One Piece Games With The Best Combat

One Piece games are not as abundant as, say, DBZ or Naruto, but the franchise has produced its share of decent combat systems over the years. The Straw Hats are not married to any particular genre either, as they have starred in action-adventure, party, fighting, turn-based, and PvP games, to relative success in all of them. Due to this diverse legacy, One Piece has experimented with quite a few battle systems, some of which manage to capture the magic of Eiichiro Oda’s source material.

Frustratingly, only a fraction of all One Piece projects have made their way out of Japan, and there was a period when almost no release earned a North American port. Nowadays, console games will likely release globally, so they are at least easier to come by. Let’s take a look through One Piece‘s long and messy gaming history to highlight those games that have great combat.

9

One Piece (Game Boy Advance)

A Simplistic Beat ‘Em Up That Works Well

Bandai teamed up with legendary Japanese developer Dimps Corporation to create a solid Beat ’em up for the Game Boy Advance with a North American audience in mind. The final product, simply titled One Piece, worked surprisingly well, and it did a good job at entertaining Western players with its simple but fun gameplay.

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In One Piece for the GBA, players can only take control of Monkey D. Luffy while he fights different pirates and marines from all over the initial East Blue Saga. The combat may not be too complex, but it still feels great thanks to the bouncy animations and powerful special attacks. The highlight here is the ability to summon Luffy’s crewmates, like Sanji or Zoro, to perform useful special techniques.

8

One Piece: Unlimited Series

Playing As Every Straw Hat Pirate In Fun Adventure Games

Because of its enormous popularity, One Piece has a good number of beloved series of video games, of which the Unlimited series by Ganbarion is one of the most popular. It consists of Unlimited Adventure, Unlimited Cruise, and Unlimited World: RED. These are mostly adventure games with a big focus on exploration, fishing, and item gathering.

There’s also a lot of action in the Unlimited Series as well, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The combat system takes a fighting game approach, with a lot of fun mechanics in every game, like the Break Shot or Strong Words. The best part, however, is the ability to play as every single member of the Straw Hat Pirates and switch between them at any point. This is something that would usually be quite common in an RPG or a fighter, but it’s unexpected for an adventure title like this one.

Although generally quite fun, Unlimited World: RED‘s combat is quite slow, lacking the punch of the Pirate Warriors games.

7

One Piece Grand Battle! Series / Gigant Battle Series

Cute Fighters With A Lot Of Personality

When it comes to fighting games, One Piece has mostly preferred to stick to its more cartoony and goofy side rather than the serious and edgy side. That’s why the very first fighting game it spawned was One Piece: Grand Battle!, which was followed by many sequels. These are 2.5D fighters with a cute art style that focuses on platforming, item use, and amazing special attack animations. All the Grand Battle! games are easy to pick up, feature a huge cast of characters, and are really fun to play, especially against friends.

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Things got even better when the series moved to the Nintendo DS and 3DS handhelds, where it was renamed Gigant Battle. These new games feature an entirely 2D fighting system that is reminiscent of Super Smash Bros. As a result, they have a really dynamic & accessible combat system that focuses more on platforming, and is even more fun to play with other people. The similarities were so obvious that Super Grand Battle! X for the Nintendo 3DS even had a promotional crossover with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

6

One Piece Bounty Rush

A Flawed F2P Game With Pretty Good Real-Time Combat

One Piece has quite a few successful free-to-play games, although they all come with caveats. Treasure Cruise used to be among the best mobile anime RPGs, and its turn-based combat was rock-solid. Unfortunately, the game has gradually gotten worse to the point that it is a bit difficult to recommend nowadays. One Piece Bounty Rush isn’t a lot better in terms of pay-2-win elements, but its real-time combat holds up to scrutiny better in isolation. Bounty Rush‘s combat is good enough that it could easily be ported to a single-player console game without too many changes, except for a focus on PvE content.

Focusing on 4v4 battles, players get to choose a character who comes with one of three roles, which adds an element of strategy as each class has specific responsibilities that cannot be ignored. While stylish and flashy, Bounty Rush‘s combat is also surprisingly skill-based, prioritizing concepts like control, baiting, perfect dodging, and positioning. The fundamentals are sound, but they are somewhat let down by other aspects. For one, Bounty Rush‘s matchmaking is almost nonexistent, which is a death sentence for new players who are just trying to get started.

