For some odd reason, licensed muoso games have some of the most creative gameplay outside of Warriors Orochi, and it's so cool. OP:PW4 is comparable to the third game, but with faster gameplay that feels incredible to play through. Although, the publishers once again decided that costumes should take a backseat, much like Warriors Orochi 4. They release character packs and Special Log packs, but never costume packs. Many costumes from OP:PW3 are missing, and never re-released.
There is actually a rather expansive endgame revolving around 4 things. Maxing out your character, getting S+ ranks in the story and treasure log, playing the endless Koby Special Log, and taking on the very difficult Gol D. Roger Special Log with the hardest and most chaotic missions to test your character's strength on.
A character's strength is measured in "maps". There is the beginner map, which applies to all characters, then character specific maps, of which there are two each per character, filled with new special moves to level up and use. All of this equals around 18 levels of health, stamina, defense, and attack. To go further beyond level 18 stats, the soul map will be used, which also applies to all characters when leveling like the beginner map. There are 4 soul maps, some of which only unlockable if you have the corresponding DLC.
The story is spread very thin. You start off in the Alabast arc, which skips a lot of Luffy getting his crew, and some cool moments. Besides this, the story is very loosely strung together, and when watching the cutscenes, very obviously rushed. It speedruns whole arcs (which would sometimes take dozens of episodes to get through normally) in around 5-ish missions. A lot is lost, and if there was something other than costumes that this game does poorly in comparison to the 3rd game in this series, it's a coherent story. Not to mention certain oddities, like Garp not being playable, despite him visibly fighting in game, but we have a dlc that gives us a young Garp to play as. Just odd decisions all around. The game runs through some arcs, and ends up going through the Wano arc. Except, during the game's development, the Wano arc wasn't even finished, so the game's version ends on a kind of Orochi 3 moment, with everyone ganging up on the "final boss" of the arc in a big show off series of clashes. It's fun, but very obviously kind of a fanservice "woohoo" moment.
As for the difficulty, It's very easy at first. The story is essentially a walk in the park compared to the new world treasure log missions and roger special logs. After the story, the difficulty ramps up much more as you go through the "powering up" process of building your chosen favorite characters in muosos. Even when you have your character's fully maxed, Roger missions really test you, especially when attempting to get high ranks for the missions.
Considering all of this, this game is a very good action game, with amazing presentation and unique muoso gameplay. However, considering that this is Bandai you're buying from, the dlc prices alongside buying the main game are atrocious, and without the special logs, the endgame becomes MUCH smaller and frankly not a full game. Wait for a sale, the lowest I've seen discounts go is around $55, which offers great value for all the content, and is really just the full game.
