As I mentioned in my review for the first Dragon Quest, I bought the mobile versions of the original Dragon Quest trilogy on a whim years ago. Last year I decided to finally finish the first game, and now I've chosen to finish its sequel this year. Dragon Quest II is a sequel that is surprisingly a vast improvement to its predecessor.

In terms of gameplay, its exactly the same as the first game, but considering that Dragon Quest is a series known for following tradition that is no surprise. This time however, you're not alone. You get two party members to assist you on your journey, the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke. Having these party members is pretty much a necessity as the character you play as doesn't have magic this time and the latter parts of the game, especially the final boss would be much harder without them. The other noteble addition is the ability to sail across the land on your ship which has been included in every other game in the series onward. These additions come a long way in making the game feel fresh and interesting in comparison to the first game.

Dragon Quest II is a massive step forward, but there were some things I didn't like about it. My first issue is something that bothered me with the original as well, and that issue would be the random encounter rate. While I can understand why they were a thing in the RPGs of old, it gets really annoying getting spammed with encounters every two steps I make, especially when I'm lost or trying to traverse a new area. My other issue is that the game can be pretty cryptic at times when it comes to finding all the things you need to progress. I looked up guides significantly more this time than I did for DQ1 mostly just to find out where to go or where to find a certain item.

As for grinding in this game? Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. Enemies drop reasonable amount of exp to where if you do need to grind, you won't need to for long. It's probably just an improvement they added in later versions they made, but considering that grinding seems to be a gripe that most people seem to have, I expected worse.

Dragon Quest II is in my opinion an underappreciated game that laid a lot of the groundwork for the rest of the series. It felt much more like an adventure in comparison to its predecessor. Considering how the original trilogy is on basically everything these days, I'd suggest either emulating or dropping a couple bucks on either the Switch or mobile versions. It may not be as good as the entries afterwards, but with the amount of improvements it makes its definitely worth a playthrough.

Another day, another One Piece game review from me. This time its the other 3ds game that never left Japan, One Piece Great Pirate Colosseum!

Between Unlimited World Red, Unlimited Cruise SP (the only 3ds OP game I haven't played), Super Grand Battle X, Romance Dawn, and lastly Great Pirate Colosseum, I'd say this one is definitely the most interesting out of Luffy's 3D outings. It's a traditional 2D fighting game which for One Piece is exceptionally rare and it crosses over with a game that plays exactly like it that was also developed by Arc Sys for the 3ds, Dragon Ball Extreme Butoden.

As far as gameplay goes, it plays like any other 2D fighting game. You have your punch & kick buttons and you can press them to create stylish combos, assist characters to summon that can lend you a hand in a variety of ways, a mid-air counter attack, and an ultimate move you can use to dish out big damage once your meter gets to a certain percent. There are plenty of gameplay mechanics to make it interesting and with how different each character's moveset is, it works.

Roster-wise, its nothing too special. Pretty much every playable character in this game is also playable in Burning Blood even if Gild & Lucci were DLC in that game. There are a lot of assist characters though, they consist of pretty much anybody you can think of including some of the characters in the Zou arc which took me by surprise considering how new that arc was at the time. The stages were probably what I found the most interesting. Sure it has the basic predictible ones like Alabasta, Corrida Colosseum, and Marineford, but a few I did not expect like the sea train from Water 7, the Gran Tesoro, and as previously mentioned Zou. Stack all of this on top of cross-play with DB Extreme Butoden and you have a stacked amount of content for a 3ds 2D fighter.

That being said, it definitely has its issues. It felt a bit sluggish and slow which gave the game a janky feeling. I watched footage of both DB Extreme Butoden & Great Pirate Colosseum and this game is definitely slower in comparison to Extreme Butoden. Also, the online mode is locked at the start of the game which is a really strange choice on the developers part.

