One Piece is one of the biggest multimedia franchises of all time, which means that it has received lots of video game adaptations over the years. It feels as if the developers of the One Piece video games have been missing a trick when it comes to an interesting story concept, as there should be a One Piece game that lets the player create their own member of the Straw Hat crew.
One Piece is the story of the Straw Hat pirate crew, which starts out with captain Monkey D. Luffy heading out to sea on his own. As time went on, Luffy gained crewmates that filled different roles aboard his ship. These characters were generally uninterested in joining the crew at first, but they run into some hardship and they require Luffy's help in order to succeed. Luffy convinces them that he's going to be the next Pirate King and they go off to sea with him.
There are lots of potential roles aboard a sailing ship that haven't been filled in the Straw Hat crew, which means that there is room open for a video game storyline that lets the player create their own character and join the Straw Hats on their adventures. It would be easy enough to squeeze a diversionary adventure in around the time when Luffy met Zoro, in order for the player to have their character experience as much of the story as possible. There are plenty of fighting styles that exist in the One Piece world that can be used for a new character, as well as tons of different ideas that can be used for Devil Fruit users.
It's not just the new crew member who can add to the story, as more foes can be added to the individual story arcs to give the player someone to fight. Eiichiro Oda has contributed new characters to the One Piece movies, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince him to create new members of Buggy's crew, Arlong's gang, the Baroque Works, Enel's army, CP9, Gecko Moria's experiments, Hody Jones' crew, and Don Flamingo's army. The new character could also have their own unique island adventure after the crew is separated by Kuma.
It's possible that this concept is being saved for when One Piece finally ends. It might even be something suggested by Oda himself when the time comes that he's ready to return to the franchise, presumably after he has caught up on twenty years of missing sleep. The world of One Piece is ripe for new adventures and grand ideas, but the video game developers have stuck to the established locations from the series that fans recognize. The Straw Hat crew has kept growing over the course of One Piece, but surely there's room for another wacky character on their ship?
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.