One Piece Burning Blood (PS4)

 I have been watching, listening too, and been a fan of One Piece for quite some time, I am even thinking of diving into the manga at some point as well. This anime is one of my all-time favorites, it's not perfect but the emotional, comedic, and action highs outweigh the lows in spades for this long running anime. One Piece has had plenty of videogames, some I have touched on for the blog and podcast but never dedicating a full post or episode too. But since a good friend of mine who I share a love of this anime with is getting married, I asked him to pick a game to cover, and that is today's post, One Piece Burning Blood. An arena-based fighter that I am very familiar with that I have poured a good few hours into. Revisiting this game should be an adventure so let's dive in.

The story mode is the weakest aspect of this game. The reason I say this is because it covers one story arc only from multiple perspectives. This is a fine idea in concept but when there so many stages and characters spanning the way more throughout the entire game, it baffles me why the team did this. There are so many different stages and characters in some of then optional modes that I wish the story went somewhere else but it did not.

Aside from that there is multiplayer, challenge modes, and more ways to fight aside from the short and repetitive story. There are fun scenarios that pair of characters to fight that are really fun as well as lots to unlock. The music, presentation and all-around vibe of the game are great. The menu is really fun too being a fun pub to navigate. 

The gameplay is easy to learn with lots of ways to keep you up to date, practice, and refresh on the controls. The controls are not too complicated and thus making this a fun arena-based fighting game. When it comes to anime in general there is an arena fighter for a lot of series, so if you don't like One Piece there is a good chance there will be an arena fighter based off an anime you do like. The game is fun to play, but I would say in short bursts because it is fighting and just fighting. Whether it is the short and... okay not dwelling on that. Whether it is one of the challenges, multiplayer of the story this game is the same from the second you pick up a controller to when you put it down.

This game is best played not just for fans of the show but on sale. This game has a bounty of content, but it is all the same content. Find some favorite characters to play as, finish the narrative and do some challenges. There are tons of perks and characters to unlock, but longer sessions may lead to burnout. The presentation, music, and gameplay are all great, but upon playing this game and revisiting it I found myself going through the motions the longer I played. That being said when I played only a few challenges or matches I had a ton of fun and would even try the game with friends. The game is a tad on the old side so I do not know how active the online scene for this game is but I am guessing not very.

If you are a fan of this anime, then this would be a decent addition to your library if you enjoy arena fighter games, if so still get this game on sale. This game is fun for sure and is worth a sale price for the good, there are just a few factors holding it back from being great.