One Piece Grand Battle

"A great game, I smell a sequel!"

You may or may not have heard of the name this game is based on. One Piece is the hit Anime/Manga series that's a hit in Japan, barely noted in the US. Like many hit Japanese Anime series', it's inevitable that it would get its own game sooner or later. But is it actually a decent game? Or is it a flop like 90% of Anime based games? Here's the review.

Story: 2/10
The story confuses me, mainly because there is none. Basically all the story there is, is some text between each fight in Story Mode. Strangely, most of the time these battles have nothing to do with each other in any way whatsoever, so you will often be left wondering what the heck is going on with the "plot".

Gameplay: 10/10
The gameplay, unlike the story, is where the game really peaks. The gameplay is a bit like the well known Street Fighter series, only you can move all around the place, not just left and right. There are tons of combos you can pull off (three pages per character on the Combo List); the most powerful ones require "fruit charges". You need to eat the fruit found in crates and such to charge up your Fruit Charges. These are needed to pull off the most devastating combos. While this doesn't make much sense, it adds a little more to the game besides mindlessly hitting your opponents. There's also a mode in the game where you can play a selection of minigames, which are lots of fun.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are very good, with little or no glitches in the game. The only issue is that the graphics are a bit too "cartoony" for my taste, but others may like them. The character designs are have lots of variety, ranging from pirates to navy soldiers to...talking reindeer?

Sound: 5/10
The sound is great, but I didn't give it as much as I should have just because I can't remember half of it. In other words, it's great, but not very memorable. Also, the voice acting could use a LOT of work.

Controls: 9/10
The controls are very precise, but the combos are a bit complicated sometimes. Still, if you take the time to memorize your characters combo list, you can really smash the competition. If you can't remember all of them, you can always check the list at any time during a battle.

Multiplayer: 9/10
Excellent multiplayer, if it's just you and your best friend you can play a 1 on 1 battle in Grand Battle mode, or if you have lots of friends you can play Tournament mode. The fighting is lots of fun and pretty intense at times, but almost never frustrating (unless your opponent rubs it in your face...).

Replay Value: 10/10
The game has excellent replay value, since you can play Story Mode with every single character in three difficulty settings (though you have to unlock the ability to play most of the characters in Story Mode). There are also 4 characters and 2 stages to unlock (along with an additional 2 characters you can unlock with secret codes), and 2 extra costumes for each member of the Straw Hat crew (that's the main characters). And there are also unlockable artwork galleries, character models, and even voice soundtracks for each character (in case, for some reason, you actually WANT to listen to the lousy voice acting). All in all, that should take a long time.

Overall: 9/10
The game is excellent (with the exception of the nonexistent story and lousy voice acting), and there's a ton of unlockable stuff in the game, leading to exceptional replay value. Now we just have to wait for a sequel.

Rent or Buy?
Buy. With the very fun multiplayer and the excellent replay value, you should be playing this game for a long time. At least until they release a sequel...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/06