User blog comment:Leek0421/Fairy Tail vs One Piece/@comment-7418318-20150813161703/@comment-5896530-20150813170012

Just nitpicking here, but the story in OP is building up by them traveling from one island to another. That's the point. In order to find One Piece, which is the goal of the series, they must follow the log pass through the Grand Line, and thus they must travel from island to island. For every island they pass they get closer to reaching their objective; of course if we're judging by the theory that One Piece is found on Raftel, the last island of the Grand Line (New World), which I think is very likely.

Also, although you've got some fair points, I can't relate to them because unlike you I've read the entire series up until date. Being as slow-paced a series as OP, even though it's much to ask, I would say you can't properly judge the series if you haven't read at least up till' around chapter 500. The character developments, the plot; everything is slowly but steadily moving forward, thus one can't make much sense to it early on. That's just the kind of series OP is made out to be.