One Piece: Burning Blood (PlayStation 4) Review

By Drew Hurley 15.06.2016

Review for One Piece: Burning Blood on PlayStation 4

Shonen series have always lent themselves well to numerous genres of gaming; one only need look at the decades of Dragon Ball titles to see that. One Piece is, without doubt, the successor to Dragon Ball and has been working its way through the genres of adaptations, such as the recent Pirate Warriors series of Musou-style titles. This latest version returns the franchise to the fighting genre, but with the recent superb Naruto fighting series Ultimate Ninja Storm, can Burning Blood bring the same quality of fighter to One Piece?

Upon starting the game, there is only a single option available: Paramount War. This was one of the biggest and most action-orientated parts of the story thus far, and it formed the climax to the first half of the plot. It also acts as the story mode here. Initially following the "Episode of Luffy", each stage plays out as a fight between Luffy (or one of his allies) and various characters from the show. The retelling of the Paramount War in this way is quite faithful to the source material, and matches are interlaced with anime-style FMVs that fans will greatly enjoy. Upon completion of Luffy's story, there are three further paths to play through, from the perspectives of Whitebeard, Akainu, and then finally, Ace.

There are some poor design choices right from the get-go. Starting with just the Paramount War option is a strange choice, blocking off access to other modes of play like practice or free play until certain stages have been completed. The game then uses the age-old method of introducing gameplay elements throughout the first stages in something of a tutorial fashion, from the basic moves to the advanced abilities. It's a familiar and effective way of getting the audience used to the mechanics, but in Burning Blood, this method is somewhat flawed, in that some stages within the story have extra unlockable stages which interrupt the tutorial.

Screenshot for One Piece: Burning Blood on PlayStation 4

To unlock extra stages, some of the battles come with "Extra Chapter Requirements". These are usually easy to achieve - completing the stage with a set amount of XP, for example. Reaching these requirements on the very first stage is extremely easy, resulting in three stages being opened up, one of which is the next story stage, while the other two are the extra side stages. Most gamers tend to fire straight into optional stages and extra areas before progressing the story, but doing so here will result in some swift losses. These extra stages are ridiculously punishing for those who haven't continued with the main path and established the other controls or moves available to them.

The mechanics of this fighter are standard fare. There's a light attack, a heavy attack, a jump, and a block. Holding block while hitting a direction will dodge in that direction. Each character has three special attacks, unleashed by holding L1 and hitting one of the attack buttons or the block button. Like most 3D fighters, each of the characters have a bar to fill that, when full, unleashes an "Awoken" mode where characters are faster and hit harder. This Awoken mode differs depending on each character, and there are some special types that fans will enjoy in particular. For example, Franky calls in the Iron General, and Luffy transforms into his most recent form, Gear Four! When activated, this mode has a time limit, until the bar has drained, or until each character's ultimate attack is unleashed. Another familiar and well-used mechanic of 3D fighters, these huge dramatic attacks deal massive damage and look amazing while doing so.

Screenshot for One Piece: Burning Blood on PlayStation 4

There are plenty of characters to play with - 42, in fact, along with a massive 65 support characters. They range throughout the history of One Piece, all the way up to one of the most recent anime arcs in Dressrosa, including Fujitora and Sabo. The characters are not balanced. At all. The Logia fruit users are ridiculously overpowered. They're all very individual and faithfully recreated - a real joy for fans - as are the battle stages, including familiar locales like Dressrosa Coliseum, the Going Merry, and the Deserts of Alabasta, each of which are filled with destructible elements and dynamic backgrounds. The character choices bring more fan service with "Appeal Events": unique conversations between enemies or partners prior to the match that add a little more flavour.

It's great to have so many fan favourite characters, but this is another area marred by poor design. Each character gains XP and levels up. At the beginning, there are 11 characters, all gaining XP at the same rate, so when one levels up they all do…resulting in 11 pop-ups which require a few "next" button presses per character. It's unnecessary and gets very old very quickly, not to mention as more characters are unlocked, it becomes exponentially more annoying.

Screenshot for One Piece: Burning Blood on PlayStation 4

Besides than the Paramount War mode, there are some other modes to enjoy. Some are standard for fighters, like Free Battle and Online matches (ranked and free), but then there are some unique and standout modes. For the competitive, there is Pirate Flag Battle, which allows players to pledge their allegiance to a pirate fleet and participate in online matches, with each fleet rewarding its members at the end of each season. Arguably, the best of these modes is the "Wanted Posters", which act as a challenge mode. They offer a series of incrementally difficult challenges that are broken up into ranks. These balance the difficulty well and make for some of the best battles in the game. They also include some bonus special and limited edition battles, which offer a real challenge.

Screenshot for One Piece: Burning Blood on PlayStation 4

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

Burning Blood delivers faithful representations and beautiful presentation, but the mechanics are riddled with flaws. The story gives the best adaptation of the Paramount War, but the fact that there is no Dressrosa segment when so many characters from the arc are here is unforgivable. The basic and easily abused nature of the combat will see few returning to this title after more than a few plays.

Developer

Spike Chunsoft

Publisher

Bandai Namco

Genre

Fighting

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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