One Piece: Etrian Adventure!

I've been playing loads of Etrian Odyssey V for about a week now. I've just gotten past the second stratum and I'm currently in the process of planning out how I want my party to fight. Do I want my Fencer to keep it going with the chain attacks or have my Masurao be a complete dancer of death even when it can damage my own party? Do I move my Dragoon to be a proper backline defender or transition my Botanist from a healer to a debilitating reaper?

This post isn't at all related to that because for some reason or another, I started wondering what it would be like for a One Piece game to be made with the Etrian formula. I mean, EOV does incredible things to root the whole adventure aspect into the game. It fits the One Piece formula very well. Can you imagine what the game will be like?

Instead of having tons of classes and customisations, you'd start with the Straw Hats each with their own unique abilities and combat mechanics. Luffy can be an all-rounder who can hit anyone from the backline with no drop in damage output, Robin can specialise in binding enemies, Brook can be the chain attacker while Usopp can be the debilitating sniper. I believe you'd have a lot to work with. The Union feature (which I believe is new to the series) can also be utilised in this way by involving the three hakis and the dials.

During the adventures, you can swap freely between any of the 5 acting party members and engage with any of the entire crew during the multiple 'adventure' sequences throughout the game. You'd be able to get Sanji to cook some great meals provided you've obtained the ingredients or let Chopper develop some new medicine as opposed to buying them straight from shops. They can add in a lot of other fanservice things like Nami commentating on certain things whenever you draw the map or Brook playing some music when you take too long to browse through the shopping menu.

Classes won't make an appearance as you'd essentially be thinking based on the crew members rather than their 'classes'

In terms of navigation, the dungeon design can be similar to the traditional method along with an overworld travelling mechanic (I want to say like EOIII but I only have experience with IV's method). You can explore the dungeons that go upwards as usual but the design of the entire game world can be quite three dimensional meaning you can also ride your ship. Travelling with your ship can also involve using special skills like Coup de Burst or discovering secrets using the Shark Submerge III.

The entire story can be contained too considering how varied and open One Piece is. The characters and world would be vibrant enough for the Etrian series and, with a big and varied enough skill tree, fans of One Piece can decide how they want to build their Straw Hats to fight together during the adventure.

One Piece is no stranger to multiple races and cultures

Honestly, One Piece does not have many good games. You have some fan favourite ones but even those are mediocre from a gaming standpoint. It's just not possible to develop a properly made One Piece game because of how varied and larger than life it is. But if the focus was tied to exploration and adventure while still making the combat relevant, then you're in for a treat. There are things that will feel at odds considering the game would probably be filled with dialogue and nonsense but if Persona Q can do it (and get a sequel!), I believe this can too.

Atlus, here my words and make this happen! Admittedly, the Switch is taking over the market so we might not be able to enjoy the map drawings much longer but the adventure can still live on!