5

One Piece: World Seeker

The One Piece Equivalent Of Insomniac’s Spider-Man

One Piece: World Seeker is an open-world action-adventure game where players control Monkey D. Luffy as he explores an immense island and defeats a vast array of enemies, which reminded a lot of fans of Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man. While this video game ended up being quite divisive for a variety of reasons, its combat system is still really entertaining.

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The combat itself is quite snappy and feels good, and it truly shines in its implementation of Armament Haki to power up all of Luffy’s moves. The best part, though, is how the RPG elements of World Seeker perfectly complement its combat system. As he levels up, Luffy will slowly gain more abilities and techniques to use in combat. By the end, he’ll become a powerhouse, which is super satisfying for the player. For fans who want more characters to play as, Zoro, Law, and Sabo are also playable in the DLC, offering some much-needed variety & even more hours of entertainment.

4

One Piece Odyssey

The Perfect One Piece JRPG

While there have been some turn-based RPGs based on One Piece in the past, none of them have had the ambition and scope of One Piece Odyssey, the most recent AAA video game in the franchise. Developer ILCA already had experience with this genre, seeing as they also made Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl a few years prior, and they certainly delivered on this premise.

Turn-based combat may not be as popular as the real-time action combat of previous games like World Seeker, but it worked really well in Odyssey. It’s not too complex, and that’s exactly what this game needed. All the Straw Hat Pirates are playable, and they can all use a large variety of powerful moves & techniques that are enhanced by their incredible animations. To top it all off, its stylish interface ties everything together, making this turn-based combat more energetic and less confusing for all players, even those who may not be used to this type of gameplay.

3

One Piece: Burning Blood

One Of The Best 3D Arena Fighters Based On An Anime

When it comes to anime fighting games, most people in the community usually point to incredible series like Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi or Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Curiously, the One Piece franchise didn’t really delve into this type of game until the release of One Piece: Burning Blood in 2016, and it quickly became a new fan-favorite.

Burning Blood is a 3v3 fighter, meaning that players can choose up to 3 characters that can not only be switched around at any moment, but that can also assist each other. Aside from that, the combat is frantic and almost unstoppable, not to mention that there’s a lot of mobility for the characters, who can move around at all times in the game’s spacious stages. Burning Blood has 44 playable fighters and a collection of incredible special attacks, so it is no surprise that dedicated One Piece fans are playing it online to this day.

2

Great Pirate Colosseum

The Best Fighting Game In The Series

A lot of fans want Arc System Works to make a brand-new One Piece fighting game, similar to Dragon Ball FighterZ, but most of them have no idea that this game already exists. Its name is One Piece: Great Pirate Colosseum, an impeccable 2D offering that was developed for the Nintendo 3DS, and managed to be very effective for a handheld fighter.

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As expected from Arc System Works, Great Pirate Colosseum plays like the quintessential 2D fighting game, with a lot of playable characters, complex combos, and amazing special attacks that are always tricky but satisfying to pull off. On top of that, the large sprites and colorful visual effects make the combat a joy to watch. It even had cross-play with the 3DS game Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden! If Arc System Works ever takes another shot at the One Piece franchise, they should either remaster Great Pirate Colosseum or make a sequel.

1

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4

The Most Fun & Addictive Action Games In This Franchise

Musou games (like Dynasty Warriors or Hyrule Warriors) are not everyone’s cup of tea, but when they are well-made, they can grant players countless hours of intense fun. One Piece is a franchise that ended up working surprisingly well with the Musou formula, and as a result, an entire series of high-octane action video games was created: The Pirate Warriors series.

From Pirate Warriors 1 to the recent Pirate Warriors 4, all of these games encapsulate everything that a One Piece fan looks for in a combat system: It’s fast and dynamic, it feels incredible, there are a lot of enemies to defeat, the arenas are huge, the boss fights are gigantic and epic, and each character has a solid variety of different attacks & techniques that are based on the iconic anime series. On top of that, almost every single important One Piece character is playable, not merely the Straw Hats, to the point that One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 featured over 60 different playable characters, which is an incredible number. There may be other One Piece games that stand out in other areas, but when it comes to combat, there’s nothing better in this franchise than the Pirate Warriors series.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)