Parents' Guide to One Piece Odyssey

This is a fun but flawed RPG (role-playing game). One Piece Odyssey will appeal to One Piece fans, who will eat up the many hours of dialog (in Japanese, with English subtitles) between the Straw Hat Crew, when they're not battling. It doesn't feel like it's an action-RPG awkwardly "shoe-horned" into the One Piece universe. It legit feels like a One Piece game with a heavy emphasis on fighting. Visually, it's probably the best-looking One Piece game to date, with imaginative monsters and attractive set pieces. On the audio front, the game boasts an impressive orchestral music, too.

While fighting, you'll quickly learn how to select attacks (based on what you're up against), plus you can freely switch out characters with someone else in your crew, and each has their own style and weapons. Leveling up happens often, and you can engage in random skirmishes to gain experience (or accept optional challenges, such as clearing out an area of enemies before a crewmate is knocked out). Battles are quite easy to win, especially when you grasp the rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Most characters are divided into Power, Speed, or Technique groups. Power trumps speed (and thus, deals more damage), Speed is stronger than Technique, and Technique usually bests enemies with Power. You can also collect memory fragments and various items to give you an edge in battles, too. Aside from simple battles, there are some evident balancing issues, which usually works in your favor (like performing too powerful of a hit based on what you're up against). The main missions and side quests also have you run around the same parts of the map often, which might grow tiring for some players. What One Piece Odyssey lacks in depth and difficulty, it makes up for in ease of play, and longevity. It's better than most other One Piece games, too -- perhaps with the exception of 2019's One Piece: World Seeker) -- but don't expect a JRPG masterpiece with this one.