It’s no secret that One Piece is an absolutely gargantuan series, with over 1,000 chapters of manga and over 1,000 episodes of anime. Getting into One Piece is a commitment, to say the absolute minimum, so it’s entirely understandable if you don’t have the time to catch up before playing One Piece Odyssey. Do you need to have seen One Piece to play One Piece Odyssey, though?
Do You Need to have Seen One Piece to Play One Piece Odyssey?
The answer is technically no, though your appreciation of One Piece Odyssey may be diminished if you haven’t experienced One Piece in one form or another. The release of One Piece Odyssey is meant to coincide with the series’ 25th anniversary, and in that spirit, it features many callbacks to some of the series’ biggest arcs and moments. You don’t need to have seen these moments per se, but if you haven’t, you kind of miss out on that big “oh, I remember that!” moment.
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That said, full experience of the source material is not an absolute necessity. The game will give you a basic overview of the One Piece world’s overarching concepts and important characters, and the personalities and abilities of the Straw Hat Pirates will be made generally clear to you as you play with them.
One Piece Odyssey’s Setting
One Piece Odyssey is set on a non-canon island where the Straw Hats’ memories of their journeys are brought to life as living people and locations. When they arrive in these locations and interact with these people, the game will give you an idea of what originally went down in the series to catch you up.
However, these Memoria areas aren’t exactly one-to-one with the series’ original events, so if you don’t know what was originally supposed to happen, the change-up may be lost on you. Considering some of the arcs the game draws on for these locales were very heavy and emotional, it may not hit you with the appropriate emotional weight.
So, to reiterate, if you’ve never seen One Piece and are curious about it, then feel free to try One Piece Odyssey. However, it may behoove you to watch a few fan recap videos beforehand on YouTube. They’ll be long, but they’ll be a heck of a lot shorter than watching over a thousand episodes of anime.
For more info on your One Piece Odyssey… er, odyssey, check out our list of all playable characters in the game, and whether or not it’s compatible with the Steam Deck. Visit our Facebook page as well for more guides and info.
