japan, more than 500 million books have passed around the world. The saga One Piece has more than 100 volumes now, but also an anime adaptation that has crossed 1045 episodes, added to already 14 feature films. And to top it off, the manga knows this Friday, January 13 the release of the 40th video game from its universe, One Piece Odyssey.
France did not have the right to all the opuses (21). I have to say that One Piece the manga did not arrive until 2003 as an anime version and only five films were distributed on the big screen, the last of which One Piece: Red last August, with convincing success for the franchise (nearly a million admissions). One Piece Odyssey is therefore particularly awaited by fans, while its creator has announced a break in writing.
An original story with the touch of its creator
And they won’t be disappointed as the game published by Bandai Namco perfectly incorporates the codes that made the success of the story created by Eiichiro Oda. The latter has also participated in the writing of a new universe which is located between the narrative arcs of the return of Sabaody and the island of the fish men, but also in the drawing of the fauna and flora. However, the game offers a completely original story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSTWLAfLm6I
“One Piece Odyssey is one of the rare manga adapted as an adventure game and not as a fighting game”, welcomes Thibault Chuffart, game manager. One Piece released, we already offer titles for all tastes, whether it’s combat, adventure, piracy… But we wanted to focus Odyssey on exploration and adventure.” The game is presented as a mixture of exploration of a role-playing game and turn-based combat where you have to know how to combine the talents of the characters to eliminate opposing monsters.
We thus find Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin and Franky shipwrecked on the island of Waford, their boat the Thousand Sunny destroyed. They will have to join forces once again and travel the island to try to retake the seas by storm and set off again on a treasure hunt. Only problem: they find themselves deprived of their powers. For the occasion, two new characters are appearing especially for the game.
Convince fans, seduce newcomers
For the rest, One Piece Odyssey has worked to get closer to the original story and the codes of the animated series like films. Visually first of all with characters with facial expressions and reactions modeled on their doubles on the small or big screen. The game is played in Japanese with French subtitles to keep in mind.
“Connoisseurs of One Piece as the novices of the universe will be able to enjoy the game”, assures Thibault Chuffart who explains that the initial tutorial is as much to take control of the game as to discover the characters of the story. Because Luffy will not be the only one to control during the game. “We added memories to take up iconic moments from the manga as a wink for the fans, to give background to the characters to know everything about them with their biography too”. To stay in the Japanese atmosphere, everything is carried by music by Motoi Sakuraba, a composer known for the Dark Souls and others Tales of, strong examples of Japanese role-playing.
The fans of One Piece and video games should not be disappointed by this title which is completed in about thirty hours after multiple tactical battles. The handling ofOdyssey is quite intuitive, even for newcomers who do not necessarily know the strengths of each character. Regulars will enjoy enjoying the cutscenes that will bring back good memories, while waiting for the next live action series that Netflix is preparing.
One Piece Odyssey is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and pc.
