Finished the main log yesterday. I've said most of what I think about it in the first thread but there's a few more things to discuss. What bothers me the most is ret-conning the end of the War of the Best. I get why they did it because it would probably be a real bummer to finish this video game with Luffy being utterly defeated by Akainu. Sakazuki is suppose to be such a bad ass Logia user that only Shirohige should be able to defeat him. The way the fight ends is a tad infuriating because it eludes to a twist in the later story that I've been thinking would happen but hasn't yet in the cartoon. Namely Luffy inheriting Ace's will among other things. It had less of an emotional impact on me because Ace wasn't even completely dead at this point in the game.

The game tried to default to easy but I played on normal thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. The only place I was having trouble was when you have to save your crew mates from Kizaru. Specifically it was when he goes after Chopper. For some reason every time I arrived where Chopper was he had like 1/3 of his health left. Naturally having the dumb DW a.i. that he does that blue nosed dumb ass just blatantly attacks Kizaru like crazy until he got killed. I eventually beat him after restarting the map to clear out territories and Pacifista stragglers so not much danger could befall the crew but it was a royal pain in the ass on normal.

Now all that's left is to grind characters to get all their attacks but it's just to kill time. I'm starting with Shirohige who thankfully is the Lu Bu of the game though he makes Lu Bu look like a punk bitch. Despite my negativity with the ending I still enjoyed this game quite a bit. When the fan service hits it hits hard but it also whiffs just as many times. You can tell they wanted to get this game finished before the next gen consoles get announced. If they redo this game for the next generation it's sure to be amazing. A cleaner frame rate, broader story, and better character progression could make it eclipse the popularity of future DW games. I'd give the game 3 stars and that's coming from a huge One Piece fan. What does everyone else think?

@Mezmero said:

The game tried to default to easy but I played on normal thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. The only place I was having trouble was when you have to save your crew mates from Kizaru. Specifically it was when he goes after Chopper. For some reason every time I arrived where Chopper was he had like 1/3 of his health left. Naturally having the dumb DW a.i. that he does that blue nosed dumb ass just blatantly attacks Kizaru like crazy until he got killed. I eventually beat him after restarting the map to clear out territories and Pacifista stragglers so not much danger could befall the crew but it was a royal pain in the ass on normal.

This. My God I'm having the exact same issue as you and I've just had to stop playing for being so annoyed at this section. When I can actually look at that game again without raging I'll try what you did and reset the map and take out the stragglers, cause its the most mind numbingly annoying section of a game I've played in ages. Give me an option to send the crew mate away, let me get them healing items - anything is better then knowing you can win a fight only to be screwed over by dumb AI.

Besides this current issue, I've been the enjoying the game as much as most others - I am disappointed that stories are overlooked / changed. And everything just feels less weighty when you compare it to what you have in your mind of the epicness that is One Piece. The game should have fitted in everything, it should have been huge. There were so many things they could have done to make this the best anime game ever.

Kizaru can rest easy for now - but i'll hopefully lay the smackdown once Chopper isn't such a dumb ass :/

Yes, the AI can definitely be annoying at times. There were many times that my friends and I would spend 30+ minutes cursing at the game because we would have to start a level over due to the AI getting themselves killed. It gets better when you level up and can spam special attacks basically at will to clear areas super fast.

The cursing was even worse when one of my friends unwittingly set the difficulty to Hard. We kept smashing our heads against the wall against Jabra, whom he couldn't beat but I finally did after dozens of tries, and Kaku whom I ALMOST beat on the first go around but died when he had a sliver of life left and it took another half a dozen tries to beat him. As for Lucci, he was impossible. I could not get through his "first form" because I didn't want to expend my entire super meter (I guessed that he would have more than one); one of my buddies (the same one who accidentally set it on Hard) thought he would get hp/sp back to full after beating the first form so used all of his super meter, all of the items and got through "first form" with BARELY any health left... he died in two hits.

@Petiew said:

@Mezmero: There's a trophy called "Thank you for loving me" where you complete Marineford as it was originally done in the story. I haven't attempted it yet, but I think it involved something like letting the marines take over a bunch of territories. I didn't mind the Akainu boss fight. It's not like you even defeated him, and they needed to have some kind of climax to the last mission. That said, I don't like the boss fights in the game at all. Main log was alright. My biggest gripe with the platforming was actually how the subtitles disappear when there are button prompts. So if you want to understand all the dialogue you need to stand still for about 20 seconds. I had the exact same problem with the Sabaody mission as well, had to attempt it 3 times.

