LEGO’s Upcoming One Piece Collaboration is the Perfect Material for a Video Game

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Posted 2 hours ago by inuno.ai

Category: Gaming

LEGO has developed a reputation for collaborating with everything from movies and video games to clothing labels, and two new mediums are about to join that list. The LEGO Group, Netflix, and Tomorrow Studios announced on January 23, 2025, that Eiichiro Oda and Shonen Jump’s anime and manga powerhouse, One Piece, would receive a LEGO collaboration in 2025. While few details are known so far, it’s been stated that the sets released will adapt iconic moments from the East Blue arcs of early One Piece, keeping pace with at least the first season of the Netflix live-action One Piece show.

This is a big moment for LEGO, as it potentially opens the door to many other popular anime and manga properties, and for One Piece, as this should introduce the franchise to more global demographics. Owing to its unusual, classic cartoon-inspired art style and some early missteps in localizing One Piece’s anime, the swashbuckling epic can use all the help it can get. Netflix’s live-action show might be enough to right the ship, but there are more opportunities a partnership with LEGO can give One Piece than just producing some toys.

LEGO Licensed Video Games Tier List

LEGO has released a plethora of licensed games over the years, with some of them still regarded as being the best family-friendly games around.

A LEGO One Piece Game Sounds Like A Dream Come True

Not only does LEGO dominate the world of toys, but it’s managed to build an impressive video game library as well. LEGO Fortnite is the most recent example, but the developer Traveller’s Tales has built a long and prestigious history of licensed LEGO titles, currently starting and ending with Star Wars itself. Adding an anime-based LEGO game to that pedigree would be an interesting change of pace after the especially ambitious Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and Traveller’s Tales couldn’t ask for a better IP to adapt if One Piece is on the table.

LEGO And One Piece Are Surprisingly Good Fits For Each Other

It’s rare to see such a perfect match for an adaptation, but not only would One Piece work as a LEGO game, but it has the potential to be one of the best LEGO and One Piece games. One Piece has a ton of islands and story arcs that can easily translate to LEGO levels due to their often-backloaded action sequences, and there are even more characters available to play as. LEGO’s typical collectathon element will feel appropriate in a pirate game, leaving One Piece’s identity plenty of room to slide into place.

How A LEGO Game Would Mesh With One Piece

Many powers and mechanics a LEGO One Piece game would be expected to include already have equivalents in past LEGO titles. For example, Luffy’s iconic Gum-Gum Devil Fruit power would theoretically stretch in unnatural ways for a LEGO minifigure, but Mr. Fantastic from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and similar characters have already laid the groundwork for his animations. The Skywalker Saga‘s open-world hub could be worked in as a stretch of the Grand Line itself, while progressing through it could feel like LEGO Lord of the Rings’ hub recreating the Fellowship’s journey. Ironically, the least relevant LEGO game might be the similarly nautical LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean.

One Piece Is Primed For A LEGO Adventure

On the other side of this fusion, One Piece’s very format lends itself to a LEGO game’s structure. What arc is its cut-off point is tough to predict, but whether it keeps things safe with One Piece‘s pre-time skip era ending at Marineford, or goes all the way up to Wano, every island could be boiled down to one-to-three levels like in One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, so adapting it isn’t as overwhelming as it looks. Although LEGO’s combat might need a tune-up to keep pace with One Piece’s action and many climactic battles, a game combining these two franchises sounds like the best of both worlds.