[ THGS 2022 ] ONE PIECE ODYSSEY Demo Hands-On – A Slice of Localized Pirates

Following up from our earlier hands-on outing of ONE PIECE ODYSSEY at Tokyo Game Show 2022, another chance is to be at at Thailand Game Show 2022! While the demo is not a different build, it is available in English, as well as Thai for fans who stop by! You can check out our initial impressions here.

SUDDENLY, STORY

The demo promptly drops you off as the Straw Hat Pirates get shipwrecked on a mysterious island. The crew have been separated, and worse, Luffy doesn’t have his hat. Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin and Franky set off deeper into the island so that they can find Zoro, Nami, and Brook. I would expect this story transition would be smoother in the full version of the game, but for those unfamiliar with the series, it could be a little jarring to be suddenly thrown into the middle of the adventure.

SO IT BEGINS

Once you start on a main quest, the game becomes linear. Other characters will force you on the set path when they exclaim you’re going the wrong way, and you’ll be moved back to the main objective. Along the way, you can find items to pick up, such as potions or elixirs. If you’re really worried about missing items, Observation Haki will ping out items for you.

If you were wondering, no, you can’t swim.

FIGHT!

The combat works in a rock-paper-scissors style, with the localized terminology given as Power, Speed and Technique. Handily, there will be indicators next to character icons so that you don’t have to memorize the element advantage.

A “Dramatic Scene” will occur on getting ambushed by enemies. A character will be afflicted with a status ailment e.g. Stun or Confuse, and will start separated from the party. Enemy attack power will also be increased, but winning the battle will get you more EXP and Gold.

Each character can carry skills separate from the element advantage which can also be more effective on certain enemies. However, without a full primer, it’s hard to tell why something is more effective than others.

Skills consume different amounts of TP which scales according to how much damage they do, or if they inflict status ailments. There are both close- and long-ranged skills, so naturally you’ll have to see how close you need to be before you use either type.

PERFORMANCE NOTE

As the game will also be launching on a previous gen console, for the PS4 Pro at least, visuals still look crisp and smooth, maintaining a stable 30 FPS.

ONE PIECE Odyssey will be launching worldwide 12 January 2023, so hang in there!

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