"the game is playing itself, jon"

it's a pretty polished experience as far as like, presentation and environments are concerned, but there isn't much substance here. if you're not already a fan of the series then there's nothing here for you.

one of my biggest gripes was the writing. pretty much all of the straw hats were boiled down to their running jokes for 75% of the dialogue, which gets old incredibly fast.

major shoutout to the inclusion of auto battling and speed ups, this game would have been completely unbearable without it. i spent most of the game in auto battles and was able to switch windows to continue my hunt for the woodcutting pet in OSRS (didn't get it).

OH ALSO i never figured out what the yaya cubes were for, and never figured out how to open the locked chests that were scattered around the world. i didn't try very hard to figure it out, and i'm not sure if that detail is more of a knock on the game or my brain.

You remember that one part, shortly after beating Yuyuko's last spell card? As you sit there, reflecting on your journey, the horrors of Stage 4, Youmu's wild ride, and Yuyuko's tough as nails spellcards, some weird poem shows up:

"Remembering the melancholy of human existence
Even ghosts stray from the path of righteousness"

And then BAM, guess who's back, ready for more? Motherfucking Yuyuko, cutting through your reprieve with one last desperate stand: 66 seconds of WAVE after WAVE of beautiful danmaku. With no recourse, you hold on for dear life, dodging on pure adrenaline-fueled instinct, so as to justify the efforts and prayers of the last 30 minutes; all against the backdrop of the absolutely JAMMING remix of Border of Life.

Yeah, I fucking felt that.