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Review

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 (Switch) Review

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Finally, it’s time for another Pirate Warriors game. The third one originally came out five years ago so it’s been a wait (less of one if you only jumped in on the Switch release, which was only about two years ago). Since then there’s always the continuing adventures of Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates, so it’s about time the Pirate Warriors series got an update. While it would be unwise to jump into this game with no prior knowledge, let’s go over the basics. Monkey D Luffy is a pirate who intends to be the King of the Pirates. He also happens to have the powers of a devil fruit, granting Luffy rubber skin and stretchiness. Along the way, Luffy has recruited a sizable band of misfits who make up the Straw Hat Pirate crew, each and every one of them striving to be the strongest of their trade. 

For those new to the series, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is a hack and slash game in the same Masuo genre as Dynasty Warriors. You’re responsible for following story-based objectives while fighting through large groups of weak enemy fodder. There’s tougher and bigger enemies keeping it from being a complete cakewalk, especially when named characters get involved with their own devil fruit powers. Levels are split into different sections, usually all controlled by the enemy. Should you clear out enough of the chum and defeat a Leader, you take control. 

Starting with a cold open, Monkey D Luffy and Eustass Kidd have a showdown against Animal Kingdom thugs as well as warlord Big Mom. Serving as an action-packed tutorial it’s not long before you’re taken back to previous One Piece Arcs starting with good ‘ol Alabasta. Instead of the comprehensive retelling of the One Piece series, PW4 chooses a few arcs and has several levels based within it. The Dramatic Log is where you play out these arcs, with each game adding more and more of the ongoing story of this long-running series. It goes right up to the Wano arc which is still ongoing in the anime. In the game, it’s presented as a Game Original arc.

If you’re coming in fresh you’ll feel fairly lost here. While they do fill in some of the gaps with cutscenes when they skip whole arcs, you’re still missing a lot. Even once the story moves past the time jump they skip some arcs. I’m sure I don’t need to say it, but I would recommend watching the episodes or reading the chapters of the relevant arcs to get the most out of it. Some big moments get a cutscene, especially when there’s big tears running down everyone’s face and some anime crying boogers too. Other moments get missed entirely, even in the most recent story. Overall I was glad that I didn’t have to play through all the earlier arcs again, across the different One Piece games you relive them enough. However, it felt like a missed opportunity to not focus the story all on the post time skip arcs. While most levels are after that point, instead of Alabasta and Enies Lobby they could’ve at least had Punk Hazard and Fish-Man Island arcs instead. There is still plenty to enjoy and if you’re still on board with One Piece games you’re no stranger to reliving a lot of past moments.   

Free Log opens up the levels to all unlocked characters, which can make a big difference if you have a character you excel with. Especially while going back to any level where you’re locked in with Usopp, or at least pre time skip Usopp with his heavy focus on technical attacks. This mode is particularly helpful if you want to grind for more coins, this is key if you want to upgrade as many characters as possible. You can also go wild using the giant boss characters you unlock, towering over everyone. 

Then there’s the Treasure Log, a series of levels with different scenarios than the original setting. These levels present more variety in the objectives than the Dramatic versions. If you want to get more out of the game and fight through some different scenarios then there is a lot here to keep you busy. It also gives you more of a challenge, even if it’s just making sure two enemies are both knocked out at the same time. Given the Dramatic versions don’t push you that much, you can put your abilities to the test in this mode instead. 

I was surprised to find the battlefield combat to be even better for the fourth iteration. Finally, you can launch enemies into the air and perform air combos! After all the time with Pirate Warriors 3, it’s hard to imagine going back. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but performing a combo before launching a group into the air to keep pummeling them never ceases to be fun. This isn’t the only change this time around, Kizuna Rush attacks are no longer in the game. In its place, you can select four different special moves from whatever you have unlocked for that character. Some only become available after you’ve gotten upgrade coins from certain levels in the Dramatic Log. Even from the beginning, Luffy is strong, by the end of the story he can easily use some of his stronger forms such as Bounceman and Snakeman once he has better control over his Haki. 

