Review for One Piece Unlimited World Red Deluxe. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 24/08/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 29/09/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 25/08/2017
The eternal and the infinite are concepts used in philosophy and mathematics. Normally we fantasize about it in an abstract way except for a few cases and one of these is the plot of One Piece: in fact, the great and lucky work of Oda does not in the least sign of ending and, over the years, has been transposed under many guises. One of the latest is One Piece Unlimited World Red Deluxe, re-edition of the hybrid GDR and Musou released a few years ago by Ganbarion, on Playstation 3, Nintendo Nintendo 3DS, Playstation Vita and Wii U. The new version is already out for PlayStation 4 and PC while we await the end of the month for the arrival of Switch.
The Deluxe version, in addition to having been visually updated for the current times, contains all the DLCs published so far for the title in question. Both versions rely on a plot developed totally from scratch, under the careful eye of the master Oda, who also took care of the design of some unpublished characters such as Red and Paco.
Infinite world but not too much
The new adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates begins in the New World when, in the company of a tanuki named Pato, the Thousand Sunny lands on an island named Trans Town: a name not given by chance as it will act as a crossroads for all journeys we will undertake. For reasons initially unknown, the entire crew of Luffy is kidnapped shortly after arriving on the island and it will therefore be the captain's task to recover his men, who have been dispersed throughout the various locations of the Major Route.
Obviously the search will not be simple but fraught with dangers and enemies who will come back alive at the right time: Crocodile, Caesar Clown, Blackbeard, the Navy Admirals and many others will stand in the way of Straw Hat and his crew, until they shed light on the true ambitions of Patrick Redfield, the evil mastermind behind the plan that has entangled Luffy and his friends in this new adventure.
The plot, on the whole, is very linear and does not dispense great twists, however it must be specified that the style of Oda's work is fully centered in the cutscenes: the style of the characters, their way of expressing themselves and the typical One Piece's comedy are recreated exactly as they are in the manga. In addition to the Story mode there is also the Arena. Inside we will be called to prove our skills as pirate fighters facing hordes of enemies, in full musou style, or in boss fights with heated one-on-one exchanges. By respecting different victory requirements and depending on some parameters we will be awarded points.
Thanks to these battles we will also be able to unlock new characters to use in combat. However, this mode turns out to be a bit too repetitive in the long run, especially for those who are not fond of musou-style titles: the missions in fact will have few and slight variations, making everything tedious after a few attempts.
Deep red
The combat system, regardless of the two modes available, does not vary: as we unlock the characters continuing in the Story or in the Arena we will be able to experiment with new fighting styles and moveset. From this point of view, Unlimited World Red Deluxe is never repetitive: each character has their own fighting style, their own advantages and disadvantages. Facing a fight with two different characters therefore opens the way to different types of resolution. The combat system is not too complex: you have the classic attacks, light and heavy, in addition to dodging (100% effective only when the appropriate button on the screen appears) and the jump.
As we suffer or launch attacks, the bar dedicated to special attacks will fill up and will vary depending on the character, although the effect does not change that much. From time to time we will be able to choose whether to attack in single, that is only with our character, or to attempt the combined attack: if the allies also have one or more charged bars, all three characters on the field will combine their specialties to damage the opponents.
Another peculiarity is the request for actions by the group leader. The party will always consist of a maximum of three characters and the leader, who would be the pirate that we will control, will be able to request one of his allies to perform a specific action: Pato or Chopper for example will be able to heal allies. Obviously this action will not always be available.
However, the RPG-histic touch is not lacking: during our raids we will be able to use objects, which can be equipped before leaving on a mission inside our bag. From mission to mission the crew members will level up and improve their skills, as well as being able to equip the Words that we will get from time to time. Words will grant us stat bonuses or resistances to certain types of elemental attacks and more.
On the other hand, the management of the camera is very annoying: often this will get stuck in the corners of the map, no longer being able to frame the character we guide, and often we will end up without being able to understand anything of what happens on the screen in addition to having to wait forcibly the room settles itself.
Deluxe? Ni
Let's talk about the third port of this title: in addition to being released on home consoles a few years ago, Unlimited World Red has landed on laptops, before reaching the current version. The graphic rendering therefore involves all the improvements of the case: the 60 frames per second make it very fluid and certainly comfortable when it comes to the smoothness of the clashes, albeit with some small shots. The models of the characters have also been improved, but they are much more detailed and cared for than everything else: opponents, secondary characters and settings are presented in a much more simplified and elementary way than they are, almost too much in certain situations.
The original dubbing, in Japanese, reflects the characters of that of the cartoonic transposition while the soundtrack instead blends well with the pirate setting without being particularly noteworthy.
One Piece Unlimited World Red Deluxe is a re-edition of the title very rich in content, however by trying it you have the distinct feeling that the developers have limited themselves to doing the minimum necessary to make it equal to today's graphics standard and nothing more. In fact, the transposition suffers from the typical porting bugs such as, for example, poor management of the camera. Definitely to evaluate the purchase for the true fans of the brand while instead, those who dreamed of the GDR Musou genre masterpiece will find themselves faced with a missed opportunity.
► One Piece Unlimited World Red Deluxe is an Action-RPG type game developed by Ganbarion and published by Bandai Namco for Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 24/08/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 29/09/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 25/08/2017
