One Piece Pirate Warriors

One Piece - Pirate Warriors, for the PS3

Being a fan of One Piece, I agreed to preorder the PS3 game One Piece Pirate Warriors when my friend asked me. (The game being released a week after my CAIA exam helped too.) And so, this marks my first ownership of a Dynasty Warrior style game. 

Gamespot gave it a rather scathing review, with a score of 4/10. To summarise, the reviewer liked the wild attack animations, but found the combat dull, storytelling dry, and too many actions handled via button prompts. It described the game as being shallow and a rip-off of the standard Dynasty Warriors template.

Despite the review, I actually found the game rather enjoyable. Perhaps it's because I haven't really been exposed to Dynasty Warriors, and to add on, I am also an arduous fan of One Piece. Graphics are bright and colourful, and the voice acting (Japanese voices with English subtitles - whew! I would be turned off if it was dubbed in English) was certainly a key contribution to the enjoyment, as they were extremely vibrant and filled with energy. The game also did a good job in bringing the player through the story, focusing on the most important extracts - though all these would make little sense if the player has not watched the anime or read the manga. The cut scenes were also entertaining - it felt as if I was watching a high quality anime! 

Gameplay-wise, the learning curve is very shallow - in just a few minutes, you can already play it reasonably well. Simply mashing the buttons will already yield considerable results, so sometimes it can be tempting to just stick to one move over and over again. Using each character's special power just requires your special move gauge to be charged (which is done when you defeat more enemies or get hit) and tapping one button. It is certainly very satisfying to unleash a special move and clear twenty or more enemies at one go.

Having said that, the camera can be rather frustrating. When fighting bosses, it is common for the boss to disappear out of sight due to the camera, and being struck by the boss out of nowhere is certainly not fun. The map could also be improved; many times I tried to run to my destination only to be blocked by a gate, which was not indicated clearly on the map. Objectives were also not marked clearly; for example, if the game's instructions were "prevent the messengers from reaching Territory J", the map does not tell you where the messengers are or which area is Territory J. Instead, the player needs to access the menu, scroll through some options before finding out. 

Normal enemies are easy - too easy, in fact. Their existence seemed rather sorry, as they seem to exist just to be pummelled by the Straw Hat Pirates. Bosses are different; some can be rather tough. But the main challenge of the game lies in preventing your allies from being defeated, because that would mean game over in some stages. In this aspect, it can be frustrating, because your allies can't heal, and the (stupid) AI would still direct them to charge head-first to a boss even if they only have a sliver of life left.

The number of playable characters was a pleasant surprise, and they are unlocked as you clear more stages using Luffy. Other than Luffy, you get to control Nami (who wears a ridiculously short skirt), Sanji, Zoro, Franky, Chopper (uber cute!), Brook (love the way he runs), Nico Robin, Usopp, and even Ace, Boa, Whitebeard, and Jinbe.

In conclusion, One Piece Pirate Warriors is worth playing, assuming you are familiar with the One Piece storyline and not too familiar with the mechanics of Dynasty Warriors.