ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS 4 / DEVELOPER: OMEGA FORCE / PUBLISHER: BANDAI NAMCO / PLATFORM: PC,PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE (REVIEWED) / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Warriors games seem to be released at an alarmingly fast rate, with several brand new instalments and reissues appearing every year. Just a couple of months ago, we loved the heck out of Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate, and now we’re equally enamoured with the latest in the long-running series, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4.
Each Warriors game usually has a handful of features to differentiate it from the others in one way or another. Being based on an anime, PW4 leans heavily into the cartoon vibe, making it immediately stand out from its more realistic Warriors counterparts. While the gameplay doesn’t deviate from the usual Warriors formula – it’s your usual musou affair, running around large battlefields, completing objectives, battering hundreds of enemies with over the top weapons and special moves, racking up combos that run into the thousands, all that sort of business – there are still a few bits and pieces that are rarely (if ever) seen in similar games. For one, characters are able to jump and perform combos in mid-air, which might not sound like much but certainly gives scope for plenty of insane attacks. Destroying buildings can cause damage to nearby enemies and sometimes reveals hidden items, and giant “titans” change up the gameplay slightly, requiring players to break through their shields before the boss can be attacked directly.
PW4‘s story mode restricts players to using specific characters during play. Completing these story missions, which are based around familiar locations from the anime, unlocks additional characters (more than 40 in total) that can then be used to replay missions in free mode. There are also a generous amount of standalone “Treasure Log” missions which reward players with currency to spend on the game’s various upgrade trees (one to enhance your entire roster, and additional ones for each individual character).
Chances are you’ll already know whether you’re a fan of Warriors games or not. If this sort of frantic button-bashing gameplay appeals to you, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is an absolute treat for One Piece fans and Warriors aficionados alike and should be added to your collection immediately!
