Starting in 1997, One Piece is one of the longest running Mangas out there, and one of the most beloved.

Featuring the adventures of Monkey D Luffy and his merry crew, a rag-tag bunch of pirates and misfits, which over the course of only 900 episodes has become a force to reckon with.

The crew goes from place to place saving the weak and defeating other pirates in a bid to find the One Piece, a valuable piece of treasure, that grants the finder the status of Pirate King.

There have been several One Piece games featuring Luffy and gang, even some games they’ve appeared in, such as Jump Force. One Piece: World Seeker is their latest adventure, that does some things right but many things wrong.

What’s it about?

In an original story penned by Eiichiro Oda — the famous hard-working creator of One Piece — World Seeker sports a story which feels just like another major arc in the series rather than a filler episode which takes the crew to a new realm known as Prison Island. It is a daring heist, which yields no treasure, leaving the crew in the middle of another political mish-mash, siding with Jeanne, an Anti-Navy resistance leader and smashing the warden Isaac and his machinations to smithereens.

Screencap from One Piece: World Seeker  

With the original voice cast of the anime, One Piece’s story is excellent, especially for the fans, hitting just the right notes, from the familiar banter between the rest of the crew to the situations they find themselves in, which are hilarious and amusing. The game also takes time out to have fun with its characters, especially the side-quests centred around the crew-mates. You also have encounters with familiar faces from the rest of the One Piece series. From antagonists who doggedly hunt down the crew, to friends who help them along the way. Sadly, in order to experience all the good, you need to trudge through a whole lot of bad.

How does it play?

If you’ve watched the anime, you would have seen the moves which Luffy is capable of, with the power of the Gum-Gum fruit, giving him the flexibility of rubber. Luffy inflates parts of his body, covering them in a skin-hardening process known as Haki, a sort of physical manifestation of willpower as he progresses from gears one through four, as his fighting prowess increases, allowing him to decimate foes with ease. In theory, this sounds great and, while all his moves are faithfully recreated in the game, somehow things get lost in translation.

Screencap from One Piece: World Seeker  

Chalk that up to the rinse-repeat gameplay and the enemies just take all the joy out of vanquishing them — even using the moves requires an aiming reticule for some, and others are way to slow to pull off and it feels like it’s lacking in power. Luffy may use moves that are reminiscent of a balloon, but in the mangas he’s definitely portrayed as being able to pull off moves with great speed or slow destructive power. Both of those depictions here are uninteresting, as they lack any form of explosive connect to let you believe that Luffy is powerful. Even after you’ve unlocked the Gear 4 bounce man.

The world of One Piece is colourful as it is zany and it is excellently realised in this game, as you have a beautiful open-world with towns and flying fortresses to explore. While the game tries to achieve that same mobility as Spider-Man, with Luffy swinging from building to building, snapping all over the place with his rubber powers comes off as tedious, especially when a dreaded fight is right round the corner. Exploring the colourful realm is great, but again, the gameplay jumps in like an unwanted guest to ruin everything.

Screencap from One Piece: World Seeker  

Should you get it?

One Piece: World Seeker is definitely a game for the die-hard fan who doesn’t mind trudging through the immensely padded realm and lacklustre fighting system to get to a really good original story featuring their favourite characters.

The writer is a tech and gaming enthusiast who hopes to one day finish his sci-fi novel