Roronoa Zoro is not only admired for his skillful swordsmanship, but his immense brute strength. Despite the growth he’s achieved overOne Piece’s twenty-five-year history, Zoro still has quite a ways to go if he wants to be the world’s greatest swordsman.One Piece’s latest arc, Elbaf, will not only see the other members of the Straw Hat pirates developing and furthering their power sets significantly, but could change the way they’re represented entirely. Zoro is no exception to this, but the development of his power set specifically could be difficult to adapt into a mainlineOne Piecevideo game.
Zoro received a massive expansion of his power set in Wano Country, not onlyadding the legendary sword Enmato his collection, but unlocking a new form of Haki. Zoro has used Observation Haki for quite some time and learned how to use Armament Haki while training under Dracule Mihawk, but Zoro’s time in Wano awakened a rare form of Haki within him.
Zoro’s Unique Way of Wielding Conqueror’s Haki
With only one in a million people born with the skill, Supreme King Haki, morecommonly known as Conqueror’s Haki, is a form that can only be improved by developing a users’ brute strength. Zoro is known to train both by competing in battles and by constantly and vigorously weight lifting aboard the Thousand Sunny. It’s no surprise that this dormant power awakened after so much work.
However, Zoro still has a ways to go with the ability. Whileengaging in his King of Hell technique, Zoro uses his Conqueror’s Haki at full blast. As the ability is still new to him, Zoro has yet to master control of this Haki, even declaring that he could die if he uses his King of Hell technique for too long. Elbaf will challenge Zoro, likely sending him to the realm of Helheim so he can claim the title of King of Hell for himself.
Unlike Armament Haki, which allows users to create invisible armor with their spiritual energy, and Observation Haki, which grants users a sixth perceptive sense, Conqueror’s Haki allows a user to dominate an opponent’s spirit with their own. The ability is essentially a catalyst for a literal battle of wills, with an opponent often being knocked to the floor through pure intimidation.
While some opponents may have a physical reaction to being dominated by a user’s psyche, the ability remains more of a psychological battle rather than a physical one. This makesadapting Conqueror’s Hakiin a video game difficult, especially as Zoro presumably gains more skill at using the Haki over the course of Elbaf.
The Struggles of Adapting Conqueror’s Haki
The ability has beenadapted previously inOne Piece Odyssey, as Luffy has been shown using Conqueror’s Haki, albeit sometimes unintentionally, since Sabaody. In this installment, Conqueror’s Haki is a purchasable skill for Luffy only. When using the ability in battle, one of Luffy’s eyes flares open, similar to in canon, and shock waves emanate off of him, dealing damage to opponents and knocking them out for a short period of time. This is certainly one way to adapt Conqueror’s Haki, but it wouldn’t be an accurate adaptation when working on Zoro specifically.
Enma, the legendary sword gifted to him by Hiyori, is able torelease its wielder’s Armament Haki in excessive amounts, making the blade ruthless. Inspired by this, Zoro infuses his Conqueror’s Haki into all three of his three swords when fighting using his King of Hell technique. Visually, the black lightning Zoro’s Conqueror’s Haki emits from the swords while fighting in this style. This could be one visual cue developers take when adding this technique to an upcomingOne Piecetitle, but it wouldn’t showcase the psychological damage and violence of Conqueror’s Haki.
Nevertheless, Zoro and game developers bothneed to develop the King of Hell technique, to become the world’s greatest swordsman and to make another great mainlineOne Piecevideo game, respectively. His video game depictions won’t be complete without it.
One Piece
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One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga’s popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
