One Piece Odyssey: All Characters RANKED!
I just finished playing through One Piece Odyssey, and it took me a very long time to beat. It may perhaps be the longest JRPG that I have beaten to this point. This game has some great characters, each with awesome abilities and differences (a lot of the abilities are just worse than others at doing the same thing, but there are still plenty of useful ones). Keep in mind that none of the characters in this game are bad, but some are definitely better than others. The game is also very easy, so you can play with whatever characters fit your fancy, even if they aren't the best. But anyway, enough schadoodlambling, let's dive into One Piece Odyssey: All Characters RANKED!
#9 - "God" Usopp
At the beginning of the game, during Chapter 2 especially, I thought Usopp was going to be one of if not the best character in the game. Usopp's main ability that sets him apart from other characters is that he can attack enemies in other areas with his regular attacks even when his area isn't empty. This can be pretty useful for the first sections of the game, but by the time you learn how to use Bond Move, the relevance of this capability is depleted heavily. His Exploding Star ability (the multi-hit one, not the single-hit one, I'm not sure why there's two) was quite powerful for killing early-game enemies. Also, his Usopp Pound and Golden Pound abilities can be pretty powerful against sailors, bandits, and pirates, especially at Enies Lobby when Usopp's alone with the useless Scrapper Franky. But later on in the game, he just becomes less and less useful. He gets no all-hitting abilities, and his ultimate skill, Green Star: Skull-Blast Grass, isn't all that much better than his other group-hitting abilities. In addition to these, for the majority of the game, the Technique type isn't as common for enemies to have than the Power and Speed types. Usopp's stats aren't amazing either. But the nail in the coffin is how you lose him for almost the entirety of Chapter 4, which is in the top two longest chapters in the game. Because of this, he gets behind in levels, and simply misses out on a large chunk of the game. While not bad, I didn't find myself using Usopp nearly as much as the other characters, especially after I got Franky in my party.
#8 - "Cat Burglar" Nami
Another Speed type character near the bottom of the list, that's peculiar... Nami has the lowest attack and defense stats of any playable character in the game, which makes sense as she has many support abilities. Mirage Tempo can be pretty good if preparing for a powerful attack, but in most cases it is better to just swap into a stronger character and hit for some heavy damage instead. Nami's Thief ability has gotta be one of the least useful steal commands in JRPG history. You can only steal berries, and half the time you only get 1 berry when fighting against bosses. The biggest upside to Nami is how good her Thunderbolt Tempo and Thunder Lance Tempo attacks are in the first few chapters. The former is the first all-targeting skill in the game, and can decimate Lesser Brothers and Black Brothers in Alabasta. Thunder Lance Tempo is very good in the sewers of Water Seven. Most of her other skills aren't all that useful, but Swing Arm can be nice against some enemies, but Usopp or Franky would probably do more damage. All in all, Nami, just like Usopp, is good at the start of the game, but as I got closer to the end I began realizing that I almost never found myself putting Nami into my party during battles.
#7 - "Soul King" Brook
The dead man himself, Brook, is the last character to join the party, not joining until the end of Chapter 5, which is probably 80% of the way through the game. He only has five skills, which when compared to other characters like Zoro, looks like a bottle of water emptied into the ocean. Now that I look at it, his Attack stat is quite high, but I never gave him overpowered attack-boosting accessories like I did with some of the other party members. I felt like I couldn't rank Brook higher because of how late he joins the party, but does have some exceptional abilities. My personal favorite is New World (pronounced "new waaaaa"), which increases the Attack of all currently active party members. Attack is by far the most important stat in the game, so this ability is very useful. It also only costs 30 TP, so you can use it in random battles without worrying at all (not like you ever have to, regularly attacking restores so much TP). His Ice-elemental attacks Soul Solid and Song of Scratches: Blizzard Slice have a chance to freeze enemies, which is, as I found out too late, overpowered. I was fighting True Challenge Hakuba and I killed him in just three or four turns by freezing him. Freeze is just a combination of poison and paralysis elements in other RPGs, dealing a lot of damage to bosses and not allowing them to move. At the beginning of almost every battle in Dressrosa, I swapped Brook into the party to use New World and then demolished all the enemies with Luffy, Zoro, and Franky. Brook is one of those late-game characters that joins the party so late in the game but isn't at all bad, but doesn't reach the level of the strongest characters in the game.
#6 - Nico Robin
Robin is an average character, but the good kind of average. For most of the game, she only has four abilities. But Cien Fleurs Delphinum can be really helpful for dealing with groups of Power enemies, and the absolutely hilarious Dos Fleurs Grab is incredible against those with—actually, I'm just going to stop, I don't think I need to explain further. It does a lot of damage and paralyzes enemies. Her Defense stat is surprisingly quite high, and she has good TP. The reason Robin is so high though heavily depends on her Mil Fleurs Gigantesco Mano Stomp ability learned after the Marineford chapter. This move hits every enemy for a frick ton of damage, and even though it is kinda sketchy, it's a really good attack. One of her biggest downsides, like Usopp, is that she leaves the party for much of a very long chapter. She is not a particularly strong character through the first five or six chapters, but she becomes very powerful at the start of the Dressrosa chapter and I frequently put her in my party and nuked all the enemies with the Mil Fleurs. Nico Robin is a good character, but not one of the best.
