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Review: One Piece Grand Adventure - Published by N-Philes, Nov 23, 2006
II have no idea what the first anime-based videogame was, but chances are it was a terrible Famicom game based on an obscure anime that drew blanks from everyone except the brightest of otakus. Fast forward to today, and you've got watered down anime perpetually being aired on American television, complete with all kinds of unnecessary toys and marketing periphery used to push the brand on America's youth. Everything from Battle B-Daman and Fullmetal Alchemist to Naruto and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo swim on the airwaves and fly off retail shelves. Part of that retail flying comes from the videogame tie-in. To this rule, One Piece is no exception. Since it began airing in the US in 2004, One Piece has seen its share of clothing, action figures, and videogames, including one side-scrolling Game Boy adventure, a console party game, and two fighting games. For those keeping track, this is the story of the second and most recent fighting game featuring the Straw Hat crew, One Piece: Grand Adventure.
As was covered in our preview last summer, Grand Adventure follows through some of the early story arcs from the anime. There are five different takes on the story, one for each of the featured pirate captains. While Luffy's story pretty much plays out like it does on the One Piece anime, the other captains' stories explore what they could be doing when Luffy's not around. It's here where you can build a party and level them up to customize their attack, defence, special attack, item damage, health, and support character attack power to your liking. Every crew has a pirate ship that travels along pre-determined paths between islands on various seas, where each destination pretty much ends in a fight, a minigame, or a rumble battle.
In Adventure Mode, you sail between islands for the next battle
The game also sports Grand Battle mode, which is wall to wall fighting, without dealing with battle conditions or a storyline. You can have versus battles with a second player, single-player arena battles where you fight successively stronger opponents to gain a high rank, rumble battles, etc. There are also a few minigames to play, some of which support two players. Though if you're looking for minigames, check out Pirates' Carnival because they aren't that fun here. The exception to this is a really competitive basketball-soccer hybrid game where you have to knock either the opponent or this little thing with green hair into the opposing goal.
Fighting itself is pretty simple. Each fighter has a large arsenal of moves that are executed with various button combinations; the simplest of attacks are one-button punches and kicks, while the powerful secret attacks use the L-button along with a specific chain of punches and kicks. To the inexperienced player, this leads to a lot of lucky button mashing, but once you learn how to properly attack and defend, strategy adds a whole new layer to the game. Each character has unique attack and physical attributes, which also affects the battle. Don Krieg, for example, is a slow but powerful mid-range fighter that stands little chance against a faster character or one with a long-range arsenal.
One thing that throws the fighting off is the fact that the levels are like a 3D room, with a non-rotating camera high on a wall. Because your character isn't always aligned with the opponent, you can lock yourself into starting combos when you aren't fully facing the enemy. This tends to be an annoyance that can turn the tables of a match against you. The system is somewhat forgiving in the sense that you can still hit an opponent and not be perfectly aligned, though they won't be hit by the entire combo.
What's different from most fighting games is the use of support characters, sub-characters from the One Piece universe that ally themselves with you in battle. Once these guys are called upon, they serve as a distraction that could win you the battle. Some of the most difficult adventure mode battles feature opponents with multiple support characters. The rumble battles in the game have anywhere between two and 30+ of these support characters attacking you in waves.
Support chatacters deal some good damage if you don't take them out
The secret attacks that the fighters pull off are both powerful and entertaining. While they are costly and more difficult to pull off, they have the potential to deal massive damage. The fighters are transported to a stage unique to the attacker, where some damage is delivered. Then a rock paper scissors match is played, where technique beats strength, strength beats wisdom, and wisdom beats technique. Depending on the outcome of that, a cutscene follows where the attacker spouts colorful banter and pulls off crazy anime-style attacks.
Grand Adventure offers ten unique fighting arenas, each one with a counterpart that is similar in design, but differs in the time of day in which it's set and the obstacles that appear. The levels tend to be on the small side, which keeps fighting in fairly close quarters. This is a real benefit because neither you nor the opponent spend time running all over the place. The stages also have unique obstacles that give each one character. For example, one level has a cow that will run around and attack the players if it takes too much damage. Another level is covered in snow that slows players down, but it dissipates as the fighters walk through it. The developers hit a great balance in that you have to watch out for the obstacles, but they aren't frequent or random enough to detract from the actual fighting.
One Piece has a cast of colorful characters, and their unique personalities really shine through in battle and throughout the story. Each of the playable characters have very different sets of moves and fighting styles, even though they're pulled off more or less in the same manner.
Luffy succombs to Buggy's Chop Chop Festival attack
Grand Adventure's graphics and frame rate are solid, though the character models and their textures do look blurred when seen close up. The special and secret attack effects look really great when they're pulled off. The cel-shaded art style keeps everything from taking itself too seriously, which is important when you have characters riding ducks and turning into little cars to deal damage.
Sadly, the audio is disappointing. The music that permeates the menus is strong and catchy, but the music from the battles is rather forgettable by comparison. The characters also like to announce the names of their special moves as they're pulled off, which gets really annoying. What's even more disappointing, after having played Pirates' Carnival, is that the game isn't fully voiced. While the characters do narrate the some of the important story points, most storytelling is limited to grunts and short phrases that accompany the text.
What really stands out in Grand Adventure is the presentation. The menus are plentiful with gameplay options and are vibrant with all kinds of fun theme music. For the One Piece lovers in all of us, there tons of unlockable collectable cards, character profiles, music, and art. Also when the game is paused, players can see a move set chart that details how to pull off every move.
One Piece Grand Adventure has a meaty single player mode that keeps the game relevant when nobody else is around. There's lots of content to unlock, both useful for the Grand Battle mode and extraneous content that One Piece fans are sure to appreciate. While the multiplayer isn't Smash Bros. caliber, it does offer up some fun for two players. Even if you don't know the One Piece story and characters, Grand Adventure comes off as an entertaining game that really shows off the story and the colorful cast from the anime.
Steady Beat - A grand adventure with One Piece.
With the exception of Street Fighter II (Turbo of course), Mortal Kombat, and Super Smash Bros. Melee, all games in which I'm just above average, I don't like fighting games. I can't attack or defend or pull off effective combos, especially in games where the combos are so obscure that they show you on screen what buttons you're pressing. One Piece Grand Adventure fits closely with those arcade-style fighters in that anyone can jump in and play, but it houses enough depth and takes skill for players to master.