Sea of Thieves is Leaving Money on the Table Without One…

Summary

Sea of Thieves and One Piece would make a great match for a crossover due to their shared pirating themes and emphasis on friendship.
The aesthetics of One Piece would need to be carefully adapted to fit into the Sea of Thieves look, but cosmetics such as pirate ships and costumes could easily be incorporated.
A crossover could take the form of a series of Tall Tales, providing a cinematic experience alongside Luffy and his crew, and introducing newcomers to the beloved characters of One Piece.

Sea of Thieves is gaming's number one venue for swashbuckling pirate adventures. Developed by Rare, Sea of Thieves invites players to party up with their friends and sail the high seas, searching for treasure and plundering the loot of fellow pirates. The game has been available for five years now, and over that time and to this very day has received continuous patches and updates. Throughout the game's life, there have been several crossovers. While most of these have been minor, such as the inclusion of Banjo Kazooie and Battle Toads-themed cosmetics for one's ship, other crossovers have been more substantial. Despite the developer's willingness to do crossovers, one obvious one hasn't happened yet.

While Sea of Thieves is the creme de la creme of pirate video games, one pirate franchise has dominated media in the past few years: One Piece. Eichiro Oda's One Piece tells the story of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew on their journey to find the One Piece, a fabled treasure left by Gold Rogers, the former king of the pirates. In circulation since 1997, the manga has become the top-selling comic book franchise in the world. Its anime adaptation has been running for over 20 years, and the recently released Netflix live-action series has been a smash hit for the streaming service.

Is Sea of Thieves and One Piece a Good Match?

Despite their shared pirating roots, One Piece and Sea of Thieves have some big differences. The most apparent one is the aesthetics of the two. It would be odd to see entirely faithful versions of the One Piece characters running around in Sea of Thieves. While collaborations with Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island were easier to adapt aesthetically, One Piece would require more care to ensure that all the characters are still immediately recognizable but fit into the Sea of Thieves look. The characters' abilities would be fun to see in the game's Tall Tales mode, but the crossover would need to be relegated to cosmetics outside it.

Beyond the question of how to make Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates look good in Sea of Thieves, the series would be perfect for a crossover. Sea of Thieves was designed from the ground up around co-op play, and from the very start, One Piece is about the power of friendship. The only thing Luffy cares about more than becoming king of the pirates is his friends, and similar things can be said about Nami, Zoro, and the other Straw Hat Crew members who place only caring for one another and the other friends they make on their journey above their dreams. Because of this thematic connection, a crossover with One Piece could make for a really fun set of Tall Tales with a focus on the co-op experience.

What Would a One Piece Cross Over Look Like in Sea of Thieves

A One Piece crossover in Sea of Thieves could take one of two forms. The first is a purely cosmetic crossover with some items available in reference to the series. One Piece's pirate ships and cast of characters are iconic. Having cosmetics to make one's in-game ship look like the Going Merry or Thousand Sunny would surely be a hit with fans of the series. Costumes to make one's pirate look like members of the Straw Hat Crew are another obvious choice. The other route would be a more fleshed-out series of Tall Tales similar to the ongoing set in The Legend of Monkey Island right now.

One Piece has almost three dozen arcs, so framing a set of Tall Tales as a non-canonical spin-off arc within Sea of Thieves would be simple enough. These Tall Tales could provide players with a cinematic experience alongside Luffy and his crew. Seeing how devil fruit powers would work in Sea of Thieves world would be fun, and the stories would delight fans of One Piece while introducing newcomers to the beloved cast of characters. Sea of Thieves Season 10 will start in October, bringing more content to the game, and the eventual conclusion of Sea of Thieves' current crossover with Monkey Island.