One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 Preview

For those devotees of Luffy & Co.’s mischievous enterprises, a new game about their show must sound like music to their ears. One Piece is a seemingly endless show, but it still brings fan in front of the TV 18 years after its original release. If there’s anything that’s characteristic about the show is the mix of dramatic moments with the permanent childish, cheesy and sarcastic tone of the characters, always with a garnish of graphic violence. Pirate Warriors 3 does not disappoint in this category. The charming and snappy one-liners that keep the show light-hearted, amidst screams and shudders of pain, are still present in the game, which follows — to great extent, through dreary text boxes — the story of the show.

Now, here at GameGrin we’ve managed to play the first hour and a half of the game, and for those unacquainted with the original show, we’ve found that Pirate Warriors 3 has a very unwelcoming exposition. One Piece has memorable and relatable characters, who are slowly introduced and built throughout the show. Pirate Warriors 3 seems to focus on the niche of people that know what the show is about, and how the events take place, as their introduction to them is overwhelmingly brief and cold, presented through plain text boxes taking the whole screen over a dull background. It feels brushed over with the intention to put the player in the middle of the action —and by action I mean punches.

The best way to describe the chore mechanics of this game is by referencing another better-known Namco game: Dynasty Warriors. Not only is One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 inspired on the title, but also on the main combat mechanics, which consist of an overpowered heroic character against hordes of minions. This third-person brawler has no problems with making you annihilate over four thousand enemies in a single level. In fact, all possible combos — not that many and not that different from each other, however cool and satisfying they feel — make it easier to take down dozens of enemies at once, as all punches or sword slashes have a pretty big swinging range.

However, killing minions can become rather repetitive. In these games, it is more important to take care of the generals or commanders of the enemy army — bigger, stronger and more challenging enemies. They are scattered throughout the map and are the only enemies that present a real challenge. At points, it is better to ignore any other enemy and head straight to present Mr. Fist to these guys. Apart from them, other more boring objectives include picking weapons up from across the map, defending a territory or fighting another character, almost as powerful as you, as an end-level boss. Sadly, every objective is ultimately carried in the same way, punching tons of people in the face, which as I’ve said, can become a little too much of the same thing over and over.

We’ve found Pirate Warriors 3 — in what we’ve played so far – a bit inconsistent with its objectives, and not in a bad way. From one level to the other, the way to approach the map was entirely different. It does give variety to the game, but it can be a bit confusing at points. The first level’s objectives, played as Luffy, consisted in advancing through the level, taking out hundreds of enemies in order to progress — and saving Zoro. The next level was about taking and controlling territories, and then defending them against enemy reinforcements. This one was more focused on being aware which areas were under attack and which ones you had to go to next, and so on. The management of the territories was more important than advancing in the level, since if you lost an area, more enemies would spawn. Keep an eye on the map!

On top of this, seemingly random events may appear in the map, giving you the chance to increase your score. This punctuation, however, feels pointless. We were able to spot glimpses of a poorly explained levelling up system, but as of the end of my playthrough — through the first few levels, that is —, this system hadn’t affected me in the least. At first, I was drawn at points to chests, arguably ‘hidden’ in different parts of the level. However, I soon realised how pointless that was. I was getting gold, health and experience, but none of it seemed to be determinant enough for me to keep looking for it. What’s more, the level design was bizarrely uninviting to exploration: although there were chests here and there, it is never rewarding enough to look for them. Levels are reduced to big wide open spaces to brawl in, rather than interesting sceneries to play around. So, as I’ve said, the game’s potential is somewhat squandered on a rather shallow level design.

The perfectly executed art style, however, doesn’t disappoint for a second. Draw distance, in terms of enemies, can become mediocre at times, with enemies popping up about ten metres away from your character. And yes, the enemies’ sprites may lack a bit of variety, at least within the same level, given that you’re killing by the thousands. Nevertheless, the anime art style of the game, juxtaposed with the 3D environment, feels fresh and natural, which is difficult to achieve in comic-style games. Maybe it’s also due to the familiarity of the characters, but even with the lack of meaningful exposition, characters still retain their distinct flavour.

From what we’ve seen so far Pirate Warriors 3 is a game that draws from several concepts that have been present in videogames for quite a long time. It uses the familiarity of the characters to achieve a smile on the consumer’s face, but that’s not necessarily bad. Fans of Dynasty Warriors will find this game easy to master and quite enjoyable, plus if you like One Piece, this game will bring you back to your childhood. It definitely made me reminisce of those mornings during the summer, when I got up with my brother at 7 am and sat in front of the TV, watching a plethora of Japanese shows. *Sigh*.