"Dream or nightmare?"

Introduction
For those who don't know it, " One Piece " is a japanese anime (perhaps manga too, I have no idea since I don't quite like the series) series related to pirates. Personally I really don't like this series, but it has lots of fans worldwide, and maybe this is one of the those games that only them will like...

Gameplay
Most of the times you will find yourself in a map where you will be able to pick your location, and in which particular spot you will find some things to do, shown in a static menu. Those may be battles, events or items (which you can get...). This interface may seem nice, but it turns out the game into a really predictable thing, and something way too easy!

About the battles, you will most of the times be able to pick from 1 up to 3 characters (depending on the level), and you will have to defeat all the enemies, solve a puzzle (which will become harder across the game) or perform a certain task, like protecting a certain object from lots of enemies. Strangely, most of the characters have 2 attacks, one of them causing 10 damage and another causing 20 damage, which makes the battles more boring.

In the events, you will just have some small talking sequences between yourself and (most of the times) a character you just met, which most of the times unlocks new areas or more items.

Concerning the items, those are acquired in the map or at the end of the battles, and can be used for certain characters to learn new abilities or sort of level up, which seems only to affect your HP value. That's made by playing a small mini-game, in which you will have to pick the character/item which fits a certain black spot, and by fitting all of them you will gain the bonus.

Apart from this, the game is almost always the same, and even despite sometimes there are new things that may surprise you, if you can't read japanese you won't be able to enjoy them.

Story
Please understand that I've seen the series, but as far as I could understand this game has somehow the same story as the anime (from its beginning up to a certain point of the story, I think), and you can play to up to episode 220, as a fan from the series told me.

Graphics
The faces of the characters in the chatting sequences can be seen quite clear and nicely, but the maps and characters themselves are not very clear. Also, the characters in the battles are quite weird, their face is like the one in the series BUT their body is slightly small, making them look like super deformed characters.

Sound
The sound isn't special at all, you will become fed up of listening to it all the time, and you will surely turn it off. There are also some sound effects, but those are not nice either and not worthy of being heard.

Play Time/Replayability
It may take you a long time to finish the game, mainly because some levels are quite hard and some of the puzzles may put you into trouble, but apart from that I would have to rate the play time as quite hard.

As for replay value, I am not sure if it has much, but fans from the series will surely like to replay it once again, picking the character they like the most in certain battles and levels.

Final Recommendation
Despite having some nice details usually not seen in this type of game, I would have to say that only fans from the series will enjoy this game, and if you can read japanese you will like it even more!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/02/05