The story mode was also slightly confusing but still perfectly manageable once I looked up what little info there is on it. Basically from what I gather is that you do some fights till you get to the end, but along the way you have to make choices that will make the characters in your crew happy. Consistent failure to do so will make them leave. This only happened to me once since I had zero understanding of what to do. After knowing how it works and randomly guessing on which answer to choose (I can't read Japanese), it wasn't too bad. Thankfully, the story mode is a lot shorter than Super Grand Battle X because that game's story got repetitive.

If you have Citra or/and a modded 3ds then I'd say its worth a download. Its far from perfect, but its still a fun fighter to mess around with that most likely gets insane when connected with the Dragon Ball game (I never bothered trying to, I don't even think I ended up unlocking the online either). On one final note, Arc Sys, MAKE ONE PIECE FIGHTERZ!!!!!!!!!

After finishing the 3ds remake of Dragon Quest VII, I became further interested in playing the rest of the mainline games in the series as well as some of the spinoffs. As of now I have every numbered game in one form or another with the exception of Dragon Quest X. One random day a few years ago I decided to get the mobile ports of this, Dragon Quest II, and Dragon Quest III. It took me awhile to beat it, but over the course of my playthrough I had mixed feelings about the journey that started it all.

The primary reason it took me years to beat this game was because I got very bored grinding. While it isn't a painfully long game, you will spend the overwhelming majority of your playthrough grinding for money & exp that will help in getting the best stats & equipment. It is a very tedious process and its why I intially dropped the game before deciding last year to finally go back and finish it. Even though it has been my least favorite Dragon Quest by far, it was the first of its kind on consoles and led to the many great JRPGs we have today.

Dragon Quest 1 is pretty much the basic template for how turn-based RPGs work. You got attack, magic, and the flee button if you aren't in the condition to fight enemies. You can purchase gear that will improve your stats. Lastly, there is a open-world to explore. Most turn-based RPGs follow the template that this game uses albeit with their own twist. Even if it wasn't the first ever RPG, it was the first for consoles and significantly boosted the popularity of the genre. For all of these reasons, I still have a lot of respect for the original Dragon Quest even if it shows its age a bit.

Dragon Quest 1 is a game that walked so future Dragon Quest games, Final Fantasy, and etc could run. It may not have stood the test of time gameplay wise compared to the games of today, but its contributions to RPGs and video games as a whole will never be forgotten.

In 2021, Rockstar announced a group of remasters for the three games that put them on the map. Those remasters being the "definitive editions." Shortly after the announcement, they were released and they got absolutely destroyed by critics and fans of these games for being lazy, buggy cash-grabs. Over time, they did release updates that ultimately improved their performance making them a lot more playable than they were on release. Having played both the originals and more recently these "definitive editions," it seems they have fixed these remasters quite a bit, but they are still far from perfect.

Despite its imperfections, there is surprisingly a lot of good that this collection does. In fact, they are the reason I gave this collection the score I did. The first thing I can think of right off the bat is the addition of checkpoints. My biggest complaint when I was playing through the original versions were the lack of checkpoints. I couldn't count how many times I had to rebuy weapons and drive back to the missions across all 3 games. Just having checkpoints alone made playing these games MUCH more enjoyable than my inital playthrough of the originals on Ps4 (which they sadly took down). They also added a marker that tells you where you need to drive during missions. This feature is another major QoL improvement that greatly increased my enjoyment as I got lost quite a bit and would fail missions because of that. There is also the weapon wheel from GTA V, but personally, I just stuck with the old-fashioned way of going through my weapons. Regardless, it's still a nice feature to have.

Even with these positive changes, there are still reasons to dislike it. The graphics lack the charm the originals have, the games still have some glitches and aren't as polished as they should be, and the inclusion of checkpoints are misleading. While I didn't encounter anything gamebreaking, one thing I noticed is that enemies sometimes stand still for no reason at all and their behavior seems off. It didn't happen every time but it was frequent enough to catch my attention. There was also a weird jumping bug I encountered in San Andreas, but luckily it only happened once. While San Andreas has checkpoints, III & Vice City's "checkpoints" aren't really what they claim to be and more like a retry button. I didn't mind this too much as most of the missions in those games are pretty short, but it is highly misleading and comes across as incredibly half-assed & lazy. As for the graphics, they have made an attempt to alieviate that by adding a classic option in the Netflix version. It isn't perfect but its a step in the right direction. I just hope they port it and add more patches to the console versions too.

