We play One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch) in order to try one of the novelties of the title: the giant characters.
The fourth part of the musou One Piece: Pirate Warriors, in charge of Koei Tecmo, will land on our PCs and PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch consoles on March 27, 2020. We could already try it on the 2019 Gamescom, but in This time we have returned to the controls of a demo in order to try one of the novelties that the title will bring: the power to control giant characters such as Big Mom and Katakuri. We tell you in detail, in addition to remembering that in the same event organized by Bandai Namco in which we could play One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 we also tried Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions for the first time, a title that is part of the catalog of anime video games in 2020.
A free way to choose any character
Because the demo we could try was very limited, we could only access a game mode, a mission with its corresponding location and after playable characters. Therefore, our impressions of this segment are limited only to what we could play and focus on the control of giant characters, such as Big Mom and Katakuri.
The game mode we tested is called "Free Mode." In it, we can choose from a wide selection of characters in order to achieve a certain objective and not restrict them to what the story dictates. For this reason, it is interesting to enter this mode in order to control our favorite characters freely and without being linked to the objectives and missions set by the Story Mode.
As for the characters, we can ensure that there are a lot of fighters at our disposal that we already know of Eiichirō Oda's famous manganime such as Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Blook, Smoker, Law , Bartolomeo, Carrot, Hawkins, Reijyu, Yonji and many more.
As for the scenario we could visit, it was the Whole Cake Island Bow Candy Forest, that is, Big Mom Island. A place full of sweets and chess pieces at the service of his queen, in addition to some mysterious clones of Luffy that we will have to defeat to continue advancing. One of the peculiarities of this terrain is the fact that it is changing as we meet certain conditions such as ending the leader of a group of enemies, thanks to which some trees that were making a barrier are removed to make way for us.
In addition, in this way various secondary tasks were emerging as we moved forward, such as meeting with Chopper and Carrot to help them get rid of the enemies around them or rescue Sanji from blocking some dancing trees with funny faces. Thus, we can feel a slight sense of cooperation with the rest of fellow adventurers, who are acting autonomously through the play area.
Fun playability … but something repetitive
As for the gameplay of the title leading to giant characters, it is different from those of normal size. The reason is that we can hit a much larger number of enemies with each hit and special attack, so the effect on the screen is more satisfactory by being able to clean the enemy areas more easily. Of course, it will depend on our personal preferences the fact that we enjoy more carrying characters of conventional size or with these giants. It's a matter of taste, but there's always the option on the table to try them all and alternate.
The controls of the game are quite simple once we get used to them: movement of the character with left stick, attacks with square and triangle, jumps and rocking in the air with X, launch power with round, launch with L2 and use of attacks specials combining R1 with the buttons on the right side of the remote. Of course, each character has different special attacks, so it is interesting to change the fighter in order to see them all moving.
In general, the title meets the rules of what a good musou (or beat-‘Em-Up action title) should be. However, it is a special genre that anyone can play but few players will really enjoy it because something repetitive is done as the hours of play go by. Even so, if we look at the average score of the previous delivery in Metacritic (PS4 version, like the one we could try) we check how it stands at a remarkable and highlights aspects such as its fast, frenetic and fun gameplay despite being “More of the same” with respect to the previous ones.
Even so, One Piece: Pirate Warriors is currently taking out its fourth installment, so it seems that the saga is on the right track and Luffy and his friends (and enemies) will be able to follow the wind in order to crush large numbers of enemies Come to meet him.
