Best One Piece Games For Exploration

One Piece is, first and foremost, an action-adventure series, with one of its biggest appeals being all the colorful and unique locations that the Straw Hat Pirates get to visit and explore. This is something that many developers have tried to translate to the medium of video games, with varying levels of success.

After all, multiple One Piece games have been released since the series’ inception, but very few of them actually let players explore huge maps that are based on iconic locations from the original manga/anime. As a result, the following video games are perfect for fans who just want to enjoy some well-made exploration.

Pirate Warriors Series

Players Can Run Around Huge Battlefields That Are Brimming With Enemies

One Piece has many video game subseries, with one of the most notorious and popular ones being One Piece: Pirate Warriors. These are “Musou” games that focus more on the action than the exploration, but they still let players visit some of their favorite locations from the source material, like Orange Town, Marineford, Whole Cake Château, Wano, and more.

The main goal of these games is to run around a giant battlefield while defeating massive hordes of enemies and the occasional boss characters, but players are also encouraged to freely explore the maps to find hidden paths and some collectibles. Even though exploration is not the main selling point of the Pirate Warriors games, it can be surprisingly deep, enjoyable, and relaxing at times, especially when there are no enemies around.

One Piece Odyssey

An RPG That Lets Players Explore Maps Based On Classic Locations

One Piece Odyssey, the most recent console video game in the franchise, is a simple but effective RPG reminiscent of classic IPs like Dragon Age or Final Fantasy. Naturally, this means that its gameplay is divided into two halves: the strategic turn-based battles and the fun overworld exploration, and they’re both very important to the overall experience.

When players are not engaging in battle, they can explore different maps and use each Straw Hat’s specific skills to unlock new areas, solve puzzles, and find items. It’s very basic RPG gameplay, but it is still very engaging and entertaining, especially during the nostalgic segments that take place inside memory-based recreations of beloved locations from the anime/manga, like Arabasta, Water 7, Marineford, and Dressrosa.

One Piece: Unlimited World Red

The Most Modern Entry In This Fun Action-Adventure Subseries

One Piece fans who want to play games that focus more on the adventure than the action should look no further than the Unlimited trilogy, with its most recent entry being 2013’s One Piece: Unlimited World Red. While the exploration of this game is not as deep as in the previous entries, it still allows players to control Luffy and explore semi-open world maps that are full of things to do and secrets to find.

The maps in Unlimited World Red feature NPCs that give advice and side quests to the player, and points of interest that have treasure chests and other items of importance within them. Of course, the fast-paced beat ’em up gameplay is the main selling point of this game, but its relatively solid exploration is still much deeper and more refined than most other video games in this huge franchise.

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

The Perfect Blend Of Combat And Exploration

The Unlimited series kicked off in 2007, with the release of One Piece: Unlimited Adventure for the Nintendo Wii, and it still remains one of the most beloved games in the entire franchise by most fans. This game features an all-new original story and setting that serves as an excuse for players to take control of the Straw Hats and explore a fascinating semi-open world map.

While combat is a big focus of Ultimate Adventure, exploration is also a crucial part of the gameplay experience, as the player will need to engage in 3D platforming, solve puzzles, fish, catch bugs, and even search for materials, so Franky and Usopp can create tools and gadgets with them. There’s no denying that this is one of the few One Piece video games that has managed to fully capture the series’ signature sense of adventure.

One Piece: Unlimited Cruise

A Perfect Sequel, And The Best Entry In The Unlimited Trilogy

One Piece: Unlimited Cruise 1 – The Treasure Beneath the Waves

Released

September 11, 2008

Two years later, Bandai Namco released a direct sequel to Unlimited Adventure, titled One Piece: Unlimited Cruise, and it ended up being even better than its predecessor. Like any good sequel, everything in Unlimited Cruise, like the graphics and the action, is just bigger, better, and more polished. But, of course, the biggest standout is the surprisingly deep exploration.

Once again, players can control all the members of the Straw Hat Pirates while they explore semi-open world maps, where they can find materials, solve puzzles, fight enemies, and more. Not only is the gameplay faster and more fluid now, but the Straw Hats can also use their specific abilities to get access to new areas: Brook can run on water, Franky can build bridges on command, Nami can drive her Waver, etc. These are brilliant ideas that other games in the franchise, made by other studios, like One Piece Odyssey, would also end up implementing for their exploration.

One Piece: World Seeker

The Only True Open-World Console Game In The Entire Franchise

Fans have been asking Shueisha and Bandai Namco for a Triple-A open-world One Piece video game for many years, and this dream finally came into fruition in 2019, when One Piece: World Seeker came out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This is an action-adventure title in which players take control of Luffy and explore a massive open world that’s brimming with NPCs, items, enemies, puzzles, and side quests.

Some aspects of World Seeker ended up disappointing most fans, but the exploration was definitely one of them. Not only does the game’s map feel alive and crowded, but it also takes perfect advantage of Luffy’s rubber abilities to make the traversal and the exploration even more fluid and enjoyable, in a way that reminded most players of Insomniac’s recent Spider-Man games. On top of that, other characters like Zoro, Sabo, and Law are playable via DLC, and they all have their unique abilities for both combat and adventuring. This game takes place in a new location called Jail Island, which is admittedly quite interesting, but if Bandai Namco ever greenlights a sequel, its solid gameplay formula should be used to explore classic One Piece locations instead.