One Piece Odyssey receives an extensive Developer Diary exploring how the RPG came together and showcases a lot of new gameplay footage

Bandai Namco shared a new developer diary for One Piece Odyssey. The title's producer, Katsuaki Tsuzuki, explains how the project came together and what the development team's goal was in creating it. All of this is accompanied with more new footage on the upcoming JRPG.

Although Bandai Namco asked One Piece author Eiichiro Oda for the game's character designs three years ago, the development of One Piece Odyssey first began five years ago in 2017. It was in development as Tsuzuki was promoting and producing One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. One Piece Odyssey's scenario script was just finished and its production was merely only halfway done around that timeframe.

For another time of reference, the production of One Piece Odyssey's scenario came together as the "Whole Cake Island Arc" was reaching its midway point in the One Piece manga.

Bandai Namco also featured One Piece 10th Editor-in-Chief Ken Takano from Shueisha in this developer diary. He spoke about how Oda got the chance to see the game coming together when Bandai Namco first approached them several years ago and felt that what they first showed them was very much in-line with the spirit of One Piece.

Due to Oda's growing interest in One Piece Odyssey's development, he designed the game's original characters, Adio and Lim, along with the Leviathan and Dry Penguin animals.

Tsuzuki mentions how Bandai Namco worked with studio ILCA due to their experience working on JRPGs. Some of the projects they have been involved with include Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, NieR: Automata, and more. A lot of early in-development One Piece Odyssey footage was showcased; Bandai Namco gave people a sneak peek at how the game was constructed behind-the-scenes.

The second half of the developer diary primarily focuses on explaining One Piece Odyssey's gameplay with brand-new footage of the game in action to accompany it. Some characters possess unique abilities to traverse the enviroment, such as how Luffy can extend his arms to grapple onto certain points in the environment. Meanwhile, Zoro can use his katana to slice through certain environmental obstacles and Chopper can shrink to pass through narrow passages.

One Piece Odyssey utilizes a turn-based battle system. Up to four characters can participate in combat; they each have a HP and TP gauge. When selecting a skill, players are able to see its attack power, attack range, elemental property, and a small description of what the skill does. Players can swap to back-line reserve party members at any time in the middle of battle.

Battles in One Piece Odyssey can support different "areas" of combat at once through Scramble Area Battles. For instance, Zoro could be facing off against two enemies while another part of the battlefield, Luffy is confronted with a different pair of enemies. Dramatic Scenes can also occur randomly in combat; some events, such as an enemy getting powered up, can occur out of nowhere and players are pushed to overcome unexpected situations.

Bandai Namco reached out to Motoi Sakuraba about his work on One Piece Odyssey's music. Sakuraba expressed that the main theme music was a challenge for him and decided in "creating a simple and memorable melody". He mentions that One Piece Odyssey was a fun project to work on, because he felt like he was able to travel to different places in creating music for it.

No release date has been shared yet. One Piece Odyssey is still coming some time in 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).