Compared to its inital release, its clear that Rockstar has fixed these versions to a significant degree, but ultimately they still deserved more love & care than what they got. Do I think this collection is worth $60? Absolutely not! It might have added a lot of positive QoL changes but the lack of polish alone is enough to avoid this at full price. I would recommend getting it on sale, especially since it does quite often. For new players and less skilled ones such as myself, its a good way to expirence these games. As for those who've played the originals, they might want to stick to them.

Between Ronald, the Hamburglar, Birdie, and the other McDonald Land characters, Grimace was always my favorite one out of the bunch. I thought he looked cool and he always gave off a friendly, wholesome vibe even if he was originally introduced as a villain. Upon hearing the news that McDonald's was celebrating Grimace's birthday, I was pleased because McDonald's has finally begun to start acknowledging the McDonald Land gang again, even moreso that they used my favorite character for their promotion.

The story is pretty much in the title. Its Grimace's birthday and he wants to celebrate, but his friends are missing and he has to go find them. Along the way, you collect as many shakes as possible for everyone who is attending the party.

It's both a platformer and a skating game. You go from point A to point B grinding on rails and collecting shakes in the process. Like some of the previous McDonald's games that came before it, it is an entertaining platformer. I'd list more of the positives, but for how short this game is there isn't much else to say.

My only problem with the game is as mentioned, it is too short. Around the time I thought I was halfway finished with the game, I saw the ending play and the credits roll. I came in expecting to beat it in at least 45 minutes to an hour, but it took me about 20 minutes and probably even less than that if I had to guess. I know its sole purpose is to advertise a limited edition milkshake, but I would have appreciated if they made it just a little bit longer.

In the end, it's a neat little promo they made and it shows that they put a lot more care & effort into advertising the Grimace shake than they ever needed to. Sadly, I never tried out the Grimace shake and it took me serveral months after the celebration for me to get around to playing this game. I may have been late to the party but I still got to celebrate the birthday of my favorite purple goofball from the McDonald Land crew.

McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure was not the first advergame made for McDonald's. There were two other games before it, one made for the Famicom that I will probably get around to playing eventually and this game, M.C. Kids. However, this was this first McDonald's game I heard about as I watched the AVGN video on M.C. Kids many years ago. I had pretty much forgotten about it until McDonald's released Grimace's Birthday for the Game Boy. All of a sudden memories came back to me and I took interest in playing this and the other advergames released for McDonald's over the years.

Instead of some random aliens being the villian, our antagonist is the Hamburgular who stole Ronald's magic bag. Instead of going to look for the bag himself, Ronald, being the selfish clown he is, decides its a good idea to let two children go on a dangerous journey to retrieve it. Those two children being, the M.C. Kids.

Compared to other platformers, it is fairly unique in the sense of how you progress through the game. In each level, you will be tasked with finding all of the cards of Ronald's pals in order to move onto the next world alongside just beating the level. It may not be the most ideal as far as design goes, but its different enough in that its not "just another Mario clone."

With that being said, its a decent platfomer and most of the cards are fairly easy to find even if you have to backtrack a little to get them sometimes. Difficulty-wise, it was definitely harder than Treasure Land Adventure but not as difficult as the majority of the NES library. There were a few annoying cards to get but overall it wasn't too bad. The final boss on the other hand has a weird limit that was both confusing as it was infurating.

The biggest glaring flaw the game has is that in order to beat the final boss, you need to reach the farthest right side of the goal in as many levels as you can. The fewer times you do this, the less ammo you will have against the final boss. You run out of blocks, you don't get them back. It's like if you needed to reach the top of the flag pole every time you beat a level in Mario if you want a chance at defeating Bowser. It's the dumbest design choice I've seen in a video game and it makes what was a fun platformer a worse expirence.

