According to the translated tweet by Bandai Namco, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is fastest game in the Pirate Warriors series to reach the milestone.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 was released back in 2020. The beat ’em up game was developed by Koei Tecmo, and is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

The game features the largest playable roster of its franchise, with more than 40 playable characters in its roster. It also has the Dramatic Log that can be used by players to experience specific episodes from the series.

Playable characters in One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 include Monkey D. Luffy, Rorona Zoro, and the rest of the Strawhat Pirates, as well as other characters like Boa Hancock, Jinbe, and Bartolomeo, among others.

For more details about One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, check out our review.

【お知らせ】
「#海賊無双４」が全世界累計出荷数200万本突破！
「海賊無双」シリーズにおいて最速期間での記録となります✨
遊んでくださったみなさまありがとうございます！
また本日よりセール実施中です！
是非「#ONEPIECE」の世界で無双してみてください。
詳細はこちら⇒https://t.co/8f2KuzPFNY pic.twitter.com/6NzzSlaK9V

— 「ONE PIECE」家庭用ゲーム公式 (@opgame_official) August 3, 2022

The macabre Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator goes live on December 7th while Halo Infinite’s campaign finally launches for cloud, consoles and PC on December 8th (check out the launch trailer here). On December 9th, the Strawhat Pirates join the party as One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 becomes available for consoles, PC and cloud. Aliens: Fireteam Elite and Among Us round out the first wave upon releasing on December 14th.

Of course, there are also a number of titles that will be leaving the service in December. Check out the full list below:

• Beholder (Cloud and Console)
• The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Console and PC)
• Guacamelee! 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Unto The End (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Wilmot’s Warehouse (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Cloud, Console, and PC)

With The Game Awards 2021 coming up on December 9th, it wouldn’t be completely out of left field for Microsoft to announce even more additions to the service. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons had a stellar launch last week all over the world, but especially in Japan. It sold 1.8 million units in its first three days, becoming the biggest ever Switch launch in the region, and counting digital sales, that number exceeded 2.5 million. In its second week, as per Famitsu’s weekly sales charts, it has obviously dropped off, but still amassed extremely impressive sales, selling over 720,000 units. This takes it total physical sales in Japan to over 2.6 million units, which means it’s already within an inch of overtaking the lifetime sales of Mario Kart 8, and is outpacing Pokemon Sword and Shield and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well.

Meanwhile, Bandai Namco’s musou action title One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 has enjoyed a strong debut, with its PS4 and Switch versions occupying second and third place in the charts respectively. The PS4 version sold over 75,000 copies, while the Switch version managed over 61,000 unites sold across the week.

On the hardware front, the Switch has dropped off from last week’s record-breaking hardware sales, but Animal Crossing has still kept its momentum going, with sales of over 280,000 units.

You can check out the full software and hardware charts for the week ending March 29 below.

Software sales (followed by lifetime sales):

01. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 727,791 / 2,608,417
02. [PS4] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – 75,998 / NEW
03. [NSW] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – 61,571 / NEW
04. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Shield – 14,996 / 3,542,524
05. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure – 13,819 / 745,127
06. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 11,577 / 2,840,930
07. [NSW] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX – 11,501 / 218,394
08. [PS4] Nioh 2 – 11,270 / 129,302
09. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 10,355 / 3,623,274
10. [NSW] Minecraft – 9,908 / 1,331,839

Hardware sales (followed by last week’s sales):

Nintendo Switch – 282,561 (392,576)
PS4 – 10,820 (15,393)
Nintendo 3DS – 940 (1,022)
Xbox One – 310 (311)

[Via ResetEra]

As with its predecessors, Pirate Warriors 4’s gameplay mirrors the Musou genre’s hack and slash focus, with its ability to garner combos into the thousands and knock out hundreds of enemies in one fell swoop. This type of one-versus-many gameplay is at the core of the game, and it allows for incredibly rewarding moments of mowing down entire legions of enemy soldiers all at once. Virtually every mission sees you in some way going up against a seemingly insurmountable number of enemies that, when defeated, make you feel like an unstoppable force who deserves the treasure at the heart of One Piece. New to the series is that these attacks happen both on the ground and can be taken into the air, which allows for a lot more variety in combat and can get you out of some sticky situations. Plus, going airborne with a few dozen enemies in your grasp never stops being fun.

"One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is a formidable entry to the series that offers a lot of content to fans of One Piece and to those seeking a cathartic, smooth experience."

While taking down thousands of grunts can be rewarding, the most important enemies are those sprinkled throughout who have names or titles. Many of these are familiar characters who ultimately become playable later on, while others are nameless and are there just to block your path. The most interesting of these primary enemies are the Titans, one of the other big new entries into the series.

These are massive versions of new and returning bosses, like Big Mom, and are some of the most interesting you’ll fight throughout the course of the story mode, as their scale and power force you to adjust how you attack them. In fights against any number of enemies, though, it’s disappointing to have a dizzying, confusing camera when locking onto an enemy. Especially when there are multiple enemies that can be locked onto, the camera seems as though it doesn’t know what to do, which makes fights much more difficult, and, at times, the inability to accurately see who I was locked onto and where they were was the difference between success and failure.

