One Piece: Burning Blood

Reviewed June 17, 2016 on Xbox One

Platforms:

Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita

Released:

June 3, 2016

Publisher:

Bandai Namco Entertainment

Developer:

Spike Chunsoft

Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I don’t. I’m perfectly happy with admitting I just don’t understand somethings, and I’m sure to some people One Piece: Burning Blood may be just the game they’ve been waiting for, they may be that perfect combination of a person that loves One Piece, fighting games with bad tutorials, can speak Japanese fluently and is perfectly happy with drawn out, non-animated comic like exposition. Sadly however, this just isn’t me and I just didn’t find One Piece Burning Blood any good.

I’m just going to get some technical information out  so the facts won’t get in the way of my incessant ranting. The game is your basic 1 on 1 fighter for the majority of the time, but does feature up to 3 v 3 in certain modes. There are over 40 playable characters and has some pretty sweet special moves and combos if that’s what floats your boat. If this feels like the game for you, maybe zone out for the next couple of minutes while I continue crucifying it.

First impressions left me quite luke-warm. The game is only localised to English with Subtitles, inaccurate subtitles, I was at one stage asked what I “vished” for, the plot was explained to be quickly with a string of still images narrated over with absolutely no attempt to explain what even the concept behind One Piece is and I was then thrown into a fight with zero tutorial and expected to go at it against an enemy. The game had me button mashing and swinging wildly at an enemy for a bit before it so graciously decided that I should be told what buttons did what. The only problem here is the game doesn’t really know what button does what and just tells you what it “does” and then what the game “thinks” it’s mapped to. It is very odd and to me just came off as cheap and lazy.

One Piece: Burning Blood
One Piece: Burning Blood
One Piece: Burning Blood
One Piece: Burning Blood

A break from the angry for a moment; the visual design of this game I actually really like a lot, it’s probably one of the best 3D/videogame adaptations of Anime I’ve seen. It looks clean, authentic and works really well.

The gameplay is your standard fighter, button combos, mashing, trying to remember what the stupid combo for blocking is, being drilled into the dirt. Fun fun fun!

Positive:

  • Abosultely gorgeous art style
  • Solid combat
  • Impactful visuals

Negative:

  • Terrible tutorial
  • Awful localisation
  • Failed to engage

If you’re a fan of One Piece you’ve probably already bought this and are getting ready to write me hate mail as I speak. If you want something to waste your money on; there are some far better new releases on the market.