Besides how horribly designed the final boss was, I mostly had fun with the game. I don't know if I'd ever play it again though. Overall, I'd say M.C. Kids is a game worth playing at least once, especially if you're into those weird advergames.

McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure is a Sega Genesis classic that reminds me of a time when going to McDonald's was a treat. The salty fries, crunchy McNuggets, different themed resturants, the toy I'd get when I opened my Happy Meal, the delicious McDonald Land cookies they desperately need to bring back, and lastly seeing Ronald & friends were all what made eating at McDonald's a joyous expirence. McDonald's used to be a happy place during a happy time before they modernized it making most resturants look like a soulless husk of what they used to be. I could go on about my McDonald's nostalgia, but we're not here to talk about a supersized corporation. We're here to talk about a video game using characters made by them. That game being McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure made by the one & only Treasure.

You play as Ronald McDonald who is on a mission to find all the pieces of a map that will lead him to some treasure, hence the name of the game. As far as the gameplay goes, its a pretty simple platformer. You'll run, jump, and climb across the platforms to move onto the next level. At the end of each world, you will fight a boss. You might be wondering, How does Ronald fight enemies? Does he feed them an endless supply of big macs? Nope, he uses magical wizard powers that I did not know he was capable of. A missed opportunity from Treasure, but I digress.

As a platformer and as the first game that Treasure created, its decent. It's no Mario but as far as platfomers & licenced games go around the time this game released, I'd say its one of the better ones. It doesn't overstay its welcome and its relatively easy compared to a majority of games made during the 4th generation of consoles.

In conclusion, I had a fun time playing through it. It may not have anything on Treasure's later games like Gunstar Heroes, Sin & Punishment, and Ikaruga, but its an interesting title in their catalogue definitely worth playing.

Looking back on the games I played over the course of my childhood, I've noticed that some of my most memorable gaming expirences came from Rare. Before I discovered Banjo-Kazooie, I played and beat the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 2 and the DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing, but out of those two games I found Diddy Kong Racing DS to be much more interesting. I frequently looked up information online on how to unlock everything that the game had to offer. Apon doing so, I eventually discovered that there was a whole other version of the game that came before it with a few characters that weren't in the DS version. This is how I discovered the existence of Banjo. It wasn't until I connected my Xbox 360 to the internet for the first time a few years later that I would rediscover Banjo-Kazooie and download the demos of this game and its sequel Tooie. Not long after, I was able to purchase both of them and enjoy them to my heart's content. The Banjo-Kazooie games quickly became some of my all-time favorites, leading me into developing a fascination for the developers that made them. I've even attempted speedrunning this game on the 360 version multiple times with my best time being around 5 hours. Having just finished another playthrough of this masterpiece, I will say this is easily Rare's best collect-a-thon and one of the best 3d platformers ever made.

There are a lot of positive things to say about Banjo-Kazooie. The graphics are nice, the characters are funny & memorable, the worlds are enjoyable to explore, and the size of said worlds are just right. One big issue with some of the games that came after this one such as Donkey Kong 64 & Banjo-Tooie are that the worlds are just too damn big and require a lot of backtracking. WIth Banjo-Kazooie, all the objectives & goodies are scattered throughout the levels in a way that isn't intrusive. The only exception being one jiggy you'll have to backtrack for in the middle part of the game, but unless you're aiming for 100% completion it is totally optional.

As far as negatives go, the controls can be a little confusing. It could be since my last playthrough was a couple years ago, but I had some trouble remembering the imputs for a few moves or just accidently doing the wrong thing. It was never something I thought about until I played this version but that's probably because of the obtuse design of the controller. The other issue is something that the 360 version fixes which involves having to recollect the Jinjos and musical notes if you died. It can be very aggrivating to go through the process of getting them all again, especially if you die in any of the later worlds. However, the reason this issue exists is because of hardware limitations so its somewhat excusable.

