One Piece Odyssey: Combat Explained

The big talking point around One Piece Odyssey is its drastic change in combat systems. In the past, the One Piece series has dived into fighters, brawlers, and even open-world action games, but never before has the franchise dipped its toe in the realm of being a turn-based RPG.

For anyone who has followed the series for a long time, this is a huge switch-up to the formula, with many never having had any experience with the genre before. Whether you’re a newcomer or simply someone who is curious about the changes, here is how the combat works in One Piece Odyssey.

• Find out how long it is to beat One Piece Odyssey.

One Piece Odyssey: Combat Explained

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For anyone familiar with JRPGs such as Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, the combat systems in play here will feel familiar, but there are some unique takes on aspects. One Piece Odyssey goes beyond simply having each hero and enemy take a turn at attacking each other, and actually works to be more engaging.

Fights begin by running into enemies in the overworld. You can gain an advantage in fights by running into them from behind, which allows you to attack first. Unlike other JRPGs, which see your team and the enemy team directly faced against one another, One Piece Odyssey splits your team of four across the battlefield.

Instead, you may have two of your heroes fighting two enemies, and the other two fighting one. There are tons of variations on this concept, but it’s important to note that you can’t move heroes to another area before tackling the enemies in front of you.

What you can do at the start of a fight is swap between your party by cycling through them. One Piece Odyssey doesn’t tie you down to start with one particular character and exercises freedom in fights.

You can even swap party members out with any character in your reserves. However, this isn’t like Pokemon where that decision would sacrifice a turn, which means you can freely change up your team on the battlefield as much as you like. Before you make your first move, it’s important to move characters around to put you at the best advantage.

You can easily see when an enemy turn is approaching by the red arrow circle surrounding their icon. It’s set into four segments, and once all four have filled up, the enemy's turn is imminent. It’s important to keep an eye out on this bar and plan your attacks ahead to see if you can take down a foe before they move.

Before fighting, you may also find your battle has a Dramatic Scene enabled. This basically means you have an optional objective for the fight. It can easily be identified by the hazard tape on the top and bottom of the screen. You may have an objective such as taking down an enemy in one turn or protecting another member of your party. If you manage to complete it, you earn a nice XP bonus at the end of the fight.

Combat in One Piece Odyssey works in a rock-paper-scissors formation, broken down into three categories that you’ll slowly remember as the game progresses. Depending on your characters or enemies' attack type, different advantages and weaknesses will be in play, so it’s important to use those if you want to quickly dispose of foes. Here are all the attack types:

• Power: Strong against Speed, weak against Technique.
• Speed: Strong against Technique, weak against Power.
• Technique: Strong against Power, weak against Speed.

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Your attacks and split between two options. The first option is to use your basic attacks, which aren’t very powerful, but these attacks will earn you Tension Points. It’s important to gain these, as you’ll need to use them for Skills, which are much more powerful moves. You can easily see how many you have by the yellow bar by your character’s icon on the left-hand side of the screen.

Skills utilise each character’s unique moveset, and if you’ve played any One Piece games before, you’ll recognise quite a few of these. These are flashy attacks that not only look the part, but also provide devastating effects to your foes. More importantly, they can be used to dispel groups from far away.

For example, when your team is split up in a battlefield, while a character tied down by an enemy won’t be able to walk over and help the rest of their split party, they may have skills which provide ranged abilities. This can be a great tactic to use if you party members blocked by some enemies have no advantages against them.

Another tactic you can use is utilising One Piece Odyssey’s Knock Back mechanic. If you’re fighting small or low-level enemies, an attack has the ability to knock them back, which will cause them to hurdle into other enemies in the battlefield and take multiple fans out at once.

Finally, if you’re bored of fighting through the same waves of enemies, you can also use the Tactics menu to make things easier. Here, you can Run Away or even set the fights to Auto-Battle, which means it will play out without you having to even lift a finger. It’s a great tool if you’re looking to quickly level up and want to grind through a ton of enemies.

These are just the basics of One Piece Odyssey’s combat systems, and as things progress, things will expand. We don’t want to spoil too much, but you’ll earn more unique and cool abilities that will assist you in your adventure. It’s a bit more engaging than standard turn-based games and really does work to truly embrace the spirit of One Piece.

• We also have a rundown of every playable character in One Piece Odyssey.