Hard Knock Days – One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 Review

<p><em>One Piece<&sol;em> is a beloved anime and is one that naturally translates into the <em>Dynasty Warriors<&sol;em> formula&period; It has large scale battles and lots of nameless soldiers and locations&comma; so it was no surprise that <em>One Piece&colon; Pirate Warriors 3<&sol;em> played very much like I expected a <em>One Piece<&sol;em> game to play and is a treat for any fans of the anime&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game was developed by the team at Omega Force who handles all of Koei Tecmo&&num;8217&semi;s<em> Dynasty Warriors<&sol;em> games&period; I have to say they have gotten good at the formula&comma; and even though the game has similar aesthetics to the <em>Dynasty Warriors<&sol;em> series&comma; <em>Pirate Warriors 3<&sol;em> has certain mechanics that are unique to it that really fit with <em>One Piece<&sol;em>&period; For one&comma; you can use your crew members and use combination attacks by pressing the attacks buttons additionally after your combos are completed&semi; this will cause them to jump in and launch an additional attack&period; I found that this became a vital part of my strategy as you have to kill enemies with Kizuna moves in order to receive exclamation marks that make up your grade&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each ally in the battle can be used for Kizuna attacks and when their meter is full&comma; you can activate a Kizuna Rush which can use up to two characters you have maxed their meter with&period; In Kizuna Rush mode&comma; you deal more damage and anything you beat counts towards your &&num;8220&semi;&excl;&&num;8221&semi; marks&period; You can also use a Kizuna Rush that overrides your normal super and makes a combination attack using your two allies as well ending the Kizuna Rush and resetting both allies&&num;8217&semi; bars&period; This mode is fantastic to use on Bosses and tough enemies as it allows you to juggle an enemy and deal a lot of damage fast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;91439" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-91439" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175604&sol;Ace&lowbar;01&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-91439 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175604&sol;Ace&lowbar;01&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ace&lowbar;01" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-91439" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;One Piece Pirate Warriors 3&comma; Bandai Namco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game has the most amount of playable characters I have seen in a <em>One Piece<&sol;em> game thus far&comma; with a whole list of characters appearing for the first time as playable&comma; like Shanks&comma; Doflamingo&comma; and Sabo&period; All of these characters have their own move-sets that unlock as you level them up and all can be playable in free mode in any of the missions&period; The missions themselves are pretty standard as these types of games go&colon; you can capture territories&comma; protect allies&comma; stop your territories from being captured&comma; and even just beat up certain enemies&period; The missions aren&&num;8217&semi;t laid out that similarly and new mechanics show up enough from time to time&comma; so it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t get super repetitive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game has a few modes&period; The story mode recalls the <em>One Piece<&sol;em> narrative from the very beginning of the series all the way to the most current arc&period; The story was summarized nicely&comma; and a lot of key moments were kept with treasure moments &&num;8212&semi; moments that show up if you fulfill certain requirements during the mission&period; These moments are usually key character segments during the story and help make the story feel more complete&period; The only problem I had with the story is that the end of the game seems to improvise a narrative that isn&&num;8217&semi;t actually what happens in the manga or anime&semi; however&comma; its a minor gripe as currently the anime hasn&&num;8217&semi;t even finished the current arc yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;91441" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-91441" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175534&sol;Kizuna&lowbar;02&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-91441 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175534&sol;Kizuna&lowbar;02&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Kizuna&lowbar;02" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-91441" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;One Piece&colon; Pirate Warriors 3&comma; Bandai Namco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In addition to story mode&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a Free Mode that lets you replay any mission with any of your unlocked characters once you complete them in story mode&period; This is mainly for replaying story missions and unlocking Treasure Moments that you need certain characters for&comma; and for completing each chapters &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Legend Dairy&comma;” objectives you need to complete to unlock certain items for use on your characters&period; It is also useful for leveling your various characters that you unlock through the story&period; There is an online mode but that is basically replaying the story missions&comma; only with other people&period; For that reason&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have a whole lot of impact but if you want to play with friends you can play co-op either online or locally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Next there&&num;8217&semi;s Dream Log mode&comma; which allows you to unlock the other characters that you can&&num;8217&semi;t unlock through the story by completing semi-random missions in order to move forward to fight the character you want to unlock&period; It adds some variety to the game and also gives you a reason to keep playing by giving you additional characters to unlock&period; The missions also aren&&num;8217&semi;t just the story missions either and help to make it less monotonous&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;91440" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-91440" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175549&sol;Kizuna&lowbar;01&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-91440 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04175549&sol;Kizuna&lowbar;01&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Kizuna&lowbar;01" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-91440" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;One Piece&colon; Pirate Warriors 3&comma; Bandai Namco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>One Piece Pirate Warriors 3<&sol;em> is the most complete of the series so far with the most unlockable characters and more to do&period; Whether it be Story Mode&comma; Legend Dairy&comma; or Dream Log&comma; the game gives you plenty to do and even after just playing through the main story&comma; my initial playthrough clocked in at about 21 hours&comma; and thats without completing the Legend Dairy or playing much of the Dream Log&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a game that will keep you occupied&comma; this title from Bandai Namco has a ton of content that will give you plenty of bang for your buck&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>One Piece Pirate Warriors 3<&sol;em> is probably the best <em>One Piece<&sol;em> game on the market right now and feels like a proper game from the series through and through&period; The Story is huge and has plenty of content&comma; there is a character for everyone to play&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s fun to co-op with friends&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a must play for fans of the anime and manga and is just all around a fun game to play&period; Now if only we could get a proper <em>One Piece<&sol;em> fighting game over here&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS3 code  was provided to BagoGames by Bandai Namco for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;