Bandai Namco looks behind the scenes at the development of One Piece Odyssey, revealing more details about its new characters and gameplay.
Bandai Namco released a new “developer diary” video for One Piece Odyssey.
The video goes in-depth into the development of the new RPG, which the video reveals has been in production for over five years. According to the game’s main producer, Katsuaki Tsuzuki, Odyssey was developed with the idea of creating a game that encapsulated all of the aspects that make One Piece great. “We developed this title with the concept of an “epic adventure to experience the world of One Piece” in mind… we focused on developing a game that captures the drama, adventure and battle elements unique to One Piece,” Tsuzuki said.
One Piece Odyssey will feature two new characters that were designed by series creator Eiichiro Oda himself. The first of these new character is Adio Suerte, a mysterious adventurer whose arms are covered with tattoos, and Lim, a mysterious young woman who lives on Waford, the uncharted island that serves as the setting for the game. Oda previously stated that he designed the characters over three years ago. According to the video, Oda created the two new characters after being shown early footage from the game’s development.
The video also showcases more of Odyssey‘s gameplay, which looks to be inspired by classic turn-based JRPGs such as Dragon Quest. According to Tsuzuki, the team behind the game decided to make an RPG to give players the feeling of controlling not just Monkey D. Luffy, but the entire Straw Hat Crew together. The game’s battle system will feature a gameplay mechanic called “Dramatic Scene,” in which a character can get randomly caught up in a dangerous predicament, and the player will be required to make creative use of each Straw Hat pirate’s abilities in order to overcome the situation. Tsuzuki used Sanji being surrounded by female opponents and thus being unable to act as an example of this mechanic. Players will also be able to coordinate attacks between multiple members of their party to create unique team-up attacks.
Motoi Sakuraba, a veteran video game composer who is well known for his work on Namco’s Tales RPG series and Sega’s Shining Force franchise, revealed in the video that he didn’t know he was going to be working on a One Piece game when he signed up for the project, which was originally pitched to him as simply another RPG. “I never dreamed of being part of such a big title,” Sakuraba said. According to Sakuraba, the game’s music was performed by a live band and will encompass a variety of genres.
One Piece Odyssey is currently in development for the Sony PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PCs via Steam. The game is scheduled to be released sometime before the end of the year.
Source: YouTube