Come on board and bring along, all your hopes and dreams because today we’re talking One Piece! Thank you to Graham and GamEir for allowing me to review yet another one of my favourite pieces of entertainment! This time in Musou-style form! Finally, thank you to Bandai Namco for the Nintendo Switch code. One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 needs no introduction. If you’re a fan of previous Pirate Warrior games or the anime, you’re in for a good time. This entry has taken some great steps in the right direction for the Pirate Warrior series. Maybe even the Musou genre as a whole, but it isn’t without some missteps.
The Thousandth Sunny
Returning fans of the series are sure to enjoy the new updates. These range from how the characters look and feel to play, to the mission and levelling systems. Each of the characters has also gotten new combat abilities and skill trees. This makes them all feel far more individual in combat than previous titles, albeit we’re still missing the likes of Franky’s Coup De Boo. It would be useless but who doesn’t love a good fart joke.
Moving on from One Piece Pirate Warriors 3, we have lost some mechanics which while cool were a bit of a pace killer. Kizuna Rush and the Support Character System were a bit of a detriment to One Piece Pirate Warriors 4. The support NPC’s felt like they idled a lot more, and were just there to show more than battle.
The levelling system is similar to older titles, with coins still being used to raise your stats and unlock skills. However, it has been overhauled and improved. Each character has 3 skill/stat trees, one shared tree with every character in the game and 2 individual trees. This makes characters both new and old playable, no matter their level.
Overall though when it comes to the main gameplay mechanics One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is a fantastic upgrade to its predecessor. It would definitely be my choice in terms of gameplay. In terms of story, however, well that’s a different matter.
The Not-So-Grand Line
One Piece Pirate Warriors 4’s story is where we see the missteps taken that brought down my overall enjoyment of the game. It is an abridged version of the story we all know and love. However, the choice of arcs and specific moments make it near impossible for new fans to understand whats going on a lot of the time.
While One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 covered the main arcs up to Dressrosa, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 covers the same arcs as Odyssey. It also includes Whole Cake Island concluding with its own ending to Wano. Honestly, it made me sad that it came out before we saw the proper conclusion. Thank god for DLC though!
I completely understand the reason for the choices made in terms of arc. They are easily some of the best arcs in the entire series up to this point. However, it would have been nice to see them doing some of the smaller arcs instead. Replaying through the same arcs used as stories for most One Piece games has begun to burn me out. Primarily on those arcs specifically. I would have loved to beat up Arlong while also destroying Arlong Park. Or even to fight Wapol in Drum Kingdom.
One thing I have to say though is that while it runs decently on the Switch in handheld mode, the load times are killer. I found myself looking at multiple loading screens each one a no shorter than the last every time I entered a level/mission. It was like a pattern. Long loading screen>character selection/levelling screen>mission screen>long loading screen>gameplay. Sadly, I don’t have a working switch dock at the moment so I can’t test the loading times while docked. If other games like MK8DX are anything to go by, I don’t see them getting any better.
Overall, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is a fun game for when you get an itch for One Piece or even a Musou game. It does hit both notes nicely. Sadly though, given the abridged nature of the story, it is definitely not a good starting point for newcomers. Especially those who may just be starting One Piece for the first time. I would highly recommend hitting up the likes of One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 first due to its wider story coverage and non-DLC character selection.
These words were brought to you by Jack O’Mahony, a longtime traveller of the Grand Line.
Stay tuned to GamEir. Come talk with us on Twitter (@gam_eir), Facebook (@GamEir), and Instagram (@GamEir).
Leave a Reply