Banjo-Kazooie is Rare's most iconic IP and rightfully so. Its tight level design, beautiful worlds, and memorable cast cement this game as the best 3d platformer on the N64. Between Banjo-Kazooie & Mario 64, I'd say the bear & bird duo gave the Italian plumber a run for his money.

Given that seeing this game's cover was my first sense of familiarity with Kingdom Hearts, it is kind of poetic that this was the last KH game in the series I hadn't finished until last year (unless you count og Coded & V-Cast). I've played and gotten all of the achievements/trophies multiple times for its Ps2 remaster, but I never got around to getting a copy of this version. It wasn't until months after completing 358/Days for the first time and revisiting Re:Coded that I finally decided to play through and complete GBA Chain of Memories. Besides the lovely-looking GBA sprites, I didn't notice too many differences compared to the Ps2 version. Even with that in mind, I still think it was worth the playthrough.

The gameplay of Chain of Memories is fairly simple. You scroll through your attack, magic, summon, friend, and potion cards you might have in your deck and pick the card with the highest number. The only exception would be the 0 card which is best used as a counter when you don't have a high enough number to counter your enemy's attack. In addition to just using the basic cards in your deck, there are sleights that involve combining some of the cards in your deck to get a higher number and use whatever abilities are assigned to a specific card or/and number. Sleights are easily the most fun and my favorite part of playing CoM as you can create a devastatingly powerful deck if you gather enough strong, high-numbered cards. While the traditional style of Kingdom Hearts combat is more enjoyable, the card system is a clever workaround to the GBA's limitations that still make the gameplay fun & engaging.

The story is still pretty easy to follow compared to future games. It picks up where the first game ended with Sora & pals looking for Riku & King Mickey. As they do, they encounter a strange hooded man almost identical to the hooded guy that Sora fought in Hollow Bastion. The mystery man leads Sora & friends to Castle Oblivion where they venture through Sora's memories. In Riku's side of the story, it deals with Riku's struggle against the darkness which he can apparently smell for some reason. Story-wise, this one has always been my favorite because of its pacing and because Marluxia & Ansem were fantastic villains who really played their parts well.

There aren't many changes, but there are a few I noticed. Some of the bosses such as Vexen and Larexene felt easier than they did in Re:CoM's Proud mode, but others such as the last Dark Riku fight, Axel, Ansem, and Marluxia's first fight were significantly more difficult. Compared to Re:CoM there is a more noticeable difficulty curve toward the very end which will get you even at a high level. I believe I was around level 60-66 which is pretty high since I usually finish Re:CoM around 45-50 on Proud mode. The only other differences worth noting are that Marluxia only has 2 phases instead of 3 and that "Lord of the Castle" is not in this version of the game. Marluxia's final phase in this game is more difficult than in the Ps2 version, but not by much as I was still able to beat it in one attempt. There is also a multiplayer mode which sadly didn't return in Re:CoM.

If I had to choose between this version or Re:CoM, I would still choose to play Re:CoM since I think the difficulty is more balanced and I prefer the full 3d movement that version has. Regardless, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was a technical achievement for its time that pushed the GBA to its limits. That being said, after having played the KH games multiple times, this will be the last time I play a Kingdom Hearts game until Square Enix decides to release KH4 & Missing Link. It has been a fun ride.

Back when the Wii U launched there was one game I was looking forward to and curious as to what Nintendo would do with said game, that being whatever 3d Mario game Nintendo was cooking. 3d platformers have always been one of my favorite game genres and with Nintendo's last console 3d Mario game being Super Mario Galaxy 2, I had very high expectations with what they could make with the new hardware. Then E3 13 came around, and I woke up to the news of whatever 3d Mario game being a Mario 3d Land sequel. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed at the time. Even with said disappointment in mind, I still thought it looked intriguing enough to get when I had my Wii U. Much like everything else that wasn't Smash, I didn't get far in the game and would eventually abandon my playthrough.

