The title is probably a reference to Gear Second.
The game has a fairly decent roster of over 40 characters, featuring almost no clones, except, maybe Smoker and Smoker(Pre-Timeskip), and by the same token, Luffy and his pre-timeskip form, although they are fairly different. The roster is focused on characters from the Marineford arc and the characters from the Doflamingo arc, so you get characters such as the three main admirals, Sengoku, Ivankov, Whitebeard, Marco, Kuma as well as characters such as Doflamingo, Fujitora, Sabo, Law and Burgess. There's also Enel, which made me really happy as he is my favorite villain in the series. Overall, I was satified with the character roster. It's not a who's who from all throughout the series, but it gets the job done, netting you a fair amount of heroes and villains. There are also support characters, but they are simple 2-D portraits that grant you bonuses during fights, so I wouldn't really count them even as cameos.
This game was the precursor to Jump Force, so there are plenty of similarities. Square produces your basic attack string that ends on a special move, although you can use Square+Up or Square+down for different attacks. Triangle is used for "unique" attacks, which are usually single strikes, although, for example in the case of Enel, it charges his electricity. Circle is the guard button, and you can use Square+Guard for a guard crush or Triangle+Guard for a better, but even slower, guardbreak. L1+Square, Triangle or Circle are your three special moves, and you can hold down R1 to use your energy gauge for Logia abilities or Haki. Characters with Logia powers not only enhance their attacks, but haki-less attacks will go through them like butter, while Haki users only get a strength boost. This energy gauge refills automatically while you are doing nothing, however, if it fully depletes, the recovery rate will be slower and you won't get access to your abilities until it refills completely.
This is a different kind of fighting game from what you are used to. Combo potential feels low, finding out how to link attack togethers can be tedious since combat is so slow, and once the enemy touches the floor it gets mercy invincibility for a few seconds. This is also a game in which Guarding is sometimes the only way to approach projectile characters, but since there's no chip damage, it's all good... adding to the slow-pace of the game. The game is also unbalanced for one on one fights, as the game is meant for 3 on 3 as the developers wanted to be true to the world of One Piece. For example, Sanji can't hurt women, so against a team of three females he is completely useless. Remember how Magma beats fire in One Piece? Akainu's magma attacks will break Sabo and Ace's fire logia defense in one hit and leave them meterless, same goes for Luffy VS Enel. While Blackbeard is a Logia-type fighter, he doesn't have logia-guard, and, for example, Marco can heal his green health by activating his logia powers, because in the show his flames can heal too. While these are nice details, personally, I would've preferred a properly balanced game. If I like Sanji, I would like to fight any character as him. I wish one on one fights were possible. But that's just me.
As for modes, you get a Story Mode, Free Battles(Online and Offline) as well as Wanted Posters, which are themed challenge fights. When you first start the Story Mode you only have "Episode: Luffy" available. You boot it up and wham! The show's narrator is here to read the the preludes before each fight, nice! And you also get really good looking cutscenes, EVEN better! It covers the Marineford arc, from Luffy's arrival until Shanks' arrival. Not bad! So what comes next? Episode: Whitebeard... which is the same arc from Whitebeard's POV, kinda, as some fights are repeats from Episode Luffy.... alright, so Dressrosa comes next, right? Wrong. Episode Akainu, which is the same arc from Akainu's POV. Oh, you are probably tired of the same cutscenes being repeated again. And then.... Episode: Ace. Same arc. Tons of repeated fights. And that's that, you are done with the mode. There's absolutely no reason as to why they divided it into three chapters as each chapter, sans Akainu's, pretty much adds nothing of value to the plot. Quite lame, to be honest.
Well... surprisingly, it's a better game than its successor, Jump Force. It has a nicer cell-shaded artstyle and since it's confined to the world of One Piece, every character fits well. The story mode, while still disappointing, still covers a piece of the franchise and it has pretty cutscenes. And while the gameplay feels slower, there was something about it that was more fun than it was in Jump Force. What I mean to say is... Burning Blood is decent, it could've been better, but it succeeds in ways its successor didn't, and I think it will entertain most One Piece fans. Plus, I think it has some decent ideas, like the "Hold R1 to use Logia abilities", and while I would've preferred something more balanced and traditional, having to make teams to cover different weaknesses is an interesting approach.
6.0
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