First things first: This is NOT a competitive fighting game and it doesn't wanna be.

That being said this game is just awesome. I am really impressed on how much effort and attention to detail this game has in comparison to other modern fighting games. Being a fan of the series it is really fascinating to me how well the hugely different fighting styles and skills of the characters are implemented. On top of that One Piece is a world where some humans are 4 feet tall and others something like 40'ish. I mean transfer something like that in a fighting game and still try to keep some sort of balance. And they did, they did it really well. It is still NOT a competitive game but i will come to this later.

I didn't knew anything about this game before I played it. I wanted to play it because I really like the franchise and cause I love fighting games. And the fact that i had some good experience with a 3D One Piece fighting game in the past. Even more beautiful that this one is actually a good game.

Looks aren't anything i know but did you look at it? This is a thing of beauty. Apart from the fact that it's impressive for itself how good they did this 3D artstyle which is still inspired by the manga (there are even SFX as text when you fight) it's just lovely how they transformed key points of the story cinematically without leaning on the anime. They did it all in there own artstyle and they even integrated the gameplay meaningfully and almost seamless.

One of the biggest strengths of the game - and probably the reason why it was never really successful - is that the characters are unequal. Probably sounds weird at first but this really is just lore friendly if you know One Piece. They are some really big gaps on the powerscael'o'meter and it just wouldn't fit if they were just or almost even. At the same time this game is balanced enough that you never really think "no I can never beat that character with mine".

But it also shows in the game that some characters have some clear advantages simply because of their abilities or their fighting style and the gap here is bigger than in any fighting game i played. Like I said, Burning Blood is not a competitive but a lore friendly fun-fighting-game. If that is not a thing now it is.

The "lore" shows itself in many ways. Being it the good story mode, the stages, the implementation of "fighting" itself or the characters. In many fighting games the fighters just deliver their one or two punchlines and than the battle starts. But in some games they even react to the their opponent individually. OPBB is FULL of this stuff.

It is so lovely to watch when characters meet who didn't see each other in the story for a long time. Or what they said to each other when they fight in a team. Or when friends fight against each other and you immediately know bei their greetings that this is a friendly fight. Or when they banter each other... or threaten... or when the cook says to its crewmates (if they fight in his team) that they won't get anything for supper when they loose... or or or!

There are literally hundreds of possibilities and even after dozens of hours you will hear or see something new when the battle starts.

But the attention to detail doesn't stop there. It also goes into the fights. They also react to each other while fighting and it even changes their abilities sometimes! I already spoke of a cook before. Though he has some good sides his dealings with women is just horrible.

He is a total chauvi that is jumping on every women that he finds hot but he would never hit them because he is a "gentleman" or something like that lol. And if you play him (for example in a 3V3 Match) and fight against a woman you just can't hit them. He then is all just hearteyes and stuff and it looks like he is trying tobury them in his love. I mean this is not only absurd it also a HUGE disadvantage but it is just lore friendly. This is the character like we know him from the story and this is how he should fight.

Or there is this one fanboy of the strawhats (they are kinda like the main characters of One Piece) and whenever he fights with or against one of them he is totally overjoyed. He then gets his "omg i am so hype"-face and comments on every special thing that they do.

Or there is this cyborg who runs on coke and as long as he still got some coke in his gears he can use his SUPER-moves. But when the coke is gone he needs to recharge before he can do any of his super moves again.

Or there is this character in the story who can make others disappear by teleporting them somewhere else. And if he does that to some of yours you cant use them for a while! I mean how crazy is that?

AND THERE IS SO MUCH MORE

I played this game to 100% today and until my last moment with it I always discovered some new details that fit well into the story. This game is just as diverse as a One Piece game should be because One Piece has one of the most varied worlds that I know of. I only wish that there would be more characters (though there are a lot!) just because i would like to know what else would be possible.