One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 hands on preview

Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates return to the Dynasty Warrior themed franchise in Pirate Warriors 3. This game has basically more of everything of what you’ve wanted and liked from the previous two titles in the franchise. Over at the Bandai Namco America Press Event Showcase towards the end of January, I had the opportunity to get my hands on Pirate Warriors 3 as well as talk to Bandai Namco's Wyman Jung about the game.

The name of the game here is massive. In a Dynasty Warriors-esque title, the more playable characters the better. One Piece: Pirate Warrior 3 has more characters than ever – while an official roster hasn’t been released, it has been confirmed that there will be more characters than ever. While you’ll only start with the bare bones crew, you’ll pick up more and more as you complete missions in story mode. From heroes to villains, got to catch 'em all.

Speaking of story mode though, this game covers the entirety of One Piece. Worried that you're favorite arc isn't covered? Don't be. While the game can’t cover every single moment, they are focusing on key story events. The span of these events reaches as far back as Romance Dawn arc all the way to Dressrosa – so yeah, everything. Capturing the heart and soul of One Piece is difficult based off the vast amounts episodes, but Pirate Warriors 3 sure comes close.

Even though the game has not yet been released in Japan, the game is slated to come in North America summer of 2015. That’s pretty ridiculous as far as turnaround speed goes. This process guarantees that there will only be Japanese voice over. With full English subtitles though, fans of One Piece will be happy. I’d imagine most fans would rather have the game earlier than to wait for it to be dubbed in its entirety.

While other modes besides story mode haven’t been announced, 1-2 player coop online and offline has been confirmed. You’ll be playing with your friends locally or from across the world with the best of them. In the demo I played, I had the choice between Luffy, Law, and Fujitora as character to play as. The action was over the top and as equally zany as one would expect and desire from a game in this franchise.

If all of that doesn’t tickle your straw hat fancy, One Piece: Pirate Warrior 3 is being released on my consoles than ever. Thaaats’ right; we’re looking at PS3, PS4, PS Vita, and for the first time ever Steam. Since Dynasty Warriors became so popular on Steam, Pirate Warriors 3 seemed like the most logical follow up. This will be the first time a One Piece game has EVER been released on Steam. People getting it on PS4 will have the option to purchase a physical copy. Times, they are a changin. In this case, all for the better.