Twenty-five years ago, Half-Life hit the PC, the original PlayStation was dominant, and a little pirate adventure manga called One Piece began. Now, I am over 40 years old and gray-haired, but I still enjoy the adventures of rubber-ribboned ruffian Luffy and his straw men. Celebrating a quarter century of voyages, the crew embarks on an epic JRPG journey in One Piece Odyssey.

If you are unfamiliar with One Piece or have only seen a few episodes of the anime, Odyssey may not be for you. The game is set in approximately 750 episodes of the anime and assumes knowledge of the characters, their abilities, and their history. On top of that, the majority of the game is devoted to (loosely) recreating the events of four major story arcs, and these recreated adventures conclude with a story written specifically for the game.

Manga artist Eiichiro Oda had little involvement in the Odyssey storyline, but contributed to several concepts and creature designs. In Odyssey, Luffy and his crew arrive on the forgotten island of Wafford, home to a new character, the big-haired explorer Adio, and a mysterious local girl named Lim. Fortunately, no one has amnesia, but the straw men have forgotten how to fight. So they set off on an adventure to retrieve the Memory Cube, which holds their lost fighting skills, and then head to the "Memory World" to relive the four most important adventures and brush up on their fisticuffs.

"The Odyssey" is, in effect, a massive filler arc, a sort of side adventure of questionable legitimacy that the cartoon must insert in order to keep the TV show going each week. The new story and characters in "Odyssey" are decent enough for "One Piece," but where the game shines narratively is, paradoxically, in its recycling of old haunts.

The adventures in Memoria are based on past stories (Alabaster, Water Seven, Marine Ford, Dress Rosa), but the straw men know that this is only a rough outline of their adventures and that their actions do not change what actually happened They know that this is just the general flow of their adventure and that their actions will not change what actually happened. Despite this, they are all determined to make things better. Even if it is only a dream, they try to save those they could not save, win the unwinnable battles, and create a happier ending. What could have been a glorified clip show takes on an unexpectedly bittersweet and personal edge, and the heroes get a chance to see their lost and fallen comrades again.

This makes for a richer well of character beats than the average "One Piece" filler anime, giving each member of the crew time in the spotlight to sort out their feelings and come to terms with what they lost. While cartoons frequently feature characters shedding tears over lost friends and sad goodbyes, the Odyssey is more about coming to terms with the past. Sadly, Funky Skellington Brook only joins the party late in the game, but the rest of the crew is given room to breathe. At least when they are not derailed.

"Odyssey" is crammed with cramming upon cramming upon cramming. Not only are there side quests, grinding, and treasure map hunts, but the main story often forgets where it's going. In one particularly bad case, a chase across the desert to save a friend is delayed by bandits stealing the crew's food, monkeys stealing Nami's purse, a river of quicksand, a spelunking adventure to bypass the quicksand (which failed), and the appearance of a big cartoon crab to get everyone to their destination anyway delayed by.

It was hard to stay frustrated with the Odyssey and the giant crab. These odd storyline digressions also lead to epic boss fights and fun new monsters. There are also great encounters with optional side content, such as following the bounty of a rival pirate with his own comical gimmick, such as a crew member who likes to dramatically jump off cliffs but has yet to figure out the "safe landing" part. But almost every part of "The Odyssey" could be trimmed down a bit more. By shortening the quests, making them less arduous, and eliminating the backtracking, the game could be made leaner and faster.

The main objective of "One Piece Odyssey" is to engage in turn-based JRPG battles, but fortunately, with or without filler, the battles are more clever than expected. If the game had been a "Dragon Quest" copycat, I would have been fully satisfied, but the developers have seriously considered how to recreate the vast, messy, cartoonish melee of the original in an accessible turn-based combat engine. I took on super-powerful naval officers, screen-filling monsters, and cave-filling bandits, and it was always a joy to see the straw men go hand-in-hand, undeterred by their often overwhelming odds.

The battles in "One Piece Odyssey" start out with four familiar characters taking turns beating up a large number of enemies, but the scale is novel. Each member of the party can engage groups of up to four enemies at different locations on the battlefield. While some attacks are limited to nearby enemies, others can be directed at distant enemies, or can be used to bring the fight to meatballs by hitting nearby crews with small fry. I especially like the attack that fires enemies at distant crew members, which leads to fun conversation during battle. Some of Luffy's crew members relish fresh targets, while others (Usopp) prefer to have fewer plates.

Bonus targets for surprise attacks, called dramatic scenes, add an extra twist. Sometimes you may be asked to finish off an enemy with a particular character or rescue a crew member before he or she can take a big charge-up attack. Achieving these goals will give you a significant XP boost. This system may also be used to add a little more personality to battles. If Sanji and Zoro stand together, their rivalry can lead to banter and a full charge of skill points (the equivalent of MP in this game).

Despite these clever details, the first five to ten hours of "One Piece Odyssey" are very easy, as there is no difficulty setting or scaling. Even with no concern for status and almost no synergy between characters, I saw my first character pass out 15 hours after starting "Odyssey." The difficulty level settles down a bit from that point, but any challenge takes a long time.

Still, the battles are fun to watch, even when they are easy, and "One Piece" does an excellent job of replicating the visual tone of the anime, but also incorporates a bit of the manga style by mimicking Oda's drawings, with shadows rendered as increasingly dense shadow lines. This is a very fascinating detail, and one that I did not notice at first because it felt so natural. Thanks to this, the exaggerated, giggly-eyed cartoon monster design works in 3D and blends naturally with the more restrained terrain.

Although almost single-track, the dungeons and towns in One Piece Odyssey are fun to walk around and poke around in. In the overworld, each character has unique interaction abilities: Luffy can cross gaps with his stretchy rubber arms, Zoro can cut through metal bars, Franky can build bridges over certain gaps, and Sanji can smell fresh produce a mile away. Conversations with NPCs are also fun. These include a security guard who left his weapon at home, a bandit who questions his choice of profession, a shopkeeper who is haggled over by Nami, and a cheeky talking animal translated by Chopper.

Although attractive, the NPCs are not well animated, and conversations outside of the main plot scenes are a bit stiff and choppy. Thankfully, the fight animations are excellent. Most characters (not Brooke - no respect is given to the undead) have unreasonably long attack lists that represent almost every famous move and attack frame in the cartoon. These animations are fast, clear, and full of nostalgia. Thankfully, there is an option to double the speed of all battle animations, so they don't grate like Final Fantasy summons that are too long to skip.

From a technical standpoint, there is little to complain about, except for the lack of support for ultra-wide monitors. There is a decent range of graphics and control settings, and the game can be played equally well with a gamepad or mouse/keyboard. High refresh rates are also supported, and while some cutscenes only run at 30fps, they look great in combat; if you have a Steam deck, you'll want to limit the game to 30fps for consistency and battery savings, but otherwise you should have no problems. (On a slightly different technical note, Odyssey only includes Japanese audio. You have to have subtitles, and incidental chatter is not translated at all.)

"One Piece Odyssey" is a wonderful new adventure that expands the venerable manga/anime universe with an unexpectedly bittersweet tone. Like the TV anime, the game is a bit extravagant, and with a little more trimming it could have been a consistently thrilling 30-hour game instead of a meandering 50-hour game. game would have been. Still, if you've been following "One Piece" all this time, there's a good chance you're here more for the leisurely cruising than the race to the finish line.