While the story of One Piece Odyssey is set to be an original adventure that dips into popular arcs from the manga, certain systems and changes could add some significant twists to the Straw Hats' adventures. As the first fully-fledged RPG to come out of the One Piece franchise, Odyssey's quirks and gameplay systems present an opportunity to introduce major changes to its various storylines, along with adding some unpredictability to standard RPG battles.
While Odyssey's gameplay is reminiscent of Dragon Quest, the game is also set to include the Dramatic Scene system - bringing random, unexpected scenarios for players to resolve in the midst of combat. Taking the form of miniature missions within Odyssey's encounters, Dramatic Scenes task the player with completing certain challenges (i.e. defeating enemies within a certain amount of turns), and provide rewards in the form of increased experience and loot. However, aside from the feature's gameplay impacts, Dramatic Scenes also have plenty of potential to affect Odyssey's story.
One Piece Odyssey's Dramatic Scenes Spice Up Combat Encounters
While the main purpose of Dramatic Scenes seems to be additional variety in standard battles, the features also seems perfectly suited to add major twists to One Piece Odyssey's overarching story. Additionally, with the game delving into classic stories from the original One Piece manga, Dramatic Scenes could be a ripe opportunity for Odyssey to fit unexpected narrative changes into its gameplay. Extrapolated over the course of Odyssey's entire, expansive story, such twists could be key to giving the game a story worthy of standing alongside the original manga, while also managing to better incorporate story into gameplay.
One Piece Odyssey's Dramatic Scenes Could Serve The Story
With One Piece Odyssey now set up to have a truly massive story - spanning at least four major arcs from the manga in addition to its own original content - changes to the stories of past arcs, as well as Odyssey's own mysteries, all but guarantee some shocking twists and turns. Dramatic Scenes, while so far only presented as random events to spice up standard battles, seemingly lend themselves well to more closely integrating Odyssey's story with its gameplay - and with One Piece Odyssey already closely resembling Dragon Quest, it may also do well to incorporate some influence from the more interesting bosses of something like Persona 5.
With Odyssey's release fast approaching, fans won't have long to wait to see just how the story plays out. While there's certainly nothing wrong with the game's story presenting itself more traditionally, Dramatic Scenes could be a great way to add some excitement to major story moments. Whatever the case, One Piece Odyssey is looking like a grand adventure ahead of its January 12 release.