One Piece: Unlimited World Red (PS3)

Quite a few video games feature optional content called something like Coliseum or Arena as a way of offering some extra longevity after the main story is complete. These modes often present the game’s combat without any real story to them, mostly serving as a pure challenge of the game mechanics without the need for any structural explanation beyond the idea you’re fighting in some sort of battle tournament. When you turn on One Piece: Unlimited World Red and see it offers you two modes of play, it could be easy to see the Battle Coliseum option as something to do after the Story mode, but not only does playing the coliseum mode unlock additional items and quests for the story mode, it might actually present the game’s best aspects in a superior way to the plot.

 

That is, partly, the fault of the main story. One Piece: Unlimited World Red, sometimes called One Piece: Unlimited World R, seemingly takes place between the Punk Hazard and Dressrosa arcs of the franchise’s ongoing story. Luffy and his band of Straw Hat Pirates who enjoy the freedom of life on the seas more than any sort of plundering come across a tanuki named Pato nearly drowning in the ocean and pull him aboard. Pato tells them of a nearby island of great adventure as thanks, and so the team set sail to it only to find the island is much stranger than they were lead to believe. An elderly pirate of faded renown named Redfield is operating on the island and utilizing a strange power that lets him turn the memories of the Straw Hat crew into explorable places, Red the Aloof hoping to find a special fruit in these recreations of the past to gain an even greater and more dangerous power. This does mostly serve as an explanation for the game incorporating areas that have previously appeared in the One Piece anime and manga and stringing them together without having to work too hard to justify their presence, but it also means many of these locations, despite capturing the creative designs of the places the pirates have visited on their journeys, don’t serve too much of a plot purpose, especially since the former villains that show up are robbed of any meaningful narrative context. The game admits rather early on that they are helping to distract Luffy and his crew from attacking Redfield head on, and since Luffy is more heart than smarts he gets sidetracked by such blatant distractions easily. Redfield and Pato by extension are the main focus of what little story there is between the chapters, although for the most part the important action all happens at the end and thus it’s a little hard to care about the ongoing plot.

 

Revisiting familiar locations from the history of One Piece does take an interesting form though, the game deciding not to present them in order and instead shuffling them around a bit so you can never quite guess what comes next. An adventure from fairly early on like exploring the snowy Drum Kingdom ends up after the more recent undersea Fishman Island with its beautiful coral designs, the imagination of the source material making these places interesting aesthetically if you’re unfamiliar with them while also offering up plenty of nostalgic callbacks for those who do recognize where they’re visiting. During the story you’ll be exploring these with a team of three and battling any enemies who appear to block the way, the fighting more of the focus than actually moving around these areas. There can be little gimmicks or design ideas that influence how you move through these spaces and certain members of your crew can sometimes unlock special goodies or small side areas if you have them along with you, but beyond giving more room to find materials and helpful items these level designs aren’t doing much to occupy the player’s time. You can try to catch bugs or go fishing and play the associated minigames for them, but they are simplistic as well and these areas from the past are perhaps better thought of as means to get to the next battle.

 

One Piece: Unlimited World Red’s regular fights in story mode aren’t exactly the most exciting, the game even leading with a boss fight with a giant dragon to hook you before it starts tossing the more mundane foes in your path. Many battles will take place against pirates or marines with guns or blades, but no matter which character you’re playing as you will be given a counter button. On-screen warnings will tell you when to press circle to evade or counter the incoming strike, and while the timing isn’t too forgiving, it does make fighting against even the more dangerous regular enemies a bit easier. There are definitely dangerous foes mixed in with the usual rabble, burly marines with large machetes a common sight and unfortunately sometimes the game just slaps a new concept over them so it can keep using them. The large fishmen with spiked clubs can spit poison so they’re technically different from that design, but they mostly lean on the same attacking style and lead to a bit of stagnation as you explore areas, fight basic enemies, and root around for items before walking off to do it again. There are still some interesting breaks from the regular enemy types so it’s not completely repetitive, some absurdities from the franchise like the Kung-Fu dugongs of the desert kingdom of Alabasta appearing as normal enemies to spice up that chapter and wild animals like wolves, bears, and bear-sized rabbits fighting appreciably different from the regular human opposition. When something with a new attack style appears you need to find out when to time your counters and sometimes learn some enemies account for it with more layered attack patterns, but these basic change-ups still don’t bring enough excitement to the regular skirmishes.