In 2020, Nintendo would go on to announce this version of the game that came with a bonus game, Bowser's Fury. Having not finished 3d Land and with the extra game added, I thought purchasing a Switch copy was well worth the money. I completed Super Mario 3d World last year and a few weeks ago I finally got around to finishing Bowser's Fury. Since I have completed both games, I've decided to write this review.

Super Mario 3d World: Aside from Super Mario 64, Super Mario 3d Land was definitely my least favorite 3d Mario game. I still liked it, but in comparison to the other 3d Mario games and other platformers like the Banjo games, it never scratched that itch for me. Super Mario 3d World is a big improvement over its 3DS predecessor and it did not disappoint.

The levels have more variety and are more refined, there are bosses in this game that aren't just Boom-Boom or 11 different variations of Bowser, the double cherries that allow you to clone yourself, and there is the catsuit. For as stupid as Cat Mario sounds and looks, it is easily one of the most fun power-ups in the series. The catsuit allows you to dive into enemies and climb onto walls. The wall climbing alone makes it one of the most useful and fun power-ups as it can save you from a ton of deaths or help you get collectibles easier. The last notable inclusion is co-op. This is also a big deal because it is the only full-fledged 3d Mario to have co-op that isn't just doing tasks for player one. That alone makes this game worth playing if you have friends around.

It may not have been the Super Mario Galaxy 3 I was hoping for, but it is still a fantastic 3d Mario that lives up to the quality of the games that came before it.

Bowser's Fury: This was an interesting one to play through. It reminds me a lot of Mario Odyssey and with how collecting the moons in that game worked, but it also felt fresh. The impression I got from playing this is that they want to make the next 3d Mario open-world with this game as sort of a test for what is to come. In that case, I really enjoyed the freedom that Bowser's Fury gives you in exploring the world and choosing which bells you'll get as opposed to the more linear approach some of the other 3d Mario games have taken.

My only real flaw with Bowser's Fury is that it is rather short and it can easily be completed within a few hours.

If you previously owned Super Mario 3d World then I wouldn't say Bowser's Fury alone is worth dropping $60 for, but if you're one of those who missed it on Wii U then it is a must-have for the Nintendo Switch.

Besides having the U in the name, New Super Mario Bros U is THE game that I associate with the Wii U. Back when the game & console first launched in November of 2012, I was intrigued by the Wii U's launch lineup and features but not interested enough in getting it. As more games got announced for the proto-Switch such as Smash, Wind Waker HD, this game's DLC, and Mario 3d World, my interest began to rise in getting one. I may have wanted the Wii U, but my broke ass was not able to get one. That was until one summer day in 2014 when I was able to convince my parents to get me a Wii U that came with this game. I played the first few worlds until much like how Nintendo decided to abandon the console, I abandoned my playthrough of New Super Mario Bros U + Luigi U.

Nearly a decade later, a new 2d Mario that wasn't a copy & paste of NSMBW was announced. That game being Super Mario Bros Wonder. In anticipation, I decided to finally beat every 2d Mario game that I previously never finished. The Switch port was half-off a few Black Fridays ago so I decided to get this version just for the hell of it. Much like the console abandoned for the Switch, my playthrough on said console is forever abandoned in favor of the Switch version.

New Super Mario Bros U while not the most impressive entry in the "New" series is a step up from the incredibly low-effort rehash that was New Super Mario Bros 2. Gameplay-wise, it's the same as the others but with the only difference being the new Squirrel suit which is essentially just a more useful version of the Raccoon & Tanuki suits from Mario 3. The levels have a little bit more variety than NSMBW and NSMB2 design-wise. I really enjoyed the Starry Night looking ghost levels and it made me think that they at least put a little bit more effort into making this game. The inner-connected map was a neat addition that I was glad they included. The few bells & whistles added into New Super Mario Bros U make it a better entry in comparison to what came before it. However, the real star of the show is the DLC bundled in with this version of the game, New Super Luigi U.

New Super Luigi U is a harder version with more difficult levels and a much shorter timer. The added challenge and extra creativity in the level design make it stand out in comparison to the base game. These changes made the game much more fun and really give the base game a run for its money.

