Title: One Piece: Pirate Warriors (series includes: the titular One Piece: Pirate Warriors, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, and the most recently released One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3)
Released: 2012, 2013, 2015 (respectively)
I'm going to try and find an element that's good and one that's bad for each of the three primary fields so this isn't entirely based on my good thoughts of the game.
(1) Here we have the first entry into the franchise. If you like Dynasty Warriors games by the Koei/Tecmo and Omega-Force team, and/or if you like One Piece, then this game may very well be for you. The first of the series ends up playing off of some of the story itself, leading from the very beginning of Luffy setting out on his journey to become the Pirate King up to Marineford and Sabaody. Of course, by the time you finish the game, you might already have the events ingrained into your mind for having to play them several times for each character's Main Log. It doesn't provide much in terms of replay value once you've completed the Main Log, however you must repeat this process of running through the logs for some of the trophies.
(2) This is where it starts to get all shades of f'd up. Instead of following along with the prime material, this game introduces it as a Dream Scenario. All of the characters you may come to know through the main setting of the anime and manga are thrown out of order. While their roles may still be the same, such as Eneru being the Logia god of Skypiea, or Gecko Moria being the ruler of Thriller Bark, we throw in a dash of craziness when some dials found in a military facility changes things up for Luffy, thrusting him into a power struggle between the Pirates, the Warlords, and the Marines that encompasses familiar stages to the previous game such as Orange Town and Marineford and throws in a few new places such as Thriller Bark, Punk Hazard, and Skypiea.
The story does have a bit of flaws to it as you can't necessarily take it at face value as being something random. If anything, it is on a random flight from the Marines that the Straw Hats are then thrust into visiting Skypiea once more and starts them down this spiral into darkness. I'm a bit lost, personally, as to how this would even fit into the actual timeline, other than knowing that it would be somewhere past the time skip at Sabaody Archipelago because of the character differences. I do enjoy the different choices of stages this time around, but it does sometime seem a bit overwhelming to have so much to do in one stage early on that you might miss out on some of the conversations when having to stop an officer or two from killing an objective officer of your own.
(3) At the time of writing this, I haven't had much time to play this entry. It just came out yesterday, after all, for the English audience. However, I must say, everything that was slightly problematic about the previous versions are refined and added on to in this entry. Sure, it starts out following the main scenario given from the anime/manga, but it extends it to encompass the entire stage with the epic battles. I've played through the Prologue and Chapter One of the Main Log and I am definitely enjoying the effort they've put in to this game, with the increase in enemies surrounding you, the objectives and "treasure events" in each stage, and getting to beat familiar foes like Buggy and including new old faces like Kuro, Axe-hand Morgan, and Alvida.
That being said, the coin interface for upgrading your character stats does seem a bit misleading and unfortunate. Compared to the previous games, the coin listing for this game is very short. Due to this, you acquire several numbers of coins during a single stage and must spend them by socketing them into the character's stat sheet. Once all of the coins being requested for one stat has been satisfied, you get the desired increase and a new set is given to you. To me, it is taking the primary setting from OP:PW1, complicating it a little, and then giving it the guise of the coin set-up from PW2, where you had to chain coins together to get an increase in the main stats (attack, defense, and life). In this one, you actually have to spend the coins to unlock special gauge, limit break, and skill slots, which does make it a lot more tedious than I first expected.
(1) (2) (3) Meanwhile, the music stays consist and rather mis-matching to the One Piece franchise, yet makes perfect sense in the theme of Dynasty Warriors using rock themes. That's not saying that it isn't catchy, but it definitely doesn't match what you would normally expect for the One Piece anime/manga (especially when you compare it TO the anime music). I'd have to say that the series as a whole definitely does a good job of keeping me personally entertained. As a whole, you can at least play as some of your favorite OP characters and whop on a few others, Dynasty Warriors style, and enjoy yourself. Just don't burn yourself out too much, as is possible when you get around to playing it repeatedly for some of the more elusive trophies. If you don't play for trophies, then you have nothing to worry about!
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