Its bosses where not only does the opposition provide consistently interesting and thrilling battle formats but you get to really use your abilities to their fullest. In a regular fight you can probably hammer the attacking buttons without much concern beyond the need to leave some time between strikes if you feel you’ll need to counter soon. Two main attack buttons exist and depending on how they’re linked together or if you add in jumping to the mix these can provide different boons like being able to remain airborne while striking, hitting a wide area, or attacking from a distance. Special moves also exist that usually deal heavy damage, although some characters can have theirs focus on healing the team or hitting a group of foes rather than a powerful single target blow. In the story mode you will eventually have access to nine Straw Hat pirates, Luffy sometimes needing to fight on his own but usually you’ll get to make a team of three where you can switch between them or even play cooperatively with other player. Luffy’s stretchy limbs give him some good ranged attacks even though sometimes the visuals on them aren’t the best at conveying that, but Usopp the cowardly sniper appropriately only has long-range attacks in his arsenal and even flees in terror as his usual dodge. The archaeologist Robin is able to manifest arms wherever she pleases and of any size she likes for a long range style more focused on creative limb arrangements than Usopp’s slingshot pestering, but the large cyborg shipwright Franky is able to both pummel hard in close range and utilize his robot attachments for gunfire or group clearing swings. The swordsman Zoro and suave cook Sanji are both focused on heavy close range damage and their speedy strikes make them good for consistent damage while the money-obsessed navigator Nami uses a baton with control over weather to lay traps or strike foes in unexpected ways. The transforming reindeer Chopper’s many forms can have him bouncing around with unusual attacks but he also has doctoring abilities to help them while the skeleton singer Brook’s approach to swordplay is aided by support songs to boost the team’s stats or diminish an enemy’s power.

 

There is a pretty good range of attacks and battle styles in this bunch and that’s partly why it’s a shame that regular enemies just ask for button hammering for the most part, but the bosses draw out more from them as well as making the words system more important. Words are essentially the equipment equivalent in this action role-playing game, players finding new phrases that can either be permanent boosts or be said in the midst of a battle for a boost. The right words can give the team a power boost or weaken an enemy in some way or even enhance the rewards of a battle or collection minigame. They do take some time to replenish after being said, but some like healing words or brief invincibility can definitely turn the tide in a tough fight.

 

The bosses you face are a creative range of different characters, some large like the axolotl made of poison that the gaseous clown Caesar rides into battle while others like the pirate Crocodile are able to manipulate sand in incredible ways in an arena made of the stuff. Admittedly the larger bosses aren’t as impressive as the more human-sized ones, the big targets easy for three characters to whale on since even if your partners are controlled by AI they do a decent job of keeping up the damage. When the boss you’re facing is around the same size as you though, it’s harder to anticipate their incoming attacks and they often have a better range of them. Some opponents like the large dragon have a very small set of abilities they cycle through so you can respond to their patterns easily, but going up against a human foe with a special power usually leads to more creative attack styles than simply dominating the battle space. The rather absurd man with the expanding jaw Wapol dives beneath the snow and has extremely quick replies to counters, getting caught in his jaw can deal incredible damage, and he’s not fought alone so others are distracting you while trying to deal with this pesky foe. The so called strongest man in the world Whitebeard utilizes his earthquake powers to damage you if you’re standing in the wrong places and that leads to a fight full of constant movement, and the magma-wielding marine admiral Akainu is fought in an arena of ice where he can slam his fist into a wall to hit you with a geyser of water that briefly stuns you so he can land a hearty blast with his dangerous powers.

