One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

"Some annoying problems hold it back, but a worthy game for One Piece fans."

Let's make it clear: I'm a huge fan of One Piece, and consider it my favorite anime. I've been keeping an eye on this game ever since it was revealed alongside the first Wii trailer at e3 a few years ago. Now that I've finally gotten my hands on it, I can safely say that I'm satisfied with the game. Now, a couple things to say first: If you aren't a fan of One Piece, just quit reading the review and don't give this game a thought; you won't like it. Secondly, this game contains major spoilers for the series, and if you've only seen up to where the English dub has gotten, make sure you're prepared for significant plot points to be ruined, since this game encompasses pretty much the entire Japanese series.

The gist of the game is that Luffy & crew have stumbled upon an uncharted island, where this weird rabbit thing is trying to keep them from breaking the island's "seals" or whatever. With the help of a mysterious orb he finds, Luffy feels like breaking the seals, so he does. And the rabbit has some sad backstory involving his elder friend or something. I didn't find the storyline very engrossing, but that's hardly the point of the game. Rather, the most important part of the game would be breaking the seals, which seem to be composed of characters from the series. The first boss you fight is Captain Smoker, an earlier antagonist from the show. When he shows up, a scene from when Luffy and him met is shown, and there is further speculation from the Strawhats afterwards. The entire game keeps up this kind of path, and though it's a bit repetitive, it's not that bad. It's interesting watching important moments from their pasts now in full 3D, and the boss fights are the game's highlights.

Fortunately, the dialogue between the characters is well-done. Nobody seems to be acting out of character, and each member of the crew is represented well. Though, some of their characteristics seem to be overdone (okay Nami, we get it, you're greedy. Now stop saying "treasure" in every sentence). Funimation did a good job with the English voice acting, though I would have preferred it if they left the original Japanese voices in as an option.

Now onto the gameplay, the most important part of the game. Each character's attacks are activated by the same basic functions (pressing A repeatedly or alongside dashing, jumping, etc), but each character's fighting style is really quite unique. Characters are appropriately balanced (this means Luffy is overpowered and Usopp and Chopper are borderline useless). Also, you don't have each character's full moveset available at the beginning of the game. You start out with the basic attacks (A) and as you use them more, they level up and you earn a larger variety of attacks. This is a pretty good aspect of the game, since it encourages you to use a character's full repertoire of attacks. Sure, some moves are much, MUCH more useful than others, but I still found the battle system a lot of fun. Also, in order to gain some attacks you have to use development, which is another cool part of the game. Basically, at your base some of the characters can develop various tools for you to use. Franky builds weapons, Sanji cooks, Chopper makes medicine, and Usopp makes equipment. To make something, all you need is all the required ingredients, which may includes bugs or fish, various types of plants, wood, fruits, etc. This part of the game was very well done and actually a lot of fun.

But sadly, collecting these items is also rooted the worst part of the game. Remember that orb? Well, you'll need it to open several paths during the game. And when you see a spot for the orb, there's always two things you need to do. First, you need to "power up" the orb by feeding it plenty of items that you find, severely lowering your supplies. Secondly, many of these spots also require some kind of rare item that seems really insignificant. And hunting for these items is the most tedious part of the game. This waste of items really hurts the game, because instead of using these items for food or medicine, you're forced to feed them to the orb spot. Not only that, but you're given no hint at where to find these items either. (maybe not NO hint, but the hints they give aren't that much help). I played through the entire game using a guide on this site simply because I didn't want to spend hours upon hours searching for some obscure item that is irrelevant to the story. Not only that, but many times you're asked to catch bugs, which is a real pain in the ass since the bug catching controls are wonky and hard to accurately judge. In one case, I spent more time trying to catch three fireflies than I did actually fighting the boss. This forced collection really hurt the game overall, and I can't make a fine decision on whether or not the rest of the game overcomes this flaw.

Now, there's another mode of this game worth mentioning, and it might just be the deciding factor with which you'll want to buy this game or not, and that's the multiplayer mode. Each enemy you defeat in story mode becomes a playable character to use in the game's vs. mode. At the end of the game, there's quite a few characters to unlock, and while I would hardly call the game "deep", it actually is a lot of fun and I've really enjoyed playing it with my friends. If you have friends that are One Piece-obsessed as you, it may be worth the money to buy this game, simply because the multiplayer is a lot of fun and you may find yourself coming back to it on occasion (unless you're reading this after Super Smash Bros. Brawl is out, in which case you probably shouldn't bother). If you don't have any friends, there's also a "survival" mode in which you must defeat 150 enemies as fast as possible, with any of the characters. Though, that's more of a distraction that an actual plus.

And here's the mandatory "graphics and sound" paragraph. On a technical level, UA is unimpressive. Considering the generation we're living in, the graphics are not that detailed or outstanding, and look outdated at this point. But that's just technical. The game's art style, on the other hand, is absolutely gorgeous. While it's cel shaded, it's not the same kind of cel shading that many other anime-based games have. Yet, it captures the mood of the show just perfectly. The characters all look and act very lively, and there's a lot of detail gone into making their facial expressions just work. And while the game's various locales may seem a bit generic (ice mountain, ruins set in the fall, an underground cave), they too look well-designed and I enjoyed romping through them. Of exception to all this are the two full-motion video sequences at the beginning and end of the game. Considering the game's graphics style, I felt these were largely unnecessary, since the standard graphics work so well. In fact, I'll go so far as to say these sequences were quite ugly and worked against the series' style instead of strengthening it. Though, this is a rather minor complaint, so don't take it too seriously. And finally, I have to say that UA has an excellent musical score that doesn't just recycle tunes from the show. The music is top-notch and varied, and I definitely enjoyed it.

And that's all I have to say about it. Other complaints I have are just being picky (like why would Luffy need a pickaxe to break boulders when he's strong enough to break them with his fists?), or a couple of complaints about the selection of bosses. I withhold these complaints simply because it's difficult to capture all of what Luffy is capable of, and I'm willing to sacrifice mobility for the sake of gameplay. But other than that, I enjoyed this game, and hopefully what I've said is useful to you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/08

Game Release: One Piece: Unlimited Adventure (US, 01/22/08)