Anime Pirates Game Lets You be Part of Popular Manga ‘One Piece’ World

Indonesian game publisher Prodigy Infinitech launched a new game a couple of days ago called Anime Pirates. The game is basically a Facebook-based game that’s based on popular Japanese manga One Piece. After giving the turn-based battle RPG title a try, I find the game somewhat dull and monotonous. On the positive side, it has good graphics and quite a lot of One Piece elements and characters that will make a few die-hard manga fans happy.

But first, let me tell you that I’m not an avid RPG nor One Piece fan, but I do enjoy casual games from time to time. At the start of the Anime Pirates game, there are six character types for you to choose from – from a sword lady to a magician. Then you start to play, and the game’s storyline follows the manga itself. You will also get to participate in elite battles between One Piece main characters, which I think is cool.

After the prologue, you will get your own ship and do your own adventure to become the ultimate pirate king. You will be able to upgrade your ship, and sail from place to place all the while completing given tasks, like fighting off invading pirates. Here comes the boring part – you won’t be able to do anything during the turn-based battles. It’s fully automatic. You get to manage your equipment, and crew before the battle, but that’s it. The nice battle animation can keep you amused for a bit, but after fighting – well, watching – your hero fight all the enemies for a while, it becomes a drag.

I’ve beaten my share of enemies there by just clicking and skipping the story part. There are other parts that might be able to glue a few gamers to Anime Pirates that I haven’t yet tried. Those include fighting against fellow players, building alliances with them, and fighting daily bosses for special prizes. The game developer earns money from players making in-app purchases for gold top-ups.

My colleague Minh, who follows the One Piece story, gave the game a try too. His initial reaction was that it’s potentially disappointing that you don’t get to play as one of the main characters. In his own words, he explains further:

Well, I couldn’t learn anything beyond that you don’t play as One Piece characters, which is potentially disappointing. Especially if you can’t choose a “Devil’s Fruit” character, I’d imagine that’s what most fans would prefer.

Luffy, the main character, ate a Devil’s fruit, which changed his body into rubber. Other people eat different fruits…Some turn into lightning, others can be super slippery. It’s all very comical. Anyway, that’s a central point of the story.

Although the main characters aren’t part of the said “Devil’s Fruit” group, Let’s hope that we can recruit those characters during the game.

You can give the game a go here.