Like in previous games, combat is relatively straightforward. Each character has two basic attacks and up to four special attacks at a time. While combinations of these attacks make for good strategy and an easier time, there is a tendency to button mash, which ultimately can get you through most fights. The cast of characters is again improved from Pirate Warriors 3, now boasting over 40 at launch, though many of these are not playable within the Dramatic Log of the story.

"While combinations of these attacks make for good strategy and an easier time, there is a tendency to button mash, which ultimately can get you through most fights."

Split into the four categories of Power, Speed, Technique, and Sky, characters within each group tend to have similar playstyles. While you’ll likely find yourself gravitating toward one category or one character, as I did with Zoro and Power style fighters, almost all of them are fun to play with, including new characters like Carrot. Some missions will force you to play as a certain character for story purposes, but I recommend trying out a variety of fighters and styles, as some will surprise you at their versatility and smoothness in combat.

You’ll likely spend most of your time with Pirate Warriors 4 playing through the Dramatic Log, which contains the game’s main story and took me just over 20 hours to complete. With six main arcs, this story covers much of the same ground as the show, condensing hundreds of episodes of the Straw Hat Pirates’ journey into just five of the game’s arcs.

This means there’s a lot of rapid storytelling in cutscenes between missions and arcs that can get a little frantic, but it’s ultimately worth it to see each piece of the puzzle. The sixth arc, which covers the Land of Wano, is entirely new for the game. It’s a welcome addition to the saga and fits well into the world. Fans of the series will be in familiar thematic territory here and for the rest of the Dramatic Log, which will allow them to enjoy the story, both new and old.

"With six main arcs, this story covers much of the same ground as the show, condensing hundreds of episodes of the Straw Hat Pirates’ journey into just five of the game’s arcs."

Each arc contains a series of missions that see you going back to a set of one or two main environments. The maps can get a little labyrinthian at points, especially when you come across blocked paths that have to be worked around, but they’re diversified enough to make them enjoyable throughout, especially within the Whole Cake arc. Each mission asks you to complete an overarching objective, such as “Escape to the Ship” or “Find a way to the Prison Library,” but the mission objective evolves over time and rarely goes as planned. New to the series are side missions that ask you to perform a specific task within the overarching objective, like taking control of a certain area or defeating a side boss.

Though I didn’t find myself doing all of them, as they aren’t required to push forward in the story, they offer nice rewards and add new twists to take you away from the mission’s critical path and see new ways to play. As missions evolve, though, the UI can become a hindrance. Mission objectives often take up a large portion of the middle of the screen, even during combat, and there’s very little to let you know when you’re being hit or are low on health, which is frustrating because of the requirement to restart an entire mission if you or a teammate dies.

In addition to the Dramatic Log are the Free Log, which allows you to replay any story mission with any unlocked character, and the Treasure Log, which allows you to play additional missions that go alongside the main story. Like side missions, the Treasure Log allows for another way to experience the combat and see more of the One Piece story if you’re itching for more. These two offer ever more content for fans and give you a little more bang for your buck, and they’re welcome as alternative methods to experience the game’s strengths.

"The maps can get a little labyrinthian at points, especially when you come across blocked paths that have to be worked around, but they’re diversified enough to make them enjoyable throughout, especially within the Whole Cake arc."

Even when I was frustrated with Pirate Warriors 4, I always found my way back to a simple dash through enemies, taking them all into the air, and satisfyingly taking them all out at once. This is the feeling I got for most of the time playing through it. While some of the design choices took me out of the experience, I could always go back to its combat to get another thousand-hit combo or take down a massive boss, all while being able to experience the classic One Piece story and its new additions. For fans of the franchise, this is a welcome addition, and for many others, there’s a lot here, from its great Musou gameplay to its affecting story, that makes it worth recommending.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Granblue Fantasy: Versus

Cygames’ Granblue Fantasy: Versus has already made waves in Japan and Asia with digital sales and shipments crossing 150,000 units. It’s out on March 3^rd for PS4 in North America, offering a stellar aesthetic and solid fighting mechanics with characters from the mobile RPG. All in all, even with concerns over its netcode, Granblue Fantasy: Versus should be a good diversion especially with its side-scrolling RPG Mode.

Bandai Namco has announced that One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, its next sequel in the action beat ’em up series, will release on March 27th 2020 for the West. Developed by Koei Tecmo, it will be available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out the trailer below to see Luffy’s Gear Fourth “Snakeman” form in action.

Along with boasting the largest playable roster with over 40 characters to control, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 will also have the Dramatic Log to experience episodes from the TV series. There are also Form Changes which can change up a character’s appearance. Along with Monkey D. Luffy and Rorona Zoro, you can expect the entire Strawhat Pirates Crew, Boa Hancock, Jinbe, Bartolomeo and much more.

Even Charlotte Linlin aka Big Mom will appear as a boss character. The Japanese release will take place on March 26th 2020 though keep in mind that the Xbox One version will only be available digitally. Stay tuned for more details on the game in the coming months.