It's basically finishing the stage without holding more than 6 territories, IIRC. In this way, I believe the story actually concludes in a manner closer to the actual story rather than something they concocted on their own. It's been a couple of months since I beat it and spent hours grinding for coins in 'Another Log', so forgive me if I remember the ending incorrectly.

If I had to go with GB's scoring system, I'd probably also give it 3 stars since they don't do half stars (it's like a 7/10 for me). Personally though, I like the idea of a "Pass, Rent, Buy" type of system. Granted, it's Digital only in NA so renting is out of the question, otherwise I would say "Buy it" for big One Piece fans and "Rent it" for those interested or want a decent DW-clone type of game.

Right - all done with the main story mode. Thankfully the second attempt at Kizaru was alot easier in comparison to the struggle I had the first time. Overall I enjoyed the game - but somethings were really over looked / not included. I had to laugh the way they breezed through some of the plot points - summing them up with a single off the cuff remark. Obviously this is a game for fans of the show - I dread to think what people who have never watched the show think, it would be incredibly hard to understand half the stuff that's going out with the anime story already in your head.

Playing as Whitebeard was cool - it did seem like God mode though as he just went through everyone and everything like a hot knife through butter.

@Mikey2D said:

Right - all done with the main story mode. Thankfully the second attempt at Kizaru was alot easier in comparison to the struggle I had the first time. Overall I enjoyed the game - but somethings were really over looked / not included. I had to laugh the way they breezed through some of the plot points - summing them up with a single off the cuff remark. Obviously this is a game for fans of the show - I dread to think what people who have never watched the show think, it would be incredibly hard to understand half the stuff that's going out with the anime story already in your head.

Playing as Whitebeard was cool - it did seem like God mode though as he just went through everyone and everything like a hot knife through butter.

As he should. He's the god damn Whitebeard. >_>

Just finished the Main Log before. It was fine. Glossed over a lot of story stuff and straight up changed some things (Luffy beating Akainu...LMAO no). Time to start the Other Logs and Challenge stuff. I'm curious to test online as well. I fear it will be full of Whitebeards though.

The characters mostly seem fun to play (Chopper sucks) and they capture them pretty well.

@kishinfoulux: I loved the fact Whitebeard had his trademark creepy drunken laugh :P

The online as Petiew says is a bit janky - i've been met with the same issues of dialouge piling up and doors opening for the host while i'm left stood waiting.

So far out of the other crew members - i'm really enjoying playing as Franky :D

@Petiew said:

if you finish tasks quickly event dialogue can pile up meaning you have to wait for a ton of dialogue to finish before the gates open.

So it's a typical Dynasty Warriors game :D

Geez Usopp's Another Log is a total ripoff! I just made it to the Enies Lobby episode and you don't play as the Sogeking skin? What the hell?! I mean he's Sogeking during every other character's version of this stage so you should only be allowed to play with that character model as Usopp. I assume you'll unlock the costume when you finish his campaign but that's not a big enough reward to make up for such a gross oversight. Been playing a little more of it over the past week and I think I prefer Jinbei and Franky so far. I think they've had some missteps in designing Chopper's game play. He should be in heavy point all the time unless he's doing his rumble ball stuff. Also when he's running he should turn into the deer. Basically he should only be in his hybrid form in cut scenes.

Honestly, I'll say this. Koei ALWAYS messes with new mechanics in these side games. The Gundam games introduced zones, Ken's Rage introduced stocked musou bars and platforming/exploration, Warriors Orochi introduced swapping characters. This game messes with the idea of "Hey maybe every combo doesn't have to be [] [] [] [] [] then a /\ at some point". It also introduces these action stages, which really are kinda over played. They bring something new but they over stay their welcome around episode 13. NOW, I'm not saying this is a bad game, not at all. The game LOOKS AMAZING, I haven't seen an anime video game adaptation that I could say, "Yep, that looks just like the show, but in 3-D" and they do a good job of telling the story for the most part. I would have liked a Dream mode, ala Ken's Rage, for the other playable characters though... Also once you get a grasp on the new combo system its actually a really great game mechanically. All in all I'd give it a 4/5, great but not perfect.