One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 Review (PC) – The Full Release

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 was initially released on March 26, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. It was released for PC on September 14th, 2023. It is now a completed game with the Legendary Edition, released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. This version includes all the DLC plus some bonus characters. Now is a good time as any to dive in and give a full, proper review.

Game Name: One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Omega Force
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco
Release Date: March 26th, 2026
Price: $59.99

One Piece Pirate Warriors was a fun collaboration between Omega Force and Bandai Namco first started in 2012, where they wanted a One Piece game using the same engine as the current Dynasty Warriors games. That continued to innovate regularly until it hit the prime opus of One Piece Pirate Warriors 4. This game was made before the anime hit Wano. So it follows the events of One Piece up til Wano and even includes a game-exclusive story of how Omega Force saw Wano’s story going.

Finding The One Piece

There are three main play modes in this game. Dramatic Log, Treasure Log, and Special Log. Dramatic Log is a very condensed and sped-up story mode of One Piece. It includes a variety of arcs with much more emphasis on the time skip and the New World storyline. Treasure Log is a mode that has a lot of small snippets of missions that get more and more difficult as you keep going down the list. Special Log is the DLC section of the game that has three episodes that help you fill out the soul map.

All character progression is tied to the growth map. The first map is unlocked by default, and you use medals and berries to level up stats like health, attack, defense, and stamina. It also includes passive skills you can unlock to equip. The first map applies to every character you can play as. The second map is tied to a specific character. Once a character reaches a certain crew level in the game, you get the third growth map. Subsequent growth maps require even more medals and berries to level up. You get medals in the game by completing missions and finishing stages.

Characters gain crew experience by simply being in the stage on your side of the fight. Your character will gain crew level, too. Each level up gets you a new perk that will help that specific character’s growth map. Usually, that perk is just more medals.

The last part of character progression is the Soul map. This is a map tied to all characters, but it requires souls to unlock nodes. These are even more difficult to get as they can be grabbed in harder fights, and usually, a good way to get a good amount of soul gems is the Special Log missions.

Combat in One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is a treat, especially if you are a fan of Musou games. You have a light attack and a heavy attack. You can also combine attacks to create combos. The base combos you get in One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 are much bigger and destructive than any of the other base combos you get in the other One Piece Pirate Warriors titles. You can also increase the number of combos characters have by upgrading their individual growth maps. Some of the best parts of this game, though, are the number of buildings and terrain that are actually destructible. You can combo a punch and an air kick an enemy that also destroys the building you smash them into. Just like the anime.

Each character can equip four skills. These are either active moves you can use, form changes like Luffy’s gears, or a burst that gives the character a timed buff. You start out with four default skills, but as you progress along the growth map of that character, they also learn more skills that you can swap back and forth with your four assigned skills in each battle.

There are also passives you can equip onto your character. You start with one skill slot, but can gain more slots by upgrading the character’s growth map. There are a lot of maps for a lot of characters, so you will be constantly using berries and medals in this game. Especially if you are swapping around the characters you use.

Converting The Warriors Formula To One Piece

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 does a great job of being a One Piece game as well as a Warriors game. A lot of the show and manga do show characters performing incredible feats of defeating numerous enemies all at once. One of the best scenes is right after the time skip, and seeing Luffy utilize Haki on many pirates and marines. I will admit that a lot of those feats are generally not as big as the one-on-one fights in the story. Luffy fighting Crocodile, Lucci, or Doflamingo are just some of the fights ingrained in my head from the series. Luckily, this game lets you have those moments as well.

Boss fights in particular are a different beast entirely in One Piece Pirate Warriors 4. Each big bad has a shield gauge. When that gauge is active, they won’t be moved by your attacks, but they can still be damaged by them. You have to deplete the gauge to get them into a stun. Once stunned, you can deal more damage to them in combos, but you can also move or juggle them with your combos. It makes the air combat viable, as you can decrease the rate their guard gauge returns if they are in the air. Some characters have better air combos than others, and some skills even work in the air too.

At the time of this game’s release, One Piece was near the beginning of the Wano arc. Rather than leave the game with a cliff-hanger ending, Omega Force has decided to include a brand new story of events in Wano. One criticism I have of One Piece Pirate Warriors 4, though, is the dramatic log’s inclusion of events. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 had a dramatic log that was a lot more fleshed out, and it ended before Dressrosa’s conclusion, thanks to where One Piece’s run was at that time. To not retread old ground, Omega Force completely summarises the events of East Blue, and does a very fast mission arcs of Alabasta and Sabaody. The focus of the game is essentially the Summit War arc and Dressrosa. With the new story told afterwards. It does include a few levels for Whole Cake Island to showcase that Sanji’s family is now playable. It definitely is a game catered towards fans of the series and not towards those who want to play a Warriors game to experience the story of One Piece. It leaves off a lot of the narrative and a ton of characters.

Legendary Edition

We are now at the endgame of One Piece Pirate Warriors 4. The Legendary Edition. The main crux of the Legendary Edition is in the added characters to the game. This includes a proper Kaido with a more accurate moveset that we see in the fight against Gear 5 Luffy. And my most played DLC character, which is Gear 5 Luffy. Gear 5 is a form that the DLC Luffy can use as a skill, but overall, it is a really fun playstyle. You get an additional 24 DLC characters in the game with this edition, and a lot of them are quite fun to play as. Charlotte Smoothie, young Garp, or even Gol D Roger are really fun characters.

The Legendary Edition comes with three Special Log episodes. The first one is Yamamoto’s adventures in Wano, where they are small missions that happen in the Wano map that get harder and harder with each successful one you undertake. The second one is a fun take on Koby’s training, letting you complete missions from his training regimen. The last one is an assortment of missions as you attempt to surpass the legend of Gol D. Roger. Each of these Special Log Episodes has a lot of replayability to them, thanks to a randomized assortment of characters and events that can show up, and the sheer volume of characters you can play as in One Piece Pirate Warriors 4.

You will need a lot of time to play in these modes as they are more likely to drop souls, which are the currency needed to unlock more of the soul maps. The DLC adds more soul maps to your collection, meaning you can power up all your characters even further. If you plan to play this game a lot, then make sure you grab the Legendary Edition just so you can power up your characters as far as they can go.

The One Piece Is Real

Overall, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is a solid blend of One Piece and the Warriors formula. Combat is fast, spiffy, and feels amazing. I do wish there were more story moments in the game and more characters, but hey, maybe we will get a giant restructure of the series that aims to do everything once the series ends… if it actually does. Until then, I am more than happy to keep coming back to One Piece Pirate Warriors 4.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: One Piece Pirate Warriors Legendary Edition was provided to us by Bandai Namco for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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