ON THE CRUISE

ONE PIECE ODYSSEY is an easy-going JRPG romp through the manga's history

- Dominic Tarason

Twenty-five years ago, Half-Life hit PC, the first PlayStation ruled supreme and a little pirate adventure manga called One Piece began. Now I’m pushing 40, greying and still enjoying the ongoing adventures of rubberised ruffian Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates. Celebrating a quarter-century at sea, the crew are off on a grand JRPG voyage with One Piece Odyssey: a sprawling, charming adventure that creaks under its own scope.

If you’ve no idea what One Piece is, or have only seen a few episodes of the anime, Odyssey probably isn’t for you. It’s set around 750 episodes into the anime, and assumes knowledge of its characters, their abilities, and their histories. On top of that, most of the game is dedicated to (loosely) retelling the events of four major story arcs, these reprised adventures bookended by a story written specifically for the game.

While manga author Eiichiro Oda had minimal input in Odyssey’s story, he did contribute some concepts and creature designs, including some adorably doofy monsters. Odyssey strands Luffy and crew on Waford, a forgotten island inhabited by a pair of new characters: big-haired explorer Adio and mysterious local girl Lim, who magically strips the crew of their powers before realising they’re the good kind of pirates. While mercifully no one has amnesia, the Straw Hat crew have forgotten how to fight, so they’re off on an adventure to recover the memory cubes holding their lost battle prowess, and then into the World of Memory to relive four of their most important adventures and brush up on their beatdowns.