One Piece Odyssey: The First Video Game to Be Part of the ONE PIECE Card Game

28th November 2024 EDT FEATURES

One Piece Odyssey: The First Video Game to Be Part of the ONE PIECE Card Game

A significant number of ONE PIECE Card Game cards originated from One Piece Odyssey.

In January 2023, turn-based role-playing video game One Piece Odyssey was launched on PS4, PS5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. The latest in a long line of video games based on the One Piece manga received mixed reviews—from Shacknews’ highly complimentary remarks to GameSpot’s scathing critique. Despite this, One Piece Odyssey sold well—during the week in which it debuted, One Piece Odyssey was among the top three best-selling video games in Japan on both PS4 and PS5.

Due to the commercial success of the video game, it was always to be expected that at some point, elements from One Piece Odyssey would eventually be incorporated into the ONE PIECE Card Game. However, to the surprise and dismay of many ONE PIECE Card Game fans, this didn’t happen in the way many would’ve expected.

One Piece Odyssey Enters the ONE PIECE Card Game

One Piece Odyssey and the ONE PIECE Card Game

There were two One Piece Odyssey-related cards released as part of Pillars of Strength [OP-03]—an Adio and a Lim card. These cards depicted characters exclusive to One Piece Odyssey. Neither appeared in the manga or anime; as such, their canonical status remains questionable. However, that was all that would be released for quite some time; the primary issue holding up the broader launch of ONE PIECE Card Game cards connected to One Piece Odyssey was the large time gap between the video game’s launch on all the platforms already mentioned and its release on the Nintendo Switch.

It wasn’t until April 2024—well over a year after the game’s release on platforms other than the Switch—that a Switch release was confirmed. The Nintendo Switch version of One Piece Odyssey would be available from 25 July 2024. BANDAI would later announce the first details of promotional ONE PIECE Card Game cards directly related to One Piece Odyssey. In conjunction with the Switch debut of One Piece Odyssey, every pre-order of the Japanese version of the game made between 24 June and 25 July 2024 came bundled with two promotional ONE PIECE Card Game cards.

The fanbase’s reaction to the release of these two cards was somewhat mixed. While many lauded the addition of One Piece Odyssey characters—regardless of their canonical status—to ONE PIECE Card Game promotional cards, others greeted the news with some hesitancy. This latter view was primarily held by those more involved with the ONE PIECE Card Game’s gameplay rather than collectability because they were concerned about whether a promotional card with limited distribution would end up being gameplay-viable; this turned out not to be the case.

One Piece Odyssey and Emperors in the New World [OP-09]

When Emperors in the New World [OP-09] was released, cards based on One Piece Odyssey became part of a main ONE PIECE Card Game set for the very first time. A total of 20 such cards were included; all of these cards were part of the Odyssey type which was created with the launch of the two promotional cards from before.

In addition, one of the new One Piece Odyssey cards in Emperors in the New World [OP-09] was a Leader card: specifically, a Green/Purple Lim card. This card also had an effect which specifically pertained to cards of the Odyssey type. Thus, with the release of the set and thereby this card, it was now possible to build a deck primarily centered around characters from One Piece Odyssey. Though this deck archetype hasn’t been one of the leading decks of the metagame thus far, it has nonetheless made several deep runs in tournaments and clearly does have some level of gameplay viability.

Two of the One Piece Odyssey cards from Emperors in the New World [OP-09] also had alternate-art illustrations. While certainly not at the level of other cards in the set which are much rarer, more expensive, and highly coveted, these two cards do have the status of being the first-ever alternate-art One Piece Odyssey-related cards from a main set. Though the two promotional cards mentioned before did have alternate-art versions, those were not as readily accessible to most due to their limited distribution.

Also included in the set were cards depicting various characters and scenes originally from the One Piece manga depicted as they were in One Piece Odyssey. A total of 16 such cards were released including 13 Character and 3 Event cards. It’s worth noting that not every One Piece character that made an appearance in One Piece Odyssey was put on a card; this likely keeps the door open for future canonical One Piece characters as they were shown in One Piece Odyssey to be added to future ONE PIECE Card Game sets.

One Piece Odyssey and Future One Piece Video Games in the ONE PIECE Card Game

Another way by which the inclusion of One Piece Odyssey-related cards has impacted the ONE PIECE Card Game relates to how future One Piece video games might make their way into the TCG. It’s certainly a possibility that we have already seen the last of the One Piece Odyssey cards added to the TCG—after all, a major reason behind their inclusion was to build interest in the newest One Piece video game.

However, with One Piece being the behemoth of a media franchise that it is today, it’s almost guaranteed that there will be future One Piece video games as well. Thus, it’s likely that those upcoming One Piece video games will have their characters which aren’t in the manga or anime placed on ONE PIECE Card Game cards as well; should that happen, it can be said that the inclusion of One Piece Odyssey cards would have paved the way for those future cards.