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Anime fans that found themselves a little seasick after One Piece's maiden voyage on PlayStation 2 and GameCube might want to pop a few Dramamine before charting a course with Bandai Namco's sequel. One Piece: Grand Adventure is essentially a remake of 2005's Once Piece: Grand Battle, but with more characters, stages, and a new mode to plunder. While all this adds up to a more shipshape effort than the original, the shallow fighting engine, yo-ho-ho-hum graphics, and repetitive action do little to float one's boat.

Celling Out

Once again, the developers have taken Shonen Jump's stylish, offbeat characters and super-deformed or "cuteified" them. They also apparently communicate telepathically, as their mouths never move during dialogue cut-scenes. The lack of facial expressions is made up for in the characters' special moves, which are suitably flamboyant and fit each quirky character to a tee. The visual style makes use of cel-shaded graphics in some rather confined 3D environments, with the camera perched above characters as players run around and try to line up their hero near the enemy so their punches and kicks make contact.

Too Close for Comfort

The 3D environments contain a few crates and chests that hold coins, used to power-up each character's skill gauge for special attacks, or items to use against enemies, but not much in the way of vertical space or surprises. None are as creative as 1999's Power Stone or as chaotic as 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee, two older (and superior) titles that were clearly this game's inspiration. It doesn't matter if you are fighting on a pirate ship, across a beach, or in a town; each stage feels cramped and features few interactive elements that could have made fans overlook the flaws in the combat engine and AI.

Monkey Business

Much of the combat in Grand Adventure is identical to Grand Battle. The combo system is still simplistic compared to other fighting games, with many powerful moves requiring two or three taps of the same button. There are projectile attacks, mid-air moves, super attacks, "secret" attacks, and support character attacks that activate one of 51 unlockable sidekicks. The biggest addition is the title's adventure mode, which initially stars the rubbery Monkey D. Luffy in his bid to become king of the pirates. Yet this adventure is about as "grand" as the breakfast buffet at Denny's. Instead of freely exploring the ocean, players simply enter fight after fight in linear fashion.

Beyond the Sea

While players actually see their ship on a 3D view of the ocean and surrounding islands, the choices of where to set sail are extremely limited. You simply choose from a handful of ports and then click on a button to automatically travel there -- you aren't even allowed the small satisfaction of steering the ship. Each locale or port is home to three events: a one-on-one battle with a main character, a "rumble" match that involves beating up multiple thugs within a time limit, or one of eight mini-games.

Captain Crunch

Before the fight commences, players can choose which character to participate, such as Luffy, Zolo, Nami, and other crewmembers picked up along the way. Winning a fight awards players experience points, with bonuses earned for completing a side objective, such as winning without jumping or using a special attack to finish off an opponent. With enough experience points, the character will increase in level, granting players one point to improve a character's base stat in six areas. There are a total of 10 sea maps to complete for each pirate captain's storyline, which begins with Captain Luffy and ends with the legendary, at least in his own mind, Captain Usopp.

Not-so-Fantastic Voyage

In a curious design decision, there is no adjustable difficulty setting in the grand adventure mode, so players are forced to slog through hours of easy, repetitive battles until they eventually unlock the more advanced storylines. Most of the challenge, however, comes from the disparity between your character's stats and those of your opponent, so expect to revisit completed areas multiple times in order to gain experience. It's a rather cheap way of extending the game's replay value, especially since the enemy AI is about as clever as a piece of Gum-Gum fruit. As for the adventure element, let's just say it's not Soul Calibur II. Not even close.

Grand Disappointment

Perhaps the most puzzling element of Grand Adventure is the lack of a four-player mode, which is an essential ingredient for the fast-paced, item collecting, button-mashing style of fighting game. While younger audiences will appreciate the 24-character lineup, collectible artwork, and lengthy adventure mode, older anime fans won't be pleased by the vanilla combat engine or the generic feel of the padded-out storylines. Though the developers deserve credit for trying to extend the replay value, the end-result positions Grand Adventure closer to the poop deck than the bow. 

Article by: Scott Alan Marriott
Video produced by: Michael Benson