One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
Official Japanese cover art for the PlayStation 4 version of the game.
Developer(s)	Omega Force
Publisher(s)	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Series	One Piece
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	JP: March 26, 2015 NA: August 25, 2015 EU: August 28, 2015
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 (ワンピース 海賊無双3, Wan Pīsu: Kaizoku Musou 3) is an action video game, developed by Omega Force, marketed by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows. The game is a sequel to One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, released in Japan on March 26, 2015^[1] and subsequently in Western territories on August 25, 2015.^[2][3] This is the last One Piece game released on the PlayStation 3.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the first two installments. A new feature is the Kizuna Rush, which summons another character alongside the player in battle to perform a combination attack. Up to four players can be summoned at once this way, with the finishing attacks becoming more powerful as more characters join.

During battle, one of the NPC support characters (known as Crew in the game) may become a Hero, which causes the Kizuna Gauge of the support character who is a hero to fill up more easily. Maxing out this support character's Kizuna Level and filling their Kizuna Gauge, will unleash their Hero Power. Each character (Playable & Support) have their own Hero Powers which produce different effects, such as causing a barrage (such as Fujitora causing a barrage of meteors, Sakazuki unleashing a barrage magma, or Garp throwing a barrage of Cannonballs) that deals out damage to every enemy on a stage, restoring health of allied units (Chopper & Sanji's hero power), reducing the enemy units attack power by intimidating them (Zoro and Luffy's Hero Power), or inspiring allied units increasing their combat effectiveness and attack strength. However tough enemies can also unleash their Hero Power which causes a stunned Gauge to appear over their head and when the gauge reaches 0 the enemy will be stunned causing their Hero Power to end.

Some characters like Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji can use a special state called an Overdrive which allow them to use their signature power-up states like Gear Second, Diable Jambe, or Sogeking when Kizuna Rush is activated. However these Overdrives are not automatically available and require specific Coins to unlock them. Also for most of the Logia users in the game, their Logia state acts as their Overdrive and unlike characters Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji these Overdrives do not need to be unlocked using Coins.

The main story mode, "Legend Log" mode features special cutscenes called "Treasure Events" which can be triggered under certain conditions (e.g. using a certain character, completing specific tasks, defeating a specific enemy, etc.).

In addition to the main story mode, there is also a "Dream Log" mode, in which characters and items are revealed and unlocked as the player progresses through the mode's semi-randomized battles. After the Final Island in Dream Log is completed a second harder version called "Nightmare Log" is unlocked.

The game features a "Legend Diary" that functions as an overall progress indicator. Achieving S-Ranks on levels, defeating bosses with Special Kizuna Attacks and fulfilling other miscellaneous objectives gradually fills out the grid and rewards the player with coins that can be used to upgrade each character's stats, to unlock their second special attack, or unlock their overdrives (if they have one). The game also features "Skill Posters" for each character that allow the player to unlock various equipable skills by fulfilling certain conditions. All playable characters have a 50 Level Limit and in order to level up a character to Level 100 (the game's maximum level) one must obtain a set of Rare Coins (each character has their own set of coins required) to break their Level Limit.

Characters

The game features a total of 37 playable characters, which consist of all 27 from previous games and an additional 10 new ones. A number of NPCs also appear as enemies.

* Denotes new characters

Development

In December 2014, it was announced that One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 would be released in Japan on March 26, 2015. Later that same month it was announced that the game would be coming to western territories at some point in 2015 with a Summer release scheduled for North America. Release dates were later announced to be at the end of August 2015 for both North America and the EU. Chris Gilbert, the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Bandai Namco Games America, said that "The worldwide popularity of One Piece continues to grow due to the franchise’s fantastic action, storytelling, and character development. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3’s magical blend of hijinks and humor with Dynasty Warriors’ frenetic gameplay style has produced a truly satisfying experience that One Piece fans will surely look forward to enjoying in the summer of 2015″.^[4]

Reception

Review aggregate Metacritic, which gives games a weighted average score based on published critical reviews, game the game's PlayStation 4 version a score of 74,^[5] indicating "mixed or average reviews", whereas the PlayStation Vita version received a score of 76, indicating "Generally favourable reviews" . Gaming Age said of the PlayStation Vita version "It's not often that a game will embrace its own ludicrousness and just be totally and completely ridiculous, but One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 does just that",^[9] and God is a Geek described the PlayStation 4 version as "A sprawling beat ‘em up with great replayability and loads of content for both fans and newcomers." ^[10] However, the PC port's reviews were more mixed, with a weighted average score of 62 on Metacritic. Hardcore Gamer gave a positive review, describing the game as "very playable" but criticised it for being "weak in technical terms", and one negative review came from Russian gaming website Riot Pixels, which criticised the graphics and porting issues, and stated that "It all boils down to this: One Piece is just not a fun beat-‘em-up game".^[11]

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a positive rating of 36 out of 40.^[8] IGN awarded the game a score of 6.9 out of 10, saying "Pirate Warriors 3 combines musou combat with One Piece’s spirit intact, but it’s bogged down by cutscenes."^[12] Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku gave the game a mixed review, praising the combat but criticizing the lack of innovation, describing it as "an incredibly run-of-the-mill Dynasty Warriors."^[13]

References

External links

• Official Japanese website