One Piece Odyssey is the next game in the popular manga's ever-expanding spinoff library, and at first glance, it looks like a Straw Hat Pirate take on Dragon Quest.
Bandai Namco announced the game earlier today and confirmed a 2022 release date for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Like many popular anime and manga, One Piece already has a massive roster of middling-to-bad tie-in games, but unlike most of them, One Piece Odyssey apparently isn't a generic brawler or fighting game. Instead, it's being pitched as a full-fat JRPG that's been in the works for "many years," which is already more promising than the usual anime fare.
Producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki described the game as a "JRPG project offering a One Piece adventure experience like never before" in the announcement trailer. He says it's "probably the first title that has been developed so meticulously over an extended period of time," giving it a leg up on the annual tie-ins that many anime fans are likely accustomed to.
The gameplay snippets woven into the reveal trailer show third-person exploration in an open world, complete with dungeons, environmental puzzles, climbable walls, and grappling hook anchors. The trailer is light on gameplay, to the point that we can't even confidently determine whether it's turn-based or action-driven, but we'd bet on the latter given Bandai's pedigree.
The world and characters look pretty dang good, almost like One Piece filtered through Square Enix's Dragon Quest 11, and that's partly thanks to the efforts of original manga creator Eiichiro Oda, who contributed character and monster designs for Odyssey. Bandai adds that the settings explored in the One Piece manga and anime served as the foundation for the game's world, apparently centered around a mysterious island. It also notes that Dark Souls and Tales of composer Motoi Sakuraba worked on the music, which is exciting in its own right.
Speaking of which, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate will apparently change up the combat and aim for a darker tone.
