One Piece: Burning Blood

It’s not without its faults and the difficulty spikes during Story Mode could certainly do with a rethink, but despite these issues, One Piece: Burning Blood delivers a fine recreation of the hugely popular One Piece series while also providing a genuinely enjoyable, if slightly lightweight brawler.

One Piece Burning Blood is an easy to play fighting-game with some great graphics. Unfortunately the story mode is somewhat short and the gameplay quickly becomes repetitive after a while. It is still a great game for fans of One Piece despite the flaws.

At the end of the day, One Piece: Burning Blood is another fun instalment of this series that features a decent collection of playable characters that is cemented with a sturdy gaming engine.

The chaotic action really pops with sketchy cartoon visuals — I especially loved the visceral satisfaction of knocking my opponents into background objects and watching the debris fall. This isn’t as tight or polished as some of the other stuff out there (Naruto Shippuden’s latest installment comes to mind), but it’s well-worth a look if you’re a One Piece junkie or just a fighting game fan looking for a little anarchic fun.

One Piece: Burning Blood is a great example of a licensed videogame, and it gets so much right, bringing the characters of One Piece to life in spectacular fashion. It’s a shame that the limited and unwelcoming narrative scope and unnecessary difficulty spikes take away from what is otherwise a great arena brawler.

It's possibly the best One Piece fighter, but one that's still mired in anime arena fighter jank.

It's not quite the bountiful booty that is One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, but Burning Blood's explosive combat is bound to leave a mark all the same.

Burning Blood is quite simple and limited, but it knows how to put the core of the franchise into its gameplay, making sure its fans will enjoy it.

Visually, this game is right up there with some of CyberConnect2's successful Naruto games, too bad the gameplay didn't follow suit.

Fans will love it, newcomers won't understand any of it.

If you’re a dedicated fan of all things One Piece, including its previous videogame incarnations, this game will likely satisfy your itch.

It’s great to have something made just for fans, though even Luffy's biggest supporters will be let down by the brief, limited campaign. At its best, this wild and crazy fighter makes for a fun distraction for folks who've been dying for more One Piece games to get localized.

There’s joy to be had in One Piece: Burning Blood. It’s initially fun and colorful fighting fare that evokes the feel of the anime series superbly. A lack of nuance in the combat, extreme difficulty spikes and the growing sense of repetition all conspire to strangle that joy right back out of the game.

One Piece: Burning Blood is a decent start for a 3D brawler series that can only be improved from now on.

This game could have been a great jumping off point to bring new fans to the series. However, this game does nothing to establish the back story or relationship of the characters beyond touching on Luffy and his brother, Ace, leaving any player new to the series scratching their head.

Ultimately what you get with One Piece: Burning Blood is just a variety of different ways to fight against other characters in different fighting modes - nothing more, nothing less.

For the most patient fans of the series, the number of callbacks and beautifully animated representations of their favorite characters will prove to be their greatest rewards as they struggle valiantly to unlock the actual rewards.

Perfect if anime is what you’re into… but otherwise, it’s not worth your time.

Fans of One Piece might find something to enjoy in One Piece: Burning Blood, but newcomers will be totally lost.

While the combat and variety of game modes can be a lot of fun, along with beautiful cel-shaded cutscenes that recreate the fan favorite Paramount War arc, jumping into a story that takes place more than halfway into the nearly 750 episode anime series makes One Piece: Burning Blood one that might be best left to just the most hardcore fans.

If you’re looking for a fighter with a solid, interesting roster, then One Piece: Burning Blood is right up your alley. But, if you seek story and new insight from your anime-based games, you will be left wanting.

One Piece: Burning Blood is a cool fighting game, with nice visuals and of course a good sense of fan service.

Quotation forthcoming.

It looks like Burning Blood has been conceived for the original series fans to to have thrilling challenges against the CPU, in which they can appreciate the the great number of special moves and spectacular techniques. The game presents a rather concentrate main mode and not so interesting secondary options.

One for fans, yes, but it can't find top gear even for them. [Aug 2016, p.83]

I'm not a fan of One Piece: Burning Blood and it's not because of the unfamiliar source material. The combat here just isn't that fun, and no amount of colorful anime action will change that.

Behind its gorgeous and appealing graphics, One Piece: Burning Blood conceals a coarse, unbalanced, slow and unfairly punitive gameplay. Probably it would have been wiser to delay its release to fix the obvious flaws in its design.

Simply put, Burning Blood’s fighting mechanics are awful. [09/2016, p.59]

A mediocre arena fighter that makes sense only when you go online and fight with your friends. Recommended only for die-hard One Piece fans.