One Piece Grand Adventure (Gamecube)

One Piece Grand Adventure, which is based on Eiichiro Oda’s long-running pirate-themed shonen manga/anime franchise, is a multiplayer fighting/party game for the Nintendo Gamecube in the same vein as Super Smash Bros., with the key difference being that the action is shown from an isometric third person view, whereas SSB shows the action from a 2D perspective.

The characters in One Piece Grand Adventure are rendered in a slightly cute-sy form, with heads that are slightly bigger than their bodies, but not disproportioned enough to be considered as comical in nature. The level of detail is exceptional, and you do get a good representation of the characters from the series – there are 24 in total playable characters, but you’ll have to unlock them through some special conditions (more on that later) – and the settings encountered throughout the story.

As implied above, Grand Adventure is not your straightforward fighting game. You can jump, attack, grab items for use or for throwing, and perform special attacks, but you also need to navigate the arena/stages, which are littered with environment hazards, traps, and support items. Add the fact that there can be as many as 4 characters and a couple of interactive NPCs on the stage at once and you have yourself a very chaotic game. As I said, it’s more Super Smash Bros. than Tekken.

 

The good parts first: while it’s not exactly faithful to how you would imagine the characters to look like when rendered in 3D, the visuals are workable and you won’t be confused as to which character is supposed to be who. When taken outside of the context of the series, the graphics are bright, well detailed, and really show off the Gamecube’s capabilities. The sound takes its cues from the anime, and you won’t find any faults with it (although like most fighting games, the sounds can get repetitive if you pay too much attention.)

Gameplay is a little bit harder to judge. It IS a fun game, and you’ll certainly have a blast playing especially if you have a bunch of friends over. But it’s not enjoyable if you’re looking for a One Piece game. Each character has moves and abilities that are based on the ones they have in the manga/anime, and the desperation moves (which, by the way, use a rock/paper/scissors mechanic) take the form of amazing CG cutscenes that are really fun to look at. Red Haired Shanks, for instance drives an entire ship into your location before coming down with an impressive sword slash. Additionally, there’s a leveling up mechanic that makes it fun to fight over and over again, just to ensure that your character will grow strong enough to breeze through later boss fights.

Unfortunately, there’s simply way too many things going on at once. At times, you’ll find yourself struggling with the control because you don’t know if you’re being hit by the opponent, an environment hazard, or your own weapon. And then there’s the matter of unlocks. There are a few conditions towards the end that might be too difficult for most gamers due to being forced to use underpowered characters while being required to maintain your HP to a specific level or to defeat the opponent within a time limit.

All in all, One Piece Grand Adventure is a weird game, in the sense that it can be a good recommendation for people who want an SSB style party game but can’t be recommended to fighting game fans who love the One Piece franchise.