While the end date for the One Piece anime saga is approaching, it feels like this franchise is just getting started.

Between a live action Netflix adaptation expected this year and the most expansive One Piece game to date, the future seems to be in real ship shape. Timely, considering it’s the franchise’s 25th Anniversary.

One Piece Odyssey is a departure from the previous One Piece Warriors series and is somewhat closer to One Piece World Seeker, except it’s bigger, more open, and looks absolutely glorious in 4K.

Luffy’s band of straw hat pirates is all intact, from Nami to Usopp, but their abilities are not. After getting shipwrecked on a forgotten island, the crew’s powers are stolen and stored in mystical cubes after encountering the mysterious, Lim.

Lim really doesn’t like pirates and considering Luffy’s end goal is to be the king of them all, well, they don’t really get off on the right foot. Otherwise this would be an entirely different game, really.

And thankfully it isn’t a different game because Odyssey might just be my biggest surprise this year. This is a deep, rewarding, well designed, and engaging RPG from the first to the last. I’ve played many One Piece games in the past, bouncing off most, but this one just kept me hooked.

Perhaps it’s because the game has a real Dragon Quest XII vibe to it. Echoes of an Elusive Age is one of my favourite RPGs in recent memory and this feels quite close to it and not just through its art style. The mechanics have been expanded upon in some areas, drawn back in others.

One thing Odyssey brings to the table which I want to see from more RPGs is the alternating leader system. Luffy’s the star of the show, of course, but you can actually change the lead character of your party at any time at the tap of a button

You’ll make use of each of the character’s unique abilities to find hidden clues, reach distant platforms and even venture into tight spaces. This keeps the overworld element of the game fresh, meaning there’s lots of optional areas to discover, and equally makes progressing through the story continually interesting.

This also helps as you’ll find the aforementioned cubes which can then be used to skill up each of your characters and help them regain their lost power. While the game has a leveling up system, the cubes are used to boost their unique battle skills at any point. And when you want to mix things up, you can redistribute these easily and at any point, but making sure you use them at all is important to keep on top of battles.

Despite focusing on individual ability, the combat system in Odyssey does actually make good use of team work as well with collaborative actions that are built up via a bond system which you can feed into throughout battle.

Every time you heal a buddy or you fight an enemy that’s attacking an ally or you take someone out, you build up trust with one another and can eventually pull off a sequence of moves known as Bond Arts together to down foes. Collaborations are formed once you’ve cleared a Memory Link, a crystal which transports a random series of characters to a distant location to face unique challenges.

Beyond that, One Piece Odyssey plays out like a well-defined RPG. There’s tons of side quests, lots of optional bounties to take on, characters are given their moment in the spotlight and the world is enjoyable and interesting enough to explore.

It definitely helps if you’re familiar with the source material as there’s a ton of nods and references piled throughout and this could put potential players off or confuse those who are trying to figure out the nuances of the plot, but the content is enjoyable enough to see you through a lot of that.

There’s a few sub missions which are a bit time consuming and fetch quest’y, which draw things out longer than necessary and some may find the difficulty a bit on the lower side, but I absolutely loved exploring, playing through and uncovering all of Odyssey’s secrets.

Verdict

One Piece Odyssey is the best One Piece game to date. It’s full of depth, substance, style, and even offers something different to the genre. Everything comes together in a well presented and structured end product that is surprisingly enjoyable from start to finish.

2023 has started with a big surprise and one that’s a perfect fit for this enduring world.

Pros

+ Beautifully presented JRPG that stands shoulder to shoulder with the genre’s best
+ Interesting mechanics that offer something fresh and enjoyable to the genre
+ An engaging story that One Piece fans are going to love.