Game: One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 Deluxe Edition
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Developer: Bandai Namco
Reviewed: Nintendo Switch
One Piece is one of the longest-running animes of all time, going neck and neck with Dragonball Z. It is a beloved franchise that keeps fans invested into the series for such a long time. When a show goes on for about 19 years, its a true testament to the showrunners creative thought process, story arcs, and character development. Shows that go on for 2-3 seasons sometimes start to feel like a dread, imagine having 800 episodes spanned across 19 years?
There’s a lot of lore to obtain, a lot of characters to meet, and a lot of arcs that our heroes will go through, so if you aren’t semi-invested into One Piece, the latest Pirate Warriors game for the Nintendo Switch is probably not up your alley.
The game still is fun for fans of the Dynasty Warrior format, but will they get the same enjoyment out of it as someone who is an avid fan of the anime/manga? Let’s find out!
Like I said above, if you are a fan of the Dynasty Warrior format of gameplay then this game should at least play well for you. Even if your not the biggest fan of the show, the game will at least be fun to play. It has a decently long campaign to play through with full-on cutscenes and all that. It’s essentially Dynasty Warriors but with a One Piece story and One Piece characters in the game. Go through the level and take out hordes of enemies at a time, some with defense mechanisms, some with different attack abilities, and sometimes a mini-boss that’s blocking a passageway.
If you know One Piece, then you know there is a lot of characters in the show. Thankfully the game stays true to that as it has over 40 characters to choose from. It’s absolutely crazy! Getting bored of one character? Changes. Getting bored of that character? Change again. The replayability alone due to the character selection is amazing. It is also worth mentioning even though its a dynasty warrior style game, button mashing isn’t always advised, especially on a harder difficulty. The game requires you to use combos for bigger enemies and keeps you always engaged with the task at hand.
A cool feature of the Switch version of the game is that players will be able to play local split-screen with their joycons. Take it apart and team up with your friend and take out the enemies together. There is something very satisfying taking loads of enemies out at a time, and now do that with your friend, you could create some really cool moments. If you don’t want to play split-screen co-op, the game allows players to still play with an AI companion. Build up your power moves together and perform a huge blast to eliminate a large section of enemies. It is super satisfying.
If you are a fan of dubbed anime then this might be a little disappointing to hear, but Pirate Warriors 3 Deluxe Edition does not of any of the dub cast of One Piece. It is filled with the Japanese cast with the subtitled English translation. It’s not the biggest problem in the game, but if you are accustomed to hearing the English version of these characters, it might just be a bummer to know to hear the voices your known to.
Thankfully there is a subtitled English translation though, so it’s not all bad. While on the same note, even though there is no English voice acting, fans of the series will be treated to hearing some background music that fits with the show. You’ll hear the epic guitar solos, upbeat tone your accustomed to when watching the show — which is a very nice touch.
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 Deluxe Edition is a generally fun game for both fans of the show and those fans of the Dynasty warrior games. It has loads of characters to choose from, a decently long story to complete, and some of the coolest set pieces in a Warriors game. The Nintendo Switch version is probably the best version of the game in my opinion due to the portability of the game. Yes, this gets said a lot when talking about the Switch, but certain games make this statement so true — and One Piece Warriors 3 is one of them.
Of course, there is a lower resolution for the Switch version, but the ability to take this game on a road trip, bus to school, or on the couch in your living room makes the game infinitely better. Its fun to play in the docked mode, but when your slashing and dashing your way through a horde of enemies, the handheld version is so much more fun to play. Plus, when in handheld, the smaller screen creates a better visual representation of the game, despite having a lower resolution setting than when in docked mode.
One Piece Warriors 3: Deluxe Edition is loads of fun to play and has a lot of One Piece lore into the game. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll love this game; if you don’t know the show, but like the Dynasty Warriors gameplay, then this game could be for you. I’m by no stretch of the imaginations the biggest One Piece fan, but I did find the game fun enough to play through and have a good time with. Plus the Switch version comes with all the previous DLC for a relatively low price of $40.
So did you pick up the game for the Switch? What do you think about the game? Let us know in the comments below!
