Amidst the diverse genres in the video game industry—ranging from the “get good” style of Souls-like combat to games that carry heavy narratives and agendas akin to films—the Musou genre remains a steadfast outlet for stress relief that doesn’t demand too much thinking.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 was originally released in 2020, and even now, at the end of 2025, it remains relevant and refuses to stagnate by introducing the Legendary Edition. This definitive edition naturally contains the most complete character package without the need to buy Character Passes piecemeal or separately.

Broadly speaking, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – Legendary Edition retains the same gameplay and core formula as its initial release in 2020. It covers Luffy’s journey from the Alabasta arc all the way to defeating Kaido in the Onigashima arc. Unfortunately, we cannot play through Luffy’s journey in the Egghead arc. perhaps, this will be released by Bandai Namco in a new title, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 5, in the future.

In this review, we won’t waste too much of your time re-reviewing or re-reading the core gameplay of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. The game’s loop is simple: building Power, Speed, Sky, and Technique type characters, clearing the Treasure and Dramatic Logs, and then investing our gathered resources into our specific favorites characters via the Growth and Soul Maps. But we won’t dwell on this, as we know you already have the basics covered.

Instead, we will jump straight into what the Legendary Edition has to offer.

And, of course, the one important question: Why should we return to playing One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 in 2025 through the Legendary Edition package?

Here is the review of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – Legendary Edition after 98 hours on Playstation 5.

What is the Legendary Edition?

Well, we could say the Legendary Edition is the most complete package for One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. Players will get an addition of content that is actually quite time-consuming, especially if players want to build their favorite characters.

Players will also receive every Character Pass available in the Ultimate Edition, as well as the 8th Character Pass scheduled for release in March 2026. If you never thought about buying the character passes individually, the Legendary Edition is the answer.

Here is what available in the Legendary Edition package:

Character Pass 1:

• Character Pack 1: Whole Cake Island Pack (Smoothie, Cracker, Vinsmoke Judge)
• Character Pack 2: Worst Generation Pack (X Drake, Killer, Urouge)
• Character Pack 3: Land of Wano Pack (Kozuki Oden, Kinemon, Okiku)
• Charlotte Katakuri Early Unlock
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 Theme (Character Pass 1 Bonus)

Character Pass 2:

• Character Pack 4: The Battle of Onigashima Pack (Luffy Gear 5, Kaido Hybrid Zoan, Yamato)
• Character Pack 5: One Piece Film: Red Pack (Uta, Shanks, Koby)
• Character Pack 6: Legend Dawn Pack (Roger, Rayleigh, Garp)
• Onigashima Battle Law Costume (Character Pass 2 Bonus)

Character Pass 3:

• Character Pack 7: Future Island Egghead Pack (Awakened Rob Lucci, Bonney, S-Snake)
• Character Pack 8: Special Selection Pack (King, Enel, Z) – to be released March 31, 2026
• Shanks Additional Special Move “Divine Departure” (Character Pass 3 Bonus)

Additional Episodes Pack:

• Additional Episode 1: Yamato’s Grand Tour Logbook & Soul Map 1
• Additional Episode 2: Koby’s Combat Chronicle & Soul Map 2
• Additional Episode 3: Path to the King of the Pirates & Soul Map 3

The first thing that might catch your eye is the appearance of the newest version of Shanks (One Piece Film: Red), who is incredibly strong. Not just strong, but downright broken. This updated version of Shanks gets an additional move named Kamusari, translated into English as Divine Departure. This is the signature move of Gol D. Roger, later used by Shanks to one-shot Eustass Kid and his entire crew.

In One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – Legendary Edition, if Shanks’ Growth Map is at least 100% complete, the Divine Departure move can one-shot almost all major enemies on Normal difficulty, and can wipe out half an enemy’s HP bar on Hard difficulty. This Divine Departure mode Shanks is suitable as a main character to carry you through early progress.

Although eventually all characters will feel broken once built optimally, Shanks has move animations that are quite satisfying. This certainly adds to the enjoyment of playing a Musou genre game. Yes, the enjoyment of decimating thousands of helpless NPCs with moves that have massive destructive power and wide range.

Aside from the additional rosters, the Legendary Edition also comes with three Special Log episodes that will increase players’ interest in grinding. If you don’t buy the Legendary Edition, these Soul Maps can actually be bought separately. We can buy just one of the episodes, but the grind will take a very long time. However, the Legendary Edition package contains all 3 of these episode packs, along with the additional Soul Maps.

The first episode focuses on Yamato’s adventure in Wano. This is a series of small missions taking place on the Wano map, and the difficulty level increases after every successful completion.

In the second Special Log Episode, we are offered Koby’s training journey to become a Marine. This episode requires players to complete missions taken from the Marine training regiment. In this episode, we can take a break and exit the game upon reaching certain checkpoints. So, we don’t need to spend hours completing Koby’s training session in a single sitting.

Meanwhile, the third Special Log Episode is a collection of missions aiming to retell the story of the legendary pirate, Gol D. Roger. There are several game modes within this Gol D. Roger episode. One of the modes that is quite annoying yet challenging is when players are asked to answer a dozen questions regarding One Piece lore. We must answer these questions by defeating the correct enemy.

