News game One Piece Odyssey: How does the game fit into the manga?
Published on 06/01/2023 at 15:49
Expected next January 13 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, One Piece Odyssey seems to be the arrival of a video game finally faithful to the manga created by Eiichiro Oda. But if this title constitutes an original script, do we have to be up to date with the main story? We will explain everything to you.
Summary
One Piece Odyssey: At what point in the story does the game take place? I want to play One Piece Odyssey: do I have to have seen it all or read it all?
One Piece Odyssey: when does the game take place in the story?
It is today the best-selling manga in France: One Piece dethroned Dragon Ball in 2021 with a record year (more than five million copies sold in France). What to affirm that, in spite of the 103 volumes published since 1999 in France, the density of the work created by Eiichiro Oda frightens less and less. Its fans must also wait firmly for One Piece Odyssey, the next video game adaptation of the pirate universe announced last year for the 25th anniversary of the manga.
It will be the first to borrow a turn-based combat system and displays an original story supervised by the creator himself. Luffy and his comrades are shipwrecked and end up on Wafford Island. They will lose their powers there and will have to relive their own memories to find them and leave Wafford.
Without going into great detail, it’s pretty easy to see how this original, non-canon story (which isn’t part of the main story set of facts) fits into the manga. Looking at Luffy et al.’s appearance, it’s clear that One Piece Odyssey takes place after the timeskip. However, during several narrative arcs after this one, the members of the Straw Hat crew are rarely all together. If there has therefore been a shipwreck with the entire crew (without Jinbei who joins the Straw Hats during the Whole Cake Island arc), Odyssey then takes place around the arc of the island at the latest by Zou.
I want to play One Piece Odyssey: should I have seen everything or read everything?
Do you have to be up to date in the volumes and/or in the anime to play One Piece Odyssey? Technically not, insofar as this is an original story that is not canon. However, precautions are necessary. As mentioned above, Luffy’s crew will have to face their own memories to recover their powers. To do so, they will survey the memory world. Now, this memorial world makes him relive several manga’s major story arcs : Alabasta, Water Seven, the war of Marineford and Dressrosa for the last chronological. Each will return to major events that took place in the main story: if some One Piece fans are not up to date with the anime or manga, so footage may spoil them. It is therefore necessary to at least finish the narrative arc of Dressrosa to be sure not to be surprised.
In addition to the memory world that will allow you to (re)live certain major moments of One Piece, the video game also borrows several mechanics which should allow (on paper) to reinforce the immersion and to be faithful to the work of Eiichiro Oda. Definitive answer on January 13 with the release of One Piece Odyssey on PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
