One Piece: Grand Adventure – PS2 – Review

If you’re a gamer and a fan of the
anime series One Piece then you probably already have One Piece Grand Battle in
your game collection. If that’s the case then just go ahead and skip the rest of
this review, trade in Grand Battle and upgrade to Luffy and crew’s latest gaming
“adventure.” The rest of this review is for those of you that might still be
skeptical and for those that haven’t tried a One Piece title yet.

The most appropriate game to compare One Piece Grand Adventure too would be
Powerstone. Unfortunately, most of the gamers who would be interested in this
anime licensed title haven’t played Powerstone or a Dreamcast period for that
matter, so I’ll attempt to explain it a bit. Grand Adventure is a two-player
no-holds-barred fighter title. You’ll get tossed into one of several hazardous
stages and will have to use your wits and skill and the occasional item to
survive the battle.

Almost every level is dangerous on
its own. Some levels will have navy officers changing the shape of the arena and
shooting electrical bolts at you while another has you dodging giant snowballs
all while taking on your opponent. The next factor is the items that spawn in
the arenas. Each can be used in a variety of ways to buff up your character or
beat up your opponent. Grand Adventure includes new arenas and new items that
you won’t find in Grand Battle.

So, you’ve got a crazy arena and lots of power ups and items to contend with,
but how is the fighting. Quite good! The fighting system is relatively simple to
learn but has enough depth to keep things interesting. Grand Battle players will
recall the three bar supermeter that is filled by collecting treasure. Various
level super attacks can be attempted as the supermeter fills. With three bars
full you can even go for a secret attack! There’s a new twist to secret attacks,
though. After an opening animation that does a little bit of damage, you’ll have
to play a rock-paper-scissors style guessing game to determine if your secret
attack succeeds. Win and you’ll pummel your opponent, but if you lose the
animation will end and you’ll lose one bar of super meter.

The other new mechanic to the fighting system is the Accel-Heat commands. These
allow you to cancel attacks, juggle the enemy into an unblockable combo, etc.
It’s very similar to the cancel commands in some SNK titles and the dust moves
in Guilty Gear. It’s nice to see some complexity added to the fairly simple move
list that Grand Battle had. Accel-Heat in the hands of a master player is a
devastating new way to win battles.

The biggest change though is the addition of Grand Adventure. You’ll get to play
through five story modes as five different captains starting with Monkey D.
Luffy. You’ll adventure from port to port fighting battles and building up a
crew. Like Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 you’ll also be leveling up your characters as
you adventure. Each time you assign new stats to a character in the level-up
screen you’ll be given a password that will allow you to play as your own
customized character in Grand Battle mode. It’s a great addition to an already
good game and adds a ton of replay value.

Gameplay: 7.5
The gameplay in Grand Adventure is about as straight forward as a fighter can
get. Grand Adventure mode is a welcomed addition and there’s plenty of ways to
play in the Grand Battle mode that is also included. The character lineup is
even more impressive than the previous One Piece fighter and there are more
stages as well.

Graphics: 8.0
Instead of trying to imitate the source material like the Dragon Ball Z and
Naruto games, One Piece Grand Adventure uses a super deformed style of artwork
that makes the character look smaller and even more cartoony. It’s a good style
decision and really makes the game stand out from other anime fighters. There
are a few slowdowns in levels with rain and in the duck races, but overall the
game keeps a solid framerate even during intense battles.

Sound: 6.5
It’s One Piece. You either love the voice work or you hate it. In Grand
Adventure mode, there are several sections of dialog ripped straight from the
show, but most of what you’ll hear is each character shouting out the names of
their attacks. The musical score is also relatively decent, but I miss the theme
song intro from Grand Battle.

Difficulty: Easy/Hard
Luffy’s “Grand Adventure” is a cake walk, but once you get up to the fifth
captain’s adventure you’ll need Bandaids for your thumbs. The AI ranges from
dumb as a brick on easy settings to cheap and evil on hard settings. Sure to
keep hardcore fans happy for a good long while.

Concept: 7.0
One Piece Grand Adventure is just another game cashing in on a popular anime
series, but it’s incredibly good for a licensed game. Players get to beat the
tar out of all of their favorite One Piece characters and there are plenty of
game modes to keep things interesting.

Overall: 7.5
If you’re a One Piece fan you owe it to yourself to get this game. It’s not
often that a licensed game keeps me this interested for so long. Tons of game
modes combined with the Grand Adventure story mode makes or a complete all
around package. Fans of the show and gamers looking for a light-hearted fighter
should definitely check this out.