One Piece: Burning Blood Reviews
If you're a dedicated fan of all things One Piece, including its previous videogame incarnations, this game will likely satisfy your itch.
One Piece: Burning Blood is a game for the fans who are able to appreciate the vaults of lore and huge roster of characters. It may look pretty, but It's just far too harsh on newcomers — prioritising style over substance with a combat system that feels grossly unfair.
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.
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.
Review in Italian | Read full review
One Piece: Burning Blood is one of those middle of the road games that makes game reviewers weep. The fun of praising or decimating a title stolen away without so much as a cheeky card. The game itself does work as an introduction to the series, giving the briefest of glimpses as to why it's so popular, and piling on the fan service with countless playable and support characters. Neither good nor bad, it exists. That will be enough for many fans.
In the end, however, it is still unfortunate how much grinding is required in order to truly appreciate all of the customization and characters of One Piece: Burning Blood.
'Burning Blood' is pure fan service through and through, and there's nothing wrong with that. People who don't watch/read the source material are going to remain thoroughly confused, but there's still some enjoyment to be had in its wacky fighting and over-the-top style. If you're not a manga fan and are looking for a fighter with tight mechanics, accurate hitboxes and a deep bench of combos, best keep looking.
Burning Blood delivers faithful representations and beautiful presentation, but the mechanics are riddled with flaws. The story gives the best adaptation of the Paramount War, but the fact that there is no Dressrosa segment when so many characters from the arc are here is unforgivable. The basic and easily abused nature of the combat will see few returning to this title after more than a few plays.
Whilst the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, one area where One Piece: Burning Blood hits the mark is content. Well, mostly
In terms of looks alone, One Piece: Burning Blood has great presentation, as it feels like it came right out of a manga. In terms of gameplay, though, it's just a decent, and relatively unpolished, fighter of no importance.
One Piece: Burning Blood feels like a game where the developers settled for "good enough"
Burning Blood is also lacking for hardcore fighting fans. The mechanics are competent enough, but perhaps too simple at times and slow. This epic battles happen on screen and the controls just don't seem to be able to keep up with the visual performance that is being project on screen. That's not to say what's here is horrible, it just feels as if there could have been much more.
While I do remember shouting, without irony, "I despise this game" during the crazy difficulty swings, looking as critically as possible it's not a terrible way of spending a few hours. (Though for reference, I haven't used that many taboo words in short, angry bursts since I learned the words being used.) If you're a fan of the show or manga, you'll surely find something to like in Burning Blood. If you're only a casual fan or have a friend who is, after some adjustments to the battle system, you should have some fun as well. Just remember that the story is an exercise in abuse: it'll give you a win before pushing your face in the dirt, and not always in the fun, big-kid-who-doesn't-know-their-own-strength kind of way.
One Piece: Burning Blood is an unremarkable adaptation of one of the franchise's most popular story arcs, and may not even appeal to diehard One Piece fans.
One Piece: Burning Blood does a solid job of adapting such an important story to a video game, but doesn't do a great job at letting newcomers know why it matters. Die-hard One Piece fans will get some enjoyment here, but there are better fighting games out there.
While One Piece: Burning Blood may look pretty, offer some nice content and a bizarre cast (including a cross dressing pirate based on Rocky Horror Picture Show's Frank N Furter), it wasn't enough to keep me interested. I can't even imagine fans of the anime would get much out of this release, especially as this is just the latest entry in a long line of games based on this franchise.
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.
The 1-on-1 battles are intense, and the ability to call in other characters to help you out when you're in need, or simply to hop in to interrupt an opponents combo not only feels fantastic but looks stellar as well.