 

Not every boss is a winner though, although mostly the weaker ones are found in the optional content. One giant robotic foe literally has two attacks where the danger is mostly being able to hop over his spinning blade while still finding time to hurt him. The game’s quest system in general is pretty lacking. Between the chapters of the main story Luffy and his friends return to Trans Town where they can stock up on helpful items or upgrade themselves using the materials they collected while out in the field. Trans Town is a devastated little place when you first find it with only a functioning inn to visit, but as you get more materials and invest more into its construction you gain access to new facilities and ways to improve your team. The main story doesn’t really ask that much of your characters though beyond not bringing someone who is too low leveled into later stages, but you can improve them to better handle the extra quests. These quests, unfortunately, are mostly rehashes of the game’s content with maybe a few new goals or some small shift to the types of enemies you face, the game even oddly enough saving certain enemy types for these side quests instead of including them in the main adventure. Having some fresh content here does make it a bit more interesting though even at the cost of making the main adventure less varied, but the novelty of the story mission locations usually buoys them just enough that you can accept that the battles are mostly rather basic. These side quests are often rather shallow, and while you can often automatically push through them without being too bothered by them, their number does lead to diminishing returns even if you sometimes get a more thrilling concept where your ability to survive a skewed battle or handle a group of enemies quickly is tested.

All of the elements described so far are part of the story mode experience, but in the Battle Coliseum a surprising amount of the downsides to the experience are stripped away. There are no more role-playing mechanics or item collection tasks to worry about, the satisfaction of gradual growth gone in favor of an even playing field where the game can reliably throw enemies at your characters that will be able to always test your ability to properly use your abilities and avoid the enemy’s attacks. Trans Town, side quests, and even regular level navigation are gone in favor of being placed in enclosed spaces with all the enemies you need to defeat, there being no more moments of low energy exploration or fiddling with small boosts that don’t often feel like meaningful improvements. In the Battle Coliseum it’s heavily focused on the quality confrontations with the game’s creative boss characters as well as throwing in not only characters who don’t appear in the story as extra opponents, but you can unlock far more than just the Straw Hat crew to play as.

 

Battle Coliseum even has a small story tied to it, Luffy and the surgeon of death Trafalgar Law turning up to the Dressrosa coliseum in hopes of taking down the warlord of sea who is hosting the tournament, the stylish yet sinister Doflamingo. They’ll need to fight their way to the top to earn the right to face him, and for the most part the plot only checks in when it’s introducing a special battle that shows how Doflamingo is trying to impede the player’s progress up the ranks. Still, it’s covering about as much content as the longer story does, and the Battle Coliseum’s approach to battles does make it more exciting. Players are asked to earn ranking points by participating in a variety of fight formats, some having you face large groups of regular enemies which are still fairly easy like in the story but at least have the numbers to maybe wear you down. The more interesting battle concepts are Duels, Battle Royales, Boss Rushes, and the Special Events. Special Events have you forced to play as a character in a fight appropriate for them based on the history of the One Piece series, Duel has you face a random boss character, Battle Royales have boss characters work with some pesky enemy backup or another boss that benefits villains like Wapol greatly, and Boss Rushes have you needing to complete back to back boss battles with some of them even paired up. These formats and the fact you’re on a pretty even keel with your opposition mean that bosses can hit hard and survival is put to the test more, customization removed but the idea instead being to find the characters you think could handle a situation and hoping they can clear the challenge and help you climb the ranks.

 

To encourage more variety though, playing as characters who have not cleared a certain battle type in the current ranking tier will help you ascend the coliseum ladder more quickly, making the player play as more of the characters and incentivizing the arena’s unique unlock system. By playing as certain characters or performing certain actions in the fights you can work towards unlocking more playable fighters, some of them even the boss characters you’ve been facing in battle. Similarly, Straw Hats can turn up as enemies here since they pack the same attack styles as the bosses, and with the player reduced now to only having two characters in a fight and no healing items, things like Sanji’s special healing move can make him a godsend but also you can’t just throw him on every team if you want to progress quickly. It becomes important to not only consider the abilities of the characters but how flexible they might be. The unlockable fishman Jimbei is a very slow but powerful attacker who might sustain a lot of hits thanks to his rigidness, but the fluidity of the flame-flinging pirate Ace can make him a great back-up attacker if you need consistent speedy damage. Buggy the clown adds to the group of characters who can attack from range but such attacks usually leave you vulnerable so you can’t just rely on them against these equally powerful foes. You can’t play as every boss you face and some don’t bring every attack they had in story mode with them to the coliseum, but the potential of this battle system is able to shine much better when you do need to attack smartly and counter foes properly who can deal good damage to succeed. A few can still be invalidated a little by having a small range of predictable attacks, the world’s best swordsman Mihawk actually pretty easy to guard against after seeing his small range of strikes, but formats like Boss Rush and Battle Royale still mean he can be a pesky partner to other attackers so he’s not just an easy win when he appears.

