3.5/5 ★ – Lammy's review of One Piece Odyssey.

One Piece Odyssey + Reunion of Memories DLC Post-Plat Review: Ya-yo, ya-yo-ho-ho! One Piece Odyssey is a 2023 JRPG side story adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's seemingly neverending shonen manga, One Piece. Taking place some time between the end of the Dressrosa arc and the end of the Whole Cake Island arc (chapters 801-902), Odyssey features the Straw Hat Pirates (minus Jinbe, who is not yet a member when the game takes place) crashing on Waford Island due to a sudden and bizarre storm. While there, they meet the explorer Adio and a strange young girl named Lim. Lim's mysterious powers result in the Straw Hats' abilities being removed and scattered across a memory world, so the team must venture into approximations of their past adventures in Alabasta, Water Seven, Marineford and Dressrosa to reclaim their lost power and solve the mystery of Waford. The story is neat for a spinoff, offering a good enough excuse to revisit classic One Piece arcs and characters without drastically affecting the main universe and giving the now more matured crew a chance to interact with versions of old friends and enemies they haven't seen in ages. The gameplay mechanics used to execute on this story do leave a bit to be desired. Maps are huge and movement is slow, especially in the early game, so actually getting around and doing things can be tedious; a large number of main and sidequests require backtracking or hunting for unmarked objects in these maps, compounding the issue. The game's turn-based combat is also a mixed bag. Every character has a variety of abilities and attacks used to gain an advantage in fights, with flashy animations to match. However, a combination of a rock-paper-scissors typing system, a very hard to manage equipment system, and the game's use of a "zoning" system to separate enemies into discrete areas within battle can make fights drag on far longer than needed and greatly reduces the usefulness of a few characters like Robin, Usopp and to an extent, Sanji and Nami. Don't get me wrong, I had fun with the world, the story, and the combat, but there were definitely times where the combination of slow navigation and slow fighting made the game a bit of a slog. The game received a post-launch DLC called "Reunion of Memories", which adds an epilogue chapter and several new bossfights, but I honestly can't recommend it unless you really enjoy the game. Several of the fights stretch the combat system to its breaking point while also introducing new mechanics to further slow down already tedious battles, and the story additions don't really improve on the game's already effective ending. Overall, One Piece Odyssey is a competent game that tells an enjoyable story but stumbles sometimes in how it chooses to express that story through gameplay. It's still fun, and I think it's worthwhile for One Piece fans or lovers of turn based combat, but it's by no means a must play. 7/10