[TGS 2016] One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum impressions

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Previews

Nintendo Everything was at this year’s Tokyo Game Show! We had a low-key presence at the event, but we did manage to try out several upcoming Japanese 3DS titles. Look for our impressions in the coming days.

One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum is a 3DS fighting game developed by Arc System Works for Bandai Namco. It will be released soon in Japan on September 21, but there was a demo available at Tokyo Game Show 2016 and we were able to try it out. However, we were limited to CPU battles.

Although One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum will have many playable and assist characters, not all of them were available in the TGS demo. For example, the only available Straw Hats were Luffy, Sanji, and Franky. One side can either pick two main characters and two assist characters, or substitute the assist character slots for a third main character.

Once starting the actual battle gameplay, it has a pretty simple control scheme that’s easy to understand. The Y button is used for weak attacks, while the X button designates a strong attack. It is possible to chain a combo by pressing Y several times and then pushing X afterwards (for example YYYYX). If you’re successful in comboing, you can juggle the opponent and then follow it up with Jet Slide, which is a choice between three possible follow-up moves that are assigned to Y, X and A buttons respectively.

The A button is used for Devil Powers, which act as a special attack as well as a super finisher if pushed at the end of a combo with the finisher meter maxed out. Additionally, you can use the B button for evasion so that you can dodge an opponent’s attacks.

The touch screen shows the composition of your team, and you can switch between the main character or call assist characters (if you do have assists) at any point by tapping their portraits on the screen. When a main character is knocked out, the other main character will be called in. Victory will be given to the player who can defeat all of the opponent’s main characters.

This is just a sneak peek on the basic battle system, with more modes to be available in the full game, such as the Create-a-Band mode where you can form a group of your favorite pirates by progressing through stories. Cross-versus battles with Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden will also added through an update patch in November.

One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum has a fluid and easy-to-grasp gameplay system, and its content should appease the avid One Piece fans. Unlike Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden though, it does not have a western release confirmed yet, although we do hope it will get one soon – especially considering there will be a cross-versus support with the former.