Unlike its predecessor, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 has decided to shelve the manga story to offer players a brand new storyline that cuts ties with the original shõnen story. This time, everything is an excuse to put the characters in wacky situations, because let's face it, the only real major interest of this beat-em all is absolutely not its originality but rather the 100% exploitation of all One Piece characters. And personalities, that's not what is missing in this monument to 69 volumes. You are therefore warned, if all you care about is handling your favorite characters according to combos specific to each of them, this is where it happens.
Don't piece me off !
Like the Dynasty Warriors series, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 follows an episodic progression where the player is parachuted into different missions, guided by a mini-map that presents strategic points and spaces to conquer or defend. In your journey, you will of course be accompanied by your companions from the crew of the Hat, who will be joined by characters that you will unlock as you progress. The goal remains almost the same from one level to another. It will be necessary to conquer a maximum of territories and defeat as many enemy generals as possible in order to reduce the morale of the opposing forces and to install its own troops in order to control strategic areas. All this being punctuated by clashes against emblematic figures of the manga, in particular at the end of the chapter. And it's like that for dozens and dozens of missions. The developers having certainly noticed the very great monotony of the level progression scheme, we note that they nevertheless tried to add certain elements to make the pill pass. On the one hand, we immediately notice that the visual design of the levels changes completely from one mission to another, but the textures unfortunately remain too simplistic and little worked to really transport us. Moreover, the semi-cel-shaded style coupled with a doll/anime effect would have benefited from being refined because it must be admitted, at times we have the impression of playing a PS2 game even if the general rendering is not not unpleasant either. On the other hand, dynamic changes of objectives during the missions help to keep us awake and it will sometimes be necessary to return urgently to defend allies to avoid the failure of the mission. Chests scattered throughout the missions allow you to regain HP, style points to trigger super-powerful attacks, berries or "secrets" will be found during your quest. Finally, what really pushes you to go to the end of each mission is the fact of unlocking new characters and partners who will diversify the gaming experience.
The great variety of combat styles offered by this title is such that it will be possible to complete the main campaign by changing characters in each mission. Something to counterbalance the monotony of the levels and renew the interest of the game"
Before starting each level, we can choose pieces of very different types that can equip the characters whose three main characteristics can be increased (health, attack and defense). In addition, certain parts that are compatible with each other can also be combined to obtain other bonuses. You will also have to choose the partner with whom you will play the level because you can perform combined attacks where the latter will intervene to inflict a devastating combo. Finally, characters will learn new attacks as they level up. Moreover, the berry growth system allows us to increase the level of our characters against a certain amount of berries that we earn during missions and by discovering chests. When you know that there are nearly 36 playable characters, this system - simple but judicious - avoids wasting time upgrading characters that have just been unlocked. Of course, this merchant system does not allow a character to be leveled above the maximum level of the most experienced character. The wide variety of combat styles offered by this title is such that it will be possible to complete the main campaign by changing characters with each mission, enough to counterbalance the monotony of the levels and renew the interest of the game. each of them has completely different blows: if some are not very dynamic or have a short range, others will be on the contrary lively like the wind and will carry very wide strikes. All this while respecting the universe specific to each character. As for the fights, they are still just as enjoyable and colorful, not to mention the fact that you can activate the overpowered mode allowing you to launch devastating attacks that you can activate by filling a style gauge. We nevertheless regret the sometimes hazardous camera which can affect the readability of the fights. Finally, the fans will undoubtedly find their account in this beat'em all adapting very well the One Piece universe to the musõ genre of Dynasty Warriors but for the others, the only renewal of the playable characters will perhaps not be enough to encourage them to pay the high price of 60€.
