No i didn’t review this before, it just happens that Bandai “did a Konami” and released this new entry in the Grand Battle subseries as One Piece Grand Battle…. yes, with the same exact name as the first PS1 game that launched what it is now an established subseries of One Piece videogames.
Then again, this is technically Grand Battle 4, they never released Grand Battle 2 (which was still rocking that 2.5D gameplay) or Grand Battle 3 but when they started selling the anime with the 4Kids license/treatment i guess it was time to resume locazing these again, and keeping the original title of “One Piece Grand Battle Rush” must have made too much sense… but then again this time around we have a Power Stone clone.
As in, a proper one this time around, Grand Battle 3 did go full 3D first, but unless you lived in Japan or imported it at the times, you wouldn’t know (plus the more i find about GB3 the more GB Rush seems more like a Turbo Edition than a proper sequel).
So i’ll chalk it up to the localizers not giving a shit and just reusing the title of the series because who cares, after all this is first One Piece game of this sub-series to even reach North American lids.
Unlike the first game on PS1, we Europeans got the shit end of the stick in terms of localization, since we got the same version North America did, meaning one using the One Piece 4Kids license, hence a lot of stuff getting removed in terms of story, characters info and so on, sometimes to either abide by the 4Kids localization and censorship (so we got Smoker called “Chaser” and Ace… sorry, “Tracer” losing its tattoo, for example), sometimes to account for this game covering up to the Long Ring Long Land sub-arc of the story (and a bit more, at least in its original Japanese release), while the 4Kids version at the time of release was just starting the Drum Island arc…. it’s a wikia sized mess of changes, alterations big and small, and often a lot of inconstincies as they couldn’t scrub some of the Davy Back Fight characters completely, despite one of the new mode being exactly a mini-games based around the events of that arc.
Which also include 3 characters (ironically all the new ones that were not in GB3) being removed completely, alongside some new arenas also axed to avoid spoilers, and the opening cutscene recounting canon events being changed with the One Piece Rap opening 4Kids had…. YAY.
I’m so sorry you had to deal with that (and jesus the Sanji dub voice is insanely bad)
I’d say it’s pretty clear we got a very cutdown and recobbled together version of what Grand Battle Rush was… and it’s true, but aside from the awful presentation and changes (which collide in having the english dub voices only for when there are cutscenes that had voiced dialogue originally, otherwise resulting in characters being silent because Bandai couldn’t be arsed to pay some more voice actors, cutting corners like it’s a Dynasty Warriors spin-off), gameplay itself hadn’t been touched in any major way… and it’s basically Power Stone with a One Piece license.
Which isn’t bad, at all, and – for better or worse – it’s not a complete clone, as in there’s no transformation system, just a more typical super moves system using bars (here filled by fighting or by eating fruit or food items dropped by the enemy, found inside crates or given by background characters in certain stages (falling into the water pits still does extra damage to Devil Fruit user – more to Crocodile, logically enough -, as before), there is also a new last ditch mechanics, as in, if you have the bars/gauges all full and you take what would be a finishing blow, raising attack power and speed while disabling the block, until it empties the gauges or you get hit.
every character also has at least 1 support character that you can summon during battle, like the Kungfu Dugongs for Luffy or Tashigi for Smoker/Chaser.
Gameplay has been certain improved since the first Grand Battle back on PS1 and its baby giraffe legs feeling, as it’s fast, frantic, and fully realized, not only because this was always meant to be a 3D Power Stone-like, but because now it has a more evolved controls system for combos, with more moves in general (with a command chart available from the pause menu as it should) for the characters, with more, better and varied items to use or throw at your foe, more varied gimmicks for the stages themselves, and overall a more balanced feeling to the fighting itself, even if its not clearly the focus of this kind of fighting game and it’s arcadey-party vibe.
Its not original, at all, but it’s well done, and i’m quite okay with that.
Also the cel-shaded and slighty deformed/chibified models for the characters look quite good, and so do the stages themselves, even with some being reworked to comply with the stupid 4Kids version, which nowadays it’s a blemish for many.