The Switch version only added one new character that the Wii U version didn't have, Toadette. Toadette is the only character that can use the Super Crown that turns her into Peachette. A transformation that not only makes the game easier but also spawned several memes across the internet.

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe still suffers from the blandness the "New" series is known for, but its an improvement over the past couple of entries responsible for its rep. I can't recommend it at full price, but if you get it on sale or/and have never played a "New" Super Mario Bros game then you'll get your money's worth.

Out of all the One Piece games that have been released since I got into the series, this was the one I was least interested in getting for a few reasons. It is yet another Musou game and unlike the other games in the series, it only covers a few of the major arcs instead of the entire story. Since there was absolutely no way I would willingly pay the full $60 to play this, I decided to wait until it was cheap enough to be worth purchasing. It may not be the best Pirate Warriors entry or One Piece game, but there was still enough to make the $20 I decided to spend on playing this worth it.

The most noteworthy thing to mention is this game got a complete visual overhaul. One thing that always peeved me when I played through the other 3 games is that they all looked the same. Not only does it look different but the visuals are quite pretty too. The extra detail added complemented by the new graphical overhaul make most of the stages look almost identical to how they look in the show. Some of the characters also received updates to their moveset which was a breath of fresh air as the other 3 games pretty much reused the same moveset for each character. These were changes that had to be made at some point and they were handled beautifully. However, there are other changes that prevent this from being the definitive Pirate Warriors game.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 1 & 3 each covered most of if not all of the story. This game only has Alabasta, Enies Lobby, Marineford, Dressrosa, Whole Cake Island, and Wano which has an original story since the arc wasn't even close to being finished in either the anime or manga. It is a major step back from those two games in terms of recapping the story for fans and newcomers to One Piece. Even though the roster adds some of the new characters introduced in the most recent arcs & some other characters that could have been added in other entries like Kidd and Hawkins, there are a good amount of cuts. The most notable cuts being Garp, Moria, Eneru, and Kuma. All of whom I don't think should have been cut.

Even with some of the bad choices they took with this game, it was still an enjoyable experience which is why I rated it a 3.5/5. If you've played one or all of the other games and want a slightly different Musou then I could still recommend playing it but not at full price. For those new to the Pirate Warriors games or One Piece in general, it's better than the first two games, but in terms of story & content Pirate Warriors 3 is the way to go.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 was the first game in the Pirate Warriors series and the first Musou I played. Initially, I was somewhat excited about it as I had gotten into watching & reading the series a short while before the game was released and because it covered pretty much the whole story. A few months after it came out, I was able to purchase a copy. Even though I was somewhat hyped for the game, that wasn't enough because I would drop the game after getting to Arlong Park due to my inability to commit to finishing games and because I got bored of it rather quickly. Well, I completed the main log & the dream log and all I can say is that it is the best out of the Pirate Warriors series.

As I previously mentioned, the game covers just about everything up to Dressrosa. Unlike the first two, every location from every major arc is in this game each with slightly more detailed maps than the last entry. Since Dressrosa was incomplete at the time this game was released in Japan, Dressrosa has an original story. It's a good way of adding an original plot similar to what Pirate Warriors 2 did with its story and adding the location without having to wait for the manga & anime to finish the arc. Personally, I'd rather they go the full Pirate Warriors 2 route until the series ends, but them doing this every 3 arcs or so is serviceable.

In terms of gameplay, its just like the other games. If you've played any kind of Musou game, you know exactly what you're getting. The only differences are the new locations and characters.

The newcomers added are all welcome additions that were either NPCs in previous games such as Lucci & Moria or brand new characters like Fujitora, Sabo, and Doflamingo. They even threw in Shanks who was every bit as fun to use as I expected. From what I can tell there were no cuts from Pirate Warriors 2 so I can respect them for keeping every previous playable character in.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 once again improves upon the first two Pirate Warriors games making it the definitive Musou adventure for Luffy & crew. One Piece & Musou fans won't want to miss this one.