Over the years I have attempted to watch the One Piece anime, but I can’t do it, not because of the characters or storyline, but rather just with how dated the early episodes look today. Given that the series started airing in 1999 and there are over 1,000 episodes, there is a lot of story to catch up on. It is knowing that, that each time a new game comes out I think, this might be the game to get me to watch the series, but with One Piece Odyssey, I don’t think I have to.

If you skip the intro movie, then you might feel lost in the opening moments of the game, but thankfully it does play during the first hour or so, giving you a chance to watch it again. Captain Monkey D. Luffy, the leader of the Straw Hat Crew are sailing the Grand Line, when a freak storm sends their ship into the air and eventually crashing back into the ocean below, but it sinks. The crew wash up on the shores of a mysterious island called Waford and while separate first, they quickly find each other and begin to learn about this exciting and dangerous place. Soon after though, the crew are stripped of their powers and abilities, meaning they get reset back to Level 1 and have to reclaim them. Helping them on their quest is Aido, another castaway that washed ashore some time ago and has learnt a bit about the island. The powers the crew have left them in the forms of cubes, smaller ones are scattered about the island and can be absorbed without issue. The larger ones though, they are guarded by the islands Guardians, only they are too big to be taken in naturally and instead the crew must venture into them, reliving past experiences, in order to unlock more powers.

The first memory you visit is set in Alabasta, where Luffy and the gang fought Baroque Works and its leader, Crocodile. But as is explained over time memories become fuzzy and the details they thought they knew, have changed slightly. I won’t go into any more of the story, as it is worth experiencing for yourself, the best part though is that newcomers will finally be welcomed. Because each of the memories that you go into explains some core parts of the series history and with the new characters that you meet, all the characters in the crew get introduced. Fans of the series won’t feel like they are being pandered too either, its not a baby’s first One Piece, there are still mentions of things that I had no clue about. The problem that I had with the story though is the pacing, there are times when you get sent on a critical mission, but then are forced to be sidetracked by inane quests and it just breaks the flow.

When it comes to the gameplay, there are two distinct sides, the exploration and the battles, lets talk about the former. Exploring the island and the various locations you visit is decent, I will be honest there are times when you should be able to jump onto things and can’t, but outside of that its fine. Each member of the crew has a unique ability that can be used in the world, Luffy can use his elastic body to zipline up to high places, Chopper can crawl through small tunnels and Sanji can sniff out ingredients for cooking meals. Some of the abilities are only useable at given times, while you can run around as Chopper, unless there is a tunnel nearby, it really doesn’t matter. Nami on the other hand, she can sniff out extra cash that is lying around the world, so running around as her can quickly build up your reserves. The only downside to the exploration is that the locations are not fully open, you will often be funnelled down narrow passages, as the game takes you from one locale to another. Given that Japanese made games have not really embraced the open world concept fully, this is not unexpected, but it is a bit of a letdown to see none the less.

The other side of the gameplay comes down to battles, which take a unique turn based approach, one that I don’t recall seeing in any other game. When you start a fight, your team will be spread out across the field, sometimes you might have two characters beside each other, sometimes not. Enemies will often be spread out as well and the result is that Luffy can only attack the enemies nearest to him first, if there are none, he can select another enemy and move towards it. Positions are not something you can manually control, they are sorted on their own, but it does impact the outcome of enemy attacks, they can’t hit you if you are not there. Most of the battle system can be explained by the Rock-Paper-Scissors system, as characters and enemies are assigned types. Power beats Speed, Speed trumps Technique and Technique is superior to Power, so ensuring that the character you are using to attack has the advantage is crucial. What is nice is that at any point, you can swap characters out, so if you have Nami in battle and she is weak against her opponent, you can swap her for Robin or Sanji, if they are better matched. As for the attacks themselves, there are two types, the basic attack and the special attack. Basics are just that, basic and each time you do it, you can deal out some damage to enemies, higher level or special enemy types may be more immune to those attacks though. The special attacks require TP in order to execute, that can be earnt from using a Basic attack and restored slowly over time. These attacks can dish out damage far greater than what you can normally do and some of them are even area based, which can help take down large groups. Enemies will slowly build up their attack chance over a few turns and you can target enemies that are going to attack after your next, in order to avoid taking damage, it is a great little system.

Combat is generally pretty fast, especially if you enter as many random battles as you can to level up faster, but the game does throw some big difficulty spikes at you. Whenever these occurred, I had to make use of as many tricks as I could get away with and as each character has special abilities in combat, Chopper being a doctor means they can heal, balancing the team is quite important. Once you have made some progress in the game, you will unlock combo attacks, letting your team deliver massive amounts of damage. The only catch is that the higher your team unity, the more devastating the attack will be, so you have to balance on when to use it. Combat can also be impacted by badges, which can add extra HP to a character, give them more defence points and so on, so modifying those can also give you a boost if you need it. While not a terribly complex system, battles just come across as fun, they never overstay their welcome and each time they happen, the chatter between the crew, usually provides a laugh.

That brings up an interesting point, the crew and their speech. The game offers up a mostly fully voiced audio track but it is only in Japanese, so fans of the dub of the anime are going to be letdown. The original Japanese cast of the anime all stepped in to record the lines for their characters, so it is an authentic sounding experience there. The games musical score is also quite wonderful, even when you enter a Hysteria, each melody feels appropriate for the area and of course a few familiar One Piece themes will sneak on it.

Where things shine for me though is with the games visual presentation, there is no denying that the game is very colourful. From the opening moments on the beach, to the deserts of Alabasta and the fortress like Marineford, each place looks great as do the characters that call the world home. Luffy, Nami, Chopper and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew all look great, they are vibrant in their colours, but more so in their actions and reactions. The only issue is that there is no sync between the words they are saying and the mouth movement, which does give off the ‘bad dub’ vibe. When you are running around the world and characters are having conversations, this is not an issue, but it is something to be aware of. The world itself though, there is something special about it, every single texture has lines through it, usually they number around 8 short strokes, which then criss-cross over everything. These lines add a look of a hand drawn or painted style, which helps connect the game visually to the original manga and anime. While the world is bright and colourful, it is not perfectly created, due to those lines and for me it really brings the world together in the best way possible.

One Piece Odyssey is an extremely welcoming and well put together RPG, one that long time fans of the series and even newcomers will be able to enjoy. The pacing of the story does suffer, with the game constantly trying to get in your way to explain things, but when it does let you play, the fun is just incredible. Combat is straightforward and should be understandable for most players without too much effort, but if you don’t treat it right, it will kick your butt. The world is vibrant, as are the characters and both feature this wonderful hand drawn look, thanks to some incredible texture work. If you are looking for a fun RPG, that contains a good 70+ hours of quests to complete and some interesting characters to go along with, then this is one game you should chart a course for.