“One Piece” is a household name in Japan, where the mangas and anime series are among the most popular series of all time. The series follows Monkey D. Luffy, a seafaring pirate in search of treasure on the high seas, who possesses the strange ability to stretch his limbs to cartoonish lengths after eating a mysterious fruit.
While only a handful of the games created in the One Piece universe have seen releases Stateside, the release of PS3-exclusive One Piece: Pirate Warriors sees the series return to the US. I recently went hands-on with a Japanese build of the game at Namco Bandai’s Gamers Day, checking out Pirate Warriors’ brawler-based gameplay and over-the-top anime antics.
Pirate Warriors embraces the combat stylings of the Dynasty Warriors series, pitting series protagonist Monkey and a number of other playable characters against wave upon wave of enemies; the playable demo Namco had on-hand showed off the impressive number of enemies the game can display at any given time. Though the Dynasty Warriors series is known for its massive number of on-screen foes, Pirate Warriors does this with the anime stylings of series creator Eiichiro Oda, featuring some of the most over-the-top combat sequences I’ve seen in a long time.
It’s easy to get the hang of combat right away, combining light and strong attacks into combo strings to take down multiple enemies at once. Monkey’s ability to stretch his limbs to ridiculous length allows him to strike groups from across the screen. Monkey also possesses the ability to perform mega attacks, which are available once a charge bar at the top of the screen fills up as he defeats enemies. These attacks are totally off-the-wall, and involve brief anime-style cutscenes while Monkey inflicts massive amounts of pain on his helpless foes.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors also sports multiple modes of play, including a story mode and a more straightforward battle mode. Fans familiar with the series will be happy to know that the game mirrors much of the plot that begins the One Piece manga, though gamers unfamiliar with the series should have no problem becoming acquainted with Monkey and his band of Straw Hat Pirates.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors is slated to hit later this year, only on PS3.
Thanx for the PSN only release!! People better wake up and smell the DIGITAL coffee!! Download format is the best!! But anyways, this is pretty big release for the US manga universe! Especially, for us PS3 owners! To us, saying that its exclusive, is the sweetest thing! lol One Piece has grown be to one of the most popular manga series to ever debut! Ten plus years strong and there is no telling were it’ll stop and I couldnt be happier honestly! I feel the depth and gameplay are perfect for this story! Masses of enemies and colossal, one on one boss battles, are going to be outstanding in this game! And the best thing is, (deducing from the trailer) that it will cover every key and major plot points in the series to fully make people aware of how great this series is! One Piece is currently my second favorite manga, aside from Naruto, and lastly its Bleach. Those three have replaced my old fav DBZ!
I prefer to have the disc, but on the other hand, I would NOT be able to play this game without the Japanese actors I’ve heard for years. And since disc format must include English audio but digital doesn’t, I’m hoping that means the Japanese track is ensured.
The digital-only release makes no sense.
Sure, I do have some digital games on my PS3 but it’s hard drive is almost full… not everyone has huge hard drives or lots of space these days.
So, even though this seems like a great game, you are losing customers over this issue.
10 Print “JAPANESE LANGUAGE SUPPORT IS A MUST!”
20 GOTO 10
RUN
So sad I won’t be buying this. No retail copy here in the US :(
I bet the digital copy will be like $60 too…..
Please release this to stores. Then you’ll get my money.
BTW… I prefer the English Dubs….Cuz it’s the Funimation DUB. Not that Crappy 4Kids waste of time!!! I heard somewhere that they are going to release a Blu-ray copy….I guess it was just a rumor. DAMN! I would have slapped my money down for a Physical copy and all the DLC right this instant! None of this waiting 20+ Hours for it all to download! Too bad $75 for a physical copy and DLC would sound great. Guess I’ll still slap the money down….I just won’t enjoy the WAIT!
Later this year?
We dont need Dub, Just Sub!!
Not sure why everyone’s so hung up about there being no disc release. As long as it’s not $60 and there are no gameplay hiccups, I don’t see what the problem is. If anything it means I get an awesome game (hopefully with the original Japanese voices) and more shelf space.