RATING:
Pros: Excellent graphics, fun character designs, intriguing storyline.
Cons: Network disconnection, too much automated content, bad translation.
Graphics: 7
Performance: 4 (disconnect due to network loss)
Gameplay: 5
Overall: 5
Recently we sat down to play the beta of the newly released free to play browser action RPG from Joygames, OnePiece Online. The game, characters and storyline are based on a Japanese manga series of the same name that follows the main character Luffy, his assembled Straw Hat Pirates and their adventures on the high seas. The premise of the show and one of the concepts in the game is the search for the One Piece, the fabled treasure of legendary pirate captain Gold E Rogers. The game focuses on players building up their own main character, earning XP and levelling up, gaining gear and recruiting new Partners into their group to help them in battle.
When we had logged in after our quick account registration we could choose from three different classes: the Sniper, the Swordsman and the "Devil Fruit User", there is very little information accompanying the available choices other than to say that one was a ranged class, one a melee and the final one a magic using caster. Intrigued by the name we went with the Devil Fruit User though we're not entirely sure that your class choice make too much of a difference other than in PvP. As ever with these types of Asian import RPGs there is no character customisation and every player choosing the same class has the same Avatar and in game model.
Our first concerns with the game were highlighted quite quickly as the initial NPC's started speaking to us casually about places and people we had no idea about but did so in such familiarity that we can only presume the game was primarily designed for One Piece fans who already follow the series. For those players that are fans of the comic or anime we’re sure that it has a great appeal to be able to interact with the famous faces whose background and story they are already extremely knowledgeable of, but for us much of what they were talking about the made no sense and had no context. Second to this was the translation from whatever language the original game was published in, which whilst not the worst we’ve seen, definitely wasn’t accurate with both grammar and spelling and some places simply didn’t make much sense.
Our first combat encounter happened straight away and then the combat system goes into an instanced encounter, we were led into it by some cheesy dialogue between Luffy and some dude who intended to capture us. We were informed that we had to defend our pirate flag (it has hitpoints); literally 10 seconds later we had defeated the first "Challenge" (3 enemies including this named character) and hadn't even pressed a button because all the combat was automated. You DO have an option to move around and cast attacks, but the moment you stop doing anything for a second or two it instantly kicks into auto combat and takes over. It was so quick, zero involvement and pretty much continues like this for the majority of our first look, we’ve no idea how players find this entertaining between the auto pathing between NPC's to pick up quests and the fully automated combat it such a grind to get to the end game where players can access any interesting features.
One of the key elements of the game is to recruit Partners, a long list of presumably familiar faces from the series that using the Bounty system in the Tavern (as is always the case in these games...) we got a free chance to get a Partner as well as later on and earned some Vivre Cards to get another chance. With a random slot machine type system, that takes far too long to determine which Partner you get, we were equipped with our first "Blue" partner; on their own these guys suck unless paired up with a specific named character in your formation. The rarer Purple, Red and Gold Partners can be acquired by spending more in game cash and these Partners come with their own abilities.
At the end of the first zone we were asked to pick a Camp, presumably the same as a faction, but had pretty much zero information on either of them other than a brief description that one is a group of tyrants and the other wants to battle order, also we were told that this choice could not be changed later. From here we continued with a quest chain fighting against an organisation named Marine, the military sea force or some such, presumably we were trying to infiltrate them but it was hard to tell; either way we spent far too long fighting them in the same long boring encounters.
Ultimately the game didn't offer anything new to the genre, was far too automated and didn't offer up enough lore so that characters people and places made sense. Players who are ready familiar with the show/comics may find some enjoyment from the game, but for us there are just too many flaws to be able to enjoy it.
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