As the series celebrates its 25th anniversary, it’s easy to see whyOne Piecehas gone on to become the highest-selling manga series of all time. For a quarter of a century, Eiichiro Oda has told some of the most touching and intense stories ever put to paper. The popularity of both the original manga and its anime adaptation are testaments to the consistent quality of Oda’s manga. With its latest announcement,One Pieceis also likely gearing up to deliver its best video game yet withOne Piece Odyssey.
One Piece’s history with video games has been rocky ever since the series got its start in 1997. Some titles like Koei Tecmo’sOne Piece: Pirate Warriorsseries have seen some amount of commercial and critical success. However, the series' video game representation pales in comparison to other contemporary manga and anime franchises likeDragon BallandNaruto, which have respectful, if not always critically acclaimed video game adaptations. This could change later this year, however, asOne Piece Odysseyis looking to be the perfectOne Piecegamefor both die-hard fans of the series and newcomers.
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The Problem With One Piece Games
One Pieceis a series that has been running with on/off weekly chapters for almost 25 years now, resulting on over 1000 chapters of non-stop storytelling. Retaining an audience for so long is no small feat, and even the most groundbreaking manga series of all time amount toonly a fraction of the story content available inOne Piece.
Being the globetrotting adventure that it is,One Piece’s world has gone on to become one of the most identifiable and fleshed out lands of storytelling in media, with every aspect of it being fleshed out in intense detail, while still retaining an air of mystery, and many of its secrets still yet to be revealed. This, of course, makes it ripe for fleshing out through media like video games, especially with the rise of open-world games over the years.
Unfortunately, this is not an area manyOne Piecegames wish to explore. Many of the early adaptations ofOne Piecewere,like franchises such asDragon BallandJoJobefore it, fairly simple fighting games featuring elements and characters from the series. While these games certainly have their qualities and fans, this style of game was never a perfect fit forOne Piece, a series primarily about instilling a sense of adventure and propelled by the strength of its writing and characters.
Recent games such as theUnlimitedseries andWorld Seekerhave tried to explore the franchise’s worldand create new settings. However, execution has been somewhat lacking, withWorld Seekerin particular dropping the player into an empty world with little to no personality.
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One Piece Odyssey’s Spirit of Adventure
From the first trailer forOne Piece Odyssey, however, it appears that new developer Ilca’s motivations are different. With a story penned by Eiichiro Oda himself revolving around the Straw Hats being stranded on a mysterious new island, and a focus on RPG style exploration and battling,One Piece Odysseyalready features one of the most exciting premisesfor a video game the series has ever seen.
The game’s premise revolves around the Straw Hats being separated after the Thousand Sunny is thrown off-course by an unpredicted storm. This causes the crew to attempt to gather as much information and explore the mysterious new island they find themselves stranded upon before they can leave.
There’s a key element to the setup forOdysseythat’s been missing inOne Piecegames up until now - an air of mystery. IfOdysseypromises to reveal the secrets of its mysterious new island, it needs to allow players to feel like they are directly involved in helping the Straw Hats investigate it. If the game can nail this, it will at least come close tomatching the magic of arcs such asSkypieaandThriller Bark.
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One of the most promising elements of the trailer is the focus on interactions between the Straw Hats. While Jimbe is unfortunately nowhere to be seen, most fans will agree thatthe biggest strength ofOne Pieceis its wonderful cast of characters, mainly the Straw Hat Pirates themselves. An unfortunate element of the always present intensity of the story is that Oda is very rarely able to make time for the Straw Hats to act like a family aboard the Thousand Sunny.
This is something that was somewhat common during the early part of the series, and something that spin-off media still takes time to squeeze in today. There are already shots of the group around a campfire inOdysseypromising some bonding sequences JRPGs have become synonymous with nowadays.
Fans expectingOne Piece Odysseyto tie into the main manga are likely in for disappointment, evenspin-off media Oda is directly involved with, such asOne Piece: Film ZandOne Piece: Film Gold, rarely have specific parts that branch off directly from any point in the manga. However, on some level, these projects are considered canon.
Anime fans are likely used to time being taken to set up the events of these films through filler arcs, such as theHeart of Goldtie-in special forFilm: Gold. With any luck,Odysseywill also feature one of these tie-in arcs. However, this doesn’t seem likely, asOne Piece: Film Redis also slated to release this year. That is likely to be more of a focus for the anime if it is to take any attention away from the incredibly tenseWano-kuniarc.
There’s plenty of potential inOne Piece Odysseyfor fans of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running manga to latch onto, but even more so than any other video game based onOne Piece, this title looks to be delivering on the concepts and ideas fans have theorized for years for a potentialOne PieceJRPG. There’sno few party members to center an RPG around than the Straw Hat Pirates, a crew fans have spent over 1000 chapters with over the course of 25 years of content.
Given ILCA’s passion for the franchise dedicated in its reveal trailer and producer interview, there’s reason to believe this will be the perfect game forOne Piecefans looking to recapture the series' sense of adventure, in the form of a sprawling video game.
One Piece Odysseywill release on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022.
