One Piece: Grand Battle (GC) Review
Posted by Shawn Struck on 09.01.2006
Avast! Does this anime-based game with fightin' pirates give you a gaming treasure, or will ye have naught but Fool's Gold on your hands? Find out in this review!
Based on the hit anime series of the same name, One Piece: Grand Battle revolves around two rival pirate crews embarking on a journey to find pieces of a map that will lead to the world's greatest treasure hoard. Its popularity has lead to a tie-in virtually every popular anime series has: a fighting game.
One Piece: Grand Battle is a fighter that shares a lot in common with Capcom's Power Stone for the Sega Dreamcast: pick from sixteen fighters (though you can only choose from ten at the start) from the series to battle it out in 3D arenas filled with treasure chests full of power-ups and weapons.
When every fight's a stage, all these experiences have their part to play:
Graphics:
One Piece features a cel-shaded technique similar to Super Dragon Ball Z, in an attempt to capture the look of its animated counterpart. While the cel-shading is a nice touch and ties in with the hyperkinetic action of the game, the actual character models seem to be squished down a bit, and that's a bit of a distraction. Each game level is richly detailed, managing to bring the cartoon to life in 3-D. Most of the interactive elements fit right in with the rest of the design, and the menus of the game take the pirate motif and run with it.
Gameplay
There is a fairly simple control scheme: most special moves are done with a press of the directional pad and a single button, or by tapping a few buttons in sequence. There's also a "buddy system" of sorts-- every character can summon another character to help pummel your opponent, too. Frustratingly, assistant characters aren't controllable by the player directly. This randomness in attacks makes for chaotic, and at times, frustrating gameplay.
In every stage, treasure chests fall from above, loaded with everything from beehives to bombs. Each level has objects like ship masts or animals in the background that can be used to wreak havoc in the stage proper.
Each character has a secret special move-- sadly these moves seem to do more than anything to toss gameplay balance out of whack. The secret moves, once activated, switch the view from the arena you’ve been fighting in to drawn-out, long cinematics of your character beating up the opponent. This cinematic varies in length, depending on when you use the secret move: if your life bar is less than your opponent’s, you’ll do more damage, and if it’s higher, you’ll do less.
Since this move grows in power the *weaker* your character gets, you can just use this move to finish an opponent off after he's been pummeling you the entire time, even though your life bar is nearly empty and the opponent's may be full.
And this secret move, by the way, is usually un-blockable. Yeah, real cheap.
Also cheap: character match-ups in Grand Battle really don’t feel balanced at all. Krieg seems to be unstoppable against most characters, but get Buggy the Clown on the case, and suddenly he’s easy pickings. This experience repeats itself with many of the characters, making the game less about skill and more about knowing which character beats which. Sorry, I can play Rock, Paper, Scissors WITHOUT a Gamecube.
Sound
The voice actors from the original cast are all here in the game too, and provide some of the pre-match banter. Unfortunately, what the voices have in US-release authenticity, they lack in matching the character's expressions onscreen. The music is fairly generic but perfectly adequate.
Lasting Appeal
There are lots of unlockable items in the game: player characters, video clips from the anime, costumes, mini-games, etc. The clips from the anime that inspired the game are a nice touch, though they do serve to remind the player that the character models are sufficiently more "dumpy" looking than the designs in the actual anime.
Fun Factor
The single-player mode was spectacularly unchallenging, thanks to the secret move. There are several mini-game modes (including one mini as the final battle of the game). Sadly, most of the mini-games are repetitive and dull. Once you’ve tired of story battles and mini-games, all that’s left is multiplayer. You can set up either a two-player match or a tournament for up to sixteen people.
The 411 One Piece: Grand Battle ultimately might be mindless fun in multiplayer mode or pick-up two-player games, but the single-player experience is so lackluster and frustrating, it's unclear as to whether you'd even want to play two-person or tournament mode.
Graphics
5.5
Cel-shading is used to great effect; overall character models look really ugly and squashed.
Gameplay
5.0
What's the secret ingredient in the secret move? CHEESE.
Sound
5.0
Perfectly adequate music and voiceovers; voices don't always match character expressions.
Lasting Appeal
7.0
Lots of unlockables!
Fun Factor
5.0
Limited fun for one and cheap super moves mean that it won't be much more fun for two.
