One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2

7 Overall Score
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6/10

Great drawing and animation | Nami | Decent online multiplayer, when it works

Repetitive | Plot makes no sense

Game Info

GAME NAME: One Piece Pirate Warriors 2

DEVELOPER(S): Omega Force

PUBLISHER(S): Namco Bandai

PLATFORM(S): PS3

GENRE(S): Action, Musuo

RELEASE DATE(S): 9/3/2013

I don’t know how this happens, but every time a Japanese Musuo game hits our desks, I’m the one who gets to review it.  This time, it’s One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, which (I’m told) is the most popular manga ever, with something like 60 million  issues in circulation.  This is meaningless to me though, as the last anime show I watched was Samurai Pizza Cats.  So let’s see where this goes.

oppw2-3
Starring Monkey D. Luffy and his gang of Straw Hat Pirates, One Piece is the beat-em-up we’ve all come to know.  In classic W-Force Omega fashion, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 has you hitting square, and sometimes triangle, to defeat hundreds of enemies on your way to whatever goddamn crazy goal you’re supposed to be achieving.  It’s a Musou game, people.  You know what you’re getting into.  There will be a bajillion onscreen enemies, you will most likely defeat them all, and well-endowed anime girls will titter at your prowess.

The plot is apparently a dreamscape offshoot of the main manga series.  This might just be me, but following the plot is not worth the use of brainpower.  Something about a jail, and some boats, I think?  Who cares.  Keep punching.  Rounding out the story are challenge stages and each individual character’s own little storyline series.  Many of these are very brief, but a few increase the length of the game significantly.  Plus, if you’re paying attention, you might just learn a thing about Akainu or Mr. 3.

The graphics are pretty damn good, though.  Sticking amazingly close to the source material, OP manages to migrate a 2D medium to the 3D realm with style to spare.  The characters are incredibly well-done, and the backgrounds are vibrant and alive.  Each stage, from Buggy the Clown’s outpost to Nameless Place, it well detailed and completely different.  It’s obvious that a lot of thought was put in to drawing all these guys and gals.  And while you are of course smashing a million or so identical enemies, the characters important to the story are all easily noticable and quick to recognize.  As long as you know who’s who, of course.  Stages are your average musuo-style battlefields.  They’re generally divided into large rooms that require taking over or clearing before moving on to the next large room.  Punctuate this with a few minibosses, and then a boss battle at the end, and you have every single level in this entire game.

oppw2-1

Not to say that’s a terrible thing, though.  There’s a fun catharsis to these punchfest games, and when playing online with another person, short little rivalries can pop up.  Who can beat up the most, the fastest?  How many with one hit?  Although the game only has very light tracking of these stats, it’s still generally a good time.  A few issues do crop up of course.  You can only play online in stages you’ve already beaten, or the stage you’re currently at – no hopping forward to help out your buddy, even if you’re on the same stage.  There’s no real easy friend invite system, so getting online with that special someone takes a bit of trial and error.  And you will be far outclassed by the Japanese teens who are usually playing this game.  They’re all max level.

As the subs v. dubs debate rages on, OPPW2 plants itself firmly in the SUBS camp (this was true in the first game, too).  While listening to the original voice actors does have its benefits – this is what the creator was looking for, to really let you identify the characters – if you don’t speak Japanese, it’s frustrating to have to take your eyes off the combat to see the plot points.  However, you’re most likely not playing a cartoon musuo game for the plot, so those messages are easy to ignore.  But other important information can get ignored too, leading to a particular character giving a distress cry that falls on deaf ears.  Then you have to start the stage over.  This issue has arisen in other games just like this one though, which makes me wonder how cloistered the community of musuo developers is – have they really not seen that something like a flashing “DANGER!” icon or any helpful words in English would go a long way into not having to deal with tedious game-overs?

oppw2-2
The Recommendation
Yeah it’s repetitive, and without any knowledge of the source material, the story is completely meaningless.  It’s this style of game.  And while the first game tried something a little different with its stages (because jumping puzzles are considered revolutionary in the musuo genre), it’s good to see a musuo game do the source material well.  The graphics are outstanding, the gameplay is solid if you know what to expect, and the lady characters are all…  nice to look at.  And let’s end the review on that note.

SHARE THIS POST

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Myspace
  • Google Buzz
  • Reddit
  • Stumnleupon
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Technorati
Avatar
Author: James View all posts by
Dangerously fat. Twitter: @hypersaline

Comments are closed.