One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 does the obvious thing and does it well: it takes the whole of One Piece, from Gol D. Roger’s execution to the kingdom of Dressrosa, and grinds it down into a single hack-and-slash game. Omega Force developed it, Bandai Namco Entertainment published it, and it landed in Japan on March 26, 2015 before reaching the West on August 25, 2015. It is the last One Piece game released for the PlayStation 3, which is either a footnote or a small landmark, depending on how you feel about the platform.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
From Fuschia Village to Dressrosa
The story opens where the series opens. Roger’s last words, the execution, then Red-Hair Shanks handing a young Luffy the straw hat before leaving his hometown. From there the game condenses entire arcs into single missions, ending with Dressrosa, which gets an ending different from the original series. That last detail matters more than the marketing suggests. Condensing an arc into one mission is not the same as adapting it, and the Dressrosa divergence is the one place the game admits it is not simply retelling.
Kizuna Rush and the Hero System
The combat keeps the shape of the first two installments and adds the Kizuna Rush, which summons another character alongside the player for a combination attack. Up to four can be summoned at once, and the finishing attacks get more powerful as more characters join. During battle, an NPC support character known as Crew may become a Hero, which makes that character’s Kizuna Gauge fill faster. Max out the Kizuna Level and fill the gauge, and the Hero Power fires.
Those powers vary. Fujitora calls down a barrage of meteors, Sakazuki unleashes magma, Garp throws cannonballs. Chopper and Sanji restore health to allied units. Zoro and Luffy intimidate enemies to cut their attack power. Tough enemies can fire their own Hero Power, which puts a stunned gauge over their head; drop it to zero and the power ends. Luffy, Usopp and Sanji get an Overdrive state for Gear Second, Sogeking and Diable Jambe respectively when Kizuna Rush is active, but those require specific Coins to unlock.
37 Characters and a Switch Port
The roster runs to 37 playable characters, including all 27 from the previous games. Others appear as non-playable enemies. An enhanced port came to the Nintendo Switch in December 2017. A sequel, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, followed in March 2020.
Key facts
- Released: March 26, 2015 (Japan); August 25, 2015 (West)
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Switch port: December 2017
- Playable characters: 37
- Developer: Omega Force
- Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Critic aggregate: 7.6/10 (IGDB, 7 outlets)
What the game gets right, it gets right through volume. The roster is the argument. Thirty-seven fighters, every Straw Hat, a mission structure that touches Marineford, Fish-Man Island, Punk Hazard and Dressrosa, and a Kizuna system that rewards building a team rather than soloing a stage. The Hero Powers give each support character a reason to exist beyond a stat line, and the enemy Hero Gauge adds a small tactical problem to fights that could otherwise be pure crowd-clearing.
The cost is depth. Condensing arcs into single missions means the story moves at the speed of a recap, and the Dressrosa ending, changed as it is, cannot carry the weight of a reveal the series spent years building. The Overdrive unlocks sitting behind Coins is a grind gate on the most fun part of the combat.
- Kizuna Rush combination attacks
- Hero Powers and the enemy stun gauge
- Overdrive states for Luffy, Usopp and Sanji
- The 37-character roster
- Arc missions from Fuschia Village to Dressrosa
That ordering is not arbitrary. The systems carry this game; the story retelling does not.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 is a fan-service machine that works because it is honest about being one. It is not the definitive telling of anything. It is the most complete playable roster the series had at that point, wrapped around combat that stays interesting as long as you keep swapping characters. The Switch port in 2017 gave it a second life, and the 2020 sequel exists because this one earned it. The Dressrosa divergence is the most interesting thing in the game, and the game does not do enough with it.
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