When moving through the battlefield and laying into crowds of enemies you don’t need much finesse. Musou games are good at bringing the crowds right to where you need them once a combo gets going. There are commanders and leaders as well as all the named ‘boss’ enemies that you need to be able to target and follow around as you give them a thrashing. It’s also oddly satisfying to unleash a barrage of attacks on a group to the point you knock down the buildings and scenery surrounding, I don’t remember that from last time.

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If you’ve played the previous game then you won’t be surprised to find that using the camera lock on the camera still gets lost. Or it decides the best way to show the action is to go right behind your back and show nothing else. Most of the time with the game I just had to accept wildly attacking in the direction I knocked an enemy while moving the camera around. Veterans of the series won’t be surprised by the usual Musou shortcomings. 

The roster has been one of PW4’s bigger selling points, with over 40 characters and more will come with DLC later. It’s great having so many to choose from and there is such a wide variety in abilities, each with their own Growth Maps to upgrade. Not all characters from Pirate Warriors 3 make the return, generally ones where their arc is no longer included, but new ones are added with the new content. It still doesn’t make the omissions any less annoying, with the amount still there you won’t have trouble finding a different pirate/marine to select.     

There is one shared Growth Chart where you can use your variety of coins to upgrade some base stats across all of the roster, as well as some additional skills. This is important to keep levelling the different upgrades as this benefits everyone, so no character should feel underleveled. Each character then has their own Growth chart used to raise their individual stats and capabilities. It’s also important to sink coins into so you can have more combos and ability slots unlocked, holding as many abilities as you can going into battle. 

Online and co-op are also available so you can fight with your Nakama as you face the waves of enemies. Online seems to always run in the background should you have a connection. As soon as the connection is lost the game will make you aware of it. The game holds up fine with a split screen co-op, and most levels allow for more than just two characters to choose from.

Like with Pirate Warriors 3, 4 is also out on the PS4 and PC, raising the question of how the Switch version compares. In short, it holds up. It’s not the most visually stunning game, but at the same time the models are as good as they were in the previous game and they were perfectly fine there too. I am still pretty impressed that the stylised Eiichiro Oda designs translates so well to 3D models. While I haven’t played PW4 on the other platforms, on the Switch version the most obvious shortcomings are in the load times and some of the visual performance. The loading times are long, even to get into the first menu you could put your controller down for a minute or two until you realise there’s an autosave notification screen every time you start up and have to wait some more. Then there’s the visuals. Ultimately it’s nothing surprising, the draw distance isn’t that far and that includes the numerous crowds. If you’ve played a Masuo game on the Switch it shouldn’t be a surprise, not that it’s a negative judgement on the game. Even on the other platforms these games can only handle so many characters on screen at once, cut the game a little slack. What is harder to ignore are some of the weird lighting and texture issues that are throughout the game. I still don’t know if it’s an artistic decision with some of the textures or if it’s just a little rough. Once again, the game is still plenty playable and after all the loading the frame rate holds up well. It’s a good port for the Switch to go alongside PW3.

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Pirate Warriors 4 is a pleasant return to the One Piece series. While it could’ve been a little more comprehensive with the New World arcs, it does bring the series very up to date with the current anime arc. Loading times are longer than hoped, although the rest of the game performs well. Pirate Warriors 4 won’t set the world ablaze like the Straw Hat Pirates, but it’s still a treasure worth enjoying.

Rating: 3.5/5

The Good

+ The continuation of the One Piece series
+ Large and varied roster of Pirates and Marines
+ Air combos!

The Bad

- Camera has trouble following
- Not all of the big One Piece moments make the cut this time around
- Load times drag on

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Pirate Warriors 4 is a pleasant return to the One Piece series. While it could’ve been a little more comprehensive with the New World arcs, it does bring the series very up to date with the current anime arc. Loading times are longer than hoped, although the rest of the game performs well. Pirate Warriors 4 won’t set the world ablaze like the Straw Hat Pirates, but it’s still a treasure worth enjoying.

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About The Author
Paul Roberts
Lego enthusiast, Picross Master and appreciator of games.

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