A special “Dev Diary” video for One Piece: Odyssey was released n the official Bandai Namco YouTube channel, featuring the game’s main producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki talking about the game’s development, battle system, Eiichiro Oda’s involvement, gameplay and more.
Starting with the concept, he said that their aim from the start was to create “an epic adventure to experience the ONE PIECE world”. They went towards this by doing everything to capture the unique drama, adventure and battle elements, and they spent a lot of time working on creating the world for the game.
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On development and Eichiro Oda’s involvement
The One Piece: Odyssey producer says in the video that the game’s development began 5 years ago. Due to it falling under the JRPG genre, they thought the adventurous plot would be the main pulling point of the game. The production of the scenario began around the time the early/mid part of the “Whole Cake Island Arc” was serialized in the manga. After the general scenario was done, they contacted Eiichiro Oda for the character designs – this was in 2019.
Ken Takano, the editor-in-chief at Weekly Shonen Jump, also talked about the game’s early stages. He said that Bandai Namco Entertainment contacted them about 3-4 years ago about producing the new ONE PIECE game. Moving on, he said that Eiichiro Oda had the chance to see setting, storyline and gameplay video footage of One Piece: Odyssey production, and that he became extremely interested in it. So much so that he decided to create the 2 original characters for the game, Adio and Lim. Besides them, Oda also designed new animals for the game, such as the Leviathan and Dry Penguin.
On gameplay
About the gameplay, Katsuaki Tsuzuki confirmed that One: Piece: Odyssey will have a turn-based combat system, allowing players to experience unique fights with some ONE PIECE twists. Players will be able to swap between different Straw Hats, with each character having something unique to them. For example, Luffy will be able to use his gum powers to climb and jump around, Zoro will be able to cut walls/obstacles, Chopper will be able to walk through narrow paths, Franky will be able to build bridges, and so on.
They talk about many more things, and everything they mention is followed with footage from the game. You can watch the full video below:
Source: Bandai Namco Europe YouTube channel
©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha/ Fuji Television Network/ Toei Animation
©BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
