Stretching out the fun.
I have never watched an episode of One Piece. I have, however, played a ton of games featuring Monkey D. Luffy and his band of pirate cohorts. The world and its inhabitants have always intrigued me. I have felt they make perfect fodder for video games. Sadly, past efforts have been hit and miss. Unlimited World Red was ambitious but severely flawed. Then we have their appearances in fighting games and even their own musou series, which isn’t half bad. World Seeker is the most polished of the outings so far, and might be one of the best of the open-world anime titles Bandai Namco has done to date.
World Seeker once again finds Luffy and his crew in search of treasure. This time it is on a place called Prison Island. They quickly discover that the treasure simply does not exist and end up separated. What follows is a solid story arc that remains interesting thanks to the solid writing and interesting characters. Again, having never seen the show I don’t know how it compares, but this game made me more interested in checking it out.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, PC
Price I’d Pay: $49.99
Jumping into Prison Island reveals that World Seeker is the evolution of Unlimited World Red. I was trotting between places, beating up enemies, and collecting items along the way. There are main and side missions, and upon completing them I was awarded a skill point to flesh out the tree of moves and buffs. For the most part it is paint-by-numbers when it comes to open-world design. A lot of the quests are standard fare and even boring at times.
What helps is the traversal system. Luffy can use his stretchy arms to grapple onto points and swing around the world. It is certainly no Spider-Man, but it makes traversing the world more interesting. The moves obtained through the skill tree also spice up things.
Combat is a mix of a Dynasty Warriors formula and a third-person shooter. Yes, Luffy can fire projectiles from his stretchy hands, which is insane as it is fun. Things such as bazooka rounds can be fired and it adds flavor to just mashing the buttons on the brain dead enemies. Luffy also has two stances for combat which he can switch on-the-fly. This changes up attack styles and is required for some enemies.
While I enjoyed the combat, it can grow tiresome. World Seeker’s biggest problem is its abundance of repetition. Every missions starts to bleed into the next, and the combat eventually evolves into abusing one move over and over. It lacks variety, and with a game this big that becomes a problem. Thankfully the world and characters are interesting enough to carry me through it. Those that don’t take to Luffy and his pals though will find a pretty hollow open-world experience.
One thing few can argue with though is how good this game looks. Capturing anime in video game form is nothing new, especially for Bandai Namco. World Seeker looks fantastic and takes advantage of Xbox One X with 4K resolution and gorgeous HDR. It looks outstanding. The bold color lines really pop, and the world is a joy to run through. The animated characters look great and are a step above the creepy mascot-inspired models from the recently released Jump Force. Even when I was bored with the tedious quests I loved moving around the world.
One Piece: World Seeker is by far the best the series has been in game form. Combat feels good even if it is one note. The world is simply stunning to traverse through and the story and characters really carried me through to the end. I wish it was more fleshed out in terms of variety. One Piece continues to be a series I have an affinity for even without ever having experienced the anime, which means I will most likely be on-board for whatever comes next.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