 

One thing that does make it hard to tell you to dive into the Battle Coliseum first though is how it connects to the story. Accomplishments in the arena will provide goodies and unlock extra quests in the story component of the game, but it also robs the story mode of its difficulty and novelty once you’ve learned bosses and their patterns in the other mode. Battle Coliseum’s pure battle focus does mean it’s shorter and quicker than the main story and trying to weave between the two modes is a bit hard to plan out if you want the benefits the coliseum provides without having future content in the story spoiled. It’s hard to say you should only play Battle Coliseum as well since the story does have its moments like how its bosses can utilize special strategies not found in the other mode or the ability to customize your characters into the fighting team you like to use and don’t need to divert from. It might come down to personal taste how to handle it, but playing both is still probably the best experience despite the ideas that hold the modes back from working separately.

THE VERDICT: One Piece: Unlimited World Red hits an odd spot where its Battle Coliseum mode almost surpasses the main story in its quality without invalidating it. The main plot has a bit too much extra content without the needed level of novelty and substance, the side quests rehashing rather basic battles most of the time but rebuilding and benefiting from Trans Town leading to a more customizable experience than Battle Coliseum’s fight-focused approach. Being able to face the quality boss fights in the coliseum more readily makes it more consistently exciting though and the unlocks and progression still give it some direction and push you towards varying things up, but you can also start to see through the designs of your opponents and they start to lose their luster after a few inevitable rematches. While the main story has some fights and exploration that don’t ask much of you and the coliseum has the risk of wearing down the danger bosses present through familiarity, there’s enough that does work between them to make for a decent One Piece adventure.

 

And so, I give One Piece: Unlimited World Red for PlayStation 3…

An OKAY rating. Battle Coliseum really did have a good chance of pushing this game higher up by condensing the best aspects of the battle system into an easy to experience format, but its tournament system wearing down the danger of certain bosses on their repeat appearances does lead to it waning before that final fight with Doflamingo. However, it does give the powerful characters their time to shine both as opponents and in your own hands, the gradual unlocking giving it some good direction beyond trying to become top dog of the tournament and the systems trying to push you towards not just playing as the best and most reliable fighters every time. The main story’s plot is a bit bare until it starts piling all of its ideas into a finale that could have worked with more build-up and emotional stakes established throughout, but One Piece: Unlimited World Red is mostly a tour of small slices of locations from the franchise’s past. Luckily One Piece is a series where the creative potential of its concepts are pushed to their limit quite frequently, each power a character wields allowing for creative move sets with different niches and the team focus making it so you aren’t locked into one fighting style if you need to try a different approach. The game does get a little lost in its optional activities with side quests that don’t iterate on the main gameplay well and that gameplay already featuring some shallow fights in areas that aren’t always the most interesting to explore. They are usually fine on first visit and the bosses in the story mode are given more room to be extravagant or utilize wild tactics than their coliseum counterparts, so neither mode is a total write-off while both are slightly hurt by the presence of the other. Battle Coliseum can’t help but train you up to handle certain opponents with ease even if it can make them still have some legs by pairing them with other bosses but the story ensures a greater series of new experiences since its structure can break away from repetition a bit better. Finding the right way to play both may be a bit of an ask, but experiencing both does make for a fuller experience that does approach being a truly good One Piece game for fans of the series with combat nearly good enough for those who aren’t so attached to the franchise.

 

Of course, with it leaning so much on revisiting old places and referencing stories it expects you to be familiar with, One Piece: Unlimited World Red was already riding more on the idea of giving long time fans a tour through the series’s history at the times while providing battles with the foes you’d expect to turn up. One Piece is more than just fighting characters with creative powers though, although the Battle Coliseum handling that well almost taps a promising vein. Red the Aloof didn’t need to be such a non-factor until the end to live up to his name, and even if he was kept until the final fight there still could have been more story substance to make this a more interesting adventure. As it is, One Piece: Unlimited World Red has to stretch its ideas out and risks wearing down the player’s interest in doing so, the experience thankfully never so drawn out that it starts to become outright tedious unless you really dive into those side quests for a while. While it’s name comes from being part of the One Piece “Unlimited” series of games, its limits are certainly felt as it reduces the impact of its enjoyable content through the ways it presents it.