#5 - Vinsmoke Sanji
Sanji is probably the biggest pervert in any game I've ever played, but his kicks can deal more damage to enemies than Taco Bell does to your digestive system. I thought his Diable Jambe attacks were so epic that I gave him all of my most powerful Attack boosting accessories. I tried not to let that influence my ranking of him on the list though. His Attack and Defense stats are on par with the strongest attackers, Luffy, Zoro, and Franky. Especially in Water Seven, Flambage Shot and Première Hachè are incredibly powerful attacks, and the latter is probably my favorite of his multi-targetting moves throughout the remainder of the game. Sanji learns his best single-hit attack before Chapter 8, and it's quite strong. Heck Memories, as I like to call it. The reason Sanji is the worst Power type character in my opinion (although he is very good) is because of his lack of any all-hitting skill in the endgame. All of the best characters in the endgame are able to use such attacks. Against any powerful Speed type enemies (which most bosses are), Sanji is definitely a character you want to have in your party. This game is very balanced, now that I think of it, as somehow a character as good as Sanji gets the fifth spot on the ranking.
#4 - Tony Tony Chopper
Chopper is your only character that can heal, which makes him, well.. that isn't much of an influence honestly, as this game is pretty easy and I didn't find myself healing very often. Healing is vital against the True Challenge bosses though (man I loved those bosses because they were actually difficult). He has the second highest TP stat of all the characters, which makes sense as he is the doctor. And while his Attack isn't particularly high, he can become way stronger with Monster Point. This makes so he is unable to heal, but his damage increases immensely. And once you get Cloven Roseo Palm, Monster Point becomes even crazier. Many of his single-target attacks aren't that great, except for Cloven Roseo, which can be quite good at the beginning of the game, and obviously his Monster Point attacks. Like Sanji, his Power type allows him to deal major damage to many of the strongest enemies in the game. Chopper is a well-rounded, powerful and supportive character that is really good to be in your party. Also his Kung Fu Point form is so good.
#3 - Roronoa Zoro
We now enter into the top 3, containing the best character of each type. Zoro's stats are very good, having slightly lower HP, Defense and Guts than Luffy but having more Attack. He also has by far the most skills out of any character in the game, many of which are very strong. Dragon Twister is amazing in the first two chapters, and I found it better than Three Thousand Worlds because you can upgrade it earlier and it costs less than half the TP. Then you get a bunch of new abilities, including the absurdly named Charming Demon Sleepless Night Onigiri. These are pretty good, but Zoro doesn't jump back into the greatness until he learns his final technique: The Billion-Fold World Trichiliocosm. Although this move only hits a group and not everyone (luckily he does have an all-hitter in Black Rope Dragon Twister), it does a flip ton of damage to Power enemies. Sadly, however, a lot of bosses resist his Technique-type blows, but there are definitely enough Power enemies to make up for it. Zoro is the best of his type, and if you are facing a single Power enemy, you will want to put Zoro on the front lines and you will kick some keister.
#2 - Monkey D. Luffy
You might be surprised that the bullet-deflecting, elastic, marine-punching protagonist of One Piece isn't in first place, but second is definitely a really good spot. Luffy has THE best stats out of all characters in the game, and a wide selection of Gum-Gum abilities. He also has arguably the best type in the game, Power. Bosses like Crocodile, Rob Lucci, and Doflamingo are all Speed type, meaning Luffy's attacks to supereffective damage to them. In the earlier sections of the game, Gum-Gum Bullet and Gum-Gum Gatling are his best abilities, and they are later replaced by Jet Whip and Jet Bazooka. But once you get to the point where all the super extra epic abilities can be used, he gets even better. Luffy learns The Conqueror's Haki, which is really good for obliterating enemies in Dressrosa, and then later Gum-Gum King Kong Gun, which is even better. His best single-target attacks are Gum-Gum Red Hawk Plus (which can be obtained by returning to Marineford and reminiscing over your brother Ace) and Gum-Gum King Cobra. These can do massive damage to bosses and send them to you-know-where in the blink of an eye. However, there is one thing that Luffy is missing...
#1 - "Iron Man" Franky
ULTIMATE OP ATTACK BOOSTS!! Although you don't get Franky until the second half of the game, it more than makes up for it because of his astonishing abilities and above-average stats. His TP is very low for how much his skills cost to use, but that can easily be fixed by giving him a TP Cost Efficiency accessory, or better yet, two, so that he never needs to use any TP. He has Fire moves, all hitting moves, and the best single-target move in the game. And I haven't even mentioned his Cola Charge. To put it simply, it doesn't even matter what you're fighting. If you use Max Cola Charge and Franky Iron Boxing, they are going to take a LOT of damage. And barely anything can withstand a charged Franky Radical Beam. Although there aren't many Technique enemies in the early game, that's completely irrelevant as Franky doesn't join until later, and at that point, there are plenty to make the Speed type quite valuable. I gave Franky a single accessory with +1700 Attack and then three +602 Attacks (it took me a while to get all those Triumphs, but it was worth it). I was able to hit for over 55,000 damage once and I fell off the couch laughing because of how OP Iron Boxing was. Although Brook can buff everyone's Attack with New World, his attack boost can't put the other characters above Franky in sheer power. And sheer power is the name of the game in One Piece Odyssey. I don't know how he went from thin as a toothpick to the most ripped man on the planet, but he definitely got stronger because he sucked so bad in Enies Lobby and now he's the best character in the game.