One Piece: Grand Battle

"A Surprisingly Fun Time"

One Piece is a bit of an oddball in the anime world. Everything about it is just so completely and utterly different than everything that you are used to seeing out of an anime. Character Designs, storylines, fights, all make One Piece a real one of a kind.

So I'm glad that upon sitting down and playing One Piece: Grand Battle, I found a One Piece game. This isn't a fighter game with One Piece slapped onto the cover and some familiar character designs. No, this was everything that One Piece fans have come to love so much from the series. The humor, the over the top action, and best of all, that certain odd nature which makes One Piece so unique.

The game looks superb. The menus and selection screens are overflowing with bright backgrounds, moving, talking characters, and beautifully rendered character art. Each level in itself is interesting, with lots of little things going on in the background. It gives the gamer a sense of immersion, one that is doubled when some of those background elements are interacted with. In one level, a cow waiting by a gate can be prompted to dash madly down the road, mowing down anything in it's path. In another level, a massive Sea Cow like creature floats in the water eyeing the two combatants. When either jumps on top of the boat-like Sea Cow, it plummets into the waters, sometimes taking your character with it. Bovine background elements aside, it's clear that a lot of work went into making each stage feel like a part of the anime.

Gameplay in One Piece: Grand Battle is phenomenal. This game is the very illustration of the term “Easy to play, difficult to master”. Anybody can pick up a controller and start whacking away with Luffy, but to truly master the game takes patience and time. Despite it's childish appearance, I found One Piece to be a fairly difficult game. Just when I thought I had my enemies on the ropes, they would unleash some new combo or attack just in the nick of time, and the battle would continue on.

My major complaint with the game was it's story mode. Simply put, it almost seemed as if it were placed there as an afterthought. Storymode in One Piece: Grand Battle consists of choosing a character and fighting a few other characters and a few seconds of hastily conceived dialogue. Even after playing through the game with each of the playable characters in story mode, I still didn't see anything that impressed me or gave me any notion as to why story mode was even included with the game if it was going to be such a low priority.

Luckily the game is comprised of more than just player vs. player, player vs. CPU, and story modes. One Piece also offers a tournament and mini-games for gamers interested in getting more out of their game. Tournaments are handled in an average manner, with several characters at the outset, and divided by half as each subsequent round moves along. Mini-games in One Piece are a real treat. Hosted by the always annoying Ussop, the gamer is given the option to select three characters and use those characters against Ussop and his band of pirates in a contest. These contest are made up of three mini-games, two of them random, and the third always being a fight against Ussop himself. The Mini-games are as much fun as the rest of the games by themselves. Always offering a challenge, gamers can face such tasks as clearing a room full of boxes in an allotted time or throwing a small man into a circle to rack up points (It's like basketball, except with a guy with an afro!).

So what makes a One Piece game a One Piece game, and not just another title thrown onto a package? The charisma. One Piece has a certain gusto to it, it manages to never take itself too seriously, instead focusing on producing an entertaining product. This same feeling is present in this game. Is it a fighting game? Sure. But that's not all. It is a One Piece game…

… and it's weird!

Graphics ~ 8/10 Lively backgrounds, menus, and bright and cheery artwork define this game. Although the character designs are merely average, the overall quality of the graphics in One Piece: Grand Battle are a real treat.

Sound ~ 7/10 The music is lively and fun. The English dubbing is on par with that of the similarly dubbed anime, for better or worse.

Gameplay ~ 8/10 Fighting is fun and easy to pick up on. Mini-games serve to add to the experience nicely, giving the gamer a nice alternative when not in the mood for a brawl.

Story ~ 3/10 Barely attempted at all. It almost felt tacked on in the end.

Replay Value ~ Pretty good. Plenty of extras and goodies to unlock, from secret characters to art from the anime.

Overall ~ 7/10 Story mode is sorely in need of an overhaul, but overall the game makes up for it by playing the part of a great party game, due to multiplayer action and fun mini-games. Although there are better fighter games out there, there are few this… unique.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/26/06