Presentation is otherwise nicer, even if it’s a bit odd how the support characters that are voiced in the story cutscenes are silent when summoned as an ally character during battles,
The roster (due to the cuts made to be in line with where the 4Kids version of the anime was at the time of release of the NA/PAL release) is still decent, even if it sucks having it scaled down from 19 to 16, though i would have imaged the roster to be even bigger by now since this is the “Turbo Edition” of GB3, i don’t think it’s unfair to say i’m a bit disappointed in this regard.
I mean, Tashigi being just a summon when it was playable in the first GB game looks a bit lazy, i’d complain about them cutting Wapol for the aforementioned 4Kids bullshit… but he was never playable, which strikes me as odd, minor villain in the grand scheme, but the Drum Castle stage is in the game, and by that logic, why is Kuro playable? Whatever.
While the first Grand Battle on PS1 was the very definition of “bony” content-wise, Grand Battle Rush does offer the whole megillah – so to speak -, even with the unfortunate cut characters (and 2 of the 9 stages being removed for the same reason) for the western release, as there is a proper training mode with options for the IA dummy and so, more options for the general versus mode (still called Grand Battle).
Nicely enough, there is a built-in Tournament mode for up to 16 characters, always good to have.
the Event Mode is now called Story Mode even though – just like before – there’s no story or narration, just some vignettes of the characters talking more or less random (or out of context) shit as a segway to them fighting 1 vs 1, though now is 5 fights instead of 6, with a bonus mini-game (the one where you breaks) towards the end to break up the fighting.
There are characters profiles for each fighter that are shown before confirming, so at least it tells you who the character is and his motivations, even if very broadly, better than nothing i guess.
There is also a full on mini-games mode that was originally adapting the Davy Back Fight concept but (for reasons already explained earlier in the review) has been retitled simply “Mini Games”, as in a series of these manned in the “Usop Pirate Challenges” and contains the “box breaking” minigame, though the mode works as before, so you can get to play 1 out the 6 minigames for the first and second round, the winner of these getting to pick a support character from your crew, with the final round being a battle with some extra rules.
The minigames themselves being mostly okay, nothing special but they do offer some variety and i find it funny that i did wrote this weeks after the Davy Back Fight somehow became a hot topic in the One Piece discussion, didn’t plan it at all but here we are.
The Treasure section has the usual data (character data, profiles, music, videos) and originally contained all the cards from the first 19 sets of the One Piece Collectible Card Game (CCG), but now has instead 198 screenshots from the anime series…. which you must unlock via “non-Davy Back Fight/Mini Games mode. Nowadays it’s a laughable reward, but it was kinda novel for the era, and thankfully there is enough between characters, alternative outfits and other unlockables to make the game actually sizeable overall in terms of content.
Overall, One Piece Grand Battle/Grand Battle Rush, despite having cut content due to the western release being based or made to comply with the infamous 4Kids version-dub of One Piece (as i guess Bandai wasn’t gonna spend more to do a non-4Kids version just for the PAL release, not at this point in time), it’s a good anime fighter that – like it’s first PS1 iteration and mostly the preceeding Grand Battle 3 – goes for a Power Stone feel and style, making it more arcade-y and given it a fun party vibe, while also giving some fun fast paced combat that while not original, it’s pretty decent in itself and would have pleased fans of the series at the time, since it has still a reasonable amount of characters to play as and a good amount of content, making it feel like a “full package” release, a wild cry from its very basic and bony PS1 ancestor.
Also, i know it would please fans because i did play a lot of it with friends back in the day, and in revisiting it now i can confirm it’s nothing new gameplay wise at all, but it’s good stuff for fans of anime series that usually had (and still have, to a point) lackluster representation in videogames, and in hindsight i find it easier nowadays to appreciate a Power Stone clone/like, licensed or not, as this kind of fighting game simply doesn’t really exist anymore.
It’s still reletatively cheap to find, so i do recommend it for One Piece fans, though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea… and the Grand Battle series would continue after this.
Wise Cafe (International) 