One Piece: Romance Dawn

If the presentation wasn't so horrible, One Piece: Romance Dawn would be a decent way for a JRPG fan to spend an afternoon after they've exhausted their library of other more innovative titles. If you've always wondered what the fuss was with One Piece, you'd be better off watching the show or playing the fun, but flawed Pirate Warriors series.

Romance Dawn is a dull and soporific adaptation of the Oda's saga, marked by an inexplicable indifference to the 3DS features and an apathetic and approximate narration that ruin its interesting combat system which combines role-playing and fighting games.

Someday, when a better title takes its place, Romance Dawn will have a respectful position for where it all began. But for now, this is just a dud of a game in the box of a collectible import.

The potential is still there, because Romance Dawn doesn't do nearly enough right to make this an adequate substitute for reading the manga or watching the anime.

It’s not worth the time of all but the most hardcore of fans.

It would have been fine to integrate the storytelling in the play—of which there is absolutely none—and had a “meh” battle system, because that would bring this up a few notches. But instead, it’s little more than an interactive manga with some battles tossed into some of the most boring environments this side of Dragonball Evolution.

A straight-up port of the PSP RPG with no efforts taken to improve the experience, Romance Dawn is not a journey many One Piece fans will want to take.

Fans of the series will have a hard time trying to enjoy this game, since it’s a repetitive and tedious experience that will fall behind the outstanding games the handheld is showcasing.

The open sea of 3DS software has a bevy of good games to explore but sadly, Romance Dawn isn't one of them.

Perhaps the truly hardcore fans may have some interest in adding this to their collection, but with dreadfully long and uninteresting cutscenes, repetitive combat and monotonous level design, as a newcomer to the series I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth, and I simply cannot recommend purchasing this game.

It takes a genuinely profound kind of idiocy to turn such a romping good series into something so leaden. [Feb 2014, p.91]

Romance Dawn is a misfire all around that only the absolute most completist of One Piece fans should give it a look. It’s a shame, because One Piece is normally something quite wonderful. Such a waste.

It’s my understanding that previous One Piece video games have established a positive reputation both among the series’ fans and the gaming community. If that’s the case, it’ll be better for both parties to ignore this title and hope outsiders will do the same in hopes of preserving that standard.

Romance Dawn is a game even an anime aficionado couldn’t love. Its systems are bare bones, and boring, unvoiced text conversations dominate most of the time you’ll spend with Luffy & Co. Turn back now.

One Piece's 3DS debut in One Piece: Romance Dawn sets sail but is quickly sunk under monotonous fights, endless corridor roaming that would put Final Fantasy XIII to shame, and a recurring reminder that it is merely a slapdash port adapted to none of the 3DS' strengths.

The visual novel-esque method of storytelling could work for a game based on a comic strip – games like Comix Zone have experimented with using comic-panel based graphics – but Romance Dawn does not feel like a comic despite using the aesthetic. There are not enough of the full-screen images to depict key scenes of the plot, and too often important developments are reduced to screen shakes and sound effects.

Namco Bandai has published a number of surprisingly solid titles tied to their Shōnen Jump properties in recent years, but they've indisputably missed the boat on making One Piece Romance Dawn anywhere close to worth playing.

Developer Three Rings refuses to do any sort of meaningful updating to the product, presenting an aesthetically revolting, monotonous, franchise-forsaking endeavor that should have Oda-sensei throwing a temper tantrum in response.