One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 First Impressions

I was not familiar with what One Piece was other than seeing the occasional artwork, cover, or game released every once in awhile. So for those like me not used to the source material, as best I can tell, it goes like this.

One Piece is a Japanese anime and manga series following a group of misfit pirates on a quest for treasure. It’s pretty standard for Japanese anime, with its own little twist. There is different types of Devil Fruit in this world that grant the different eaters abilities forever changing their lives. The main character for instance, Luffy, is basically a karate version of Mr. Fantastic, able to stretch and bend his body at whim for some incredible fighting scenes.

Pirate Warriors 4 is a formula we all know in well from other Warriors games like Dynasty Warriors, Hyrule Warriors, and Fire Emblem Warriors – a massive hack and slash in a battlefield fighting thousands of enemies. Personally, I love this style of game. They are a fantastic ways to unplug your brain and just have fun. It is an escape from reality, which we can all use right now.

The roster boasts 43 different characters, with more being released as DLC, and so far, having unlocked around 8 or so, it’s very refreshing that they all seem to have unique fighting styles and abilities which makes the game much more engaging as time goes on. I will say not knowing the source material does make me feel a little lost in the story, which is mainly told in cut-scenes between battles. From my perspective, the story often seems to jump around. But I am having an absolute blast with this one.

Our full review will come early this week, as I want to get a bit further and unlock some more stuff. But keep your eyes out as this one is a real winner!