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One Piece Odyssey has arrived and the Straw Hat Pirates find themselves in yet another precarious adventure that puts them off the rails of their journey to find the One Piece. In this new JRPG, the Straw Hat Pirates find themselves in the genre in 3D for the first time. Is the marriage of traditional JRPG mechanics and the One Piece franchise effective? We find out as we take a look at the One Piece Odyssey Review Scores.
One Piece Odyssey came out on January 13, 2023, on PC, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5. In this article, we look at the One Piece Odyssey review scores given by video game media critics through the lens of Metacritic. Is the game good and worth your money? Let's find out.
One Piece Odyssey Review Scores: 82 on PC, 76 on PS5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMbCdCTE4bc
One Piece Odyssey is a turn-based JRPG set in Warford, a new island where the Straw Hat Pirates find themselves marooned and separated from each other. The Straw Hat Pirates meet here Lim, a priestess, who steals the entire crew's abilities, which makes them slightly more reliant on their inherent skills. The Straw Hat Pirates will then have to find their lost abilities to be able to restore their lost abilities and explore Memoria, a world built from their memories, but with slight changes.
The game's story takes place after the Dressrosa arc, which means that any other episodes before and including Dressrosa could appear while players explore the memories of the Straw Hat Pirates in Memoria. Each memory they visit has a twist – a “what if” scenario that plays out a little bit differently from the episodes we watch in the anime. This also gives fans an additional look at the perspectives of other characters in these story beats, effectively fleshing out what we already know about these stories by giving them an extra layer of garnish.
One Piece Odyssey plays out slightly differently compared to other turn-based JRPGs as the game does not have a fixed turn order. Instead, players can choose which of their party members would act first, allowing players to exploit the rock-paper-scissors damage typing system so that they can take out any enemy who would be taking their turn next. One Piece Odyssey is also unique in that it has different “Scramble Areas” that have at least one of your party members in it. Your party members can freely move from one area to another, or swap in with any of your non-active characters. This somehow trivializes most of the game's challenge, and, for better or for worse, players can run through the entire 30 or so hours of the main story without having to grind at all.
For the PS5 version of the game, One Piece Odyssey received a Metacritic review score of 76. The game's PC version received an 82 Metacritic score.
Shack News calls One Piece Odyssey “the JRPG that fans have wanted for an excruciatingly long time” in its 9/10 review for the game. It lists its original story (separate from the anime and manga) as a huge plus, as well as the players' ability to revisit past events in the One Piece story as the cherry on top. Shack News also praised the game's take on turn-based JRPG gameplay, its generous rewards to side quests and exploration as well as in crafting, and the game's genuine and entertaining banter between its characters. However, the review noted as the game's weak point its slow and jarring pacing, with some chapters and cutscenes feeling like they were rushed.
Among the middling reviews, IGN gave One Piece Odyssey a review score of 7/10. Reviewer Mitchell Saltzman summarizes his review as follows: “One Piece Odyssey proves that a classic turn-based RPG is a good genre fit for the world and characters of One Piece, and that makes it rewarding despite a lack of tension in its all-too-easy fights and some frustrating quest design that pads out its length.”
However, it's not all roses among reviewers, as there are some that gave One Piece Odyssey a poor review. One of them includes CGMagazine's review of the game that only gave One Piece Odyssey a measly 4/10. Reviewer Preston Dosza's review reads: “One Piece Odyssey is a slog to play, with horrendous pacing and progression issues destroying what little good can be found in the story and combat.”
Needless to say, the good reviews of One Piece Odyssey show that it's a great game to pick up, especially if you're a One Piece fan. If you're a JRPG enthusiast, then it might be worth checking out One Piece Odyssey's unique take – even just through a demo. But it's not an essential, much less a must-play, so if you're neither a fan of JRPGs or One Piece, then you can sleep deeply without having played Odyssey.
