Name: One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
Platforms: PS4, PS3, PS Vita, PC, (Reviewed on PS Vita.)
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Developer: Omega Force
MSRP: $59.99 (PS4), $49.99 (PS3, PC), $39.99 (PS Vita)
If there was one thing that I learned last year, it was that I REALLY like Warriors games… With the right coat of paint. After giving up on these types of games years ago, it wasn’t until I was taken in by the Legend of Zelda universe in Hyrule Warriors that I fully understood the joys of taking on thousands of enemies single handedly. The reason for my change of heart was simple: playing with generic soldiers or characters based on historic Japanese figures was boring. Playing as characters I recognize and have an attachment to on the other hand, is way more exciting! Keeping this in mind, I loaded up One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, the Warriors title based on the long running One Piece anime and manga series, (though I’m sure that goes without saying,) with the expectation of wiping out waves of enemy pirates with some crazy, over the top attacks as the Straw Hat Crew. In that sense, it delivers and then some, but won’t do much to sway non-fans of either the anime, or the genre.
Like previous games in the Musou genre, Pirate Warriors 3′s main focus is making you feel like an unstoppable monster as you take your favorite pirate and begin tearing apart entire armies with your various skill sets. While being so powerful is always satisfying, games of this nature tend to get repetitive quickly as limited combos, similar characters and a lack of growth tends to sap the fun from the novelty. This is less of a problem with One Piece, because even though complaints about repetitiveness still holds true, this version does a great job of masking it with a large variety of highly varied characters. Whether you’re rapid punching the Marines into submission as Luffy, showing off your series of stylish kicks as Sanji, or anyone in between, each of the 37 unique characters, (not counting the variations of the same characters post time skip,) feel distinct enough to keep the combat fresh as you experiment with new combos. As you play, each character will gain EXP that extends their combo trees as well, so the more you play, the more the possibilities open up. It’s not much different than what you start off with, but I found mixing up my game plan and finding ways to empliment new attacks into my repitoire was one of its highlights.
When you’re not beating hundreds of enemies simultaniously, you’ll be defending your friends and territory thanks to the light strategy elements present in the genre. Some missions will task you with protecting a particular partner, while others will ask you to find certain items in the field. Oftentimes, defending land that’s being protected by your allies while claiming enemy territory through sheer force will help reduce the amount of enemies on the field, which is often key to winning your latest battle. The best missions however, are when you have to go up against an opposing general with abilities similar to yours. Sure, the AI is rarely challenging, (on the first run at least. Multiple hidden difficulties force you to think before you act,) but it’s still fun to go against someone who’s considered more of an equal, and less of a glass cannon like the rest of the fodder.
But when your own skills won’t be enough to ensure victory, you can always rely on your friends to lend a hand. By introducing the new Kizuna Rush attack, up to three of your CPU controlled partners can join in to create a huge, screen clearing onslaught to destroy your opponents with. By building up the Kizuna Meter by having your partners help extend your combos, these are some of the most over the top attacks you’ll find in the game, and they’re oh so satisfying to pull off. And when you want a little more intellegence to go with your partner’s assistance, you can jump in either online or locally, and wreck stuff up with a friend.
If online isn’t your thing, there’s plenty to do by yourself. Pirate Warriors 3 is highlighted by its extensive story mode, which takes both single and multiplayers through the beginnings of the series, (when Monkey D. Luffy recruits Zoro to be the first official member of the Straw Hat Pirates,) past the time skip and up to the most recent storylines with an original ending to cap it off. If you’ve kept up with the series off and on, you won’t have any trouble following along with the story missions, which do a good job of setting up each scenario with limited time both before, during and after missions, all of which are fully voiced by their Japanese actors. Outside of the actual storytelling portion, the in game content is strong, with unlockable coins and side objectives which can be used to unlock characters, abilities and upgrades for your crew. As what I see as a way of rewarding fans of the series, some of the story sensitive objectives have certain details hidden until you complete the stage. If you found them on your first run, congratulations, you know what you’re doing! If not, then the objective becomes spelled out on a second run, making it easier for beat em up fans who aren’t as well versed in all that is One Piece.
The real meat of the game however, is in the Dream Log, a type of mission mode that has players choosing whatever character they like and taking on specific challenges, which usually leads to some of the best unlockables. Ranked in difficulty based on how high your level should be, each completed island will branch off to others, which usually leads to an increase in difficulty. By alternating between Story and Dream Log, grinding is kept to a minimum, (while still necessary to an extent,) to keep up with the more demanding challenges, but is rarely too tough to handle, (again, until the harder difficulties are unlocked.) It’s a well balanced, properly tiered method to unlock content over time, which helps keep the addiction factor up even after the game play gets stale.
Unfortunately, the stale game play is Pirate Warriors 3′s biggest flaw. No matter what the coat of paint is, and no matter what ways the developers mask it with its character variety, you’re still mostly just mashing buttons for hours on end. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, especially if you’re a fan of One Piece, but the experience is likely to wear thin before you’ve beaten every Dream Log Island, seen every Story Mode cutscene, and before you’ve bought all of the many unlockable items with the money earned in battle. It’s a flaw that’s hard to stamp out since the repitition is part of what makes the genre what it is, but it’s still worth noting that if you’re not a One Piece fan, and especially if Musou games bore you to death, this won’t do anything to change your mind.
In the end, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 is a hidden treasure in the world of Warriors style games. The large cast, character variety, varied missions and trove of unlockables will keep fans of either the franchise or the genre playing for hours on end, eithe with a friend, or by themselves. At its core however, it’s the same kind of game we’ve been playing for almost 15 years, so if the unique style of the game doesn’t do it for you, or if you were burnt out on the genre long ago, you’re not going to find anything here to change your mind. Other small nitpicks, like it not feeling like a big enough evolution from its predecessors, or not allowing all modes to work with online play, do little to detract from the overall fun factor, making Pirate Warriors 3 a journey One Piece fans will do well to embark on.
tl;dr:
+ One Piece and the Musou genre make a great combination, with rewarding, over the top attacks.
+ Mission and character variety keeps the game fresh for longer than expected between the Story and Dream Log modes.
+ The story is well told, easy to follow and manages to stay concise, never letting the player feel lost, even if they haven’t kept up with the 800-ish chapters of the manga.
+More unlockables than you’ll ever need.
+ Local and online co-op!
– Still repetitive, even if it has longer legs than most games in the genre.
– Doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other Musou games outside of the One Piece name.
– Not all content is online compatable.
Final Score: 4/5