For example, in the Walking Poneglyph, the question: “Which of these characters once served as a Shichibukai (Warlord of the Sea)?” Inside the map, we will see 4 enemies. Every enemy on the map will gang up on us. Our task is to defeat the enemy that represents the answer. For instance, the enemies are X Drake, Eustass Kid, Zoro, and Jinbe. The correct answer is Jinbe.

We simply have to defeat Jinbe and proceed to the next question. Looks easy, right?

Well, the problem is, if we accidentally defeat 2 enemies at once, it counts as a wrong answer. This is the hard part. If we answer incorrectly 3 times, the game is considered over and we are asked to retry. The rewards given won’t be maximized either.

From the Legendary Edition’s Additional Episode Pack, we will receive additional Soul Maps 1, 2, and 3. Each of these episode packs provides currency to upgrade the Soul Map. The more Soul Map nodes that are filled, the more broken every character in the game becomes.

New Soul Map, New Grinding Mode

The Soul Map is a character upgrade system that is universal for all characters in the game. Simply put, for every Soul Map node we upgrade, all characters receive the benefits. This is different from the Growth Character Map, which is specific to each individual character. If we want to build another character, their specific Growth Character Map must be built from scratch.

The main difference between the Soul Map and the Growth Map lies in the materials used. To activate upgrades in the Soul Map, players cannot use coins or log poses, but rather special materials called Souls.

Souls can be collected by defeating strong enemies. However, to focus on hunting Souls, it is recommended to play exclusively in the Special Log. Souls consist of 5 types: Health, Speed, Attack, Defense, and Skill souls. Each of these soul types is further divided into 3 sizes: small, moderate, and large souls. The larger the soul size, the rarer or fewer we get per run.

The Soul Map provides character upgrades for Health, Speed, Attack, Defense, and Skill stats. “Skills” here refer to equipable skills that can be swapped in and out according to each character’s build. For example, if we play as Shank—a Speed-type character who uses his special move as fast as possible—then the equipped skills should support the Speed-type attacks and support capability to spam and regen his special move. Concentration and Battle Instinct are suitable skills to make his special move available most of the time.

Also, keep in mind that all these equippable skills can be upgraded as we progress through the Soul Map. The higher the level, the stronger the effect.

The next question becomes simple. So, what do we get when the entire Soul Map is 100% complete?

The simple answer: getting an S Rank+. The more Soul Map we conquer, the easier the battle, the more we will get an S+ rank as a result. This result will reward us additional skill slot that further enhance all of our characters.

The complicated answer: well, so we can strut around and show off in Hard and Ultra Hard difficulties. If we only play on Normal difficulty, grinding the Soul Map up to layer fourth seems like a waste of time for things that are already overkill. Shanks himself can already nearly one-shot many things with Divine Departure on Normal difficulty.

What should be upgraded first on the Soul Map?

The answer, of course, depends on each player’s favorite character. If a player likes a specific type, for example, a Sky type like Crocodile, Rob Lucci, or Doflamingo, then take nodes that support Sky-type character skills, such as Airborne Enhancement, skills that specifically increase damage when attacking in mid-air (Aerial Expert), and those that speed up special move regeneration while attacking in the air (Top of The World).

However, as a suggestion, for the first time, take nodes that are more universal, such as increasing slots for skills, and sustainability skills like Doctor’s Tactics (recovering health after using a special move), as well as Concentration and Battle Instinct (increasing special move regen).

That it is better to unlock Skill nodes first and upgrade them later. We don’t recommend maxing out Health, Speed, Attack, or Defense immediately. Instead, prioritize the Slot Skills and relevant Skill nodes for your favorite characters

How to Speed Up the Soul Grinding Process?

Actually, there is no strict method or single “best way” to farm or grind Souls. The more we play, and the more often we go back and forth in the Special Log, the more souls we get.

However, to be more efficient in each run, we suggest grinding in the first Special Log, Yamato’s Grand Tour. In our opinion, Skill-type Souls drop more rarely than other types. However, Yamato’s Grand Tour provides several Skill Souls at the 15,000-point mark as an additional reward.

Additionally, traversal speed also matters in this Special Log Episode. In Yamato’s Grand Tour, we are racing against time, or what we can call a Time Trial. The time limit increases when we successfully complete a mission or objective. Sometimes, the distance between one mission and the next is very far to travel.

For that reason, we suggest playing with Speed or Sky type characters who have an advantage when dashing. The Full Burst for Speed and Sky types even eliminates stamina requirements, so we can run at top speed to traverse from one mission to the next.

Final Verdict

A game released 5 years ago, on which we might have already spent dozens of hours, has arrived again in November 2025 with the most complete package and variants. So the question becomes simple: should we play this game again?

Yes, absolutely!

This is the true benefit of a Musou game: a stress reliever offering ease and instant destruction.

And this is further enhanced when several new characters like the Film Red version of Shanks, Egghead version of Rob Lucci, Garp, and Gol D. Roger arrive with flashy and satisfying moves. The terrifying destructive power with wide range to decimate thousands of NPCs is certainly an instant dopamine that we can easily get while gaming.

But, do not forget we still have another 3 new characters releasing at the end of March 2026. These are the characters voted as “most favorite” by gamers: Enel, King, and Z (One Piece Film: Z, 2012).

With the existence of One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 – Legendary Edition, surely we aren’t the only ones hoping for news or updates regarding a continuation, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 5, starting from the Egghead arc.